March 29, 2011

Three emails in one week... You're spoiled.

I have got bad news... Elder Avanesyan is moving to Romford. So sad. I love that man and did NOT want to get separated. He has been packing his bags all morning and our flat is in a right muddle. There is stuff everywhere. I will be staying here and will be companions with Elder Zarian. He is a great guy from Eagle, Idaho. He reminds me of my daddy, Elder Young. They both have the same tendencies. We were in the Norwich Zone together for 4 1/2 months and he was my District Leader the last transfer. The reason we are now companions is because our areas are combining and both our companions are gone. I am really excited for it. He is dying soon, so he better not be trunky. Either way we will work hard. Therefore... life is good.

Ask me some questions for next week to answer. In answer to dad's questions... not too much hype about the royal wedding. Everything here is related to the Olympics. Which I am very very excited for :) Who knows if we will be helping. I hope we get to do some service for the community.

I love you all.

Love,

John

He is a great young man and well prepared missionary.  For his relative youth he is far advanced up the learning and spiritual curve.  Great to have had him in our home.

Sid Bassett
Stake Presidency, Hyde Park Stake

March 28, 2011

Hello hello,

Tis transfer week! We find out tonight about what is happening :) I am nervous because I have no idea what is going to happen. Since we live with the Assistants we get a little insight but not much. We have found out about who the new assistant is and where Elder Jacob is going. Our third companion... Elder Seljaas is actually already been moved. He left on Saturday :( I was very very sad. He was a great guy and we were working so well and very hard together and now he is gone. I guess life moves on... sad. Welp... I could be gone in 48 hours as well. We never know. I love love love this area. I honestly do. I am just starting to get to know the ward members and can tell who is actually in the Ward and who is visiting. There are so many people that visit each week. I think they should just make a visitors ward :) We had four investigators at Church and they all enjoyed it and want to come back! That is the Spirit at work for you. I love being able to help people realise what the Spirit feels like and then helping them to always have the Spirit to be with them. The Spirit is the way that God is able to work on the earth. It has so many responsibilities! It teaches, testifies, comforts, strengthens, and enriches. How important is it to receive the Spirit in our life and to follow its promptings. Our perfect Mother wrote to me about Pride, and how when we think of what we want (inward) then we are prone to be proud, but as we think outward we will not be able to be proud. As we follow the Spirit, how ever gentle it may be... then it will show us what to do, where to go, and what to say. I can see in my teaching that my words and most importantly questions are guided by the Spirit. I have the ability to take a very disastrous situation with an atheist and turn it into one where we are both uplifted and touched. As I walk away from the situations... my heart is full of thanks because I know that I would not be able to do that by my own power. My mouth had been filled and the Spirit was present. 

This mission is a very interesting one. It is a huge melting pot. I have never experienced such diversity. I thought Lafayette High School was diverse. LHS ain't got nothing on London. Let ME tell you. We met people from just about every where. I want to start making a list of all the people I meet and where they come from. Tis brilliant. The picture is the four Hyde Park Elders at a Philippino flat. They all live together because it is a lot cheaper. Yesterday I had mussels and squid, today I have tempura shrimp sushi, and prawn avocado sushi with gyoza dumplings (then i said "eat the doggy mess"). Actually, I have been using tons of Japanese. Elder Avanesyan said, "you basically speak Japanese". Not quite, but better than most missionaries. I pray to meet them in the morning so I can say "o hio gizymos!" I butched the spelling, but spelling isn't my strongest skill. I am learning great things from all the different cultures around the world and it helps me be a better person. By the way... I couldn't really be bothered by the squid. It was too chewy, but the mussels we quite lovely. I am really beginning to find a love and a focus for missionary work. It is very easy in this big big city to be focused on things other than Inviting Others To Come Unto Christ. Focus is vitally important for our success in life and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we keep Jesus Christ as our focus and not ourselves... then we will be happy. As we prioritise our busy busy lives to put God first... then we will find a peace in this scary world. I hate this world. I see terrible things every day that honestly make me nauseated. The world is infested with negative images accepted as the norm. Through all this, It is a blessing to have a hope in Jesus Christ. To know where true happiness and peace come from. Those elusive concepts both captured in a single belief. I am thankful for a Prophet that leads and guides us, and I am thankful that I will be able to watch a session of conference at the same time as my family. I love you all. As they once said... "near and far, always together" ;)

Love,

Elder Krebs

P.s. Go Cats

P.s.s. Sorry it is short. My fingers are too fat.

