Our Message is Jesus Christ and his Plan

Meine Familie,

It's been a great P-Day. Just got back from Neuschwanstein Castle! As soon as I figure out the best way to send pictures I'll send you the pics. The place was beautiful. The castle is so cool reminds me of something from Disneyland. At least the feeling of being somewhere exciting like that was like the feeling of being at Disneyland, and it made me think of how awesome it'll be the next time I get to go to Disneyland with my family.
And everything around the castle was amazing! We took a hike up around the castle, it was a breathtaking view of the Castle and the valley behind it. We also went down to this lake that had a beautiful view of the mountains. I feel pretty lucky that I was able to go to Neuschwantstein this early in my mission, and even luckier that I was able to go at all. Elder Strong, an elder in my district, was telling me that most missionaries don't even get a chance to go to Neuschwanstein.
I've been in Augsburg the past couple days for Conference, which was so great as you know. Elder Holland's talk was my favorite. In Priesthood Elder Eyring gave some great council to new missionaries struggling with a language that really gave me a confidence boost. He said something along the lines of, "Your simple testimony may touch hearts more than the words of your experienced companion". I have seen it happen. It's great to know that in these first months of not knowing the language very well I can always simply bear testimony, and that will always invite the spirit.
A lot of great experiences this week. Discouraging, but great because I have learned so much from them. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me these experiences and putting me through the refiners fire. On Wednesday we went to Bad Wörishofen, a little city in our huge area. Elder Hartmann had never been there before so we thought we'd give it a try. There's no way I ever could have prepared myself for the high level of rejection that we would get in this awful Twilight Zone of a city. The place was a huge retirement community. The average age on the street was seriously about 70. Its pretty normal to get funny looks while street contacting, but as we walked through the streets of Bad Wörishofen those funny looks were taken to a whole new level. We did end up getting one contact, which makes days like that one all worth it, but there were two specific rejections on the street that stuck out to me the most and taught me the most. One was when we had just arrived. We approached two old ladies with the usual "Endschuldigung gany kurtz," and with out missing a beat, one of the ladies looked me straight in the eye and said very firmly, in English, "We are NOT going to talk about Jesus Christ right now. We want to go get some coffee." Her stern words, so stern that I would almost consider her taking the Lord's name in vain the way she said it, were a dagger through my heart. Firstly, because it was in English, and it really bothered me to hear my Saviors name in that tone. Secondly, because it really struck me, more than it ever has before, that when people reject us, they aren't really rejecting US. They are rejecting Jesus Christ and his atonement. This made me feel awful for this woman, and all the people who rejected us so harshly that day. This was a great experience because it increased my love for the people, and my appreciation for and testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
My other memorable rejection of the day was with a young guy, practically the only one in the city, who knew the Bible backwards and forwards. He believed that all the revelation we will ever have is the bible and that all churches since the time of Christ, including ours, are of the devil (its a shame that so many people can recognize the apostasy but don't recognize the restoration in our church). We proceeded to get into a pretty intense Bible bash with this guy for a good twenty minutes. Finally, in my broken German, I said to him, look... we could sit here and argue with you about these things all day, but this isn't our message. Our message is not the bible. our message is not the book of Mormon. Our message is Jesus Christ and the plan that he has for you. The guy kept on trying to bash and eventually walk away, but I felt good about the fact that I had testified in Christ and done my best to spread his message.
Near the end of the day we went to this park just out side of the city to get a change of scene and to do some more contacting. Unfortunately, there weren't many people in the park so we only were able to talk to one more person, but it was a great opportunity for a breather that I needed from the days discouragement. As we walked through this beautiful park in the evening sun, all was calm and I was able to feel my savior' love and I knew that he was pleased with my efforts of the day, and that was all I needed to be happy. Whats great about this work, from the missionaries perspective, is that the Lord doesn't care about the outcome of your labors. He only cares that you try your best. What a great comfort that is.

Love,

-Andy