ONE YEAR!

Hallo Freunde und Familie!

 

I'm back. Today marks being on my mission for ONE YEAR! I will be home in a little less than a year and that is just crazy to me. I'm actually pretty proud that so far I think I have only missed one week sending an email. I'm not sure how I come up with stuff to talk about each week, but somehow I have.

 

In honor of being on my mission for a year, I thought I would quickly share what I have learned so far.

 

So far my mission has been the most incredible experience of my life. There is truly nothing else I could have done at this time in my life that would have been more rewarding than a mission. I still have a lot to learn, and A LOT of things that I need to improve, but I have already learned so much

 

1. God is real. I grew up in this church but everything I did was pretty much a habit and almost copying what my parents did. It was not until I came on my mission that I actually had to apply faith. When it came to that point, I realized that I actually didn't have enough. As I acted on the small particle of faith I did have, and I saw the results and blessings, my faith increased. Like it says in Alma 32, if you want to know if God is real, act on the little faith you might have, and you will get an answer.

 

2. German is a hard language, but once you learn to speak it pretty well, you sound pretty darn cool. It's quite a beautiful language, and it is even considered the most romantic language in Germany!

 

3. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. For most of my life the idea that Christ "suffered for our sins" seemed really abstract, and I didn't really understand it. What I have learned however is that we are able to access the power of the Atonement when we realize that we are never abandoned. Christ understands everything we go through. He experienced all of our pains and more. It has brought me great comfort to know that there is ALWAYS someone who has gone through what I have gone through, including the pain of trying to talk to someone awkwardly on a bus!. Because of His grace we are also able to be forgiven of anything we do! 

 

4. I do not enjoy public transportation. It's always late, hot, and packed. I have definitely wacked more than one person in the face with my backpack before.

 

5. Going outside of your comfort zone is one of the only ways to grow and learn! I am still working on this one though.

 

6. Your body can handle walking up a lot more stairs than you think it can.

 

7. You may think the German names Wolfgang, Hans, Helmut, and Dieter are just stereotypes, but I can testify that if you just shout one of the names while on any street in Germany, 5-10 people will turn around.

 

Anyways! This week was pretty great. We did some service/garden work for another random lady we met on facebook and she was really appreciative. It was a lot of fun.

 

We also had a good lesson with one of our new friends Zeeshran. He is muslim and if I am being completely honest I didn't really relaize that it was more complicated than just Sunni or Shia. He is part of a Pakistani sect of Islam that actually sorta resembles us in some ways, where after some time God's gospel that was revealed through Mohammed was lost but eventually restored. Something that I have loved about my mission is all the new perspectives I have gained and how many unique and cool people I have been able to meet. It has helped me grow to love how we are all such different people.

 

We also did service again for the lady with all the flood damage. I did a lot of painting, and it was the first time that dad lecturing me about how I should paint a wall actually paid off. I've never seen a whiter, more well painted wall in my life!

 

Anyways, not much to talk about this week, but I will see you guys in less than a year!

 

Your favorite missionary,

Elder Allan (Landon)

 

1. Service!

2/3. German countryside

4. Cool german ww1 and ww2 monument

5/6. The train station next to our apartment.

7. Why do Germans love JFK so much? There are parks named after him everywhere!

8.cool porsche

9/10. Return to the Cologne Cathedral










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