E. sets a baptism date for July 25th and it's HOT HOT HOT in Germany

Well we are finally moved in and summer is here and it is hot. Unfortunately Germany doesn't believe in AC so we are left to sweat!! 

What doesn't kill ya makes you stronger oder! 

Well it has been a crazy week of teaching and running around and trying to juggle two areas at the same time but we are managing. 

Unfortuntely, I blessed with a cold, it was pretty bad but I got over it super fast which was awesome! 

Crazy miracle for this week and it kind of sums up the whole week. We had an investigator named Emil come to church last week after Elder Butler invited him to come and participate. We had an appointment on Friday with him. We went to go and find his home but when we went to the address we couldnt find it. I was thinking the whole time, "this is just another potential investigator down the drain". Then we called him and he didn't pick up, we kind of gave up and just headed back to Hamm. We decided to do some contacting since we had some extra time and we were talking when all the sudden the phone rings and it was E. He said that he was expecting us that we werent there, we told him we could meet by the city center and so we did! We found him and talk for a while about his past. He is from a country called Macedonia on the border of Armenia and Cosvo. He lives in one of the thoses cities that you read about in the news that is being attacked by the Armenians. He is here in Germany getting his mother medical treatment. His story was so awesome as he talked about God and Jesus and their role in his life. We went on to talk about life and really connected. He used to stay up late and watch the NBA back in the Micheal Jordan time. We ended up taking a bus to his home and meeting his mother. We sat down and taught one of the most spiritual lessons ever! We committed him to baptism and then left. He said he would be at church. We randomly saw him the next day and said hello and then on Sunday we saw him! He came to church and loved it ( we translate it for him into english). Then afterwards we had a lesson and talked about Joseph Smith. Then taught him about the Book of Mormon and challenged him to pray. He was so excited just kept saying "this the help I have been praying for, this joy that I feel right now, I want to have it for the rest of my life". It was so cool and he was so excited. Then I asked " what do you think about baptism" he said " It's great I want to be baptized!" and right there we set a date of July 25th. We then went on to figure out he has to go back to Macedonia on August 6th. He said he doesn't want to and hopes he can stay here in Germany, but I looked him in the eyes and told him "As a Representative of Jesus Christ, we speak in his behalf, if you pray to your Heavenly Father he will show you what you need to do and what he has in store you". This burning tingling feeling filled my body and I knew that Lord was baring witness to him of the divinity of our calling and binding the words that I said. He said "Yeah he is a great god, he knows everything!" Elder Butler told and bore witness of the love god has for him and he was so excited! We finished it off with him praying in Serbian. Then we wanted to see where the closes chapels was to his home. turns out their are no church in the Macedonia. It is part of the Adratic South Mission. I dont know what the Lord has in store or what will happen. All I know is that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ and his gospel will be preached to all the globe. Everyone will have the oppurtunity to hear his gospel. All we have to do is find these people!!! 

What a blessing it is to be here in Hamm serving and growing! 

Love you yall

Elder White

They are all moved into their new apartment

Hamm District

Inside a Not so free restroom in Germany....they are lit with Blue lights

Learning to use Ipads and Enduring hard days

Well hey it good to hear from all of you this week!! Hahah so things
here in Germany have gotten crazy because we have IPads now!!!

Yes you all heard that right the Germany Frankfurt mission now has
iPads and it's pretty sweet. We got them last Tuesday (6/9)and since then
we have been trying to figure how to use them effectively because we
never have wifi anywhere. Pretty much right now we just use them for
study and sharing videos and doing google translate stuff.

But then I figured out a new way to use them because yesterday at church we had
one of our investigators show up to church his name is N., a man
from Romania. I honestly didn't think he was going to come to because
we had tried to go by but it didn't work and so we just thought that
we would have a to try better next week. But he random walked and said
in his broken German "bike" he rode the 15km with his bike. It was
crazy and then through the whole meeting I translated words on my iPad
and communicated with him through the iPad and had all the manuals
downloaded and it was awesome! I really felt like he felt that he had
taken a bigger part in the meeting that what he usually does since he
really doesn't understand German. It was just such a blessing to have
the iPads and the ability to communicate with someone that can't
communicate with us, but some reason loves to come to church and meet
with us.

We didn't get a chance this week to meet with the F. family but
that's okay they were super busy but hopefully by the Appointment on
Wednesday doesn't fall out. But we will see

We saw some awesome success with Rosie this week, she unfortunately
didn't come to church,  but she did meet with us on Wednesday. We had a
missionary with us from back in the day his name is Taylor Blanchard
and he is in the ward for the next couple weeks. While we were meeting with R.,
we asked her right off the bat what our purpose is and she said "to bring people to
repentance" it was great!!' No better answer could be said. We
committed her to be baptized when the time is right and when she knows
it is true so that was cool! I'm super excited for her!!

