20 February 2012....second letter from Switzerland

20 February 2012...Zollikofen, Switzerland

(I just spoke with Annagreth Bailey on the phone and she said to tell you that they are thinking of you....and here are some ideas from her about Switzerland!..Yes, it is tough and the people in Switzerland are mainly middle class to upper middle class...no poor, so they are very satisfied...they have all that they want and more...they are liberal minded and intellectuals and a lot of them are atheists...the churches are very empty! She thinks that the best way to teach is to have the members invite their friends to church. Most of the swiss church population are older people right now...)

Mom...

so in relation to what annagreth said... Yea I have been praying about what we can do here and working through the members is really what I felt like is the best way to work.

OH and we taught an inactive woman with an old member. At the end, the man told us that we were great missionaries. and then today, we saw an investigator today who has been going on and off with the church for the past 25 years. He said that I am one of the most motivated missionaries he has ever met... I thought you would like that :)

Haha... about german...(we asked scott how German is going) We taught a man named rajeev in english and at the end I prayed in english.. or at least i tried. I ended up starting in english and finishing in german because I couldn't make it through the end completely in english.

Haha...Yes, (I looked up scott's address on google earth and asked him about his apartment location and what something meant that i could read on the back of the bus next to his apartment) it's right across from the train and bus station in Zollikofen! We are about 3 minutes from the church and from the temple. ... the words on the back of the bus means "sorry that i am so slow!!"

(We asked him if the 3 missionaries that traveled to Switzerland, on the day he did, got the last 3 american visas) Yes so we were the last ones to make it! I have a visa until 2021. SO, i think I will be here for a while.

Oh and yea, Eggiwil (Eggiwil, Switzerland is where my ancestors are from...The Schenk Name....paternal side of my family...traced back to the 1500's) is very close to me, not in my area but very close. An old member knew about the Schenks in Eggiwil and there is a woman in Utah who is also from the Schenks who married some general authority. I know that the missionary work is worth it! We have really been tearing it up here trying to find people.

20 February 2012 Zollikofen, Switzerland

DAD,

Every single person here knows us. It's like we are in Salt Lake, but they are not members. In the last transfer, they gave out 5 Book of Mormons and this past Tuesday, we gave out 6. We are really working hard and I think it is starting to pay off. We started to find some more people and got a couple of numbers the last week and made some appointments on the street. It was really cool.

We are the last american missionaries to be able to get a visa for more than a couple of months. One of the last 3 missionaries.

There are 150 missionaries in this mission and I have no idea how many in switzerland. We use public transportation usually.

The way we talk with people really depends on what the spirit says to us. We talk sometimes about the family... being truly happy, jesus, the book of mormon, the purpose of life, the spirit, prophets, and usually always tie it back to the book of mormon and joseph smith.

Its been tough with a german companion because he is so exact with everything he does and it really bothered me for a while but its better when we just let things go and be happy because what has happened has happened and the way we take it depends how we live our lives; who we are and what quality of life we live.

Its really tough to have a good attitude sometimes when I really think about how the people aren't listening and their amount of suffering in this life and the world to come will depend on if i talk to them... SO, i have really been working as hard as a i can to talk to every single person I see!

Have a great week and play some golf for me!

Elder Sonne

13 February 2012....First Letter from Switzerland...Zollikofen

Hey dad... the last message was mysteriously deleted so ill write
again... i am in the meeting house that you went to for the baptism (when you were on your mission) or at least the one that is there now...
My address is:
Elder Sonne
Kirche jesu christi
ring strasse 9
3052 Zollikofen
Switzerland

Im really sorry im really crunched for time... the switzer people as
of yet are not very open for the gospel. We have been really yelled at
a few times. We have been talking to everything that we come in
contact with and it is not working... I really have to have faith that
someone will find us or the other way around that we can actually
teach. Going from wiener neustadt to here is ridiculous. We had only
time to teach therê, and here its mostly finding.. ahh wow. im excited
I know we can find someone though!
Thanks for the words of encouragement... we woke up at 4 and left wien
at 614 we arrived in munich at 1015 we stayed there and waited for the
last american visas for missionaries until 4 and then went to zurich
and arrived at 845. we then left for bern and got there at around 10
and got home from there around 1030! yep i have to go I love you.
Thanks for the encouragement! It's like you knew how it is going...
really not good.

