Jena (yay-nuh)

received 6/19/2017

What a week!! Life is still good here. Oh man, I'm getting really
burned out trying to write these emails every week... sorry.

Highlights!

- I received an awesome german license plate from my first companion!
(Thanks elder Römer if you get this email)
- Nadine, probably one of my best friends/our investigator, has been
coming to seriously EVERYTHING with all of the members. (We also found
some ancestors for her, which was really cool)
- working with nadine just keeps reaffirming to me that the church is true.
- we met this random German that lived in Texas and is scared to death
of Mormons... funniest conversation of my life honestly haha.
- talked to a nice American couple on the train, best of travels to them.
- ate lots and lots of good Chinese food, (elder Hsu and I have
started just cooking for our friends, best way to make appointments
with college students haha)
-  I've been doing some family history every Sunday, and it's honestly
becoming the highlight of my week (although there are lots of
highlights, it's hard to decide.
- we finally tried the Schwarma place right next to our apartment,
it's good. (don't call it döner)
- I got to see all my friends from my first area, and meet tons of
people from the stake at a super cool stake activity!
- rediscovered that Jena is the best city in the world, and that the
members here are the best people in the world.

Probably the spiritual highlight of the week was this member's talk in
sacrament meeting. He talked about what it means to be a branch, what
it means that we meet together and call each other brother and sister.
His whole point was that we need to stop judging each other and accept
accept our differences. It really strikes me every week, the way that
it feels just to be in this branch. It just feels right. Just by
sitting down with them, you can tell that the people are good, that
they love one another, and they are trying their best to live
righteously. I love that feeling. It's something that makes our job so
so much easier, when we can invite people to be a part of an amazing
branch.
Try and be the change wherever you are, make your ward feel that way
for others.

I love you all,
Elder Openshaw

1. License plate
2. The long walk to the monkey forest