Transfer week, two new companions? and Alli Baghi!

So the first week of the transfer is usually pretty hard considering you have to adjust to a new companion and how he lives and does missionary work, but this one hasn't been super hard. Not the easiest but most definitely not the hardest.

Elder O'Keefe is from Pleasant Grove, Utah and he actually trained one of my best friends in the mission, Elder Winkel! He is super musical and is an amazing piano player so the branch absolutely loves him, which should make things easy.

So this last Friday we had an emergency zone trading meeting which included us picking up another new companion?...... A brand spankin new IPad!

The zone training meeting was fantastic! We went back to the basics and had three classes about the Book of Mormon, church attendance, and the importance of personal prayer.  One of the highlights  was when one of the zone leaders, Elder Blake talked about one of my favorite scriptures, and that is the last half of 1st Nephi 1:20 and it says

 

"But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of

the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their

faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

I actually didn't notice or really see the importance of this scripture until I came on my mission. I may have actually already talked about it one of my emails, but this scripture has followed me around my whole mission and not in the creepy stalker kind of way but more of like a super awesome guardian angel scripture kind of way! When ever it seems that I'm starting to get discouraged or frustrated, every time in some way or another this scripture is always one of the scriptures that always comes up! I want to testify that I know this scripture is true. The tender mercies of the lord are over all that he has chosen! But then the question may come up of "who is it that he has chosen?" or the thoughts that say "I'm not of the chosen", but we learn in the scriptures that he has chosen all of us! He saved all of us, not just some of us! When we understand that, We can see how cool this scripture truly is! If you don't believe me or you are maybe thinking that our Savior has forgotten you, I promise that he hasn't, and if you just take a moment and think about all of the things you have going for you. Heck, even if you honestly and truly count your blessings, you will see that those tender mercies of the lord

have been in your life and will always continue to be in your life. And you will see how much our Savior loves you, because he really does!

So yeah, that's a spiritual nugget that has been on my mind lately.

 

Stolen picture from Sister Brim's blog (sorry) but I couldn't resist that cute boy's face!

 

So onward with the happenings of this last week...

This week Elder O'Keefe and I talked to a man named Alli Baghi. He can't speak German very well and he doesn't understand that much either, but we gave him our card and we went on with the day. Usually when we give someone our card we never hear from them and never see them again but not Alli Baghi!

We walked out of missionary correlation meeting and found Alli sitting in the chapel waiting for church to begin, and he had found himself a Book of Mormon! When he saw us he had the biggest smile on his face, he had a great time at church and with the IPad I was able to communicate

with him in his native language of Persian. He loved our lesson and we immediately made out a time for us to come back today. At church one of the speakers did not come so I had a surprise talk sprung upon me 5 minutes before sacrament meeting, but I gave a talk about my favorite

subject...... missionary work, and Alli loved it! Everything went perfect yesterday!

But.....(don't you just love how there is always a but at the end of all my awesome missionary stories? It's a reoccurring theme of my mission)

We had a great first lesson with Alli today right before we came and started emails. In our lesson we found out more about Alli's background...... Alli is from Iran and does not have a long term Visa. His wife is in prison in Iran for being a Christian and if he returns he will be put to death. He wakes up every day not knowing if he will be deported or if he will be able to save his wife. So yeah, tough situation. In order to try and protect him and his life we may not be able to continue teaching him. We will find out later this week from our mission president. But I'm confident that everything will be straightened out, because he is soooooo ready for the gospel and he is one of the friendliest people I
have ever met!

All in all it was a fantastic week, and we found an awesome new friend! We are utilizing technology, and I know that I have learned a lot this week!

Thank you for your prayers and for your support!
Love Elder Gavin Schmalz

Sent from my iPad.      <~~~~~~~~~~how cool is that!

So this week was pretty uneventful, but I did find out that I will be getting a new companion in this coming week.

Due to the uneventfullness (is that a word?) of this last week, this email is going to be pretty short, with a profound quote from one of my good friends here in Germany

"A calm sea never made for a good captain"

I love this quote! It is sooo true! If everything was easy we would never learn and grow and I know that is true. So if you are going through a hard time or a trial there are three things you can always do...

#1 you can choose to face the trail cheerfully and pray and ask for help & comfort.

#2 you can learn and grow from your own experiences and then help others through theirs.

#3 you can email me! Even though I am on the other side of the world I am still just an email and a week away!

Well I hope you all have had agreat week and thank you so much for the emails and the prayers!

 

Love, Elder Gavin Schmalz

Cool Quote of the Week

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
Dr.Viktor E Frankl Holocaust Survivor

This week was a week of deciding, and that decision goes hand in hand with this awesome quote. 

About two weeks ago things got really hard! We were finding little (visual) success and up until a couple days ago I was really sick of people being rude and acting the way they were acting. We had troubles meeting with all of our investigators, and honestly it was just really hard! The old moody pre-mission elder Schmalz started surfacing (oh no!). Needless to say, I was just getting a little grumpy! I definitely was not smiling, (it was more of a very faked not genuine smile) but then in personal study I found these three scriptures!

