August 6th

Wow, yet another week has now gone by. This week was nearly the exact opposite of last week. Last week we only taught one investigator lesson, but found a bunch of potentials. This week we taught quite a few ( ok only 4, but that is a lot for this area!) lessons to investigators, but didn't find a single potential. Both rough in their own way...

But I have a really cool success story: On Tuesday of this week we had made plans to go to district meeting, come back, have two hours of finding time (i.e. dooring) then spend an hour contacting potentials have dinner, do the training program (which takes one hour) then plan and go to bed. Fairly uneventful, we weren't able to schedule and appointments. For about a month, I have been trying to schedule an appointment with Todd, and he was supposed to call us that day and schedule an appointment with us. Well he called, and asked us if we were free THAT DAY at 4:30. We were more than happy to change our plans and go to visit him.

So we went straight from Ravensburg to Todd in Schlins and got there at 4:30 (Schlins is about a 50 minute train ride south of Dornbirn, and it takes about 20 minutes to walk to Todd's house from the Bahnhof (No busses in Schlins :-( )). Now, a small background on Todd, he has been an investigator for a while. He comes from Pennsylvania, but married an Austrian and now they live in Schlins. He is a Jehovas witness, but not really. He wants to be, but you can just tell that he, well, isn't. Which is why we are still trying to meet with him. About a year ago now, the missionaries where teaching, and according to Elder Stonehawker, they were ready to set a baptismal date, he was reading in the Book of Mormon, everything. One day they brought a joint teach with them, who slipped up and said that if he was really a Jehovas Witness that he wouldn't be reading the Book of Mormon. After that Todd felt really guilty and stopped reading. At one point he said that he was going to give it back to us, but he ended up forgetting. So one thing that I had hoped to do, was to undo what was done, and get Todd to read the Book of Mormon again.

When we arrived he took us out side and we said on his porch. He told us that we wanted to talk about Jesus Christ being Jehova. Those who know Jehovas Witnesses are probably laughing right now. For those who don't know much about them one of their main points of Doctrine is that God is Jehova, Jesus Christ is Michael (the Archangel). And he had heard that our church believes that Jesus Christ is Jehova, the God of the Old testament. So it looked that it was going to be a bible bash right from the moment that we sat down. This being a spur of the moment thing, Elder Robins and I were unprepared, and I had no idea, how I could turn this into a discussion about the Book of Mormon. He had gotten some scriptures from somebody and wanted to discuss them, as well as to talk about any scriptures I had. This isn't what I wanted to do, but ok.

Like I said, he isn't really a Jehovas Witness, the scriptures he had he pulled from someone, and he hadn't even looked them up himself. Terrible references, that made (in my mind) no point at all. No here was my dilemma, the scriptures I had, INDISPUTABLY link Jesus Christ to being Jehova. So I could really push a hard point and probably could convince him that Jesus is Jehova. But that isn't what I am called here to do. So how can I go about it and tie it into the Book of Mormon?

The prompting came, and I followed it. I shared the scriptures I had, not in the "I am right you're wrong" but rather, this is where the view point of our Church comes from. You have scriptures that show your point, I have scriptures that show mine. They both come from the same bible, what are we to do? God had to give us something else to help clarify his doctrine, because there are so many churches with different interpretations of the bible. He did this by giving us the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon does NOT replace the bible, it sits next to it. Written by prophets, it contains the same gospel as does the bible. They are to grow together, and together are to push all false teachings aside. Then went on to explain that if the Book of Mormon was really true, then it would be very important to read it. If not, then its the worlds greatest Historical Fiction, with an incredible moral. Either way, it wouldn't hurt to read it. He can even pray about it to know if it comes from God. We both bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. And he said that he would look into again! That was incredible. I had no plan, it was all spur of the moment. Walking in I didn't see any possible way of tying things to the Book of Mormon. But through the Spirit, I was guided through the situation. 

