Success Stories

The P-day vor Christmas

A poem in Danglish by Elder Bean

Christmas 2014

T'was the P-day vor Christmas,

And all through the Land

Missionaries danglished

Books of Mormon in hand

As the evening drew closer,

The Elders shed tears

Without Christmas kisses

From their girls for two years

But the Sisters fared better,

Though only a bit

As they thought about pants

That they'd no longer fit

They all looked at their schedules

Appointments chocked full

Of Lebkuchen and Chocolate;

To get home, they'd roll

Their thoughts turned to the Thursday

On which they would skype

And were filled up to birmming

With spannenden hype

Then slowly it dawned on them

Much to their chagrin

That to Skype for three hours

Was out of the Fragen

So back came the tears again,

Nightmares of fatness

They flopped down, each one,

One an Ikea mattress

But in the darkness of night

Somewhere up above

A figure gazed downard

Being filled with love

He sent them something special,

Though He'd schon given viel:

A vision of the reasons

For such a hard deal

The missionaries awoke;

Everyone was there

There was more than a single

Confuzzled stare

It was like an arena

And at first, was dark

When alles auf einmal

It shone very stark

It wasn't arena lights

Nor was is the sun

Rather, the seats were filling

One person by one

The light came from these phantoms

Each one in their seat

They wore robes of whiteness

Like a heavenly sheet

But an Elder looked closer

To a Sister it dawned:

They did not have a sheet,

Rather Taufkleidung on!

„Who are all these people?“

They said in a daze

In response a voice whispered,

And they stood all amazed

„These are the all of those people

That you brought to me

Who didn't answer their phones

Or were never free

„But you all kept on trying

Until they could hear

And with the help of your love

They overcame fear.“

„But, how is that possible?“

Someone inquired,

„There are thousands of them here;

Are some of them hired?

Then up above the sidelines

Some signs flickered on

To help these missionaries

See what they'd getan

The east was labelled „Future“

And the west side, „Past“

These people made up by far

The majority mass

There was only a sliver

Ever so small

With „Present“ written above

But they recognized all

„You see only a moment,

While I see the whole,

But don't think your joy will be

Any less than full.“

Then all throughout Germany,

Perhaps the whole world

The missionaries shot up

Their minds quickly swirled

At times missions are grating

And don't make much fun

But it's a higher purpose

We're helping get done.

We leave our families for eighteen months or two years, that others might be with theirs forever.

Merry Christmas from the Düsseldwarf Weekly!

May 2014
Once upon a time, it came to pass that there was an obscure little place called Köln, or, to the rest of the world that wants to be lame, Cologne. And it came to pass, that there were some really quite not-lame Sister missionaries working in Köln. One Sister Robison was on a split with one Sister Muncy, and as they made their way to one very old member's house, they sat on a bus. Lo and behold, there was a man sitting across from them. And the Spirit spake unto them, saying: “Hey, Sisters, do your calling.” And it came to pass, that they were sore afraid; nevertheless, after some fifteen minutes of deliberation, Sister Muncy asked a random Deutsch question to which she already knew the answer. But behold, the question did fulfil its purpose, and a conversation was started. And it came to pass, one five minute conversation later, they hastily gave him a Book of Mormon as they both departed to return unto wherever it was that each respective person was going. And it did not come to pass, that the Sisters got any information from him. And they were heavy laden with the sad general assumption that nobody actually reads what we give them, and that they would never see the man again. But behold, I say unto you, the Lord does, in fact, know what He's doing, for behold, it came to pass, not many days later, Sister Robison and Sister Wilson (for the split was since ended) miraculously made it out of their apartment early, only to miraculously run into this same guy almost literally at their doorstep. For he had thus read all the way up into 2 Nephi; And the Sisters were much astonished. They rejoiced together as they switched information, and behold, it did come to pass, that after much tribulation in the game of phone-tag, they did meet together. And he, Lukas, being moved upon by the Spirit, did ask to be baptized before they had even said the opening prayer. 'Twas schön, and verily it shall (hopefully) come to pass, that on the 21st of June, he shall be baptized by proper priesthood authority and whatnot. And Sister Robison spoke unto me, and said, “Such things only happen once every fifth blue moon.“ Wise words, indeed.

