"I'm not going to suffer just so I can be high" - May 5, 2014- From Solothurn

Hi Family!  Mom, thanks for your good thoughts about less active members! So just to explain it a little more. Yes there are some members who are less actives who we visit and typically we don't don't even feel the need to invite to church or worry about whether they are at church at this point. Our goal is to bring them closer to Christ. We will start wherever they are. With one last active a while ago, for example,  we shared a spiritual thought about making our prayers more meaningful. And as a commitment we asked her to think about what we had talked about and to try and make her prayers more meaningful. She said that she should probably start with just praying . . . so then her commitment was to start praying again. We'll see her again this week and see how she is feeling. There's just these two less actives who are really hard because they have been visited regularly by the missionaries for forever and they know they believe they ought come to church and they will bring it up themselves. One of them continues to have many questions about receiving answers to prayer and why she must suffer and we talk about it alot but God  really give us most answers through the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost can't really be with us unless continually seek to stay close to the spirit, are worthy of it and trying to keep the commandments. And she doesn't come to church, or read, or pray  or even keep other commandments but still expects answers. The truth is that communication with God does take a lot of effort on our part.

Quotes of the week:

Sister Blohm's conclusion about running:

"After all the pain and the hardness there was a moment where I was just high. But I'm not going to suffer just so I can be high."

"Oh Sister Lewis you could be a comedian!" I have no idea why she thinks I'm so funny. I would never make it as a comedian.

Elder Kelly: "Sister Blohm I heard you live in a mansion."

Sister Blohm: "Who said that?"

Elder Kelly: "I can't remember and even if I could I wouldn't tell you." (obviously he made up the whole thing)

Sister Blohm: " Well I don't live in a mansion but I have my own house. Well it's not MY house but . . ."

Elder Kelly: "I was going to say! If you had your own house I would marry you."

Sister Blohm: "You wouldn't dare!"

So I started talking to this young guy on the way to the temple. I have to explain his type. He was young, working on his master's degree, well-dressed and clearly very-confident. He was even wearing those round Harry-Potter-type glasses which you can only wear if you are really confident in your sense of style. And I started a conversation with him before he had a chance to put on his enormous headphones. (That's the key. It's usually a bad idea to wait very long at all before you start talking to someone. They will start listening to their music or playing a game on their phone or reading the newspaper or anything else and you've lost them. And it's just way more natural to say hi to someone when one or both of you has just sat down than when you've already both been sitting their for five minutes.) He decided that I was interesting and forgot all about his music. We talked for quite a long stretch of train (we were on our way to the temple) and our conversation was interesting enough that the whole train car decided to listen. Apparently two young people having an animated discussion about morality and life after death was entertaining enough to put a stop to all other conversations. I would see people smiling or hear them laugh about things we said but no one said anything. Among the funny things he asked me (but he said it in German): "Do you really live like a Christian?" Me: "Yes but what do you mean by that?" Him: "Have you ever had a boyfriend?" Me: "Yes but no I've never had a sexual relationship." He was astounded and lots more questions came after that. "But you must know that some people are better at sex than others. And how will you know if you're marrying someone who is good at it?" And so forth. He did like my answer that I am happy I will never know the difference because he realizes that at this point he just compares women too much. And he asked me how it's going to work in the spirit world that people who have had such different experiences on earth will all live together. Will he have to explain to the grandmas how an iPhone works? Yeah I don't know if that's blog appropriate but it leads to another quote of the week: (from Sister Boelm) "Do you know you just contacted about 10 people at once?" Seriously the whole train car listened the whole time as I explained our standards and what we believe about life after death in some detail because he had such specific questions.

I forgot to say that I went on austausch to Zollikofen last week! That was cool.

We had two lessons this week with two different devout Muslim individuals. One of them was last night. In their home there is Arabic writing everywhere and even a picture of the Kaaba. But this couple has agreed to read in the Book of Mormon in Arabic together every day. So we'll see how that goes. Obviously their main question is, "Is Jesus Christ really the Son of God?" So we talked about the importance of reading the scriptures, praying, and coming to church in order to receive a true answer. And they asked if they can receive their answer by reading in the Koran, going to the Mosque, and praying the way they normally pray. And then we had to explain, "Well, not if you want to find out if Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You won't find that out reading in the Koran or going to the Mosque or praying the way you normally do. You have to say personal prayers, read in the Book of Mormon, and seek to learn more about him through attending church." They're not ready for church yet but we'll see how it goes.

We had two great lesson with our new investigator and her two daughters (the first one was the FHE lesson I already told you about.) But we had another lesson with the three of them, plus a bunch of their friends who were there! Plus we had an awesome joint teach there. Plus the oldest daughter is going to young womens on Tuesday. Cool, right?

Mission tour was good! It's always good to have some more direction and motivation. Elder Dykes gave us some good advice.

Love you Family! Keep being the best.

The experience below was sent to the Alpine Missionaries by President Miles - 

A few weeks ago the Elders in Biel, Elder Müller and McColgan spoke with a lady on the street who had some interest in their message, they traded numbers and arranged for a follow up appointment. The following is a quote out of their letter to me:

“When we arrived at the appointment (with a little trouble finding the apartment), we continued our discussion a little more. We showed a quick film about Jesus Christ, and at the end of the film, it shares a scripture about coming unto Christ. We intended to read the scripture together out of the Book of Mormon, as a way of introduction for the Book, and as Elder Müller was about to read it, she interrupted us. She exclaimed "This is the book from my dream!" A little shocked, Elder Müller and I allowed her to continue to explain her dream, which she had the night after meeting us. The dream went as follows.

She came into her room, and saw 2 books on the windowsill. They were 2 Bibles, one black and one blue. The black one had written on the front cover that is was a Bible, and the blue book has some text that she didn't really understand at the time. All of you, who are familiar with the Book of Mormons that we give out, will know they are always in plain blue. She then went to her window, to see where the books came from, and as she approached the window, she saw an Angel standing outside. She then repeated that the Book of Mormon, the book she was holding in her hand, was the book from her dream.”