October 29, 2012

Dear Mom,

           Well sorry this letter is going to be short. But we are going to go to Arosa, a town in the mountains today because it has been snowing heavily the last 2 days. It is really cool. I love the snow. This week was pretty fun. We had interviews and that was cool. Pres. Miles told me that because of the change in age for missionary service they aren`t giving out any more extensions. Elder Sanderson, Elder Sullivan and I are the last ones to get extensions. Cool right? anyways, this week was really good. But I don`t have enough time to explain why. Suffice it to say that the church is true. God lives, and he is involved in the details of our lives. Change is possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love you and have a great week!

Liebe
Elder Terry

October 22, 2012

Dear Mom,

                Anyways, this week was really interesting for us as well. Here is the shakedown. So Pres. Miles has decided to try something new, wait, that was worded improperly, THE LORD has inspired Pres. Miles to make a few changes in the mission, mostly that for the foreseeable future we will be having district meeting on Wednesday instead of Thursday, and after district meeting we will make a district finding day, where we spend the next few hours working in that area. This week we worked in Zürich. Man, it was interesting to contact in the city again. It was a lot of fun, and we found a lot of really cool people. Not to mention that on Tuesday I was in Richterswil on an austausch (I must say, I love not having to do austausches every week.) then Thursday we had 2 service projects, Friday we had appointments all day, Saturday appointments and weekly planning, and yesterday we went to Zürich for a broadcasting of Pres. Monson’s address in Frankfurt. So there is my week. All summed up in one paragraph. That is just the unimportant details stuff, now is ready for the good stuff.  (love his English?)
                First Yuri; You know in Star Wars Episode 2 where Obiwan says to Anakin, "Why do I get that feeling that you will be the death of me?" sometimes I feel like that with Yuri. Ha ha ha ha just a joke, I really love this guy. We visited him 3 times this week, and he is making a lot of progress. We talked about the Sacrament, gift of the Holy Ghost and prophets. He knows that it is all true, knows he should be baptized, but he just won`t do it. He came with us to Zürich yesterday, and Pres. Monson blew him away. I asked him what he thought of Pres. Monson, and he said "When he talks, it is like Christ is talking. Now I know what it means to be a prophet" he is making a lot of progress, but please oh please, keep him in your prayers. 
                We also are making a lot of progress with Kurt, an investigator who is really cool. He is illiterate, and has some learning disabilities, but he is really smart and a cool guy. He is also making progress, although slowly, but that is understandable.
                Also John, the Nigerian that we found last week. Man he is a funny guy. On Thursday we met with him, and we challenged him to bring some friends with him. Next appointment he brought 3 friends. And they were pretty hilarious. 2 of them weren`t super interested in what we had to say, but one was, and we had a super good appointment with him yesterday. We discussed the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and they loved it. And the end of the lesson John told me, "You tell the pastor here that he now has two new members. We will be here every week!" Obviously we still have a few things to teach him about church organization, but he will get there. 
                As for conference, we have now listened to them a lot, (we have a car, and what better to listen to) and after listening to Pres. Monson`s conference addresses as well as his talk in Germany, it has again been impressed on my mind that he truly is a prophet of the Lord. He is an amazing example of the influence one man can have if he follows the promptings of the Holy Ghost. And that is what Pres. Monson does best! 
                Well I hope you have a great week, we are having some amazing fall weather right now, and it is amazingly beautiful, so I hope that it is like that back home as well. I love you!

Liebe
Elder Terry

October 15, 2012

Dear Mom,

                Well I am glad that you were able to find my voice recordings. I tried hard to make it interesting, but the only time that I could remember to speak in it was when nothing was happening. Lameo right? As for Elder Reid, he is the funny military man. 
                This week was an interesting one. Let’s start with Sunday and move backwards. So yesterday we had church, like usual. The first councilor in the branch presidency is from Orem, and his parents came to visit, and they brought me some Skippy peanut butter. Life is good :) Weird that they live in the same place as you. Kinda. they live by Harmons. 
                Other cool stuff, the branch president asked us to take a present by on a less active member because it was his birthday, so we did that. And he was home, and we were able to visit with him for a while. We visit him quite a bit actually, normally at least once a week, and we helped him move this last week, and so we have a good relationship with him, and now he is starting to read in the Book of Mormon again, and hopefully he will come to the broadcast of Pres. Monson next week (pres Monson will be in Frankfurt next Sunday and his talk will be sent to churches in Switzerland) so we are pumped for that. But back to the less active member, he asked us to give him a blessing to help him come back and it was a really spiritual experience. Really cool.
                We also found a cool guy from Nigeria named John. He actually has already been taught almost everything by missionaries in Italy, but now he is here. it was funny because we met with him yesterday and he called the missionaries in Italy and I got to talk with them for a while. They were in Rome. Anyways, that was cool. 
                We also have Yuri still. We taught him twice this week. He asked his Catholic priest on Tuesday if he could be baptized by immersion in the Catholic Church, and..... the priest said no. But Yuri still has a few concerns with our sacrament service, but hopefully we will be going with him to see pres Monson next week as well, and that will surely help. 