-Köln Sisters, transcribed by Elder Bean

Week Beginning December 30, 2013
 Elder Brown and I have been praying a lot these last couple of weeks, and we have a wonderful experience to share. We were doing weekly planning, but we ran into a problem when planning to find investigators. We didn't know exactly what we could do to be effective in finding people. Elder Brown and I have been studying a lot about the principle of 'Ask, and ye shall receive', so we put the promise to the test. We prayed to know what we could do to find people. Afterwards we spoke with each other, and Elder Brown said something interesting, 'I believe and I feel that someone will come up to us this week'. I thought about that, and I too had a good feeling, so we set the goal for a new investigator. We went to church on that Sunday. As we went in the building, we saw 2 people talking with our Branch President. We introduced ourselves, and found out that one of the two was a member, but hadn't been to church for over 20 years. She came this Sunday, and had brought her husband who wasn't a member! We talked with him, and he said that he wants to learn more about the church. What a miracle! They both stayed for all 3 hours of church, and afterwards we made out an appointment. The woman even gave her testimony during sacrament meeting- the first time in 20 years. Her husband also enjoyed the services, and we can't wait to meet with them again.
- Elders Brown and Bennett in Kaiserslautern

Week Beginning November 25, 2013

The Chalking Wildfire that spread through the Düsseldorf Zone: Our Story of Success.

Attempt nummer eins: The Düsseldorf Elders, with time to spare on their hands and not sure of what they should do, set to thinking. They wanted new investigators, they wanted people to teach, the same kind of things that all Elders want when they have nothing to do. Well, what to do? Sweet! Time to hit the streets and knock on a few solid doors. NO! There's gotta be something that might be more effective that that. Suddenly, the idea sprung, fully formed, into the kopf of one of the Elders. Chalking the Plan of Salvation. Why not? They decided to give it a try...

That evening, after convincing the Sisters to buy them chalk, and dragging a couple Elders down from another area in the zone to lend a hand, they got started. It was a hit! Handing out 5 copies of the Book of Mormon, a bunch of pamphlets and cards, getting 7 phone numbers and even setting up an appointment, they thought, "Mensch! We gotta try this again sometime! But even bigger, and we'll make sure the Düsseldorf Sisters can come this time, that way it'll be a HUGE success!!"

- Written by the Düsseldorf Sisters- Robison and Goodrich

Week Beginning October 21, 2013

Last Monday night Elder Ruff and I had an appointment fall out and we didn't know what to do. President Schwartz has been testifying about the importance using family history in our missionary work. He told us that there has been a study done and that there is a 80% less rejection rate when missionaries talk to people about family history. He get to talk to people about their families and offer a free service to help them find those ancestors. We felt that we should go to a neighboring village and knock some doors to try it out. It was already dark so we were a little nervous about knocking on peoples doors that late. We felt like we should anyway. A women opened the first door that we knocked on. We told her that we were helping people with their family history. We asked her if she had ever done family history. She told us that just the week prior she had been thinking that she needed to be researching her ancestors. She is American and felt a desire to find her German ancestors. I showed her my fan chart that Mom sent me on my mission with. She was impressed our message and was very excited about it. She asked us how she could get started. We told her that the Church had a family history center in Kaiserslautern about 20 minutes away. We told her that we could also come to her house and introduce the website to her and she could then decided if she wanted to make the trip out to Kaiserslautern. She accepted and made out an appointment to meet with her last for last Wednesday. She said that mornings were best for her so we would need to bring a third man because her husband would not be there. Brother Bowman, one of our family history consultants happened to have the day off and was able to come along. We gave her more information about familysearch.org and how she could get started. She was super impressed and we could see the Spirit working on her. She then asked the question. “Why does your church believe so strongly in doing family history?”” What are the doctrines behind it?” Brother Bowman, a convert who had been sealed to his wife the day before told her about how we believe that families are eternal. That we can live together forever with those family members who have past away. She was touched by the Spirit. We were able to bear testimony of the family being central to the plan of salvation. We can see and feel that she was touched by the Spirit. She plans on coming to the family history center in Kaiserslautern soon.

- Written by Elder Lyman and Elder Ruff in Ramstein, October 21 2013

Week Beginning October 14, 2013

On Monday me and Elder Pearson were walking on the Fuß in Mannheim just looking for watches for Elder Pearson as a lady approached us. She looked at us and said that she knows us and wanted us to come by her. She said she used to investigate the church, but because of various reasons she stopped investigating. She gave us her address and then she left. 

On Thursday morning we went by her with a member. She was incredibly happy to see us and let us in. We started talking and soon she broke into tears and said that she had been praying for a long time that she could somehow get in contact with us again. Apparently she had promised God that if she gets in contact with us again she would come to church every Sunday for the rest of her life. She asked us to teach her about the Book of Mormon and about the gospel. She also wants us to go over often and she explained how her goal is to be baptized. 

On Sunday she came to church and had a great time. She got along with the members really well and loved it at the church. After the meetings the Mannheim Sisters had a baptism so she stayed for that since she had never seen a baptism before. She is now really excited for her baptism and the next time we meet we are going to set a date with her.

We feel incredibly blessed to have found her. God truly prepares people in our areas to receive the gospel and as long as we are worthy for the Spirit and work diligently God will lead these prepared people to us. What a great time to be serving here in the Frankfurt mission!

