Marathons, Stranded In Belgium, And Humility

Hallo alle!

 

A week of adventures that's for sure.

 

We have met with our friend Rosa a couple times this week and she is preparing to get baptized in just about a week or so! She is so fun to hang out and talk with, so we always look forward to meeting with her. She is actually from Holland but is studying here in Aachen right now. She really does need some prayers now though because the closer it gets to her baptism, the harder Satan tries to pull her away! 

 

In the past week I have grown to strongly dislike public transportation. I have been fine with it for my whole mission so far but the past week has been quite the adventure. Let's just say we did a lot of running. There was one time where we were late for an appointment and so my companion said "quick let's get on this bus! It will take us to the same place but faster", so we sprinted to it, got on, and after being on for 5 stops, he said "im 80% percent sure that this bus goes to the right place". After looking at where we were going on our phones, we hopped off the bus (we were going in a totally different direction), quickly looked up a new bus plan, and began to run. Man, running a mile to the next bus stop in dress shoes, and coat, and dress clothes was not fun. We saw the bus pulling up and so we sprinted for our lives and made it. 

 

The day before we went to visit a member in Belgium, but then we got off at the wrong bus stop, and came to realize that our phones didn't work since we were in a different country. The next bus in the same direction didn't come for another hour or so, so we just headed back home. 

My legs are tired and my body is sore, but at least I will be a marathon runner by the end of this next transfer.

 

We met with one member last Friday who had not been to church in a while and we came to find out he has been living without power... SINCE CORONA STARTED 2 YEARS AGO. I almost fell out of my chair when I heard that because he never asked anyone for help. There was a misunderstanding with the power company I guess, but he was always too humble to ask anyone from the branch for help. We connected him with a member who can help though so he is in good hands. All the people here are such good examples of humility for me.

 

We met with a member last week who isn't really able to come to church very often and it was really cool. (He was the appointment we were late to when sprinting a mile) . He is so humble and is even quitting his job so that he can come to church. He recognizes that he needs to include God in all his decisions through prayer, and that God is always there for us, we just sometimes either choose not to see Him in our life, or we just aren't trying hard enough. He taught me a lot about humility. Recognizing that God understands everything, and knows exactly what is best for us, is the first step to seeing Him more in your life. If you want to know if God is real or not, don't just sit back and expect Him to come and show you that He is there. You have to act in faith and look for His work in your life. If you go in already with the mindset that you are sure He isn't there, then you will never see Him. By hoping He is there and then acting in faith by praying and asking, you will come to know He is there. Alma 32:21 says "And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.". Just have hope, you don't have to know or understand everything to have faith. 

 

Anyways sorry for my rant. I gave a 12 or so minute talk in German on Sunday about faith, so not to brag or anything, but I'm sorta an expert on the subject now.

 

Anyways, that's all for now! Don't be afraid to email me personally if you ever want to know more or just want to say hi!

 

Love and miss y'all

Landon

 

1. Aachen Cathedral

2. The City Council building (rathaus)

3. Homemade schnitzel!

4. Lindt chocolate factory

5. A cool old german house from 1749 (the old owner came out and told us the WHOLE story...)

6. The classic german sidewalk

7. Anti-tank rock brick things from world war 2

8-15. All of these pictures are by or in the Aachen Cathedral (Charlemagne's cathedral)















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