Letter #36 - The week of 45 cents :)

WELL, what a great week. I always wish I could fully describe the wonderful blessings and miracles that happen everyday. But leider (unfortunately), that would be so long. The reason for the title this week, well, we ran out of our monthly money because our adventure to the Czech border last week. So this week we only had 45 cents for food. Luckily, the members here have pity on us elders. :) So, we survived! But it took lots of pasta, and going hungry for a while. :) It was an adventure. That is for sure. :)

MONTAG:
Great day, the ZOO. Loved it so much. It was a party, and just the funnest thing. The zoo, I feel is home. I totally got to pet some of the animals, for a side note. :) Good P-day.

DIENSTAG:
Wonderful day. Met with the Grünke's in our ward. Very sweet, cool couple in our ward. Brüder Grünke is actually President's brother. So, its kinda funny. :) It was super fun to get to know them, to feel their strong testimonies, and to feel their love. They are one of my favorites in the ward. Then, we went to basketball and had a good time with Lukas. We keep meeting a lot of potential investigators at basketball, and its great. We actually gave one guy a Book of Mormon! It was great. Love basketball. We then had to hustle and catch a train (walked/jogged all the way to Bahnhof, like 3 miles away) to Nürnberg and go sleep at the Zone Leaders apartment because we had a split the next day. It was super fun with them, and I love Elder Ward, the Australian. True homie. :)

MITTWOCH:
Had a awesome split with the Aussie. We then went to Distrikt Meeting, and then we came back to Erlangen. Basically, we had an entire day of contacting. It was so fun. Handed out a Buch Mormon, and just met some cool people. We have an University here, so a lot of college kids and housing complexes. We went dooring, or as we call it, Student Woheims. :) It was fun, at first, and then we couldn't get into one, so we just rang the doorbells of each house. Ha. We asked a couple about baptism, because our focus this week was inviting people to be baptized everyday. Ha. So, we had to get it in somehow. But ha, no luck. :) But we then went to Institute, and one of our less actives came, Nils. It was an awesome time. Then split back, and came home. :) I want to go to Australia sometime - PS. :)

DONNERSTAG:
Had a great day. Beautiful day. So we decided to do some sport contacting, and play soccer on a field that is by our apartment. After just like 5 min, a nice cute family comes and wants to play with us. The kids were so cute, oldest like age 8, and we had a lot of fun. We talked to the dad, and he said he knew who we were. He lived in the other Elders apartment complex. He didn't have too much interest. But, he was at least intrigued that we used both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Then after, we went with a girl in our ward that is preparing for a mission, Sabrina, and did some contacting with her. It was super fun, and she saw both sides of missionary work: being rejected, and the blessings that come from it. Ha. We found a cool guy named Frank, got his number, and we are going to call him this week. Cool guy. :) We then met with a couple that was moving the next day, and they wanted to meet with us before they left. We didn't get to know them too well. But, they were really sweet and from Russia, which was cool. It was sad to leave them. :( They had a dang cute dog that was eating my shoes, which I wasn't too happy about. :) But, still a cute dog. Ha.

FRITAG:
These are going to be shorter because this computer is super slow, and it has a poopy key board. Ha. So, I am strugglin'. Elder Givens was sick, so I made him sleep while I cleaned for our cleaning checks. Ha. So, it took a lot longer than I thought. But, I got the entire house clean before the Ehepaars came, and it was great. :) We then had sport, had a fun time with Adam, and then did some good ol' weekly plannin'. :)

SAMSTAG:
Had a split with my blood brother, Elder Ellis. Had a great lesson with one of the less actives. It was good to be with my old brother. Ha. We then had transfer calls, which were CRAZY. Elder Stout, the other Elder that I love, that was here in Erlangen is gone. Elder Cole from my MTC group is now here, and then like half of the people from my MTC group are moving into my zone. Elder Wichtermann is in my Distrikt now, and my trainer, Elder Allen, is my Zone Leader. Crazy right? Ha. It was an interesting day, and I didn't feel so good. But hey, love missionary work. :)

