Slideshow
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Temple Time!!
Jim Koos said we will want to mark our calendars for a temple session the 3rd Saturday of every month in 2015.
Sealling sessions will be the 5th Thursday.
We can plan on these. If there are changes the High Priests or Elders Quorum will let us know
Tyler Longson and Lyncoln Griffiths are Baptized: ________________________
PRIMARY NEWS
Our 2015 theme for Primary is; I KNOW MY SAVIOR LIVES
Each week in sharing time we learn about a new principle
pertaining to this theme.
February – JESUS CHRIST IS MY SAVIOR.
MARCH – GOD SPEAKS THROUGH PROPHETS.
We have split our primary into Jr. and Sr. This has enabled us to teach on two different
levels. Jr. Primary meets first in the
Primary room. Sr. Primary is in
class. At 11:05 we combine them in the
Primary room for scripture and talk. Jr. Primary is excused to go to class at 11:20.
We have had 3 baptisms since the beginning of the New
Year. Our new members of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are:
Melissa Cottam – daughter of Beth and Kent Cottam
Lyncoln Griffiths – son of Stephanie Coates
Tyler Longson – son of Kirstin and Kurt Longson
Congradulations and we are so happy for you. May you stay close to our Heavenly Father and
Jesus Christ.
Each month we are learning an Article of Faith through word
and song. We have a chart to track our
accomplishments. The chart is a big bowl
that will be filled with a scoop of ice cream each month we complete the
learning of our Article of Faith. When
we have filled the bowl with 13 scoops of ice cream we will be celebrating by
having a big ice cream party. The children are excited about the idea and the
anticipation of having this party. We
have learned Article of Faith 1, 2, and 3.
So we have 3 large scoops in our bowl.
During the month of March we will be learning the 4th Article
of Faith. Each of the children received
a CD with our 2015 music which includes the Article of Faith songs.
We as a presidency are grateful for our callings and having
this opportunity to teach and love your children.
"Sylvia just had a little girl. They now have four girls and one boy!" Joan Welch beamed!
ELDERS QUORUM DINNER/THE NEWLY WED SHOW
The Elders Quorum Presidency worked hard to cooked up a very special evening. It was complete with ironed tablecloths and cloth napkins! Thanks goes to all those who helped with set up and take down and everything in between!
YOUNG WOMEN ENTER THE LAND OF OZ
The young women leaders really out did themselves as they made the church house into the magical land of oz where the young women were able to make their way to Emerald City (thus green shades in the pictures.) They even received a tailor made "suitcase" to take on their journey home.
The Young Women are playng Fosball instead of basketball this year!!
Missionary Email Addresses:
bethany.coates@myldsmail.net
NEWSFLASH: ELDER ANDREW BAKER JUST ARRIVED HOME.
HE WILL SPEAK AT SACRAMENT ON MARCH 8TH
MISSIONARY MOMENTS
From Elder Draper:
Hi All,
Here's a review of what I did this week, oder so ungefaer.
On Monday, we decided to go by on some contacts for the remainder of the evening. We only ended up finding one of them but we had a conversation on the street with him for about 15 minutes. His name is Vladimir. His teaching record said that he acted like he was drunk all the time, but he didn't have an alcohol problem, yeah... He has an alcohol problem. He stuck his hand in my coat and made me hold his beer bottle. He said that he would be interested to meet with us in about a month when things slow down.
On Tuesday, we did lots of finding. We didn't find anybody, but we worked hard and talked with everybody. We visited some contacts as well, but most of them said they were not interested. We met, also, with Tesfalye in the evening. He was very sick, but he had been following through on his reading commitments.
On Wednesday after district meeting, we finally were able to meet with our referral, Helga. We brought Brd. Hermann with us as a joint teach, and it went great. As soon as we got there, we started to get to know her, and she warmed up to Brd. Hermann very quickly. He was definitely the member we were supposed to bring. We taught her the first lesson and she was open and accepting of everything. She definitely felt the spirit. We invited her to get baptized as soon as she found out that these things were true. She said that it could happen, but she is for the time not really sure. We invited her to pray at the end of the lesson and she did wonderful on her first try. She said that she would not be able to come to church for a while, because she is a nurse with a crazy schedule. We won't be able to meet her next week, but we will the week after that. At the end of the evening we met a man on the street and made out an appointment for the next day.