- Written by Elder Lietsalmi and Elder Pearson in Mannheim, October 18 2013

Week Beginning September 16, 2013

We just recently had our University finding day in Frankfurt and the success was awesome. In just a few hours miracles happened. Contact information from 30 people was received as well as 10 copies of the Book of Mormon given out to eager to learn college students. Also requests for copies of the Book of Mormon in other languages were also made. We are very happy with how it turned out.

The activity involved the majority of the Frankfurt zone missionaries splitting up into three groups and going to the three main university campuses in Frankfurt. The main portion of this activity included Questionnaires (Umfragen) that covered various topics including: faith/prayer, family history, Mormons, service projects, today’s society, and what matters most. Each questionnaire had 3 to 5 questions about the topic that flowed with each other and missionaries were told to ask people any questions they also felt inspired to ask. Each survey had a spot to write contact information if the person was more interested in learning more. Along with this at the end of the survey the person was asked if they wanted to scan a Mormon message QR code from a list of Mormon message QR codes that were made. The rest of the activity involved eating in the student cafeterias (Mensas) and communicating with students there as well as giving out activity invitations and hanging up fliers for our various ward activities. The results of it all were wonderful!

The great thing about it though was that despite the fact that it was raining and the school semester hasn’t started yet, we still found a tremendous amount of success and the Lord helped guide us to those people who were prepared.

There were so many miracles that happened as a result of it but two we would quickly like to mention are first, one girl after taking the survey told the missionaries, “I have actually always wanted to learn about the church I even ordered a Book of Mormon, I just never knew how to best study it or learn more about it.” She said she would like to start meeting with the missionaries and will be soon!

Another miracle that resulted was we had a couple of young single adults join along with us for the activity. One of them was even less active and decided to come along anyways. At first she was nervous to do the surveys and ask people but she slowly opened up. Finally at one point someone asked her how she knew the church was true. After pausing to think she came to the realization and said, “It is true I have read the Book of Mormon and it is true! Yeah it is true!” With a strengthened testimony and excited as ever she quickly did the questionnaires with more people and told us how much fun missionary work was and that she never thought about it before but would actually want to consider serving a mission. It was awesome to see how sharing the gospel and bearing your testimony can really strengthen your own testimony.

So many wonderful things came from this activity and we can’t wait to try it again as the semester starts. We will definitely get more JAEs to help out next time cause having them there makes such a huge difference. We are so excited though and know as we continue to get better at this activity it will be even more successful and we will better find those of the Lord’s prepared children. Missionary work is awesome!

-Written by Elders Henderson and Thompson in Frankfurt, September 18 2013 

Week Beginning August 26th:

So I and Elder Wichtermann, I being Elder Moeller, Where trying different ideas for finding people. One of these ideas was to go to a bible circle in the area and hopefully find people with interest in religion. So we went by our local "Christian Science" building on friday at the appointed time. For some reason it started half an hour later than we had originally thought. So we were left with a dilemma, Half an hour of time and nothing to do. The buses we wanted to take to visit less actives werent running, our house was too far, as well as anywhere with lots of people to contact. We decided to find a nice place to sit down and do some planning for that half hour. So we walked by a park with some nice benches and sat ourselves down. On a bench not to far from us was a middle aged woman, giving us a wierd look, not the normal look of confusion at our komischness but a kind of interested smile. Elder Wichtermann started some small talk with her when all of a sudden she burst out with a couple of odd questions. she asked "forefathers are important to you guys right?" and " you also do baptisms for the dead?".
She then told us that she felt she needed to be baptized again but that it was too late. We assured her it wasn't and then set up an appointment for Monday and she had to go. We talked a little while about what had just happened and then decided to return and try the bible circle. We arrived back at the Christian Science building to find...guess who.....This Lady!!! She had also walked to the park to wait for the bible circle to start!!!
On Sunday we called to confirm our appointment, She couldn't meet on monday but said she could meet us right then. We had already sent our numbers in and it was already 8 O'Clock but we felt it was important to go. So we ended up meeting her back in this park in the rain, Taught her about baptism and that everyone can repent and be forgiven, and then commited her to baptism and she accepted a date for next month. We still have a lot to go through with her and there is much that she has to accept but it truly was a miracle find!!!!