SONNTAG:
Awesome day. Had a awesome gemeinde essen (community eat), and then we had a wonderful lesson with our investigators, the Websters. They are from Idaho and Oregon. Deborha, a return missionary from Virginia,  came and joint taught with us. It was a great lesson. We didn't think that they were making too much progress before. But, I think that this lesson, it may have really changed things. :)

The thing that I learned this week is short and powerful. Both thoughts are from Elder Holland, and I think they can be applied to all of us. He gave this talk at a CES Devotional, entitled "Cast Not Away Therefore Thy Confidence." It is a wonderful talk. He talks about Moses, and about how after the amazing vision that he had, Satan comes and asks him to "worship me." Moses became scared and as he became scared, he "saw the bittnerness of Hell."  After a spiritual experience, after witnessing something special, after receiving a confirmation to a question or what not, Satan will ALWAYS come after us.  He will try and get us to doubt if that spiritual confirmation we received, was actually real. We know EXACTLY how real it is, and those doubts we have, we need to cast them away. That spiritual confirmation, is from God Himself. I recommend reading Moses chapter 1. As we reach big points and decisions in our life, we ask for a confirmation and we receive one. Then if we start to doubt it sometime later, I ask you to remember that faith only points to the future. This I pray for, and yearn for, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.



LOVE YOU ALL!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Elder Mayne

Letter #35 - Adventure is Out there!!!

What a week. This week was just filled with surprises and adventures, and lions, and tigers and bears (oh my). Bad joke, but we are going to the Zoo today. So, I am excited. Ha. But this week, I LOVED it. I saw so many miracles, and I am just so glad to be out here experiencing them. Lets get started:

Dienstag:
What a great day. We went and visited some members, the American Pobanz family. They are awesome. It was there anniversary, so we dropped something by. Then, we went to the church to set up some tables for the Sister's Conference that they were having on Saturday for all the Sisters in the Pfahl. Then, we split with the other Erlangen Elders, and went to Basketball in a Halle. We met our potential, Lukas, and we had a great time. We met some other people, and got some phone numbers from them too. :) I love using my talents to help people come closer to the Gospel. It makes me happy. :)

Mittwoch:
SO GOOD. So, we had Zone Conference. We woke up at 5:30 to get to the Nürnberg church which was, ha, fun you could say. :) It was so great. My personal preparation really came through. Elder Dyches (spelled his name wrong last week, sorry) was super cool to hear. He talked about teaching people and not lessons. His wife was super sweet and she gave us her motto, "Do the hard thing." :) I took that to heart. It's amazing, I just know that man is called of God. :) But anyway, after the conference and some good food, we went on a split. I went with Elder Jackson back to Erlangen. But wait, ha, so another Elder, that served in Erlangen as his first area, still hadn't gotten his visa and had to stay overnight with us in Erlangen. So, he was on a split with us too. Ha. We had a great time when we came back, found some cool potentials and it was super fun. Then ended the night with some nice Rokelllte. :)

Donnerstag:
Right off the bat this day was weird. Ha. At 8:00am, Elder Anderson (the elder that needed his visa. PS, he's Indian and Mauri. Its glad to see some of my blood here in Germany - ha) met a potential that they found while he was serving here. Her name is Lisa and she is super cool. They had a really tight relationship with her, but not so much about the Gospel. So, it'll take some time to build that relationship. After that, we had a meeting with a member from the ward, Brüder Kummel, who in my opinion, is just the man. He is an awesome dude who is going through a hard time right now. We hope we can help him. Then after, we played some more basketball with our potential Lukas again, and it was a beautiful day. It was so fun to play. We had a really good talk with him. We think he has a lot of potential. So, we are excited. :) Then, we had our Ward Council Meeting and it was the best one yet. We really are building up the trust and love of the ward again, which is awesome. :)