Elder Sonne
ps someone i met said they had alma sonne sleep in their house while
he was in stuttgart once. cool, huh?

6 February 2012...seventeenth letter from Austria

7 February 2012...Wiener Neustadt, Austria...Tuesday

Hey DAD!!! Elisabeth was baptized on Sunday...So, yes, the baptisms are going through!

Kiki will be baptized on the 19th!!

Soccer and football was really fun...not exactly a soccer game or football, but it was great...and then we went bowling. Thanks for everything you do and I hope you have a great week!!!

From: Tamara Soucek <tamara.soucek@gmail.com>
Date: 2012/2/5
Subject: Fotos für Elisabeth Taufe
To: scott.sonne@myldsmail.net


Lieber Elder Sonne, lieber Elder Larsen,

ich möchte mich nochmals bei Ihnen beiden für Ihre Missionsarbeit bedanken. Hier sind einige Fotos von Elisabeth's Taufe. Elisabeth hatte einen aufregenden Tag und glücklich.
Lg
Tamara Soucek

translation of the above e-mail from Tamara

I would like to thank you you again both for your mission work. Here are some photos of Elisabeth' s baptism. Elizabeth had an exciting day.

7 February 2012 Dienstag (Tuesday)

Hey!!!!

its elder sonne! not much time...

elisabeth was baptized on sunday!!!!

i will send you the pictures over the internet and sent you a picture in the mail.

Kiki is heading for baptism also, we just saw her and made an appointment! The people are not so happy in the cold and not soo receptive to anything.

we didn't play a real game of football or soccer but we played around... sooo fun!

So i am going to switzerland!!!! so i wont get the socks....I'm going to the area with the temple so i can go there every month! :) the Bern Temple area. I love you and the work here is really coming along. I am leaving tomorrow and will get there tomorrow.

Elder Sonne

30 January 2012...sixteenth letter from Austria

30 January 2012 Wiener Neustadt, Austria

Hey Dad!

We had a great week! I gave Robert the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. Elisabeth will be baptized on Saturday and Kiki two weeks later!!! I'm so excited. They are progressing amazingly...Elisabeth gave up watching TV because it distracted her too much!

60's in St. louis!??...that's crazy! It just got to be really cold here! Yesterday was brutally cold and my toes and hands were frozen haha.

Yes, any media for the church is good. I contacted a kid a couple of weeks ago that had seen the episode in South Park about us and he took a Book of Mormon!! :)

We sometimes help one of the members here to take apart his house as part of a renovation...

Have a great week! It was great to hear from you!

Hello mother...
we are going to vienna today to play a little fottbal (soccer) and have fun!

oh, an investigator said he wanted to come hang out in america when i get back! that would be so cool! His name is volker schafer and he is really cool and funny. He's about 40 years old... if thats ok with you! :)

I really had to pray with energy this past week because I gave robert kraftl the holy ghost and needed the leadership of the holy ghost to say the right thing. I was feeling it a whole bunch at church yesterday too! But this week we will do better!

We are riding bikes in wienstadt and walking everywhere else!

I read a little about praying today and it says when we pray we can have the spirit with us and know that we are being lead by the spirit... we will receive the holy ghost by the prayer of faith...Doctrine and Covenants 42 right side of the passage, left column... in german or english im not sure!
This gospel is so true WE will be together forever! :)

elder Sonne

23 January 2012...Fifteenth Letter from Austria

23 January 2012

Wiener Neustadt, Austria

The investigators are progressing!!!...Elisabeth will be baptized on the 5th of February and Robert Kraftl was baptized yesterday!!!! My companion, Elder Larsen and I were the witnesses!!

So cool!

Kiki, who we thought had dropped us and then the spirit comforted me in this moment, came back and said she definitely wanted to be baptized. I told her that the Lord normally gives us answers through the Holy Ghost and that is how he speaks with us. She then said she really felt the spirit right in that moment that i said that!!! ahh, it was cool to see that the investigators are feeling it when we speak through the spirit because I felt strongly that I should say that...