On Thursday, we stopped by on the contact, but his name was not on the klingel, so we rang everyone there to see if he lived there, but nobody knew of him. We then went to Naila. We did lots of finding there, but with no success. We talked with everyone and tried our best. We had a good time though. We did end up finding one contact. I was trying to be cool and slide down a hill with my shoes... I fell, pretty awesome. At the very end of the evening, we stopped by our last contact in the area. He was home. He told us to wait 30 minutes and come back. We did and with only 40 minutes to catch our train, we got to know him and taught a short lesson. He didn't really want us to leave, so we ended up running from the bottom of the town to reach our train in five minutes. And we literally ran the entire way back to the station. But it's okay, because it's cool to run in a trench coat.
On Friday, we had a really interesting time. After weekly planning we went way up north to do some doors. We started on one street, but it really was not the right one. After praying about it we went to a different one and we found two contacts and a man referred his wife. After finishing the street we prayed again and felt like we should visit a different contact 20 minutes away. He was not home, and there was hardly anyone on the street to talk to. We went back to the neighborhood we were in before to visit a contact. He and his wife were both home. We started out just talking. We actually did this for a while, which was kind of odd. Normally when we just talk with people for too long, I feel like we are just wasting time. This time I didn't though. Eventually the wife walked in, and within minutes we explained why we were there and started in to teach the first lesson. The man was not extremely interested, but we could tell that the wife felt the spirit very strong, especially as we quoted Joseph Smith. Unfortunately, the man did not let us make a return appointment. I don't know exactly what to do, but we definitely will not leave it there. Also, we found a contact on the bus. She just talked to us as soon as we sat down, which is very unlike Germans. She gave us her address, and four clementines.
On Saturday, we did solid finding the entire day. We didn't find anybody, except for a bunch of angry people. We met with Schw. Barbosa, and she still did not write out a question to pray about, so we did not leave until everyone had a question written.
On Sunday, We had an eating appointment with Schw. Ernst. She is an awesome Bayrisch cook. She cooked us 28 drumsticks for two and a half hours in the oven. They were delicious, however, they made my companion sick for the rest of the evenings. That was kind of weird, because I'm usually the king of stomach problems.
I have been thinking a lot about "Elder Draper's Purpose" this week. I am supposed to write this in my study journal. Naturally, I plan to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel, but I really have to find my own purpose. One trait that I have been studying this week is charity. This is important, because it takes charity to love the people that hate you and constantly slam doors in your face. I know that this is one of the most important attribute of Christ that we could ever develop. We take the focus off of ourselves and direct our attention to others. This is something that I want to develop, because "If ye have not charity, ye are nothing." (Moroni 7:47) I know that the Gospel is true. I feel it running through me every day. Christ is the source of spiritual and physical energy, even, that will never run out. I know that he is there.
Elder Draper
Hi All,
I hope that you have had a wonderful week. I have been doing great.
Here's what we did.
On Monday, we simply visited contacts, and talked to everyone along the way. We are trying to do some different things when we are finding now, because, it is cold, and almost noone wants to even stop to talk to us. We really try to bear testimony as quickly as possible. At the end, when a card is all they will accept, we try to give our testimony along with it, something powerful that they won't forget. For preparation day, we tried to find the Teddy Museum, but after asking some people, we found out that it was gone five years ago.
On Tuesday, we found a contact as we were riding the bus. We had actually talked to his father before, but he was interested in getting a Book of Mormon. He is Jehovas Witness, but very open and had lots of questions. The only problem is that his father really doesn't like us. For the remainder of the day, we simply went door to door on the street that we chose the night before. We spoke to a lot of people, but only one of them told us that we were allowed to come back.
On Wednesday, we didn't have a lot of time because of a service project, but we visited contacts and talked to people. We helped someone move from the seventh floor( no elevator ) to the eleventh floor in another building. Luckily it had an elevator to the 10th floor. They had some heavy stuff.
On Thursday, we met with Tesfalye, we made another baptismal date with him. We explained what he had to do. We suggested that he made a schedule, and we wrote one up for him, so that he could keep himself busy, because he will just think about his struggles when he is bored. He has committed to being baptised on the 21st.
On Friday, we met with Schw. Barbosa. She was not feeling good, so we gave her a sick blessing. She told us in church that her headache went away five minutes after we left. We chose, also, a street to do doors on, but we decided to take a shorter path to save time. We ended up running through a snowy field after losing our way. I bet we looked cool though, because there's like one and a half feet of snow. Eventually we got to the other end, but it was starting to get cold, so we had to go home to change our clothes, because they were soaking wet. That was a bad decision, we should have just walked around the field. At the end of the night we stopped by some contacts. Sadly, nobody was home.
