Elder Glenn Johnson: Livin' the Dream in Berlin, Germany: The Laughing Place

Hello my Klingelings,

Let's quit the small talk and get straight to it. Solid week, 10/10 would redo it. We had 3 eating appointments again, seriously so sick. This branch is insanely legendary. We had a great ole German lunch with a less active brother in our branch, and had a great spiritual thought/discussion with him on how you can feel the Spirit.

is this the Space Needle?

To be completely brutally honest, this week was quite normal. Not too much to report. We had the confirmation of Andreas on Sunday, and that was amazing! He's seriously awesome, and now we're working on getting him the priesthood and going to the temple with him! I just realized the other day that Andreas is the German name for Andrew. Pretty neat.

Skyping my family was of course a pain, but I bore through it. Ha, just another joke for you all--it was quite prodigious. They are all very good at laughing at me, and for that I respect them highly. Also my nephew was saying whole sentences to me and that threw me off. Last time I talked to him he still thought that R2D2 and BB8 were the same thing. Glad he learned some common knowledge.

my lovely fam

I had a pretty great week, even though there's not too much to show from it. We stay super busy here, and our next week is also crazy busy and that is sweet. We are eating with Sister Jaserick again Thursday, one of my favorite German cooks (except for Sister Linda Stewart), she's great.

I also beat Elder Noland in Chess this week and that was a nice victory, felt like I needed to share that with you. Speaking of Chess, did you guys know it's known as a sport in Germany? Cool stuff.

Speaking of cool, I was just thinking about Disneyland and the best ride there—Splash Mountain. Seriously, it doesn't get much better than a log ride with a big drop. Anyways, I was thinking about the story to that ride. I don't remember exactly the story of Brer Bear, (Brer Fox) and Brer Rabbit (even though my mom has told it like 1,000 times), but I remember that one of them (Brer Rabbit) is trying to get to "The Laughing Place" where he can have a good time and have fun laughing and what not, and on his way everyone is saying like my dude it’s time to turn around, you're getting yourself in trouble you don't want to go there. That happens throughout the ride, and towards the climax (also known as the best part of the ride), you are pulled up the last big hill where you're told you’re making a terrible mistake and you need to turn back. Nevertheless, you make it to the top and there's the light of the day and the park and everything and, of course, the falling down to the bottom. Once you're to the bottom, you're greeted with many welcomes Bentheim other characters and everyone sings "zip-a-dee doo-da, zip-a-dee ay, my, oh my, what a wonderful day plenty of sunshine heading my way" and other tunes similar to that.

I was just reminiscing on this wonderful ride today, and realized how that can be applied to the Gospel and this church. Like our whole lives we try to get to this state of Celestial happiness and eternal salvation (or also known as the laughing place), and we are always told by others not of our faith or even in our faith that we need to turn back, it's not worth it and we're being dumb going this way. Then we will have times where we are super tried where we are going up this hill of just people against us or things tempting us to "turn back" but we need to push through to the top so that we can see that light. Sometimes you won't be able to see that light at the top until you're there, and you have to believe that you're doing the right thing so that once you make it down that steep wet fall, you will be embraced by your loved ones who knew you could do it.

Yes, I just related a Disneyland Ride to a Gospel principle. Someone go to Disneyland for me, thank you.

Berlin sightseeing P-day Pictures from earlier today