March 21, 2011

HI mum,

I was thinking about how much I miss my mother this week. I miss puttin' the dishes in the dishwasher as you washed them. I miss when it was passed 11:00 and you would start being really funny. I miss getting back scratches. I miss serving you while you had your cast on, and I love that you got a purple cast :) I have the best momma in the world and I hope I can marry someone that emulates you.

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN FANTASTIC!! We have been able to work double as hard since there are three of us. We went on permanent splits with a member from Jerusalem named Baruch. He isn't working at the moment and he is a Recent Convert... and he loves doing missionary work with us. He is also the one that takes us on tours of London for P-day. I love him! He is just a funny guy. He has a house in Jerusalem that he said I can stay at anytime :) it has a spa in the back that you can go and get massages when ever you want. Maybe I'll go study at BYU Jerusalem and live there. Therefore this week we had accounted 40 hours of street contacting (Baruch calls it Outreach) and 17 lessons taught! I love being able to see people progress at a faster pace now that we have more man power. This work is happening! God is putting us in peoples paths so that we can reach out to them and invite them to the path that provides everlasting joy and never ending happiness with God. How wonderful will that be? Unlimited progression with God. One thing is for certain though. I would not be in Heaven if my family wasn't there. 

Daddy wrote me a email talking about how family is a part of God's plan and that is truer that true. "God has established families to bring happiness to His children, allow them to learn correct principles in a loving atmosphere, and prepare them for eternal life.The home is the best place to teach, learn, and apply principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. A home established on gospel principles will be a place of refuge and safety. It will be a place where the Spirit of the Lord can abide, blessing family members with peace, joy,and happiness." This is what PMG says and I love it. The home is the best place to teach, learn, and apply gospel principles. I feel so blessed to have been brought up in a family that showed me love and care and taught me the way to be happy. To give me a place of refuge and safety. I love family. People often have broken families. And that is what is wonderfully about having a knowledge of God and His true nature as our Father. Everyone has a wonderful family that they are a part of and they have parents that care about them. Our Heavenly Father and Mother are working as hard as they can to help us achieve immortality and eternal life. We have brothers and sisters all around us. If we understand that... if we truly understand that then we will want to help all that stand in need of any help. And if we truly truly understand that they are our brothers and sisters... then we will see that if they do not receive the gospel now... then they will be lost. We will have a desire to reach out to them and share this perfect message with them. It can only help them. They are our siblings. They need this message now and forever. I would invite you to spend sometime to study our relationship with God and understand more how everyone that comes to earth is our sibling. And that will increase your desire to do missionary work. Missionary work is a work that need to be done now. We can not wait. We have a responsibility to invite others to listen to a living Prophets voice and read of ancient Prophets. Let us all press on. There is an urgency in this work, we must work harder and smarter :)

Lets seeeee hereeee! The picture attached is of our treo :) I love these two Elders. They make me laugh all the time and they work very hard as well. Play hard. Work hard. I am struggling very hard to be more reliant on my Heavenly Father for guidance and help. The ward is putting on a Broadway musical thingy and they want me to sing, but I don't think i'm going to do that. I am going to do the sound and lights for them instead. I was up on a ladder the other day working on some 19's and switching films and focusing lights! It is great fun.

Our investigators are great. I'll share more about them next week because we have found some great ones and we are really excited for their progression.

I love you very very much and I hope all is well in America.

I wish I could be in Palmyra with you looking at the stars by the sacred grove.

 

Love,

John

 

-- 

Elder John William Krebs

England London Mission

64-68 Princes Gate

Exhibition Road

London, SW7 2PA

07800614405

More from March 14, 2011

Welll... I have a new companion :) So now I have two!! Crazy. His name is Elder Seljess. He is from Utah and is a foot taller than me! He used to be in the Hayes Area. but we received a missionary from the Siberian Mission and he moved to Hayes. So we get the leftover rubbish :( just kidding! I love it. He is so great except for one terrible terrible fault. He is a dUKe fan. Oh how close I was to calling President and telling him that there was a mistake. I will trust in the Lord's will and plan... and hopefully learn a ton. I am in the War Chapters right now... so maybe I will learn not to follow that traditions of my fathers :) We are very excited for this next week. We will be doing splits all the time with the ward and therefore we will be able to do double work in the area. That will be great for this every pressing work. We must step it up a notch and do the work quicker and more effective. The other pictures are:of me in Picadilly Circus and Elder Avanesyan and I on the lion :) The last one is the Hyde Park Elders in front of China town :) I love it.