I know that there are probably those curious as to what scriptures I have that indisputably identify Jesus Christ as Jehova. They are: Acts 4:12 compared with Hosea 13:4, Isaiah 43:11; and Revelations 1:13,17-18 (13-18), 2:8, 22:13, compared with Isaiah 41:4, 44:6, 48:12.You may have to read the surrounding verses, I have noticed that in the Einheits (as well as in the Martin Luther) bible(s), the chapters and verses are sometimes different than the King James. But those scriptures put the point across well, I know a number of others, but the ones listed above suffice :-).

Anyway, Yeah, we had a rough time this week finding new people, we didn't spend as much time as we did last week, but even then, no one wanted to listen to us. It was really weird. I think we managed to give out 2 Books of Mormon this whole week. Hopefully we can find a bit better balance, and meet some more people who are open to our message. 

Something really cool I found, that has really meant a lot to me is Ezechial 3:1-9 (did I spell that right? sorry, I know how to spell it in German though! ;-)) . Dialects aside, it pretty much fits me perfectly. Needless to say, the fact that I have yet to find someone who will listen to the Gospel and make progression has been bugging me. This scripture has helped a ton with that.

Brother Cukic spoke in Chruch last week, I don't know if I mentioned that or not, but it was awesome :-). He has made so much progress!! It is unbelievable! It has been awesome to see him progress. Peter Netzer, is also a less active (well he isn't anymore, he was considered one about 4 months ago) that we have been helping to prepare for the Melchisedekischen (Melchizedek) Priesthood (sorry, I can ONLY spell that in German ;-) ). He has made huge steps forward as well! I am way excited for him, he should be able to get that taken care of soon!! I am excited to see that! 

Tonight we will spend the night in Winterthur in preparation for tomorrows Zone Conference. This past Tuesday the Zone Leaders came to our district meeting. As a part of district meeting we sing opening and closing hymns. Elder Jacklin was sitting next to me, and after the meeting asked me if I wanted to sing a solo for a special Musical number at Zone Conference. Good thing I am terrified to perform in front of people...

This will be interesting. He got a few other missionaries together as well for the musical number, but last I heard he still wants me to solo for a part of it. We will be singing hymn 74 in the German Hymn book. Komm du Quelle jedes Segnens, or in English, Come thou Fount of Every Blessing. :-) Yeah, its in the German hymn book. :-) As far as the solo goes, we will see... that is WELL out of my comfort zone. I have never had so much as even a single voice lesson or anything. And I have stage fright. This will most certainly be interesting, I will let you know how it turns out. :-)

As far as news goes, I think that is about it. The concert in Ravensburg was cool, The first Chair harpist from the Orchestra at Temple Square and sister miles performed a number of pieces. I never realized, but apparently Sister Miles placed second one time at a state wide flute competition. I don't know the timeline on that, but I thought that was cool :-). It was fun to see President and Sister Miles there, its always fun to see them :-).

Haha, oh man, Elder Hustead and I had an epic Scripture Battle on Saturday. As part of the Training program there are DVDs that we use to learn from. Our DVDs were, for some reason in Ravensburg. So I told Elder Hustead to bring them to the concert for us. He said, no, that he wouldn't give them back, but if we wanted to purchase them back, the price was negotiable. :-)

I laughed and told him to look up the Section Honesty in True to the faith, and look at Alma 60:6-7. :-) He sent a text back saying "two can play this  game. Alma 54:11-12"

The conversation went throughout the day as we found time to respond but this was what happened:

from his scripture I sent: ( keep in mind that this is about captive DVDs)

Me: Alma 54:6,9 and 55:1,3

Elder Hustead: Alma 61:9,11

Me: Alma 60:30

Elder Hustead: Alma 24:21 (right when we got off the train in Ravensburg)

Me: Alma 24:24-25

Elder Hustead: Alma 27:8

Me: Alma 27:9, 22-23

Elder Hustead: 27:16

Me: Alma 27:17,18

Then we met up at the concert and I got the DVDs. :-) It was Hilarious, only missionaries could come up with such a thing. I love how bold Moroni speaks, that really is what made it fun :-). That was fun.

A funny thing about German "Umkehr" means both "to repent" and "to turn around". So this could literally mean "repenting place, please keep free" :-) It made me and Elder Esplin laugh, so we took pictures of, and with it :-)

Anyway, I hope all is well at home! I appreciate the love, prayers and support!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen