I don't have my bible with me, so I couldn't tell you exactly where that scripture is, I know its in Job somewhere (Job 1:21). It says something to the effect "The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken, praised be the name of the Lord!" It was a scripture that has been on my mind the past few days, I really like it. But holy cow, what a week! Long story short we are going to be having two Baptisms this week!
Monday last week, was by far one of the most intense days I have ever had. Let me explain: So after I e-mailed you, Elder Steed and I went and shopped for our food, then went to the Zone P-day that they were having at the Institute Center. We went there and were there probably about an hour and a half (we arrived at 2 pm), When we get a call from our GML who tells us that we need to come to Deutsch Wagram (about an hour trip away) as soon as possible, he has a huge surprise that is more important that P-day! We were a bit shocked, but he knew how far away it was for us, if he is telling us that we need to come to Deutsch Wagram as soon as possible, its really important. My first thoughts were, "It has to be about Frau Zalka, he got contact and wants to drive up to Großharras and teach her!" I was excited, and we left as soon as possible.
Bru. Jankowsky picked us up and took us to his home (refusing to tell us what was up until we got to his apartment). We got in he invited us to sit down, and then he pulled out a letter, The return address on it was from Frau Zalka. Ok, I was really intriuged. It was 4 pages typed. Single space. LONG. But it explained everything. The weeks leading up to when she had set the date she was absolutely sure she wanted to join the church, she said she even had imagined herself being standing in the font being baptized. But the week after she set the date was chaotic. She was having an internal battle, she would have negative thoughts, doubts, anti-mormon literature come into her head, followed immediately by positive uplifting thoughts, that counteracted the doubts. This happened the entire week long, getting worse and worse and worse, to the point where she couldn't concentrate at all on Sunday Morning.
She and her children were completely ready to come to Church, her son had a part in the primary program and was really really excited to come to church. It was at that moment where it got so bad that she couldn't take it anymore, and she sent decided not to come. She felt a bit better throughout the day, and on Monday morning she sent us that text. But that night she couldn't sleep at all. Until 3 a.m. when she finally grabbed her Book of Mormon and started reading it. She felt the spirit strong and it enlightened her mind. She knew that this church was the right church. But she didn't call us. instead she wrote us a letter explaining everything, and planning out her whole baptism. Talks, deserts, who was going to baptize, confirm be witnesses. EVERYTHING down to the smallest details, then asked us if it was still ok to be Baptized on the 18th of Novemenber. But because of Austrian post, we didn't recieve the letter until the 19th. A day later.
Bru. Jankowsky, upon reading the letter immediately called her and essentially got the ok to visit her that night. Which is when he called us told us to come as soon as possible. She didn't have time to meet until 7 or so, and it was an hour away. But we had an appointment at 6:30 with Jakiri. So we had to Call Wien 3 and get them to do an emergency split with us. Thats was a nightmare to organize, they had an appointment as well at 8. On the complete opposite side of Wien. So I stayed here with Elder Evans (who is new to the mission) and Elder Babcock, and Elder Steed went with Bru. Jankowsky to Großharras. All in all it went well.
The Appointment with Jakiri was cut short, because we both arrived late, but it was still really good. I had a feeling to sing a hymn to start out, so we did and we read a scripture that popped into my head out of the Doctorine and Covenants "My son Peace be unto thy soul, thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment, and if thou endureth it well, God shall exhalt the on high." It was incredible. After that I got to try and navigate to an address in Wien 3's area. That was fun. The appointment was with a member and her boyfriend, who is agnostic. Elder Evans left a thought about the light of Christ, and we talked about how everyone had it, that is given us to judge good from the evil to the intent to bring closer to God. It was short, but it was good. Meanwhile, Elder Babcock gave Frau Zalka the baptismal interview, and a new date was set for the 2nd of December. And so far everything seems to be going well. But please pray for her that all will go well this week. We are going to be calling her every night to check up on her. Hopefully to help get rid of any doubts.
Jakiri is going to be baptized!!!!!!!!!! This is truly a miracle. Coming into the week of his interview, he said that he didn't have a testimony of Thomas S. Monson being a prophet. Which was the only thing holding Jakiri back from Baptism. And we were worried that he wouldn't be able to be baptized, because of it. And we were worried that he would be afraid, he has a lot of fears. We decided to watch "Special Witnesses of Christ" with him at the Church. We were praying that he would be able to recieve a confirmation that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. We watched it, and at the end we bore testimony, and asked him what he thought, and he said that when President Monson was speaking, that he felt something, he had a really good feeling. A couple of Days later we were with Martin Hayden, who just returned from his mission a few weeks ago. We watched "The Race of Life" A talk that President Monson gave in this past April General Conference. We all bore testimony and he and Martin talked about it for awhile. We eventually had to leave but Jakiri stayed and talked. I talked to Jakiri that night and he said that he felt Good about what happened and that he was thinks that Thomas S. Monson is really a Prophet, but would pray for a confirmation!
He got the confirmation. We met on Friday just before the interview and sang hymns together (Well Jakiri and I sang hymns, Elder Steed accompanied on the Piano). President Hoefel came and everything went well. He did a great job interviewing, because Jakiri came out and was really happy. His fears are gone concerning baptism, he is excited to be baptized!! He has made such a huge change. Haha we all have gotten really close, he wanted us both to baptize him, as in like both be standing in the font. Sadly that can't be, but Elder Steed volunteered to baptize him, so he will baptize, I will confirm, and I will be standing on the stairs leading out of the font to Congratulate him. :-)
I am so happy, he is different. HE is happy his fears are gone he is different, and a lot of people have noticed it. He has been meeting with missionaries off and on for 12 years or so. He wrote a note to past missionaries telling them all the sins he has done, and because of it they treated him differently. That hurt him really bad, and he was terrified to come to church for fear of people judging him based off of what he has done. But he opened up to us, and ended up telling us a number of things that he did, and we didn't shrink or back away. But we supported him and promised him that through the atonement that there wasn't anything that couldn't be washed away. He has had a hard life and now he is on a path to a much new and improved life. And he knows it. He can finally get rid of the pain that he has been carrying with him for a long time. It's truly incredible. Continue to pray for him though, he still has this week before the baptism. Satan is going to be working hard on him. He is meeting with his father tomorrow, and he knows his father will try to bring him down, so if you could pray for him, that all will go well. We are meeting with him nearly everyday this week. And are going to be praying hard for him.
That ought to do for this week. :-) I wish you the best, and I look forward to sending pictures to you next week!
Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen
Monday, November 26, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
Another Crazy Week
Wow this week was crazy as well. Frau Zalka hasn't had any contact with us at all. She won't pick up the phone, we still don't know why. But, Jakiri, who I mentioned a long time ago, has agreed to move up his baptismal date to the 30th of November. This is huge. He is scared and satan is working on him INCREDIBLY HARD. His interview is this friday with President Hoeffel at 4:30. Please pray for him.
He knows that Joseph smith is a prophet with out a doubt. And he understands that he needs to be baptized and that it will be good for him. But he is scared. He has had a far worse past than any of you can imagine. He is by far the most incredible person that I have ever met though. He is the perfect example in my eyes of someone Christ-like. He helps out a few single mother families here in Florisdorf. He gives them everything, all his money, his time, everything. He sleeps in a single room apartment on a hard wood floor, and only eats when people give him food, because he gives everything to serve these families.
He still is haunted by his past however. His past sins, and these things that has happened to him. And satan is trying to eat him alive before he can reach baptism. Telling him that its too late, that he isn't good enough or worthy to be baptized, and this list goes on and on. He is battling everyday to overcome these feelings. He is ready to be baptized, he knows that it will be good for him, and that when he gets baptized that all the sin and guilt can be washed away. We have a recently returned missionary that is helping him a lot. Martin Hayden, absolutely a stud. He was baptized 4 years ago, who also had a really hard life and was on the point of near suicide when he found the gospel, and has the most powerful testimony of receiving a remission of sins at baptism that I have ever heard. When he made the decision to serve a mission, he was supporting his single mom and 4 brothers WITH HIS OWN MONEY. And he prayed and asked heavenly Father to take care of them for him, and he said that Heavenly Father said he would, so he went and served a mission and didn't worry about them at all, and came back and found out that the Lord had kept his promise. An incredible testimony. He met with us and Jakiri yesterday and it was incredible. That will help a lot, but if you could please pray for Jakiri, he needs it.
Another really cool things happened yesterday. At 4 we had an appointment with 4 communists. Or that is what Elder Steed called them (he didn't know their names). Elder Solt had contacted them back when he was here and agreed to meet with them under the terms that there would be no discussion on politics. They met with them and apparently had a good discussion but never made out a return appointment till I arrived about 2 months later. I called them (five weeks ago) and made out an appointment for yesterday (they are really busy). Well they came to the church yesterday and we sat down and started talking. 3 of them are totally Atheist, one of them has a weak belief on God.
They started off asking us questions like crazy, really weird questions dealing with war, killing people and what we thought about the death penalty. Which threw me way off, and there was no correct answer that I could give and I knew that. They were twisting our words like crazy. We finally were able to change topics, and I asked them a question about their belief on God, Elder Steed at this point left the room and was gone for most of the discussion, taking a couple of phone calls. So it was me with 3 Atheists and one who didn't know what to believe. It was a neat experience, I don't remember all of the details. I started to ask questions and to teach, and the words just came to me. The spirit was telling me exactly what I needed to say in that exact moment, and it was so powerful. I bore powerful testimony, and the words were flowing unto me. The German was nearly if not completely perfect. At the beginning of the lesson, the three were convinced that there was no God at all and didn't see a point in it at all. But left all promising, all WANTING to find out through prayer.
One of them, named Phillip, told me that he went to Catholic school and prayed all the time and never felt anything, therefore there could be no God. But then we talked about what his experience was with prayer and he said that it was the standard "Vater Unser" prayer (Lord's Prayer) that they prayed twice an hour or something like that. Then he said that to him it was just memorized words with no meaning. "Exactly." I quoted them the verse that is immediately before the "Vater Unser" (Lord's Prayer) and then I taught about what it means to pray from the heart. To mean it. Again, the spirit was so strong and at the end, he was the most sincere, asking me, if I pray and don't feel anything, am I not praying correctly, or am does it mean that I am not praying from my heart... Questions like that.
He REALLY wanted to know if there is a God or not, and wanted to make sure that he did it correctly so that he could find out. I told them that they may or may not feel anything on the first time. I used a scripture out of Alma where is says that he fasted and prayed MANY DAYS to get an answer, and then later told them about Ether 12:6 talking about how you don't receive a testimony till after your faith is tried. Then promised them if they really want to know and pray, that God would answer them, and that they can know just like I did that it was true. It was an incredible experience. I can honestly say that the promises made in Doctrine and Covenants 11:21, and 84:85 really are true.
"Trachtet nicht danach mein Wort zu verkünden, sondern trachtet zuerst danach mein wort zu erlangen und dann wird deine Zunge gelöst werden; dann, wenn ihr wünscht, wirst du meinem Geist und Wort haben, ja die Macht Gottes um Menschen zu überzeugen"
"Sorgt euch nicht in voraus, was ihr sagen sollt, sondern häuft in eurem Sinn beständig die Worte des Lebens auf, wie einen Schatz. Dann wird euch zur selben Stunde das Maß eingegeben werden, das einem jeden zugemessen werden soll"
21
Sorry I only have memorized in German. But they are true, and I know that they are, because I have experienced it myself. And I know for that these promises are for missionaries and non missionaries alike.
That will do for now, Thanks for the love and support. It means a lot to me. I love you all and wish you the best!
Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen
Monday, November 12, 2012
Wow.
Another huge roller coaster this past week. Mostly with Frau Zalka. She was the one who we we had set the baptismal date with this week. Which is what she recommended. However, it won't happen. And neither Elder Steed or I know why.
I called her on Thursday to go over a few things with her regarding the interview and clothing, Everything was fine. The primary president called her Saturday evening to see if her children wanted to be a part of the program. She also talked to her for a bit, and Frau Zalka had read all of the pamphlets we had given her and was really excited to come to church and get baptized! The primary president told us that three times in the conversation Frau Zalka had mentioned that she WOULD BE at church. Ok. But she wasn't there. at 10.00 Schwester Kemendics (primary president) called her and she didn't answer (unaware that she had already tried calling) I called her. No answer. A little bit later she got a text that said something to the effect of: Leave me in peace today. If you want to help just pray to God to give me strength, I will talk to you later this week.
Ok, so we were all a bit worried that something had happened. The whole Zone (upon hearing that there she may not be baptized on sunday) all prayed for her last night. This morning she sent the Ward mission leader a text saying thanks for everything, but she doesn't want to be baptized, and she will stay Evangelisch. He sent her back a text saying that he respects the decision. He invited her to pray about it, and then asked if she would tell him perhaps what changed her mind. We still don't know, but we suspect that it was anti-mormon literature of some type. Probably on the internet. Within 36 or so hours she went from completely Golden, to unsure and possible doubting, to not wanting to be baptized at all.
And I don't know why. It all happened so fast and my head is still spinning from it. So that is that. We are going to do what we can to try and figure out what happened and to not give up. But we can only help as much as she will allow us. The best thing at this point is to stand back and let her tell us according to what she wants, lest she feel like we are trying to force her to join the church. All hope isn't lost, I hope that she will come to herself, and remember all of the good feelings that she has had. So that was the sad new of the week.
On a completely unrelated story, yesterday I found out what if feels like to be in such a huge state of shock/ stupor that you are paralysed. No body told me that the Brother and Sister Rollins (Neighbors living 2 houses down the street. Brother Rollins served in Austria on his mission) were coming to Austria! My word. Yesterday just after 2nd hour got out I was out in the hall talking to Elder Steed and out of the corner of my eye I saw two people walk around the corner, and the thought was "that looked like Brother and Sister Rollins, but that couldn't be possi..." Dumbfounded.
I can't really describe it, as I turned to actually look and saw them walking down the hall towards me, I was... I can't describe it. Alma 31:19 19 Now it came to pass that after Alma and his brethren and his sons had heard these prayers, they were astonished beyond all measure., except the prayer, I really understand that scripture now... :-)
Wow. Astonished absolutely stunned was I. In a good way :-). They took a lot of pictures and tried recording me a number of times, but I was just too shocked to really say much. They thought that I was still in Dornbirn, so they weren't expecting to be able to see me at all. They went to Church on the Böcklinstraße (The building that he went to when he was here) and talked to Elder Davies and Cox there, who are from Sandy and American Fork, respectively. They asked if they by chance new me, and they were like "YEAH TOTALLY! He is in the fifth ward here in Wien!" Then the elders gave them the address of the church, they put it in the navigation and came. Luckily our church is offset 30 minutes from that one, so they made it just before Sacrament meeting. For the Primary program. :-) Absolutely crazy. Haha after the meeting he asked me if I by chance new a "Mutti Mittermayer". She was famous when HE was here. He was even invited and had dinner with her once. 25 or so years ago. Luckily we have Michael, because apparently she can't cook very well... ;-) That was a neat highlight yesterday.
I can't really remember anything else from this past week. There is Martin and Miriam. So about 2 weeks ago or so we got a phone call from someone running the church website, A guy named Martin had requested himself, and wanted us to call him. So we did and made out an appointment for this past Thursday. We thought we would just be meeting with him, but he brought his girlfriend with him. We gave them a church tour and answered their questions about the church. He has been studying things about the church for 15 years or so, she was baptized Catholic, but has never gone to church and doesn't know what to believe.
We sat down and had a great lesson. Talking about Jesus Christ, the atonement (briefly, she didn't know what that was, so we gave a short explanation and set that we would discuss it in more detail next week) then got into the apostasy and then watched the Restoration DVD. It was powerful. And they both agreed to come to church, and they did! We had a great investigator class, they liked it and will be coming back next week. I am excited for them. The feeling that both I and Elder Steed got, was that Martin wants to be baptized, but he wants his girlfriend to get to that point first so that they could progress together. And that was kind of what he told us, he wanted us to focus the lesson on her.
She seemed to really like Relief society, she seemed pretty happy at the in 2nd hour, and after Church (again we had the primary program, good week to come :-)). We will meet with them again on Saturday, and talk about the plan of salvation.
Anyway, I am out of time now, sadly. Thanks for all which you do. I love you all,
-Elder Ryan K. Christensen
P.S.
Picture 1: Wiener Sunset
Picture 2: "Diet portion" with Michael Meetloaf, Potatoes, and Red Cabbage. VERY GERMAN.
Picture 3: Wiener Night sky.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Hallo-"Wien" Roller Coaster
My goodness, this has been by far the craziest week I have ever had on my mission, without question. Holy cow. Some huge miracles. Some of the most stressful moments of my mission. Mensch (Oh, Man!). And most of that was between Friday, and Sunday, and because of that, I don't really remember anything else happening during that week.
But Friday. Oh my, so, it started off fairly normal, wake up study, eat lunch etc. We had a lesson that night with Michael and we hoped to set a baptismal date. Well Elder Steed was feeling really really sick. But we were going to set a baptismal date with Michael that night and couldn't miss it. So Elder Steed rested and I made a bunch of phone calls and read the bible for a couple hours.
I love the German bible, its SO much easier to understand, I can read it like a novel, its awesome. So that's what I did. I read from Mark and into Luke 10. (I also compare how some verses are written in the Einheits, and Martin Luther bible, as well as the English, because sometimes they can be translated differently).
Anyway, one person I called is named Mike. Elder Cox met him on the street and got his number, and gave it to us (thinking he lived in our area). So I called him and talked to him trying to set up an appointment. He is an atheist and was concerned about wasting our time because he couldn't promise that he would convert or anything. I said that's fine, we are just here to help other people find joy, through coming unto God. He seemed satisfied with that, and we made an appointment out for Monday. Nothing sounded wrong at all.
Later on, I was in the kitchen washing dishes and cleaning up, and for some reason there was a question that kept coming to mind; What would I say to someone who was going to commit suicide? I thought it puzzling but I thought about it and came up with a few scriptures that I thought would help. After that I didn't think about it much.
Well it was now time to get ready to go to Michael. We always eat first then teach him. Elder Steed was feeling a bit better, whether he was or wasn't it didn't matter we were going. Long story short, the lesson was a bit of a train wreck. Real quick, Michael is roughly 55, he is on rehabilitation for something, and is staying with a member of the ward, known affectionately by everyone as "Mutti" (Mom). Mutti Mittermayer is 85 or 86 and when she invites you over to eat, she expects you to eat EVERYTHING on your plate. If you don't she will give a warning "Aufputzen!" (Polish Up!, Clean up!) and if you still don't SHE WILL FEED IT TO YOU. You don't mess with Mutti Mittermayer.
Anyway, she has had some abnormal inflammation of her feet, and so she was in the hospital. We thought this lesson would be just us and Michael. Anyway, so we were at Muttis house, and all of the sudden another member of the ward shows up. An older lady in our ward who knows Mutti Mittermayer. Ok thats not a problem, or so we thought. She was acting really weird and was being really rude. The spirit wasn't there, and we didn't feel like we could extend the commitment. Later that night, Michael took us to Bahnhof, and said that she was drunk and that he could smell the alcohol. Wonderful. Elder Steed was furious, I wasn't pleased, but I wasn't quite angry.
Anyway, thats not important. We get home that night, and at 8.45 I get a text from Mike: "You believe in God, please pray for my wife and 2 kids. I don't believe on anything, and tonight at around midnight, I am going to kill myself". PANIC!! I called president Miles, and the police and for the next hour and a half almost I was the phone with people. First I called the police (here the number is 133 and not 911) so I had to figure that out, and then I gave all the information I could, which was just a name and phone number (and I knew that he lived in district 20). So I gave that to the main number. Then about 15 minutes later I had another officer call and ask where I was, in Florisdorf, and I gave all the information to them. Then they had two police men that came to our apartment, and I had to do this all again. Elder Steed was just like "eh, I have been through worse", totally calm. Meanwhile I am going through an internal meltdown not knowing what I should do. We tried Calling him, the police tried calling him. No answer. President miles recommended trying to send him some uplifting texts, and which point those thoughts in my head earlier came back. So we send some carefully worded texts to him to try and help him. Using some of my thoughts earlier. We sent a text to the Zone Leaders who passed it on to the whole Zone to pray for a guy named Mike, who was going through a hard time. Long story short we didn't here back from him at all. Neither Elder Steed or I was very tired, so at 11.50 we said a prayer (again) for Mike. After which point we were able to sleep.