March 14, 2011

Hi momma,

Here is the weekly email. It might be a tad short because we won't be here the full hour. I love serving a mission. I love exhausting all of my strength and having to rely on the angels to bear me up. I was watching my companion talk to someone on the street the other day, and i was just listening and taking it all in. My mind started to wander as I listened and then I thought... "Stop it Elder Krebs, what more can you do to help your companion?" That is when revelation filled my mind and a life long quest was started to figure out what more can I do. There is always more to do and we can never be content with how we are doing... but must always think... what more can we do? Can we help a friend? Can we help our Mum? Can we testify of our companion? Can we have more diligent studies to come to know our Saviour better? What more can we do? I am growing to learn to love serving my companions. By serving them, I grow to love them. We are promised that the more we lose ourselves... how we will truly find our self. No gift is a better gift than putting our will and free agency on the altar and sacrificing it to the Lord. I can testify that the more I give to the Lord... he helps me to find true joy and the true Elder Krebs. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have a new companion. I was very scared about it, but he is a wonderful missionary. He has the greatest quirks and interesting hobbies. He loves Beyonce! More than anything. He has her perfume and says he sometimes sprays it on his pillow before 10:30 bed time. What a great guy :) 

Living with the Assistants and my companions is always a hoot. We have a great time together! I have grown to love them all and I am very happy. Serving in London is the best! We have found some great investigators in the past two weeks! A man named Simon Jacob came to church this past Sunday and he is the man! He just moved into London from Syria and really wants to learn about our church and we were able to talk about baptism and he seemed excited. Francesco was found the first week I was here and is on vacation now... but is the most open investigator I've had since I've been here. He is brilliant. Zula doesn't believe in God, but was able to feel the Spirit and it touched her heart. We give tours all the time of the Chapel. What we do is stand outside of the Church and invite people on a free tour! It is great. We made a woman cry the past week after praying with her! Oh Mary. And we started teaching two Asian girls named Yan and Ann. They both don't know how to pray and their first prayers are the most innocent and heart felt in the world. At first they introduce themselves. "Hello God, My name is Ann. I live in London right now, but I'm from China." It is so great. I pray they will all keep progressing and take the steps towards baptism. Sorry I can not write more. I wish I could write all day :( I love you all. The Book of Mormon is true. Test it :)

 

Love,

John. 

March 7, 2011

Herro,

It is a surprisingly sun shinny day in London!! I love it :) I have attached you a picture of my flat here in South Kensington. How wonderfully blessed I am to be in such a nice place. I feel that I am learning so much about myself right now. I have been really concentrating on making myself a better missionary. I have noticed some fantastically huge weaknesses in my life and I need to improve them. I have had so many great experiences that I don't know where to start. I find that as I teach people... new knowledge comes into my heart and mind. The other day we were talking to a recent convert who has been fading away. She has problems with depression and doesn't believe that God would let her experience so much pain and suffering. I have always known that it is for our benefit and learning... but I still found it hard to believe that some people suffer so much more than others. I felt in my life that I have hardly suffered at all. I've always had what I wanted in life. I think that most suffering came under the tyrannical reign of King Charles growing up. I have scars to prove it. That and when mum and dad wouldn't let me get the Lebron James II shoes that I had to have ;) 

Back to the serious side though... We all suffer different amounts... and through suffering we grow. That I always knew... but I had never made the connection of the Atonement to that as well. That God lets us suffer... BUT he provided a way through all that suffering. He gave us a perfect plan! We may suffer more than anyone of the earth right now... but Jesus Christ was the great and last Sacrifice. He suffered all sin and death for us. Not for His sin, for he had none. For you and me. Everything in this life... rests on the Atonement. It is real. We should all fully take advantage of it. If you aren't... then you are full of pride. We must know that our life rests on Jesus Christ's sacrifice. And we must use it to become clean. When we do that... we can live with God.

This week has been great. I burned my hand on the hob... and that was a bummer. Oops. It wasn't that bad... but its still blistering. It was Elder Frobel's fault. He tricked me... kinda. I thought he had just touched it... and then he asked me if it was on... because he had just put his hand about the stove top... and not on it. He didn't think it was on... so since I thought he had just touched it... I touched it and found out that it was most definitely on and hot. He appreciated it very much. And I realised how grateful for the nervous system I am. And especially the peripheral nervous system.

