Do My Wonders - July 14, 2026

"Today was the sort of day, that when reflected upon, is accredited to altering the trajectory of a man's life. The Crucible is most certainly a condition, or experience, designed solely for our betterment. However, the opposition comes with such ferocity and relentlessness that the experience therein could hardly be termed joyful. It against such opposition, engulfed in the flames, that we must reach a decision. We are afforded only few decisions throughout our lives, amidst the heat of the Crucible, that truly alter our destiny for joy or for sorrow. It is therefore necessary that we prepare to face our own dragons, so that when we are inevitably dragged into the valley of the shadow of death, we may come off conqueror." - July 10th. 

Surmise what you will from the opening excerpt of this email, but it sufficeth to say, that this week was far from the idyllic cornfields of Kentucky. When the opposition came, it came in bunches, but a particularly bleak weekend has yielded to that same persistent hope which lay just over the mountains, and lead the weary, frostbitten Saints across the frontier. The following will contain an account of the last weeks proceedings, or at least what is deemed to be most important. 

Tuesday: 

Last P-Day we got up to minimal rapscallionism and tomfoolery. Rather, 

we spent the entire day at the church. On the way there, we found the Schwerin district, who had come to Hamburg to see a submarine museum. We met them coincidentally at a burger restaurant by Hauptbahnhoff. They then promptly abandoned the submarine museum to play basketball with us at the church in what became a rather schwartz "zone-pday". Afterwards, we changed into missionary attire, and rushed back to the church for Ali's baptismal interview. Elder Stowe, the zone leader, conducted the interview and Ali passed, with one minor issue. He had not fully understood the word of wisdom, and had smoked a cigarette the day of the interview. Elder Stowe has a particular soft spot for Ali, since he found him, and so he passed him, but said if he smoked, he obviously was not ready. So, we went into the rest of the week with cautious optimism. 

Wednesday: 

We did another Tausch within the district out of necessity, as on Wednesday Elder Bain and I had our final appointments for our visas. We had an altogether good day, visiting a dorf called Poppenbuetel. We talked to a lot of people, and it is always fun for me to get to kind of lead the day with my German. We then switched back to our regular companions at institute, and one of our friends, Paul, came to institute. We chatted with him a lot in English about soccer and food. He is a very cool 19 year old German guy who really wants to learn more about God. After we ate free dinner, we taught him more about faith. Then we went promptly home, as Elder Morley became very sick. 

Thursday:

The next morning it was apparent that Elder Morley was sicker than expected. We had a sort of slow day, where we just taught a lot of lessons at the church, and in between I read the first seven chapters of Jesus the Christ. Among the lessons, was a very good lesson with our friend Jenny about the word of wisdom, and the law of tithing. We even had Samuel Heslop, a German returned missionary turned Hamburg stake Persian Group leader, present at the lesson, and I have to admit he carried. We had a very spiritual training from Sister Rex during our district council as well about bearing testimony, which I found very helpful. Thursday was also the night that I began calling Ali, at 9 pm, if you were a missionary that would be the curfew, and asking how his day went, and simply reading together in the Book of Mormon for fifteen minutes to keep him from the urges of smoking. I did this alone, every night that I did it, because Elder Morley was sick or absent, but I was determined to help Ali as much as I could. Actually, now that I think about it, Wednesday was actually the first day I did this. 

Friday:

This is where the opposition began rolling in. With Elder Morley still sick, we set off towards the church to teach Jenny about the restoration. She was finally making really good progress, and even said she would bring her friend to the lesson today. Unfortunately, she delayed the lesson a little bit, but they still showed up thirty minutes before the new scheduled time. So, we went down stairs, and had the most spiritually powerful lesson or discussion I have ever been a part of. As I recited the first vision, for the first time in my life, I gained a real witness, that Joseph did in reality see a vision. In that moment, just as the Prophet included in his own testimony, I knew it, as he later told me, Elder Morley knew it, and God knew it, and none of us could deny it. We then read from Moroni 10, to talk about praying about the truth. It was at this point that Jenny, who is always a little on edge, refused to open to Moroni 10. Her friend was understanding and loving the entire lesson though, so she read it aloud. We asked a few follow up questions and bore testimony, the Spirit still very strong with us, but during this time, Jenny was mostly on her phone. At the conclusion of our remarks she got up suddenly, saying they had an appointment, and made sure to scoff at my outstretched hand before she left. I then looked at the time, and they left two minutes before our original delayed lessons was supposed to start. Elder Morley and I sat there for thirty minutes in silence. Finally, the silence was disturbed by a couple texts from Jenny, saying it was clear we don't care about her, and were more interested in teaching her friend. Therefore, she was sure that we did not care about her progress or baptism. To top it off, she said she no longer thought she could trust us, said she did not know if she would feel comfortable coming to church, and requested that we send her number to the Sister Missionaries. It was a little sad to see someone we helped overcome so much, throw away all of our work over insignificancies and falsehoods. Down but not defeated, we struggled through unsuccessful finding until our appointment with Ali, at which we were to finalize the details of the baptism. Shortly upon arriving at his house, he honestly and admirably told us of his terrible day, and how he was cheated by a fraudulent business out of a new table. He then revealed that in the huff and puff, we found himself being offered a cigarette, and unfortunately, did not have his phone with him, and was not able to call me to resist as I had so often implored him to do. What followed was a quite disheartened lesson. We read Helaman 5 together, and I told him that we thought it best we delay the baptism for a week, because in all other respects he was beyond ready, he just needed a little more time. We walked home in silence. Our spirits were mildly lifted as we watched Elder Morley's old videos from the mission, while our roommates were at the Delingsdorf apartment at Tausch. It was more than a little sad to see Ali go through such a relapse. I know that I did everything in my power, I devoted my notes to checking on him and reading the Book of Mormon with him, but when the critical decision point came, it was out of my hands.

Saturday: 

Saturday morning we attended another African interfaith breakfast, where Elder Morley gave a testimony. This time the sisters came and it was very fun. We then headed to the mission office where we met Cem, a young man from the Dusseldorf stake, who had come up for the weekend to experience a mini mission, or day of mission work with us. Our finding with Cem was fun, as he is a German football player, who had American college offers (this is American football by the way). We then went home, and taught a few very cool lessons. Though the gloom of Friday had not yet ceased.

Sunday:

This Sunday, we had the most friends at church that I have ever had. 8 whole people showed up to church. We had everyone from Ali, to a girl we had met with Cem yesterday in a town 45 minutes away, who we only gave the address to. I finally realized what many missionaries have been telling me and complaining about since I got here. That sometimes, Sunday can be really stressful. Especially with a lot of new friends, you often exert a lot of energy trying to make sure they have a good experience or get where they want to go. Altogether, it was good. We had one of our legendary friends, Prince Whinter, who has been through a seven year spiritual awakening, and he said that this church was the only church he ever felt harmony in, so that was very good. On the not so good side, the girl who miraculously showed up from Altona (45 minutes away) had an anxiety attack during second hour. To top it all off, one of the recently baptized members, a really cool 18 year old German guy named Daneil, was roaming around the entire church, silently, and eerily. The previous night, the AP's had engaged themselves with trying to find him and give him a blessing, thinking he was possessed by some dark power. It is my thinking, that at his Tuesday night boxing he does every week, he was hit hard in the back of the head. Because he has been acting extremely strange, exhibiting paranoia and schizophrenic symptoms. Finally, his mother came to pick him up from the church and take him to the doctor, but he ran away from the hospital.

Monday:

Monday was chill. We had a pretty successful day, which dispelled some of the gloom. I forgot to mention that we got totally chewed out by pres for going to visit inactive members, so that was very fun. But yeah that's that.

Updates:

Ali is doing good now, very happy, still came to church, I will still be calling him periodically to check in and share a spiritual thought. Jenny has since been passed off to the Sisters, but begged us to meet with us again, saying we were the only ones she trusted. We set an appointment for Thursday, she then immediately texted the sisters and set an appointment for Wednesday, so I guess we will just all meet together and pass her off to the sisters on Wednesday. England is rolling on in the world cup, there is currently nothing more important in the world. Hopefully all of this will be but a small moment as the Lord told Joseph when he was imprisoned. 

Very excited for p-day

-M.J.