-Written by Elder Moeller in Kaiserslautern, August 26 2013

Week Beginning August 19th:

So, one sunny morning after a beautiful District Meeting in Heidelberg, we missionaries were deciding what to do for food and other such activities when we heard the church klingel.  We had no idea the church had a klingel, so the Elders went to go and investigate.  There was Carmen, at the door.  She came in and introduced herself.  She said that she had read a book that mentioned our religion, and that she wanted to know everything about us.  She told us that she had seen the church the day before, recognized it from the book, and heard a voice that told her she needed to go in.  She tried but nobody was there at that time, so she came again the next day and met us.  We gave her a tour of the church, and taught her the Restoration with the DVD.  All she could say was how wonderful it was to be in the church, and that she felt so full and happy, and that she knew that this was where God wanted her to be.  She knew that her seeing the church the day before was a sign from God, and she wanted to just learn more.  The book that she had read mentioning the LDS religion was from the FLDS sect, and the tragedy therein.  She took the Book of Mormon and promised us she would read it.  We followed up with phone calls for the next couple of days to see if she had been reading, and she had!  She came to church and said how she just felt like she had come home, and the ward was really welcoming.  We had a lesson after with a member where she posed the hard questions...(polygamy, drinking, and so on) and the member answered them perfectly without blinking!  She completely understood, and asked if we could meet with her every day to read in the Book of Mormon and to hear more about our religion.  In the 3rd lesson, we repeated some fundamentals, and then asked her if she knew that our religion was the true religion on the Earth.  She nodded and said that she felt like it is.  Then the Golden asked the Golden Question: if she would prepare herself to be baptized with someone holding the Priesthood Authority.  She quickly agreed and stated that that was something she wanted.  So we set a date for September 14th and she agreed.  We continued to meet with her every day, and by the end of the week she had soaked up so much knowledge from us, we only had a few more things to teach her.  So we talked with her about moving her date up to the 31st of August.  She quickly agreed and is very very excited.  She has already been telling people that she is Mormon, so she needs to go to church on sundays.  She refuses to listen to anything people tell her about the church, and knows that it is what God wants from her.  We love her so much!  The Lord really does prepare people their whole lives to accept the Gospel!
-Written by Sister Muncy in Heidelberg, August 19 2013

Week Beginning August 12th:

Elder Peterson and I were on a split in Erfurt. We had been contacting people in a park for awhile. Sadly no one was really all that responsive. So we decided we would go by on a less active and contact people on the bus so they couldn't run away! So we were sitting at Hauptbahnhof and were waiting for a bus to take. Across the way the bus that would take us to the church pulled up. The thought came to mind that we needed to go to the church. I doubted that we needed to go there because we really had nothing to do there. I was trying to justify the need to go to the church not wanting to waste time as I saw the bus pull away. I figured, welll I guess that means we aren't going. But the thought was still there and I could not shake the feeling we needed to be at the church. So we decided alright, we will go to the church for just a little bit and if there isn't anyone we will just continue on with the other plans we had. As we caught a Straßenbahn we ran into the Sisters. We invited them to come with us and we would just have correlation on the way to the church.
We got to the church and Elder Peterson and I went inside so Elder Peterson could do his awesome pianoness. The Sisters waited outside by the gate going over plans. After 20 mins or so I figured I was wrong and we started getting ready to leave when all of the sudden a group of 5 girls walked up and asked since the church was open, if they could go inside? Of course!! They all piled into the church and started looking around, opened hymn books, looking at pictures, etc. We were ansewring questions as two adults walked up and asked why we were all smiling? We said because we are happy! To which they asked if they could come inside and look around. They were swim coaches in town and wanted to know what this building was. After a bit they had to leave.
The YSAs were still there so we all started talking. Soon enough Elder Peterson and I were teaching two of them, Sister Young was teacing two of them, and SIster Hansen was teaching one all in the foyer of the Church. We were all teaching different aspects of the lessons, but it was ultimately a storm of testimony. You could feel the spirit so stong. After relating the 1st Vision one of the girls Elder Peterson and I were teaching said, after we asked what they thought, "For me that is a miracle. If that is really true that is a miracle."
The pouring out of testimony continued as all of us started pulling out Books of Mormon and testifying of its truthfulness. Ultimately we were able to give 4 of them Books of Mormon, and another took one so she could give it to the one that didn't take one. We were able to receive Facebook info since they all didn't come from here. You could tell that they felt and learned something. Gotta love when people are prepared by the Lord!
-Written by Elder Motto in Erfurt, August 13 2013


My whole mission, I was always waiting for the next transfer call to find out what was the next big thing that was going to be happening to me, never really being satisfied with what the Lord had already provided me with. After some counsel from my mission leaders and a change of heart, I really started to exercise more faith and to be more thankful and conscious of what the Lord wanted me to do right now. After praying for guidance and giving my all to what the Lord had given me, our success improved dramatically. We had more than double the amount of lessons we had the previous week, and we seemed to just run into all of the people we had been trying to contact for weeks or months. I know that we are in the areas we are in for a reason and the Savior expects that we give our best effort to what he sees fit to give us. He will bless us when we show our love and concern for His sheep in the place where we currently find ourselves. 
-Written by Elder Squires in Gera, August 13 2013