Final letter from the mission field

Well now time is running out but we had a great week last week. So we went on splits last week with the Passau elders. And I was with Elder Richmond here in Landshut. We got a lot done. So we met with a guy from Nigeria and he was kind of drunk. But he let us in. So he was a previous investigator. And he was like oh it's the mormons. So we asked if there was anything we could do for him. And he said I need 50 euro. We told him we have the word of God. The apostles didn't give money they gave the gospel. And he praised us for that saying all you need to do is praise the lord but all I need is 50 euro. And we told him we can't do that. And then he was kind of angry at us. And said we are welcome to talk about the word of God. Not the Book of Mormon. He only talks to people from the Church of Jesus Christ. We showed him our name tags but he didn't do anything. So he told us never to come back. So we aren't going to. 

Well the rest of the exchange was pretty good too. We met with V. and then on Wednesday we had a finding day. So we were supposed to have a street display thing set up. But it didn't work out. So we made a list of people to go by on. And nothing worked out well. But one thing did happen. So one of the sisters had to go to the bathroom. So she knocked on someones door to ask if she could go. And he was an ex member and he would like it if we showed up sometime to talk. So little miracle. Maybe that will turn into a baptism in the future. 

Thursday we had mission tour. Elder Dyches came and it was great. He talked a lot about how a mission changes us. All of the things that Germany can do to us. It helped me to reflect on my mission. I've been doing that a lot recently. All of the things I've learned and done. I feel like I've made a dent in Germany. I'm really grateful for the chance I've had to serve here. I don't know. It feels like this is my life. Religeon really seems important now. It used to be more of a hobby or something that's nice. But now it's my life. God is everything. 

Last week we met with a couple R and O. So he got some disease and now he can barely talk and can't move. So she has to do everything for him. And she had soccer on the tv. So he loves religion and she doesn't really. So we said can we wanted to read in the Book of Mormon and he really wanted to. But she said well this soccer game is only on once then over. It's important because if you miss it then it's over. So I said look I have one week left on my mission. I am here to talk about the gospel. And it took her 10 min or so to turn it off. But then we read the first chapter in the Book of Mormon and the spirit was so strong. They said they would read one chapter a day together. I really feel like it was perfect. The elders are going back on Thursday afternoon with Brother Hopf our ward mission leader. He is a ninja master. Well not a ninja but tae kuan do. He got 5th place in the world championships a few years ago. But ya. 

G was supposed to come to church but he didn't answer his phone. I don't think he has interest. He just wants a job. And then we also met with Herr S. He is way cool. He is one of those guys who has life figured out. Family is first. He has an awesome job. Or had one, retired now. He knows what charity means. He would make an awesome member.  So ya we'll work on that. Well I won't but the other missionaries will. 

And we also started running with V. So he has been having some really rough thoughts. I think he might be getting slight depression. He is losing his self worth. So running every morning helps him. And Brother Hopf wants to start teaching the missionaries martial arts for morning exercise. That would be cool. 

Sunday was my last sunday speaking German. It was strange. I gave my final testimony in church. But it still doesn't feel like I'm leaving. I know I am, but at the same time no. Either way I love it here. I'm glad I came. It has been the best two years of my life.

Love
Elder Kinghorn

Ravensburg

Dorbin District

Frieburg Zone

Dropping Elder Kinghorn off at the Provo MTC

April 28, 2014

Dear family,

Well today we had a changing experience. We went to the Dachau concentration camp. It wasn't an extermination camp, but still the terrible things that happened there. I don't want to go into detail but it reminds me of the Nephites and Lamanites in the Book of Mormon, right at the very end. The terrible things they were doing to each other. I'll let you make the comparisons between them.

But once again we had a lot of fallen out appointments or appointments that were moved... But some good did come out of it. One time a bus fell out. For some reason it didn't come, so we went by on a past investigator. H.B.. He is a 7th day adventist. Didn't go too well. But he invited us back two days later... ya we aren't going back again. Apparently we are false prophets. Oh well. Then he said we would find out the truth at the final judgment. I was going to say that to him but it was useless. So I let him chastise us for the last 5 minutes then we left.