                Well besides those cool things, I have really been trying to do as Pres. Monson said in Priesthood session, and see people’s potential and what they can become, and to be honest, this was one of the hardest weeks of contacting of my mission. No one seemed to want to listen. And it was heart breaking. And needless to say I started to get frustrated. But then I heard a really inspired quote from Bruce C Hafen of the seventy. He said " we can`t expect to have Christ`s love for others without experiencing in a small part Christ`s suffering for others, because in reality the love and suffering are but 2 sides of the same coin." This really struck me hard, and helped me to realize that the heartbreak and difficulty aren`t signs that we are doing something wrong, rather evidence that we are developing more charity. This new point of view has really helped me in the past week. I give my witness that Christ does love us, enough to die for us, and that truly is "wonderful to me". 

Liebe
Elder Terry

Pictures from July 2012

Here are some pictures Sis. Miles recently posted.  They are from District Meetings and Zone Leader Meetings held in July 2012.

                          

October 8, 2012

Well let me tell you about this week.....
                                1st for anyone that missed it, the prophet, the only man on the world authorized to use all Priesthood keys that we have at this time, spoke to us. As well as the apostles. And it was awesome! You asked what my favorite talk was? Well we weren`t able to see the Sunday afternoon session because it starts at 10 pm here, and Elder Bednar and Elder Scott talked in that session, and they are normally two of my favorites, so I reserve the right to change my vote once I have heard those talks, but here is my review of general conference.
                First clearly Elder Holland is really very good at giving great talks. Definitely one of his spiritual gifts. But the talks that I liked the most were actually both of Pres. Eyring’s talks. I don`t know what exactly it is, but when I look at Pres. Eyring the one word that comes into my mind is humility. I can literally feel it emanating from him. His talk in priesthood session was amazing, about seeing the potential of those we lead and serve. And then his talk about submitting to the will of the Lord was probably my favorite talk of all of conference. Pres. Eyring is an amazing example to me of the principles he taught. 
                My next favorite were both of the talks by Pres Monson that I heard, so the Priesthood session and Sunday morning session. His talk at priesthood session seemed to be like an extension of Pres. Eyring’s talk, talking about how we need to see the people around us. I have been studying a lot about that recently, about how willing and able God and Jesus Christ are to forgive us, to trust us, and to believe in us. NEVER EVER EVER do they say, "that is too hard for you. or you can`t repent, you can`t change" but they ALWAYS seem to be saying "you can do this!" Like Elder Holland mentioned, Christ committed the priesthood keys, the earthly leadership of his church, into the hands of a man who had the week before denied him 3 times. Talk about trust, talk about forgiveness. Christ clearly had a vision of what Peter could become. 
                I also liked that talk about "selling your soul for 25 cents?" as well as the talk about "temple quality". They both really taught me the importance of personal integrity and complete and full repentance. Like the temple workers, I must replace any flaws in myself that I or someone else (that is way harder) discovers. Regardless of how small or unnoticeable, or how costly it might be. I must do it, because repentance is the only way to happiness. 
                Anyways, the rest of the week was really cool as well. We went to the temple on Friday, so that was a good general conference preparation. Also on Friday was transfers calls, and I am staying here and so is Elder Nielson, no big surprise. 
                As for your question about walking in the rain. Like you said, we have a car, and we live in Switzerland, which has the best public transport in the world. We really only walk in the rain if we want to. Otherwise I would dare suggest that we can get within 400 to 500 meters on any appointments with buses and trains.
                Cool experience of the week. We visited some members in Lichtenstein this week. So now I have officially been a missionary in 4 countries. Our investigators are doing good. We had a good appointment with Yuri this week, so he is doing good, and hopefully we will find some really cool prepared people this week. Don`t forget that I love you a lot!

liebe
Elder Terry

October 1, 2012

Dear Mom,

                Well, thanks for the stories from the missionaries. (The full-time missionaries spoke in our ward yesterday and both are converts.  One had an amazing and sad life story) It truly is amazing to realize what some people had to sacrifice in order to accept the gospel, and then I feel almost ashamed for how easy it was for me. But the bottom line is that the church is true, and regardless of who we are or where we come from, the gospel has the answers to our questions and our problems.
                This week was an interesting week. It went by really fast. like I can`t really remember what happened, I swear I was writing you just yesterday. But I will try to give an accounting of my days, for progenitors sake :)
                Well we are working hard with an investigator named Yuri. He is a super cool guy from Chile, Catholic/Frei Christ (sorry I can`t remember what kind of a religion that is in English. Pretty much a "we are saved by grace not works" idea crossed with a rock concert?) but he reads daily in the Book of Mormon, and he knows that it is true, but refuses to believe that there is only one true church. "God has many evidences of his love" is what he loves to tell us. We had an appointment this week with him and our branch president, and we talked about the priesthood, and it went really well. He understood the concept, but somehow the application still isn`t there. Hopefully we will be able to really help him to feel and follow the spirit. 
                Other than that things are going really well. We have a lot of investigators, and hopefully we will be able to help them come closer to God. Wow, good summary of missionary work, I know. But I really can`t think of anything else to write about. 
                Anyways, sorry this weeks letter is on the lame side, but hey, if Enos and Jarom and Omni had written more then there wouldn`t have been any room for Alma, and if they can summarize an entire lifetime in a few pages, then one week in only a few paragraphs isn`t so bad, right? 
                Don`t forget that I love you, or that Jesus is the Christ. All I can say is that I love Him with all of my heart, mind and strength, and I hope that I can follow the counsel Mormon gave his son, "may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever." That is both my goal and my testimony.

Liebe
Elder Terry