Week 2 Transfer 2

Well, this last week seems to have slowed back down.  We are having some bipolar weeks with lessons and investigators.  One week they are all interested and listen to us, the next week they decide they don't want to meet with us anymore.  I don't understand.  It's definitely an interesting experience.  I hope to be able to understand why people are the way they are!  It's hard to do something for someone when they don't allow you to understand why they feel the way they feel.  Maybe I need to learn to ask more questions, the only problem is I probably won't understand the answers!  Haha!

Well, there was some local holiday here recently.  It wasn't Valentines day, that isn't celebrated here that much.  There was some beer fest holiday for Heide.  I don't know exactly what it is, but It brought people from all over the place to Heide for a day.  It was kind of cool because I saw significantly more Porsches and nicer cars.  People wanted to show off for sure.  There was some cool Mercedes that somebody had.  You could tell it was a higher end one, but I couldn't see what kind it was, he was going too fast!  It sounded awesome though. 

We had an appointment with a former investigator.  I guess my trainer and his old companion taught him before, and then they lost contact.  We finally regained contact and had a lesson.  I didn't say a whole lot because the lesson wasn't very well planned out, but my companion was saying a lot.  It was really a miracle.  He was saying things that he wouldn't normally say, and I could tell he was speaking with the gift of tongues.  It was powerful.  I shared a scripture, and Elder Erickson asked him if he would be baptised on March 13th.  He said he had a birthday that day, so he couldn't... so then we asked for March 20th.  He accepted!  We have a baptismal date!  We are praying that it will go through and he'll make it to baptism!

This week is my first zone conference in the field.  I'm excited!  We are heading to Hamburg Early Thursday and it should be awesome.  I will also be able to see some of my missionary buddies from the MTC.  That will be fun!  I always enjoy the support of a good friend when nobody else seems to want to listen to you.

The weather has been chilly lately.  Usually there are clouds which hold some heat in, but the last couple days there have been less clouds and more cold!  Of course, after walking around a couple hours in it, you are pretty numb and can't feel it anymore.  I imagine the pioneers who hit bad winters.  What a challenge that must have been!  phew!

Ich wunsche euch Alles Gute! 

Hello out there!

Wow!  Do I have a story this week or what?  I hope I can write it all in time!  Haha!  First off, I attached a few pictures.  One is of our car in front of the church building, a couple are in the dorf called Schlichting, and I believe my companion is in one of those pictures.  There are some really cool windmill farms out here by the North Sea, I hope that sometime I'll be able to get a couple pictures of them.  We'll see I suppose. 

Well, let's begin!

We have been doing so much finding here in the Heide area in Germany.  We have been doing hours and hours of door to door, and street contacting.  We are slowly finding people that listen to our message.  This week has been good.  We had appointments that didn't fall out!  It was very exciting. 

One of the appiontments was with a man named Celal Altug.  He is from Turkey.  His German is very good, he has been speaking it fluently for 5 years.  We met him on the street and he wanted to meet with us at our church building.  That is normally a sign that they don't want to meet, but don't want to say no.  We showed up at the church, and he was already there waiting for us!  It was a miracle in itself.  As we began talking to him, we found out he was taught by missionaries about 5 years ago.  He had a very good knowledge of our beliefs.  He received the Book of Mormon before, and loved it.  He told us his story.  He used to be very socially inept. In Turkey he had his hand blown off by a bomb, and several other bad things happen to him.  He was so traumatized that he became mentally instable and was unable to talk with people normally.  He said he just couldn't do it.  He fled to Germany and tried to return to a normal life but couldn't.  Then, he got a Book of Mormon from the missionaries.  He said that the book helped him out so much in his life.  He was helped significantly.  He said that he started to converse with people normally, and he began to live a normal life.  He took up playing soccer again, and the Book of Mormon completely changed his life around.  Just as my sister recently testified, even do I testify:  The Gospel Changed Lives--For the BEST.  He was so happy that he was able to meet with us that day, because he really wanted that book again.  It's a miracle, because he said he was getting deported back to Turkey the next day.  We haven't seen him since, so I guess he got deported, but at least now he has the Book of Mormon.  It was amazing.

Next story!

So there is a family in the Branch, the Dahleka family.  They invited us for dinner and we had... American Hamburgers!!!  They thought it was so awesome, and they were so excited.  Elder Erickson and I just had to laugh.  The only problem is, in Germany they think Americans eat several hamburgers at a time on a normal basis.  As a result, he made... who knows how many hamburgers.  A LOT!  He didn't want ANY leftovers and so he wanted Elder Erickson and I to ear everything they didn't want.  So after they ate 2 hamburgers each or so, they waited for us to eat the rest.  I believe I ended up having 6 hamburgers!  It was rediculous!  They kept laughing and talking about how funny americans are because they eat so many hamburgers.   My goodness.  The ideas that Germans have about Americans are sometimes really weird!

Saturday, we were doing some door to door stuff.  We went to one door and rand the bell.  Someone came to the door and said he didn't have interest, but he didn't open the door.  In Germany, multiple families will live in one house, so we proceeded to ring the next klingel.  The man hadn't gone back into his section of the house yet, and so he came back by the door and yelled through the closed door that he is going to call the police.  This is a common threat for us, so we just went our merry way and continued going door to door offerring people the restored Gospel.  Perhaps 30 minutes later a car rolls up and stops right by us as we are walking.  It didn't take long for us to find out they were the Police.  It was kind of funny.  They asked for Identification, we gave it to them, and they ordered us to stay there and then they went back in their car and called our information into the police station.  After waiting a few minutes in the pretty cold weather, they came back out with smiles on their faces and said, "Alles in Ordnung!"  "All is in order."  The way he said it (he said it several times) made it sound like he was sorry for the interruption of our time.  He even made sure to give us everything back, and wished us a "beautiful evening"  I'm not exactly sure if there is an english equivilent for the expression he used.   Anyway, that's my experience with the German Police.  (And I must say, from that experience, the USA police seem a ton more intimidating than the German police).

On top of all of that, it snowed yesterday and yeah.  Interesting week!  I hope for another good week in the service of Our God!

Quick post

So I don't have a lot of time, so I am going to post a quick post today.

This week was transfer calls! I have been in Germany for six weeks now!  Wow!  The time really goes by fast.  I feel like I just got here yesterday!  I'm not being transferred, as was expected, and neither is my companion!  yay!  haha

This week I did a lot of door to door knocking.  It has been quite an experience!  Especially in the rain and wind!  It's definitely unlike anything I have ever done before.  I can tell that Elder Erickson and I are planting seeds that will grow in the future! 

We have a muslim investigator who comes to church and meets with us from time to time.  He told us a little bit about the muslim faith and how it's super similar to ours.  They believe so many similar things!  It's really quite interesting!

Well I hope all is well with everyone!  Enjoy another week! 

One month! ...already?

Wow, it has already been a month!  That is surprising.  I feel so new here still!  If this is normal, I'll be home and wonder why a mission is so short!  Even though the time passes quickly, it's still a lot of work.  Maybe that's why the time passes quickly, haha.

You know how missionaries always talk about the miracles on their mission?  And how blessed they are?  and so forth?  Well, you know how I do all of that?  Well it's because it's all true!  There are so many miracles here on the mission I cannot count them.  I read in Preach My Gospel that even though there are many miracles, I should not take any of them for granted.  They are each a special blessing from our Father in Heaven.  That is true.  He loves his children and he does things to help them every day!  It confuses me when people think that God has forgotten them, even for half a minute!

Well, this week has been quite a week.  We spent hours and hours knocking on doors to bring the gospel to this people.  We knocked on many many doors.  I think that I personally have been to every door in this town I live in called Heide.  We started working in places outside of this town, we usually finish knocking on doors in one or two dorfs in a day (or small towns, kind of like "Gardnerville Ranchos" is a small part of Gardnerville, or Chichester, they have those, only they call them dorfs).  It's amazing that we are able to talk to so many people!  I can tell that even though there are people who slam the door in our faces, threaten us, there are also many many people who listen.  They listen for maybe only 30 seconds, but they feel the spirit.  I know that the seed is planted.  Even though they did not want to listen today, or next week, or next month, or even next year.  Their hearts are softened just enough that when the next missionaries knock on their door, they will remember Elder Erickson and I, and smile and allow the missionaries inside.  I can feel that seed being planted.  That's why it is important that we do not get discouraged!  Discouragement comes from Satan, who wants us to give up for the day, skip a few houses, or decided that door-knocking doesn't work.  It does work!  The seeds are planted, and the Lord steps in.