Oh and another experience in following the spirit...We were teaching Elisabeth and we had planned to talk about tithing, but the spirit was really strong when my mind rested upon asking her about her family. I asked her what her family was like and I had suspected that her mother had died....She had died and I then felt that we should mention baptisms for the dead but as she was talking, she mentioned that she was planning on doing her work in the temple during the summer!!! The spirit is sooooo cool!!! There are many other stories I could tell about following the spirit, but here were just a few. I love you and have a great week!

23 January 2012 Hey mother !!!!

Yes i have been out of town for a while!!! my goodness! It doesn't really seem like it has been so long ahh!

So Robert Kraftl was baptized yesterday!!! that was so cool! the spirit was so strong and really testified of the truthfulness of what happened. I am so grateful to be able to be led and guided by that member of the godhead in my life!

elisabeth is steadily moving towards being ready for baptism and I am super excited for her!!! ahh. This place is like the land of bountiful... there are so many members ready to help us teach and 4 or 5 people are coming to church weekly, which is a big change from 1 per month in waiblingen!!! i am so blessed!

Elder Sonne

16 January 2012....Fourteenth Letter from Austria

16 january 2012….hey mom...the one investigator, elisabeth huber, is really progressing well and reading Preach my Gospel and the Book of Mormon more than we are everyday! She is so cool and the spirit is so strong when we teach! Elisabeth is the investigator I used to dream about when I was in Deutschland. Wow, the Lord has blessed me so much... I love you and have a great week...

Elder sunshine

16 January 2012...Hey dad!!! It's really true....the Lord is completely in control and it's pretty great. I have stopped worrying about trying to convince people to listen for just one more second, on the street and just try to bring the spirit so they can recognize what is true. I just let them go because I have never seen anyone who is argumentative who ends up becoming an investigator. Just like Brother Shumway says, "We are on the winning team" and nothing is going to stop us...nothing...that is how it was from the beginning and that is how it will be in the end! The hearts of the children wil be turned to the heart of our Father in Heaven and we are going to overcome the adversary and will shut him out of our lives in so much that we give him no room to enter our minds, hearts, or our lives.

I love you! Thank you so much for all that you have done for me. For raising me in the light and the embrace of the Gospel and always being an example of service even when the only thing you want to do is sleep...I have really had to draw on a lot of strength not to go back at night and simply go to sleep. I love you and wish you a very happy birthday!

Elder Sonne

9 January 2012...Thirteenth Letter from Austria

January 9, 2012 Wiener Neustadt, Austria

Dear family and friends!

Wow this week was crazy... just like every other week since June 15^th…. but crazier. This week I really learned that this work is not about us at all. The Lord does his work in his time and his way and we can only enjoy it along with him. Do you remember my time in Waiblingen? We had an investigator come to church every couple of weeks. This past week, we had 5 people at church even though we didn’t even have any contact with the people the week before. The lord really leads them to come and he is the only one that when he tells someone to wake up and go to church, that the people will LISTEN to. But it was really a miracle. Oh we have had so many wonderful experiences this past week. There is a member who we visit who doesn’t come to church and is really having trouble coming back, but he has the strongest testimony of the truth and of following the spirit. He is like Nephi and will drop everything to follow the promptings of the lord! His name is Martin Schiebl.

Kiki, (or Holley), came back to church. Our bishop said that she didn’t want to meet with us anymore and she switched phone numbers and we couldn’t get a hold of her but she ended up coming to church and saying of course she wants to be baptized!!! And then there is Barbara Rollett who was a former investigator with whom we reestablished contact. The spirit was there the entire time, leading and guiding us to know what to say and to testify of the truth! I have never had such a spiritual appointment. He was STRONG the entire time. Her and her son have genuine interest. At the beginning she was telling us all the reasons why she shouldn’t change religions and how its would be tough to get so far away to church and then at the end she asked us if we wanted to make an appointment and said that she wanted to find time to come to church. The Holy Ghost changes people. Like I said, when we ask people to come to church, they don’t do anything, but when the lord tells someone to come, they LISTEN; if they are ready to heed to the promptings of the spirit.

Oh and then there is Elisabeth who is ridiculously ready and knows that the church is true. Last Saturday, we taught fasting and then committed her to fast the next week because it was already too late to start then... and then I saw a strange look on her face and then asked ... you’re already fasting, aren’t you? She had already started. Oh my goodness hahaha so great! The work moves forward with the hand of the lord!!!! Have a great week! There is nothing more true than the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s perfect.

Elder Sonne