2 September 2011...Seventh Letter from Germany

Grütize family and friends! 2 September 2011

This week has truly been hectic! Elder Hamilton and I have been really hard at work, trying to find someone who will be receptive to the good message of the gospel. And we have actually found a few potential people this week. I don’t even know where to start! First, we have decided that every single person in all the 25 cities or so we work in will know who we are... so we smile and wave to everything that moves. Cars, trains, buses, people on the street... elder Hamilton accidentally waved at a dog a couple days ago ha-ha. This new technique of ours has actually started to work.... When we say hi to people they often come up to us and ask us why we are so happy and saying hi to everyone. This past week, we waved at a man in a car; he actually waved back and was smiling. There was a red light shortly ahead and we ran to the stopped car with the happy man inside. When we got to him the light was just turning green. The man rolled down the passenger window of the car to talk to us. He said, in a very American accent, VERY NICE BOYS! I was so taken back and I told him who we were, in German, and he responded that everyone is a representative of Jesus. It was really weird! He actually pulled over on the side of the street and we made an appointment with this man for last Wednesday. It was the most ridiculous thing in the world. The appointment with this man was one of the most interesting lessons with which I have been involved yet. His knowledge of the gospel is astounding! He taught us the apostasy of Christ’s church better than I can and we simply picked right up from there and went into the restoration. I was awe struck. Sadly he does not want to come to church or meet with us regularly ... yet!! We gave him a book of Mormon and he said he would read it and we can meet in a couple more weeks! We have been having crazy experiences like this one throughout the past couple of weeks... I have never worked so hard in my entire life and my comp said the first 21 months of his mission combined has not equaled the amount of work we have been getting done!! It’s amazing.

Oh yea... this past week I set my first baptismal date... With a woman named Sinthiya from Nigeria. The story of how we met is pretty amusing. It was a very hot day and we had been outside trying to find someone to teach for some hours. We visited a potential investigator named Buh. He was not home, so we started to head back in the direction of the train station. I recognized the apartment of an old investigator and we were exceedingly hot. I had no more water in my bottle so I thought we could stop by to say hi and ask for some water! The old investigator no longer lived there, but a lady opened the door. We asked for water and she gladly filled both of our bottles. I then thought we could share our message of the gospel. At the end we invited her to church... and she actually came!-- for three hours. At which, baptism was discussed and prophets and covenants and everything that is perfect for investigators! We made two appointments with her for this week and were able to commit her to baptism and set a baptismal date for September 25! She is not sure she will be ready, but if she reads and keeps the commandments and prays she will be ready!!! I love this work.

22 August 2011...Sixth Letter from Germany

Grütze Familie und Freunde,

This last week was transfer week! On Wednesday, I got a new companion named elder Hamilton. He is from Cedar Hills Utah. He is a middle child of 6 and has been out on his mission for 21 months. He is hilarious and we get along really great! It's a lot better to not always be 100% serious all the time. When we are working, we are working and we need the spirit with us. But humor has really helped me to keep my head up and have a good time. He is no longer considered my "trainer"; he is called the "greeny buster". I'm not really sure what that means but I think he is supposed to break me in and get to work. And we have been doing some work!!!

On Wednesday, we spent most of the day in a little town called Winnenden. There, we talked to a couple of people who don't normally come to church, in particular, a bruder (brother) Seiler. He said he was not going to come to church this week and was going to go to a methodist church instead. We reminded him of the feeling and testimony of the book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. We also discussed the opportunity to renew baptismal covenants through the sacrament. Although he said he wasn't going to come, he actually showed up yesterday and stayed for 3 hours. We have another appointment with him this week and hope to help him to come regularly!

Saturday was insane. We spent the entire day on foot in two cities, Backnang and Fellbach. We found a woman in Backnang, Frau Nees, that has interest in our message! We gave her daughter a book of Mormon a couple of weeks ago and she said she would be willing to meet with us:) She is busy the next couple of weeks but invited my companion and I to play some golf sometime soon :) haha so we will see how that works out.

Yeah its awesome... wonderful that we have the same organization that has always been in God's church. That is our special message. That we have the same church as was organized originally by Christ; that we have continual guidance in our church. It is a living church with current revelation to deal with the problems of today. The prophet and apostles continue to teach the everlasting truths of the doctrine of Christ. faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. However, we have new revelation about food storage and the dangers of pornorgraphy and drugs and tattoos and everything that comes up in the world; we have a prophet to lead and guide and interpret scripture and to bear testimony of the living nature of christ. We have the priesthood to administer the ordinances of the gospel. Just as the priests in the times of old were called by laying on of hands to do the ordinances, we have it today. Without it, there is no power to be together with our families and there is no power to provide the saving ordinances of the gospel; to give the rungs on the ladder of progression and be eternally happy with Heavenly Father and our family. I love the gospel!

Until next week, elder sonne!

Scott receives his "mission call" letter on February 9, 2011

On February 9, 2011 Scott went to the desk at Helaman Halls, where he is a freshman at BYU. He was looking for his "mission call" letter and they told him that it had not arrived. I had already booked a flight on Friday the 11th for him to come home to open up his letter in St. Louis. Meanwhile, a message is left on the voice mail of our home phone that the letter had arrived early that morning and they were waiting for him to pick it up. He texts me that afternoon, while I was at lunch, that he did not receive his letter. I went home before going back to work and found the phone message from the desk at Helaman Halls and just assumed that Scott was going to fly home and surprise us, so I did not say anything until he called me at work later in the afternoon and I realized that he was not trying to surprise us. The desk at Helaman Halls had told him that the letter was not there! I told him about the phone message left that morning and he went straight to the desk and they handed him his mission call! Consequently, I found out about the arrival of Scott's mission call before he did.

Elder Sonne arrives in Munich....Mission Home picture on 12 June 2011

Elder Sonne with President & Sister Miles in Munich on 12 June 2011

Elder Scott Joseph Sonne is called to the ALPINE GERMAN SPEAKING MISSION

JUNE 2011-JUNE 2013