On that same note, there are also some small dorfs that we visit that just make me laugh.  It gets dark around 5pm here.  The days are starting to get a little bit longer though.  5pm is "prime time" for going and finding people.  So there are times that we will be knocking on doors, and every door the people are scared of us.  They are literally scared.  They think we are going to hurt them or something, I don't know.  We try and tell them that we are just here to bring them a joyous message, not to scare them.  One guy even came out his back door, walked around the house, shined a flashlight in our faces and wouldn't let us within 15 feet of him!  I just found that really interesting that so many people would be scared of us.  It's definitely an interesting experience. 

While I'm on the topic of German culture...  I also noticed that the cars here are very ugly.  Station wagons are considered "cool" here in Germany, and they just have so many cars that I am starting to think that pickup trucks are cool.  Haha!  That was just a little comical note about Germany!  European cars are strange.  Fords seem to be popular here though.

On top of cars, eating all the food can be difficult.  Germans want you to eat all the food they cook.  If they are full, they will stop eating, but if there's still food to eat, they want the missionaries to eat it.  This week I tried to say that I'm satisfied and that the food was really good, and they just say, <<Es gibt noch mehr auf der Tisch!>> "There is still more on the table!"  So I eat more.  I thought I was going to throw up after eating some German Pancakes.  Not the german pancakes that you make, but real german pancakes.  They are thick, plate sized, super dense cakes that they put applesauce on, fold in half and eat with a fork.  I ate two and was stuffed, then I had to eat another one, and holy cow, I couldn't fit anything else in there if I wanted to!  They could tell that I had eaten a ton, and they thought it was funny.  They laughed and I laughed and we gave a spiritual thought and left.  It was quite an experience! 

Well, all is well here in Germany.  I can tell that soon these seeds that are being planted will grow into strong trees that can withstand the devils winds.  Don't forget to share the gospel with YOUR friends and family!  Just bare testimony here and there.  Let them know that God lives, and that Jesus is the Christ.  I know that God lives, and that Jesus IS the Christ, our savior and redeemer.  His gospel is on the Earth today and it can bring joy to all those who want it. 

Have a good week!

Last Week

Here is last week's letter.   The pictures were too big to post.  Next time I'll make the pictures smaller.  Now everything is all out of order, sorry about that!!  I'm sure you can figure it out!

17th January 2011

"

First, This morning!  This morning my companion and I went out early to do
some street contacting.  We made a goal to make out an appointment.  We
normally don't get any appointments made out in one hour of work, but this
morning we got Four!!!  That was really cool.  I am excited for that.

We have had a busy week.  I went on an Exchange on Wednesday.  I actually
stayed in Heide and my companion went to Kiel.  I learned some new things
from Elder Schimpf, whom I went on an exchange with.  It was good!  We
missed a couple trains though, so we did some street contacting in Rensburg
while we waited for the train, then some more work in Husum because we
missed the train to Heide.  Fun stuff!  We made good use of our time though
and we made out appointments in both Rensburg and Husum (Husum is in my
area).

This coming wednesday I am going up to Flensburg for another exchange!  That
will be fun!

The people here are quite interesting.  A lot of the time if someone doesn't
want to talk to you, they won't.  They will just act like you are not even
there!  It's really weird.  I am learning to speak a lot more German
though!  That is way exciting.  I am noticing that it's becoming easier to
say things I want to say.  We were in Meldorf the other day and spoke with a
man.  I could tell he had sincere interest, and I had a sincere testimony
and so forth to tell him.  As I opened my mouth, everything I needed and
wanted to say came out!  What a miracle. That was another great experience.
There are a lot of experiences that I have here that are very testimony
building.  I know that God is there.  I know that Jesus Lives and that he is
our Savior and Redeemer.  I see evidences of that every day.

