Wow, What a weekend! General Conference

Wow what a weekend! This was probably by far the most enjoyable General Conference yet! It was really weird though. The "Saturday morning session" is a live broadcast out of SLC that began at 6pm. Jan Fabian (an investigator) came to that, so we saw that one in German. Wow. That was rough, the translator had a bit of a rough time keeping up, so there were times where he spoke really fast, and I was hopelessly lost. But I managed to get the Hauptpunkte von (main points of) each of the talks. Talking to him afterwards, he said that it was wonderful and what they spoke about was really something important ( I am glad that he understood more than I did ;-) ). Sadly, it being late on a Saturday night, the trains didn't work out well, and so Elder Stokes and I weren't able to get home till 10 pm. Its rough, because it takes almost 75 minutes to get to the stake center, and consequently return too, and if you miss your train, it can take a much longer time.  Anyway on Sunday morning, the Priesthood session was the first session which began at 11 and went to 1, then at 2 began the "Saturday Afternoon Session" which went till 4. Then after a 1 and a half hour break, Music and the Spoken Word began. Something which I thoroughly enjoyed! Followed by the "Sunday Morning Session". It is incredible how we can all go and hear the same talks, but yet, through the spirit can get completely different things out of it, depending what we need. Specifically for me, what talks I could give to our investigators that would benefit them.  I am very grateful for the Spirit of the Lord, who was able to enlighten me as to which talks should be given to who. 

These talks are truly inspired of God. Fridays here in the mission are when we do weekly planning, it takes 3 hours out of our day, but it generally is one of the worst days to proselyte. Anyway, so we had previously set up an appointment with Mae and Steven at 5pm. And the way it worked out we began planning at 4pm, we had planned to start the planning session, go and have a lesson with Mae and Steven, then come back at 6 plan for 2 hours then eat dinner, and end the night. Well we get up to Mae and Steven, and they weren't there, we call them, but they couldn't meet then, so we made out a return appointment, and returned home. We resumed planning and finished at 19.30 ( 30 minutes before we were going to have dinner). Sitting there wondering what to do, I had the impression to go to the Romanians. We had a disc of music for them, and some talks that had been printed out for them. So we thought we would run by real quick, and possibly have a quick spiritual thought or something. Anyway they didn't too far from us, so we walked there. On the way there a very sad looking Man came up to us and asked us if we were from the Church (Specifically meaning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). We responded in the affirmative and we started to talk with him. He shared with us that his life is very terrible right now, everyone in his family has passed away, parents, and all siblings, he was addicted to drugs, but as of a few weeks before had stopped cold turkey. He said to us that he needs God in his life, he felt completely alone and was having a very rough time. He asked us when the next meeting at our church was ( he knew where our meeting house was, ( I guess he has had contact with missionaries at some point in the past)). We told him that this week was different than the other weeks, but the next meeting in Sirinau would be the following week. He had no interest in General Conference, but said that he would be at church next week. We gave him our phone number, told him that we were willing to help out in anyway that we could, then parted ways. He was on my mind for a large part of General Conference, and I was stunned to notice how many talks mentioned, in part or whole, that we ARE NOT ALONE. Wow. Especially Elder Hollands talk which mentioned that its never to late to repent and come back, that no matter how hard life is, no matter what we could have done, we are never outside the reach of the atonement. I am going to burn him a disc of those talks, and give it to him this upcoming Sunday.

But going back to that story though, it is amazing to see that the Lord really is in charge of things. If that appointment we had didn't fall out, we wouldn't have had time to go to the Romanian Family, and would have not been walking on that street to meet that man. I guess we might have seen him later on, but I don't doubt that he needed to meet us at that point in time. And visiting the Romanians at that time was inspired as well. We got there and talked to them, one thing that Danny mentioned to me, is how much he really wanted to learn German, but didn't have money to go to school and learn it, and without German it is almost impossible to get a job. I remembered that my German was greatly improved by reading the Book of Mormon in German, so I offered it to him. He expressed a concern of not being able to pronounce things correctly because he couldn't hear German being spoken. At that point it was brought to my remembrance that Elder Heinrich had a recording of someone reading the Book of Mormon in German, and that he had put it on a flash drive for Elder Smith, but because he left to Salzburg, he had given ME the flash drive to deliver to Elder Smith ( which was going to happen the following day). The flash drive happened to be in my backpack, and because of that, I was able to put a copy of it on the computer that they had. So now he has an inexpensive way to learn German and the gospel too! Only an all knowing Father in Heaven could have come up with something so perfect. 

That was the biggest thing that has happened this past week. I am excited to meet with the Romanian Family again this week and see if they have prayed about the Book of Mormon. And with them now having a computer with Internet, I can show them where they can listen to church music, and Listen to church talks etc. Missionary work proceeds forth, despite my weaknesses. I am grateful for a Father in Heaven, who always helps me through the rough times, who allows me to serve and be a part in this most glorious work, despite those weaknesses. Its truly a great blessing. 

Anyway, This e-mail is probably long enough :-) Things are going well here. I am officially legal in Germany for the next 2 years! (Ryan's application for a visa was approved) That's a relief to have that taken care of. I hope all is well at home, and that everyone enjoyed Conference! 

Love,

Elder Ryan Christensen

P.S. Haha I listened to the German Translation of Elder Christofferson's talk. Haha That poor translator...(struggled to translate the phrase) " What ever that is supposed to mean" it cracked me up. Anyway. Bis nächste Woche! (Until next week)