Fritag:
Split back, which ha was weird because it was a three day split, basically. But Elder Jackson is such a great guy. He has gone through a lot of things. But, he has such a solid testimony, and he is a great example to me. On this day, ha, I'll keep the things short. We were supposed to go to Rothenburg, because we were helping the Ansbach Elders on a joint teach. Mainly because they couldn't find anyone else. Ha. But we didn't know how to spell it, and wrote "Rotenbürg." So, we went in a totally different direction. We found out, after riding in the Zug (train) for 2 hours. Luckily we got off, because the ticket checker guy helped us out. He also made fun of us. :) Ha. Elder Givens switched ties with him, which made memories. We then came home. On the way home, to Erlangen, this lady sat next to us and asked if we were Deutsche Bahn people. We said no, and long story short, she was the nicest lady ever. Her son picked us up, and took us home. She wants to meet with us, and took a Buch Mormon. It was such a blessing. Ha, this day was just fantastic. :)

Samstag:
Fun Day. :) We helped do dishes at the Sisters Conference, and I saw all my favorite people from the old Feucht ward. :) Then, we went to the Auras, and they are super nice. I got a good haircut. :)

I love this work so much. I'm sorry this one is so long. But, it could be so much longer. You'll have to look at my journal entry sometime. I wish I could honestly write all the miracles and blessings that come day-by-day. But if I were able to put all of them into words, ha, I would run out of paper. The Lord has blessed me so much. I have especially seen that this week. It made me think of the word REMEMBER. I think that it is one of the most important words in all of the scriptures. We will learn so much in this life. We will have experiences that are so amazing. But if we do not remember them, what is the point? A lot of people have questions about the church and what not. Of things like what others did, and why this, and why that. But I say who cares? We don't need to question, or base our testimony off of what man did. Think back to the times when the Holy Ghost, when God through the Holy Ghost, talked to you. He told you these things are true. I will never forget those times. Especially the many times that I have been told and confirmed that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that Jesus Christ, truly died for us and is my Savior. "Remember my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth, yea learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God" (Alma 37:35). Of this I testify, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


Love you all and have a great week

Ciao!!!

Elder Mayne



Send it to errrone. :) Send it to someone that needs it. Sorry for being blunt. Ha. :) Love you fam. :)

The tech we use ;)

 Our adventure on the boarder of the Czech Republic

Sister's Conference

 Elder Bratsman, my bud, AP.

 Elder Anderson

Letter #34 - What a week :)

I think there is a remote control that controls a missionary's life out here, and it is on stuck on forward 2X. Because life goes by way too fast here in Erlangen. Ha. I wish I could slow it down, but I can't. All I can do to counteract it is to enjoy the moments that come, and make the most of them. :) Ha. Here is the weekly "deets" for you all:

Montag:
Ha. I love Montags now because our Zone gets together, and just does something. So this week we played ultimate Frisbee again, and soccer. I'll confess, I bought a uke quite a while ago, and have been playing it ever since. So, I bring it and just serenade everyone. ;) I have learned a lot of songs, and love playing it. I just sat there with some of the other missionaries, just playing and talking. It is just the dream. :)  SO, great day. At Spiel Abend, someone brought a non-member friend, which was cool. We got to talk to her a little bit, and develop a relationship. :) It was great!

Dienstag:
Oooh good day. Elder Ellis and I wanted to go biking for our morgen sport. So, we went biking at 6:30, and caught a beautiful sunrise. It was so gorgeous (pictures will follow). Then, we had Distrikt Meeting. After, I went on a split with Elder Reikies, who is from Berlin! I had a good time with him, and he is super funny. We visited a member, the Rühlinghofs, and I love this cute old couple. It took a while to find them, because I have only been here for 3 weeks and Erlangen is huge. But ha, thank the Lord for GPS. :) We then met with Tom. He doesn't want to join the Church right now, because of the Law of Chastity. We don't think he is ready right now. He is an awesome kid, just young and caught up in the world. But, we know he´ll be ready someday. :)

