Elder Spangenberg Berlin Mission Oct 2014 to Oct 2016 : 6 Months!

Elder Spangenberg and Elder Benfell

On Pday we went to a church and went to the top of it and looked out and saw Hamburg. It was really cool. I took lots of pictures.

We had 2 lessons with the Memetovich family this week. Memet has not read or prayed, and we think we are going to lose him, if he doesn't keep trying to build his testimony. We also had 2 members visits this week. One, we talked about how the Gospel can change people and the other about how we should always heed the promptings of the spirit and not to hesitate to do them.

Something special that happened this week was a big mission conference in Berlin. It was titled "Disciples in a Digital Age". It was specifically about Ipads. We are the first mission in Europe to have the conference and were supposed to get the Ipads. However, there was a delivery problem and we didn't have them for the conference. They think we will get them in the next week. Every missionary in our mission will get one and it will stay with you till the end and then you give it back when you leave. You can also have a blog.

Elder Neilson spoke, he is the one who spoke in conference about his less active sister, and how she came back after 25 years. Also Elder Kearon, of the Europe Area Presidency spoke .I am so excited for the work we will be able to do with the Ipads. We are authorized to use facebook, so we will be able to find more people through that. Create a facebook account and then be friends with me, then you can see my posts even though they will be in German. We received two packets to study. One frames the actual duties we have and what we can accomplish on these devices. The other shows us how we can make a plan that will help us use these to fulfill our missionary purpose during these 2 years.

I also got to see my past companion, Elder Morton. Oh that was so great! The best news came from him.......one of the investigators I was prompted to walk back and speak to, is now on Baptismal date in two weeks!!! That was during my first 6 weeks and I could not speak German very well and talking to people was hard. The Lord totally made up the difference. Sometimes when I talk I don't even think about what I am going to say, but somehow it makes sense and I am able to speak German. I was told in my setting apart that the Lord would at times carry me. This was definitely one of those.

Sunday we went to a member appointment. The man did not like the U.S. and criticized our system of politics and everything. It was not that fun to hear! But I was an obedient missionary and didn't argue with him about it, so yeah there you go.

I am doing great! Last week I had a dream that I was training, so who knows. My German is good. I think of things by their German word, not English word! We have been doing good at speaking 9 to 9 lately and it helps. I am loving my mission so far, even the tough parts. I am doing great, don't worry about me!

Elder Spangenberg