Elder Ek week 7. 11 days to Germany

Hallo Alle Leute!!!!

Ich bin sehr begeistert bald nach Deutschland zu fliegen! 11 Tage!!
I am very excited to fly to Germany! 11 days!!

Another week has come and gone. More German has been learned, more practice lessons have been taught and more spirit has been felt. Hooray for the passive voice! The only verb tenses and voices left to cover are...none! Well at least here anyways. Subjunctive I is still out there...

All my efforts now are geared toward the gospel in German. I've taken up trying to read the Book of Mormon in German exclusively, which is still rather difficult. Rest assured that progress is being made.

I spent a great deal of the last two days in the doctor's office where my other two companions had appointments. Elder Jorgensen had to get his big toenail ripped off and Elder Zenger had to go outside of the MTC (!!!!) to Spanish Fork for a chiropractor. Very exciting. The only damage I've sustained has been to my suits. I got up from dinner to find some butter on the right side, apparently from a misguided attempt to grab a roll behind a butter tub. This was the first day I had worn that dark blue suit too. Oh well, at least my body is intact!

This upcoming week, our schedule will start to change as we have random meetings to prepare for Germany. It helps to break up the monotony that ocassionally causes me to lose focus. I may be able to read German decently enough, but I doubt I'll understand even 50% of what's spoken to me when I get off the plane. Not the greatest concern.

I'd like to share some thoughts I had this morning while reading Alma 32. The chapter is esteemed for verse 21 when it talks about faith, but I found some other critical points that lie hidden in the whole context of the chapter. Alma likens faith to a seed, which upon being planted will usher in a general sense of goodness. As that seed begins to grow, we see the fruit of our efforts to grow it manifest in many ways. The point I'd like to emphasize is how that faith is not a perfect knowledge or fruit-bearing right away. People may look at the message we share or the gospel in general and not see how it immediately bears fruit for them, how it directly makes their life better. The point is that we have to take that step, have that hope that there might be something to it. Anytime we open our hearts, we will have the opportunity to find truth. The point is developing this faith is not to have the end result immediately. It's to see how it feels as we go gradually along its path.

Whew almost made a blatant grammar error just now. Probably have before. Gotta go time is out love ya bye