The Snow recently left.  It rained quite a bit and now the snow is melted.

"

Woops!

Hey, sorry about last week!  I guess the e-mail with the pictures I sent was too big to be posted on the blog and get to some of the e-mail addresses I sent it to.  I guess you can get a hold of my parents if you want to see the pictures and stuff.  In the future I'll be sure to make my pictures smaller so that everyone can see them!  Something about having an 11megapixel camera I guess.

Well I have a couple highlights from the week I want to share! 

First, the other day my companion and I were going all over the place to try and talk with people.  We talked to lots of people and nobody wanted to make out an appointment an investigate the church.  We had been at it for hours.  As is usual, some people got mad, people threatened to call the polizei, some people threatened to--as we would say it in the United States--sick their dog on us.  Really strange day.  Sometimes you have to laugh at the things people do because you know that they probably wouldn't do them if Satan weren't there coaxing them to do so.  Anyhow, we were about to retire to our apartment, because it was that time of day, but my companion was really upset that we hadn't made any appointments.  So we had a few minutes to go talk to people on the street.  We talked to a few people and still had nothing.  There was a Taxi man, a guy filling up his car with gas, a lady walking her dog.  Nothing.  We were walking and saw two younger guys, probably about our age, who did not look very friendly.  One had lots of piercings (as is quite normal in Germany, actually) and walked like he was looking for trouble.  My companion said, "Oh great... Well you can go talk to them if you want."  He didn't want to talk to them, and frankly I was hesitant as well.  I just decided that it would be best to just say something.  I started walking towards them and I opened my mouth.  I started saying stuff.  At first I noticed that my pronounciation was good, I wasn't talking in my normal, very american, accent.  I was confused.  Then I noticed I was saying stuff that I had never said in German before.  It was quite an experience!  The Lord was most definitely working through me.  I didn't talk to those two guys that day, the Lord did.  Not only that, but one of them agreed to meet with us.  It was an amazing experience, and even though I didn't really understand everything that was said, the Lord helped me to say what he wanted to say in the way he wanted it said.  The Lord is there, he knows everything, we just need to trust him and open our mouths!  How can we know if somebody needs the gospel or not without talking to them?  We can't. 

Another experience was more of a fun one.  Occasionally, when there are a lot of people on the street, my companion will talk to one person while I talk to another one.  That way, we can allow every person the chance to listen to the gospel.  So I was talking to a lady.  Probably 23 or so.  She didn't have interest at first, then she asked me if I came from Holland.  I replied that I don't... I actually come from America.  All of the sudden she wanted to know why I would come from America to some town in Germany.  I did my best to explain it with my testimony.  She still didn't have interest, but she listened more because I came all the way from America to tell it to her.  I asked her for referrals and she said she knew friends who would be interested, but she didn't want to give their addresses away.  I just thought it was a cool experience because she thought I was from Holland, and because she was so surprised that I would come from America to tell people about the Gospel. 

Other than that, it has been a week full of knocking on doors, talking with people on the street, and a few appointments with people.  Even though we don't have a lot of investigators now, I can feel the Spirit planting a seed in people's hearts as we talk to them on the street.  It has been a great week.  I am excited for another one!

Real quick Picture

So When I arrived in Germany, we stayed in a Hotel.  I took a picture out the window and wanted to post it on the blog real quick.  This was in Berlin.  We were there for the night and in the morning we went to where the wall used to be and dedicated ourselves to the Lord as missionaries.  It was a wonderful experience. 

As you can see with this picture, there is quite a bit of snow.  That was pretty much the main point in taking this picture haha.  Apparently for the first time in 29 years, the entirety of Germany had snow on Christmas Day this last year 2010.  Cool stuff.

Closing in on week 2 in Germany

Hey all!

Weeks go by way faster here in Germany than they did in the MTC.  It's already another week.  I have learned a lot and things are going well!  We see miracles here all the time!  There is always something going on.  This last week, we made out appointments with 5 people!  That was awesome.  Once, we were walking down the street to talk to somebody, and she came up to us before we could say anything, she asked that we meet with her at her house the next day at 14:00!  So we did that and talked with her about the Gospel and such.  It was wonderful.