My companion is my hero. I love this guy. We are working so hard... but it doesn't seem like it. I've never been so tired in my life, but yet so energised when I go out on the streets. This past week... we did nothing but street contact :) 23 hours of street contacting. I love it. We have some investigators that are really progressing well. Francesco is by far my favourite right now. He is the nicest guy ever. He is a swoll Italian guy. SO huge. And his voice reminds me of Mafia movies. He is progressing too well. I say too well because Elder Avaynesan and I are sacred that we missed a concern that He has. He really well what we teach him and he loves the Book of Mormon. We know he has a Catholic background and therefore we wonder why instead of going back to Catholic church he wants to come to our church (which he did on Sunday). Catholics are very stubborn... but he isn't! I am going to have faith though!! I've never had a golden investigator and this could be my chance. He is very open. That is good. He needs to continue to feel the Spirit and then he will want it with him always... and he'll be baptised. I have faith family. I love my family!!

Families are forever. I know I can live with you all forever. How brilliant is that? :) It makes me smile.

 

Love,

Elder Krebs

March 1, 2011

Dear Mum,

This is a picture of Elder Adler, Elder Resolme, Elder Mosolakae and ME! We were all in the MTC together and now we are all in the Zone! I love it!! Especially since for the last six months in Norwich... no one from my MTC group had been in my zone :( so sad. Now I have four in my zone. I must have done something right. Goodness gracious family! It is amazing here. I love walking around the center of London and talking to people about the gospel! Not a single person we have found so far is English... I'll show you some of the names in my planner right now. There is Francesco, Zula, Dagma, Muhammad, Lukas, Kumiko, Xu Sho, Eden, Rajesh, Hakim, Gin, and Yuki. I LOVE IT!! They are from everywhere. How cool is that? " I desire to dwell among this people for a time; yea, and perhaps until the day I die" Alma 17:23. 

I have decided that I am going to learn Chinese on my mission. It is a big goal... but I want to do it. My companion is Armenian, and he have language study. I have rented some materials from the Library and I've begun putting a study program together. I'm really excited. Funny story for the weeeeekkkk :) We were walking through Kensington Gardens talking to people on Friday. We were having some success... but I was getting tired. BUT THEN the best thing happened. I stopped a lady who was around 30... she said "Oh, I'm so sorry... I can't stop... I have a dentist appointment". I got angry... but then I looked down at my watch and saw that it was Tooth Hurty. DUHHHH!! I don't even know why we were stopping people. It was dentist appointment time... silly Elder Krebs. Cool story for the week :) LOndon is POSH!! HOly holy cow. I have never before in my life seen cars this nice. Not even on the telly. Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, Maserati's, Rolls Royce's and Bentley's are a common everyday experience! How insane is that?? I don't really get it. I honestly have seen 4 of each since I've been here. Ferrari's are like Honda's. I love it. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures soon! I know ya'll think I'm doing missionary work... but really I'm just looking for cars. JUST KIDDING!! It is a nice addition though. 

This week was wonderful! I love my new companion. Before this, he was honestly one of my favorite missionaries that I had met. We are working so hardtogether. I am in heaven. My last two companions have been great... but to be honest they both held me back. They either couldn't work as hard as I wanted or they didn't have the motivation to work as hard as I wanted! But Elder Avanesyan has BOTH! Last week we had 46 hours of accounted labour! The highest on my mission so far!! This week will be even better! He has a pure pure pure testimony that makes people cry. He made Zula cry in our first appointment :) It was a good cry though. You need a good cry every once in a while. Well if you can't tell by now... I'm really happy to be here. The missionary work is going great. This area is only three weeks old... so we are basically starting from scratch... but we have been finding tons of very solid individuals! Francesco is brilliant. The lessons we have been having are filled with the Spirit and I can feel is testifying through me. I never remember what I have said... I just say it. God is directing our paths and filling our mouths. I can feel and see my prayers being answered. I know God is there. And he loves us. Hope the family is doing well. I love you all more than I ever have before!

 

Ta ta till next week!

 

Love,

Elder Krebs

 

P.s. MY companion and I go to Boots(Kinda like Walgreens) very often and spray free cologne on :) Hehe.

The First One is the Baptism of JAckie :) Ah. She makes me so happy! She is a miracle. I honestly didn't think she would be baptised. Don't tell anyone that... because I'm supposed to have tons of Faith! I do!! I promise :)

 

The Second one is of Elder Brown and I :( We had to leave each other. So sad. I loved Elder Brown! He is from Arkansas :) So great.

 

The Third one is Elder Mosalakae and I being reunited for the second time on the Mission :) He is in my Zone for this transfer! Therefore since it was Zone P-day yesterday we spent all day together :) He told me to tell my mother about him... so I can now say I did! I love him... and his africaness. He tries to convince everyone to go to Pentacostal churches with him on Sundays :)

 

I might send some more :)

 

We shall see :)

 

I love you all :)

 

Cheers.