Well it has been weird using technology again and has been a little
strange. But it has been cool, Elder Butler and I have set up
guidelines the biggest one is that before we open the iPad with have
to tell the other why we are using it and so they always know what we
are doing on it!' It was weird at first but now it is cool and really
helps us as a companionship to be one!!

I would like to say that the iPads has changed the work here in
Germany but really it hasn't it has only benefited the work and it is
a tool. We can only go to approved websites and use only special apps
right now and so we are pretty limited because Europe their is no such
thing as free wifi or toilets hahahaha so it's really learning to
create good technology habits for the future so that it can bless our
lives and our families lives

Cool story for this week! On Thursday it was probably the worst day
ever. I just felt Satan pounding down on me and things were just not
going well. My bike tire exploded on the way to finding  and we
had just picked it up that morning from the repair shop. I kept
breaking things and was just having a crap day. We went dooring and I
was really not in the mood to door. We did a couple doors and I told
Elder Butler I was ready to leave. I just felt like I couldn't do it
anymore. Then I thought just try one more. So I was like "hold up"
right next to the bikes was a house and so I walked up and found the
man in his yard I started talking to him and he asks me!! Do you
believe in Jesus Christ? I have never been asked a question like that,
I told yes of course, and then he kind of doubted me and said "
like that he is the savior and redeemer of the world?" I then looked him right
in the eye and bore a simple testimony of the divinity of Jesus
Christ. He seemed satisfied and I definitely felt the power of spirit
behind the words that I said! It was so cool and we didn't get to give
him a Book of Mormon but we did give him a card. Elder Butler said
that we should say a prayer and thank God that we ran into him. I prayed
and just had this overwhelming feeling of peace and cried a little in
the middle of the neighborhood. Sometimes we go through trials and the
Lord is testing us. He stays his hand not because he likes to see us
suffer but because he loves and wants us to grow. The Lord isn't
going to just take our trials away but he will lift the veil for a
moment and let us see that all is well. Our job is to be patient and
say okay I have no idea what I'm doing right now, but you got this I
trust you.

That all we need to do is trust him


Love y'all tons
Elder white

Sent from my iPad

Zone Conference - 6/9/15 IPADs are in Germany

Pictures sent from Zone Conference on Tuesday from Sister Jones

(A Sister missionary from Colorado, who knows Ryan's grandma)

Elder White roleplaying as a guy on the street playing with his imaginary basketball.  (I'm sure that wasn't to difficult for him to act out!! ha ha)

Elder White with his Ipad!!!

Sister Jones is finally as tall as all Elder White, Elder Butler and Elder Olsen

The Spirit is the REAL teacher

Well this week has been insane, but awesome. I went on two splitz this week, one with Elder Cole the missionary from Flowermound, TX that is actually going home in 2 weeks and one with Elder Strong who is the Zone leader here in Dortmund. They were both great.

Well this week was super hot, it was 43°C (109 F)  2 days in a row and it was killer! But the great thing is that I'm still alive and after a freezing Germany winter I can handle the heat!!! hahahahah

We had some crazy good random people come and talk to us over the past couple days it is crazy how some people with just come up and start talking to you right on the spot! One guy started talking to us in English about the trains and how he could get to Dortmund. We told him about trains then started talking to him about the plan of salvation and gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet. It was so cool!!

Also we did our weekly visit to our favorite family in Ennigerloh! We go their every week and just stop by and share a spiritual message and eat candy. This week their were all at the parents house and we just chilled in the garden for a little bit and joked around! They are awesome and they love having us over and are just great!

Finally this week got back in contact with R.! When Elder Butler was on the split he went by and finally got in contact with her! It was awesome! Then on Sunday she came to church and we didn't even ask her!!! She loved the meeting and we have an appointment on Wednesday and I really want to set a baptismal date with her!

Training is still going really well! Elder Butler's German is getting so good and he is honestly just really go with the flow and has such a strong testimony!!

We got a referral this week from a family in Austria who lives in a city called Beckum. We actually went by with our GML, Bruder U. It was pretty awesome! Unfortunately they didn't really have much interest we talked to him for about an hour on his door step it was quite interesting!