Mittwoch:
Good day! We split back, and then had a good study and talk. Elder Givens is a great guy, and really cares about the people in our Distrikt. He is a great example to me. Ha. It's funny how much you miss your companion after only being a day away from him. Ha. I laugh at myself a lot. That's something I have learned on the mission. :) Anyway, we then visited with a member, and shared a great thought with them. They are super nice. They have some family issues, and we hope that everything will end up okay. Their name is the Araes. They are super super cool. Like, the entire family is in the ward, 4 generations. It's funny. :)

Donnerstag:
What an interesting day. Ha. We had a "Weiß tag" (white tag?). So, every missionary knows what those are. It's where we have nothing planned for the next day. so obviously, we did finding. :) We were going to go to the student apartments. But, for some reason, my bike chain came off, and we had to fix it. Then, we rode past these guys planning basketball and I thought, "hey, opportunity, maybe we should go." So, we turned around, and played with them. We met a cool guy named Lukas! He invited us to play where a lot of other people play. He was interested in what we were doing, and gave us his phone number. It was a pretty cool experience, even though we fulfilled all the missionary stereotypes (ha): biking with helmets, white shirts, basketball, broke down bike (ha), etc. It was all worth it. :) I loved this day.

Fritag:
Wonderful day. Did weekly planning. Then went to Sport. Adam Pobanz, a member in the ward that is 16 showed up, and we had a great time with him. Ha. He added me on Instagram and Twitter, which was unexpected. Ha. He posted something which was funny. He is an awesome kid, from Utah. His family is just great. We hopefully will be meeting them soon. Then, we had an activity with the YM in the ward, and we made sushi! Ha! It was awesome to meet the other young men and build some good relationships with them. They're all great guys.
 
Samstag:
Nothing too special here, although the weather was terrible. Ha. We did some stuff that needed to be done. Then went to the church with the Elders, because Elder Stout and I are singing in a quartet for our Zone Conference this week. So, that was fun. Elder Stout is a wiz at musik, and I loved learning from him.

Sonntag:
Ha, such a weird day. Church was fantastic as usual. I always learn so much, and feel the spirit strongly when I am there. It was a homecoming talk for a Sister in our ward, who served in Richmond Virginia! Her name is Sister Männchen. It was interesting to see the outcome or the "end," so to say, after a mission. Ha. But then we had dinner with them and a lot of others, so basically like a gemeinde essen (community meal). We saw a bunch of the photos from her mission, and it was just weird to see America again. Ha. It was a great time, and she said she wants to help us out. So, it's exciting to have her back. :)

This week, I learned so much about myself, and about my own wants and wishes. As a missionary, and as a member, the Lord will put people in your path that need your help, that need your testimony. As long as we are prepared, and "treasure up the words of Christ," He will keep putting people in our path, because he trusts us. He knows he can count on us. I have been reading recently in Alma, chapters 20-29, and I LOVE them. Of Course I love them because they are about missionary work. I just love how much it applies to me right now. As for those of you that are preparing for a mission or have just received your mission call, really read those chapters. When you're on your mission, you're going to have hard times. But, you can remember, what you need to remember, is that there is so many things backing you up. :) People, family, and friends are praying for you everyday. You will be set apart by the power and authority that Christ himself had on this earth. You are worthy of every blessing it says in the scriptures, as long you make YOURSELF worthy. :) I love the talk, "Come what may and love it" (Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin).  My mom sent it to me this week, which I thought was ironic. :) But I recommend watching it. It's on the Mormon Channel. :) Another one that I like is "Increase in Faith," by Patricia P. Pinegar. Really good. I'm excited for this week! We set a goal for 11 new investigators, so we'll see what happens. :) Love you all!!


Elder Mayne


LOVE YOU FAMILY! Crazy stuff that's happening, but I love you all. :) Have a great week!