After meeting our President we went to Radebuel, a city right next to Meissen (where I was for my exchange), and I discovered that President Monson had spent time in that area when it was East German. He gave a dedicatory prayer over the land of East Germany and promised the people that they would see the blessings of the temple. I think if you Google the dedicatory prayer over East Germany you will be able to find it. It's honestly one of the coolest things I've ever read, because it is all about my mission.
We then went to the Freiberg temple and did baptisms. I have some pictures of the new Freiberg temple, it's amazing. We spent the night in a hotel near the Temple.
The next day we had a meeting and met our trainers. My companion is Elder Römer, a native German from Wisconsin. We were assigned Erfurt as our area. Seriously everyone came up to me and told me how lucky I am. It is the best area in the mission, the most beautiful, the best ward, and just an outstanding city. We then took the train to our first area... except the train got delayed for 4 hours because of a bomb threat. So then we took a bunch of other trains to try and get around Leipzig, where the bomb threat was. But we ended up having to go straight there. We just waited for a while and then got to our apartment at 10 30 to discover that the other Elders had gone out looking for us. So we waited for a long time until they finally came back. We went to bed super late.
The next day we unpacked and just went through our area book and stuff, trying to figure out everything. Finally we got to go finding! I was so excited, we walked into this beautiful square and then the first person we talked to was Chabar. He is from Hungary and he seems super interested in the Gospel. We have our first lesson with him on Saturday. Our luck didn't persist though, nobody else would talk to us.
General Conference was awesome, though I had to watch one session completely in German.
Ok, not sure what else to talk about. I'm so excited to be here. I've decided to add a little spiritual thought to the end of all my emails. So here it is...
I've been thinking a lot about my mission in general. And especially about my calling as a missionary. As we met our mission president he really emphasized the fact that we are not just here to plant seeds. That our mission is to baptize the people of Germany. Every missionary who comes here is told that they probably won't baptize someone, but that just isn't true. I believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and the restoration of the 10 tribes. The things that have been happening in the world are part of God's plan of gathering. I would encourage all of you to read President Monson's dedicatory prayer over the land of Germany, and to read some of the prophesies concerning Germany. Because I am not here to plant seeds, I am here to labor and in the vineyard and gather the fruit. I have a testimony of the work of the Lord. I have a testimony that this Church is true. I have faith that we will all see the gathering of the children of God. Thank you to everyone who has shown me your support and love. I also want to share why I am serving a mission. I am serving a mission because I believe that this gospel can change people for the better. And especially because of a promise that I made with God. The day I found out the news about my family's accident I was with some of my German friend's in their backyard. I started telling a story about my Dad and I started to laugh. And then they asked me how I was able to laugh after something so terrible had just happened. And I remember the feeling of the spirit, and I remember the looks on their faces when I told my German friends that I knew I would see my family again. That is my testimony, and that's why this work is important. Because we can all live with our families again. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Zane with his mission president
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