Then we were supposed to meet with M. on Wednesday afternoon, but he had to move it to Wednesday night. So we went by on a less active. I.M. He lives in a refugee home and didn't want to see us. So as we were leaving a guy followed us out and we talked to him, and he said, “No I'm a member. I was baptized in Italy.” His name is A. He is from Sierra Leon. And he is an Elder. So that's cool. He just moved to Germany. We also met with M. (from America) that day and he is a cool guy. Very catholic. And artsy. We also met the next day. He has a funny story. So when he moved to Landshut he met the missionaries and he felt very welcome in our church and not welcome in his and loved the Book of Mormon. But then a friend of his in Rome told him, “No give the catholic church another chance. The germans are slow to make friends.” So he said, “That's right.” (forgetting that our members are German too, but welcomed him the first day) Either way, right now he is too busy to really investigate the church. But hopefully he'll get baptized soon. He was reading the Book of Mormon and was taking it so symbolically. Like the wilderness is symbolic of something. It wasn't really a wilderness was it? “No, it was like forest wilderness. Not symbolic.” But oh well.

Then also we went to Neuötting for an ausstellung (exhibit thing with the board display) That was awesome. So Friday M. gave a devotional. It was funny but really good. I could see some of the members from before. So we spent the night in their apartment. It was fun. So on saturday we had the ausstellung. Some missionaries sang songs and some of us contacted people. It was actually pretty good. For being right next to one of the biggest catholic pieces of ground in Germany. Then we got home late Saturday and church was good. And long. It was a homecoming. Sister Klemm just got home from a mission at temple square. So we had a big thing after church that went for a few hours, lunch etc. Then we did our weekly planning and studied. And we were supposed to have an appointment with someone but that fell out too... Bummer. Our appointment with the branch president fell out. And some others. We met with G. too. He's doing alright. And we had an eating appointment with the D’s. He is Austrian and she is German. We helped them do some landscaping then had taco's. Um ya that's it. This week is mission tour. It will be kind of strange. Mission tour a week before I go home. Oh well. I'll try to learn stuff. I'll still have a few more lessons before I go home. And if it helps one person get baptized in the future then it will have been worth paying attention.

Being a missionary is hard but at the same time not. Prayer and the scriptures are really a lifeline. Energy shots. I feel like people need to learn that. It really does help. When people say they are too busy for church it's like saying you're too hungry to eat, or too thirsty to drink. The gospel is just what we need when we are busy or tired. Oh well.

Love you

Elder Kinghorn

The timer we started when we left Devon at the MTC just went over 17,000 hours.    Just a few hundred more to go!   

April 21, 2014

Dear Family

Well this week was great, except for the fact that we had 5 fallen out appointments.... besides that it was great.  So Tuesday Elder Evans came and talked just to Munich Zone. It was awesome. I could spend hours talking about what I learned. Elder Evans spoke with love. Like you're doing good, but there is a much better way, especially with the Book of Mormon, and just his testimony. He was talking about how he became a 70; how he didn't expect it at all.  One thing that really struck me was when he said it's a requirement for us to have an absolute witness to the truthfulness of the Gospel. That is our duty as members, to gain an absolute witness of Jesus Christ. The apostles and 70's had it before they were called. And that is something we can all achieve in this life. 

So about B. I know you all have high hopes for him, but he has fallen off of the face of the earth. We haven't heard from him. He doesn't open his door ever ugh. O, just remembered 7 fallen out appointments. So B. is from Africa and she had to get her hair done... all day long.... oh well. And M. an American, well don't know what's up with him. He just is busy singing in Catholic choirs etc. So 3 from Benjamin, those two. and then two with a guy from Afghanistan. His Name is G. He actually reads in the Book of Mormon. We found him on the street and he could tell us the story of 1st Nephi. He has a sad Story. He is trying to get a job here, but doesn't speak the best german. His one advantage is that he has a german visa now so he never has to go back. We also met with our recent converts a few time. B. and S. live together and we went to them once. And we visited V. twice. He is so smart. We gave his a copy of Gospel Principles and he had read the first two chapters and had 15 or 20 questions and thoughts written down he wanted to talk to us about. So we went through a few of them. So much goes on in his head.