On Saturday, we visited Tesfalye again. He promiced that he would come to church this time. We taught him a little bit more about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. We thought that it would help him to know how to really read the Book of Mormon. He was reading every day, but he was focusing really on the stories. We comitted him to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We think that he kind of just accepts what we say to him, but we told him that he needs to find out for himself. We also talked to a woman on the bus. Her name is Antje. We invited her to come to church.
On Sunday, Tesfalye came to church. Schw. Barbosa came. Antje also came for the last hour, after she was done at the Catholic Church. We made an appointment forThursday. She invited us also to visit her church. We had an eating appointment with Familie Forberig, a part member family. We taught them about faith in Alma 32. We followed up with Patterns of Light from Elder Bednar. We asked them what they could do to nourish their faith. We wrote down what they said, and committed them to do those things, and we would follow up next week.
One thing that is important for a missionary, and for everyone, is preparation. Sometimes, we have a day planned, that we will do tons of finding, or that we would have to be at work all day, or we are doing finals. We wake up, look at the day ahead, and we think that it will simply be terrible. This must not be so. We need to plan and make ourselves ready to be happy. The Lord wants us to be happy. Naturally, we should have hardships too, but happiness is a choice. When we pray and we ask that we can be happy, it will come if we really believe. Remember, if you are having a bad day, read in the scriptures. Think about the Savior. I know that he is there for us every day and always.
Elder Draper
Subject: Off to Berlin...
Hi all,
I've spent four and a half months in Hof and I'm being transferred. I'm going to miss my Baverian friends and Baverian second breakfast on Mondays. (Weiße Wurst in einem Brötchen mit Süßes Senf) mmm... Delicioso
It was interesting. We had interviews with President last week. He told me that I was going to be transferred. He actually asked me where I would like to go. I was just being Elder Draper again and I said that I didn't really have a preference. I did tell him that I would like to go to a bigger city. As my companion asked me what the smallest acceptable city I would go to was, I said Berlin.
That's where I am going. Tiergarten. It's like exactly in the middle where everything's at.
I will be the new district leader.
My new companion is from Switzerland.
Apparently, I will need to pick up some Spanish fast, because there's a ton of spanish-speaking people and members.
That is acutally the first quesion Elder Boos(my new companion) alsked me. Sprechen Sie spanisch?...Nein
This could be interesting.
Anyway, I'm pretty excited.
My last week in Hof...
Tuesday, we decided to split up our time a little more wisely, so that we didn't have 7 straight hours of finding. We prayed the night before and chose a few different places to go. We did some doors and some street contacting. We got a couple contacts out of doing doors, but no one was really listening on the street. I have been greatly concidering my skills in finding. It is definately not like me to go up to someone and ask how their day is going. I have tried this, but didn't really get much. I think, at least if we go up and talk to someone, it will always be awkward at first. I have worked on being bolder, and asking follow up questions, but I have realized, that bearing testimony is what matters the most.
Wednesday was a pretty sad day. We had actually planned for Tesfalye to be baptized this week. We were hurriedly getting the baptism planned and trying to get an interview scheduled. He called us that night after we had tried stopping by and calling. He said that he actually did not want to get baptized and he would not tell us why, and he does not want to meet anymore. This was kind of shock to me. Naturally, we are working with other people, but he was really the one who made progress. I am trying not to get discouraged. I know that I have to learn from this. I don't exactly know what we are going to do, maybe a letter or something.
On Thursday, we found a new investigator going door to door. His name is Phillip. He is pretty young and very open. I am not really sure how our next appointment will turn out, but it was exciting to find someone. We met like a ton of weird Frei Christliche people in a town called Tauperlitz. Every time we asked about their beliefs they were like "I don't discuss my religion, but I am like super religiös."
On Friday, we stopped by some contacts and an investigator in Naila. Our investigator was actually home, but he didn't have time. We also ran into one of the nicest Germans I've ever met.
On Saturday, Elder Barboza was pretty sick. He had exactly what I had last week. Literally everone in Hof is sick. (die Hofe Pest) The Hof Plague. We didn't stay home all day, but we didn't do a whole lot. We did run into our old friends from the Mosque that we visited. We're pretty tight now. Although, they are trying to convert us.
On Sunday, we stopped by on some contacts. One of them was home, but sick, and didn't want to visit. We simply did street contacting and contact visiting. Kontakten jagen... mmm lecker.
Na ja...So ist das Leben
Kind of good, kind of sad.
Elder Draper
P.S.( Es schneit ##)
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