Well there was just so much that happens during the week it's hard to write it all down some days. Probably the highlight for this week was the lesson with The F. family and H. We got into a discussion about the Word of Wisdom and why its important and how it can bless us. They were having a really hard time understanding why that is a commandment and how it came about. We talked about it and there were still questions. Finally, this thought popped into my head "tell them about Roger" (Roger was a technician that worked with Dean for 10 years.  We were really close to him.  He came down with Lung cancer and our family was with him a lot in his last hours in the hospital.) So I told them about Colton and I visiting him in the hospital and how he told us to never smoke cigarettes and about how he told my Dad that he knew right before he died that Jesus Christ lives and that he would be able to be reunited with his wife, that had pasted away previously. The spirit filled the room and questions seemed to disappear. H. then said, "Well now I know what I am suppose to do." It was cool because he and F. family finally understood not because of what I said, but because of what the Spirit said to them.

The spirit is a special gift that we sometimes don't realize how big of an influence it plays in our daily lives! When we learn to teach by the spirit and not by man that is when we begin to shake the gates of hell, that is when the true power comes. Sometimes we as member of the church play guess whats in my head, its a game that Elder Bednar told us about. We ask a question like "what are the 5 principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ" or "What is more important then baptism?" Both questions have a specific answer and require the student to guess what the teacher is teaching. Elder Bednar said that is false way to teach. We need to learn to teach by questions that are spiritually lead. Such as " What does the gospel of Jesus Christ mean to you? or How have your seen it bless your lives?" and "How have you felt the blessings of baptism or what does the temple mean to you in this life?" These questions allow people to share testimony and follow the guidance of the spirit. The other questions hinder our agency and learning. I've found as I  focus on following the spirit and asking inspired questions that spirit has done more teaching and people feel free to say and think. I would challenge all whether you are teachers in the Nursery or the high priest group leader, focus on the questions you ask, ask yourself is this question allowing people to think for themselves or is it hindering someones agency to voice their opinion.

The church is true, I know and that is why I am out here on a mission in Germany. Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world, he will strengthen our weaknesses and make weak things become strong.

Love

Elder White

The Field is White...Ready to Harvest..Almost

Hey!!!!
I  can't say it has been raining as much here as it has been back
home, but I guess y'all prayed a little too hard for the rain!!

In other news, this week I hit my ten month mark!! It is flying by!

This week has been crazy, but holy molly have we seen some major success!!

Well this week started we got a lesson with the part member family
named the S family. The husband isn't a member but he talked with us for
forever!! It was crazy and I think he is going to start taking the
lessons!! He is awesome and the live literally down the street from
our apartment!

We finally got back in contact with N. this week. We went by and
read from the pamphlets since he really doesn't speak German at all. He
told us about how he is sick and can't ride his bike anymore to church.
Didn't really know what to do, but Bruder Upmeier offered to give him a
ride!! AND HE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!! Tender mercy for the week!

Went a split with Elder Ball this week and we had a great time!! He is
awesome and such a great example to me!!

We had a really neat lesson with the F. family, unfortunately their
friend couldn't be there because he is super sick. But we started out
wanting to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ but ended up he
started tell me about all the problems that he was having and how he
really doesn't see how his daily scripture study and prayer will help.
He said his hands were tied. Then all of the sudden the scripture in
Nephi chapter 7 popped in my head and we read it together. I just
asked Thomas some questions about how Nephi handled the situation and
he ended up saying and figuring out "I need to pray". It was so cool to see the spirit
speaking to me and telling the scripture that he needed in that very
minute!

Another cool miracle was the day we went to N. in a city called
Dolberg we stayed a little too long and had to catch a train 12km away
in 20 minutes to make some appointments with a family who is less
active. We rode so hard and thought that we were going to miss it, but
then as we walked up the steps we looked and saw it was 10 minutes
delayed!! It was awesome because we got to visit 3 families and they
all ended up coming to church the next day!!!!

The Lord has his hand in this work truly!! I don't know of any other
place I would want to be right now other then here in Germany, yeah it
may be tough but the miracles and the lives that are touched are
indescribable. It is because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ that it
is all possible. I don't know how many times I can say, it is only
through the Atonement, its is because of the Atonement. How lucky we
have it available for us to use and repent and then strengthen
ourselves through his grace. I'm truly humbled by the love that Jesus
Christ offers me.

I CHALLENGE EVERYONE to read Alma 7:12 and see what you can learn
about the Atonement!

Another thing I have learned is, if it is easy your not doing it right.
The Lord wants us to put a little skin the game. Your going to scuff
your knee and bleed a little, you may even have to get stitches but
that is this journey. The lord pushes us so that we can grow and he
can test us. Opposition brings strengthen that is why we have
temptation so we can learn and grow!!

This gospel is truly the only way to live life. It isn't easy but it is worth it!

Love yall tons
Elder White

The Field is White All ready to Harvest - Doctrine Covenants 33:3