The next morning I didn't here anything. The police called me at 8.30 to say that they still hadn't found him, and that the number for the phone was not him (it actually belonged to an elderly lady on the complete opposite side of Wien (which turns out was actually an Error on the part of the phone company). Ok interesting. Then we get a text from Mike. Who thanked us for our texts and said that he still needed to live for his children RELIEF.
It turns out that he had a really hard night. Disappointed a lot of friends, lost half of his paycheck gambling, (which made his wife incredibly angry) and was outside drinking a lot of alcohol. Then he sent us the text and turned his phone off. He eventually fell asleep, and nothing happened Well we got in touch with the police, they took care of everything, and with the recommendation from president Miles, we met with him that day. We met at the church near his house and brought Jakiri as a joint teach (even though Jakiri is an eternal investigator, he has a strong testimony, and loves to help people). I prepared the lesson, again with all the thoughts and scriptures that were running through my head the day before. And, even though he is atheist he says that " he will take it slow and say only one prayer at night before he goes to bed". He will bring his family next time and said that he was interested in coming to Church. A golden Atheist, who would have thought? We will see where it goes from here.
That was one story. The next happened on Sunday. Do you remember the lady that I mention last week in my e-mail? Who I said might be Golden. Oh man, this is where some of the insanity comes in. She came to church again. So during the second hour we were going to teach her about the restoration. We say a prayer, and I ask her the question, "what do you know about the restoration of the Gospel?". She went on for 10 minutes and taught us the whole thing. IN DETAIL. When Joseph Smith was 14 there was a lot of religious competition going on. His own family was divided. So he had a question and read in James 1:5 ( SHE QUOTED IT FROM MEMORY!!!) He saw God the Father, and Jesus Christ, and felt the spirit. Teaching us that they are 3 seperate beings (JAW ON THE FLOOR). They told him that there was no True church, but in time that they would give him everything that he needed to restore the true church, meaning the same church that Christ created when he himself was upon the earth, because when the apostles died, the church became corrupted. That was what she said. Shortened, but almost exactly what she said.
We were stunned. We were all confused and just bore testimony for a bit. Then I asked "what does "Priesthood Authority" mean to you?". She went on to teach us about the 2 priesthoods, and quoted D&C 121 talking about how it can only be exercised upon principles of Righteousness. Again we were stunned. Elder Steed in amazement asked " is there anything that you DON'T know?!" We laughed and I kept asking questions. The only thing she didn't know was what happened between death and the Resurrection. I gave her Alma 40 and we had a quick discussion. She has read the Book of Mormon 3 and a half times! She has been reading the Liahona magazines for who knows how long, reading all the conference talks and everything. Bru. Jankowsky (the ward mission leader) asked, " so whats missing". Her answer "baptism".
She then went on to explain that she knew the church was true, and felt like she was ready for baptism. We set a date Novemeber 18!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( IT WAS HER IDEA!!) Bru. Jankowsky invited her to lunch at his house with us. I went through all of the baptismal interview questions (in preparation for the real interview which will be next week). And, well She is VERY READY. THAT IS A MIRACLE!!!!!!
Give someone who was considering Suicide hope and invited him to church. Find and teach a Golden investigator. See and work miracles. Those are the things that you can do as a missionary. I am stunned and so overwhelmed with Gratitude.
I don't think there is anymore that I can say on that. Wow.
Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy "Hallo-WIEN" ;-)
Well, I feel pretty good right now I hope you all do as well. The church is true, and God is preparing people in many different ways. It's pretty amazing.
Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen
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