  2nd Corinthians 6-8

But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Every man according as he puposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: For God loveth a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye always have sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

I decided that if this scripture says that God loves a cheerful giver, I am always going to be a cheerful giver, even when people are rude and it seems like we are making no progress at all, and right after I made this decision, we were directed to a man named Singh. We were about to call it a night when an idea popped into my head to go try to see a woman named Veronica, so elder Garner and I walked across Itsehoe to talk to her. We got to where she lives and she wasn't home, so we started to head back home. On the way from her house we passed a pizza place called "Itzehoer Pizza King" and we both remembered that we had a contact that worked there so we went inside to ask if he was there, AND he was!

As previously stated his name is Singh. He has a lot of questions that are very hard to answer, but the way that he asks them I can't help but smile! We had an awesome talk and we had found out that he had just gotten home from a 4 week trip to India just two hours prior to us meeting with him, and as we were leaving he said 'I like talking to you guys because you are happy and you understand me!

Boom! Holy cow! How cool is that? In personal study the scriptures pretty much told me to be happy and then because of smiling and being happy (and mostly the Holy Ghost) we found someone who actually wants to meet with us and he has awesome questions!

Yeah, so that was awesome! And to top it all off, I got to Skype with my family on Sunday which was awesome! Nothing better to do on Mother’s Day than to see my beautiful mom on a 32 inch computer screen :) I love you mom!

Okay, but seriously, if you are having a hard time or even if you are having an okay time, you can choose to be happy and you will see the difference! Notice that the scripture also says we still have to go SOW and REAP? We can't just sit around smiling and expect our troubles and our labors to magically disappear, but I know that when we CHEERFULLY do what we need to do we will be blessed and it is just so much more fun to smile and have a god time! :)

Thank you so much for your love and support and I hope you had a great week!

Love, Elder Gavin Schmalz

Mothers Day and an AWESOME call home!

We are getting iPads!

So a lot has happened in the last two week.

The highlight being that within the next month the Berlin Germany Mission will be one of the European pilot missions for digital missionary work. Because of this announcement all 250 missionaries were asked to make their way to Berlin for a day of training. We had Elder Nielsen and Elder Kearon from the 1st quorum of the seventy come and teach us all about what it takes to be a missionary in the digital age. We also received new manuals and were all asked by President Kosak to take a picture that represented how we are preparing for the iPads. soooooooo Elder Garner and I took this picture:)

Another thing that has been really cool this last week is how long the sun has stayed out! It seriously doesn't set until 8:30 and then since there are literally no mountains here, it stays light until 9:20! And it's not even officially summer yet!

 

 

This week we met with one of our investigators named Azul Mailki. He and his Family fled from Syria to escape religious persecution, because they are Christians. We have been teaching Azul and his family for a while and in our last lesson we asked him if he knew how to pray.... he didn't fully understand the question because he cant speak German very well (Yeah language barriers! It is really hard to teach someone while speaking a language you don't fully understand and then on top of that it is also their 3rd language) so instead of telling us if he knew how to pray he instead recited the Lords Prayer in Aramaic...(the language that Jesus Christ spoke! How cool is that!).

So that was an awesome experience! We taught him how to pray for himself and he loved it, and hopefully we will start seeing some real progress!

This week all in all has been a really hard week, but it has been a week of growth and of learning. I found this really cool quote by President Uchtdorf that has helped me.

 

 

Thank you all for your love and support! 

 

Oh, with the iPads I have the option of starting up a new blog. I was thinking of doing one to answer spiritual or scriptural questions that you have, along with ones I am studying in personal study. Is that something that you would want to read? or participate in? If so, please tell me, or if you have other ideas of what I can do to help you! I may be on the other side of the world but I am still here and I can help:)

Love Elder Gavin Schmalz

  

Pics from Berlin

Magdeburg Dom

Us on the train

The Siegelssäule (victory Pillar)

Chatting with my boy

Mom questions: What was the BEST part of your week?
"The train ride home from Berlin after out training meeting was absolutely amazing! We rode with Sister Langhurst, Sister Israelsen, Elder Fischer and Elder Hoffman. It was way fun!"

What was one of the times you felt the Spirit this week?
"So at the training meeting we had Elder Kearon and Elder Nielsen from the first quorum of the 70 come to talk to us.

They talked about the parents of the Stripling Warriors and how through their valiant efforts and covenants, they made a generation of amazing young men. Likewise, you and dad have done the same for me, and now it is (almost) time for me to do it for my kids.

I thought that was really cool and the Spirit was so strong and I know that it is true! You have made me the man I am today and everything I will and can accomplish is because of 5 people... Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, The Holy Ghost, and you and Dad.

I know that My Heavenly Father sent me to you because you were the perfect parents for me and I love you!"

 

And that is what made this momma have the feels!

New Game... Where's Gavin?

The entire Germany Berlin Mission with Elders Kearon and Nielson of the Seventy.

Missionary Training as Disciples of Christ in the digital age. Within the next couple of weeks all these missionaries will put their training to use with their new iPads. That's a lot of iPads!