We also did some cool service for the stake president. They are building an entrance to their basement, so they had 3 thousand pounds of landscaping stones that we had to move. And lots of Spiders. I killed all of them. And the kids told us they were harmless. The next day Elder Parkinson had a spider bite on his arm. That made for a good conversation at church. "die beißen doch".  Way funny gamily also with 6 Kids. 1 daughter and 5 sons. Perfect Ratio in a family; one girl and a ton of crazy goys. I think you had enough with two adhd sons haha.

Yesterday was way fun. We were at the Hopf's. He is our gml and they have 6 kids. Way cute gamily. But we had lots of fun. So they had this cool tradition where they hollow out eggs. So you drill a hole on the top and bottom and then blow out all the stuff and let it dry. Then write something on it. So Sis Hopf had tons of spiritual thoughts or games written on all of them. Games like an egg toss. Or one game where you smack hard boiled eggs together and if you crack you lose. Or a swiss tradition where kids hold up a hard boiled egg and the adults throw change at it and try to get it to stick in the egg. If the change bounces off of the egg the kid keeps the change. But then scriptures from the Bible about Easter.

Yup, so today we are meeting with the Hopfs (actually we are  doing emails at their house because it's Easter and we can't do them anywhere else) and then tons of families are coming and it's a bbq basically, play Soccer etc. Just because you want to know, the next two weeks we are going to a castle and Dachau. 

So ya awesome week. As a spiritual thought I was going to send a video of Jesus but it seems like you have all seen it... Oh well too late. We sent it to everyone we could think of.

Love you
Elder Kinghorn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

April 14, 2014

Dear Family,

Well things are going pretty good here. Last week we found 3 new investigators. The most important one is named B. So he first got in contact with the missionaries 1.5 years atom so we went by on him. H, let us in and said, "I only have a couple minutes." But he didn't want us to leave so we stayed 30 minutes. We talked about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He said, Yes I know it's true." We talked about authority real quick and he said, "Yes I know I need to get baptized"......... So it was pretty awesome. He said, "What do I need to do to get baptized?" So we went to the interview questions and he said yes. He already knows about all of the commandments. So he is set. He has a car and a house and doesn't live too far from the church. He didn't come to church so we went over and no one was home. Hopefully nothing happened to him. 

C. is from Nigeria. He let us in on friday durring splits with the passau elders and he was cool. Really catholic guy. But had some of the catholic doctrine wrong. He actually believed what we believe about baptism. But claimed it was catholic so whatever.

He wasn't home yesterday when we were supposed to have our nextappointment so oh well.  He sadly fell off the face of the earth. Not literally but you know  And we also met with B. and S. They are recent converts from Congo. B. is really funny. I like him a lot. And also we met with another recent convert twice named V. He is from  Rowanda. He actually told us some stuff that I don't want to put over the internet. He has had a really hard life. But luckily there is peace in Rowanda right now. He is just here to study. V. loves the church.

Then we got to finish conference with the Lotts. They are nice. The senior couple missionaries. Then the other missionaries, the Powells are also cool. They gave us some rice pudding. Their job is just to take pictures at the castle of records for indexing. Family history mission. They were actually in Braydens mission taking pictures of the R.A.F. records but they finished. So ask Brayden if he remembers them.

Oh and Elder Evans of the 70 is coming to Munich zone. Just for the Munich zone. haha no one else. I'm excited to see him tomorrow

Oh one thing. I was reading in the Bible again in the Acts of the apostles when Paul gets shipwrecked. Just read through it, the second to last chapter. Everything was going wrong, but Paul knew it would end up all right. He didn't know how, but he knew it would. Sometimes we need to do that. Remember that things will end up right even if we don't understand how.

Bye. Love you.

tschüß

Love you
Elder Kinghorn