Things here are excellent.  It's warming up a little bit here in Heide.  It also has rained a little so it's icy!  A lot of the snow disappeared, but not all of it.  It's quite an adventurous time. 

One thing I really didn't expect here in Germany, is the amount of people who don't speak German!  There are not many people who speak English, but there are a good amount that only speak chinese, or arabic, or persian, or other languages.  It's quite interesting.  Sometimes we run into those people and just hand them a card.  It's good stuff.  We speak with people all over the place.  We went up to Husum yesterday and spoke with a lot of people up there!  They seemed to be pretty accepting of us, but still did not really want to talk more than just at the door.  It's a different experience out here.  Especially while learning to speak the language.

All is well!  Have a great week, and I'll report again later!  (There is a french lady here in the internet cafe yelling at somebody on the phone in French, it's pretty interesting!  Anyway... )

Oh yeah, and about Ney Years...

I guess you all would like to know about my New Years!  Well, i'll tell you:

Basically, we had to be inside by 6pm.  New Years here in Germany is crazy.  No fireworks are illegal here, so all night and all day people are lighting off fireworks.  I don't think it was as bad here in Heide as it is in other parts of Germany, but it was still important for us to be in at 6.  Also We had to change a few things and take a P-day on New years day.  We were not quite sure why it was other than people would be hung over from their alcohol and not want us around.  It turns out that as we tried to walk around the town and maybe get some things we need, EVERYTHING was closed on New Years!  Nobody works on New Years day.  I guess on holidays, All germans take the day off and thats how it works.  So there were no people on the streets, hardly anyone driving around, and nothing was open.  We took that opportunity to do extra studying and cleaing up the apartment.  Then that night, we did some visits and some street contacting.  It was a good deal.

Oh, and also nobody picks up their fireworks trash, so we took some time to pick up as much trash as we could.  A couple hours later, and you couldn't even tell that we were picking up fireworks trash for 2 hours!   There is so much of it littering the ground!  So crazy.  I think they have specific street cleaners that clean up all the stuff, i'm not sure. 

Well that's how that was!  I hope you all have had a good new years!

Finally in Germany

Well talk about an adventure!  I am now in Germany serving the Lord and the German people!  Well Let's start real quick with the plane rides.  The first plane to New york was delayed about 3 hours, then we were delayed even more in New York!  only in new york we sat on the plane on the ground for at least an hour.  Crazy Stuff

As we arrived we got our baggage and such and met our Misison president, President Pimentel.  He is awesome.  I like him already.  We went and had some food and did Mission protocol type stuff.  We Went out with a missionary and did some street contacting, which was cool, then we ate at a restaurant and went to bed in a hotel.  The next day we went back to a church building and met our trainers and left for our areas.

I got assigned to Heide, Germany.  Northern Germany.  Everybody is saying that this is the coldest Winter Germany has seen in 50 years.  There is snow everywhere, and it is nice and cold.  On the way to Heide, we took a few trains, then drove up to Heide from Hamburg.  We didn't get home until really late!  I don't remember how late, but just enough time to get ready for bed and then go to bed.  It was quite a day.

The next day was good.  We tried to take the trains to our district meeting and then found out we were on the wrong train.  So when we finally made it back to where we started, we called and they just told us that since we are so late, we can just skip district meeting this week.  So I didn't get to do that. 

We don't have too many investigators, so we are mostly doing street contacting and door knocking.  Not what I expected to be doing all the time.  It's really crazy.  People here in Germany are very direct with you.  If they do not want to talk to you, feel disturbed, or are upset that you are bothering them, they let you know.  On the other side, if they are feeling sad, or something is on their mind, they will tell you.  We experienced that with a Lady that we visited.  It was somebody that Elder Erickson (My trainer) had seen on the street last week before I arrived.   We asked her how she was doing and she said she was terrible.  We talked with her and learned that two of her sons had died, and she had been thinking about that a lot recently.  She told us she felt better after talking with us and we made another appointment.   It was cool to be there to reassure her that it will be alright, that she can see her sons again.  I didn't say much because I can hardly understand and speak German, but oh well.   It's cool regardless.

We also made out a couple appointments knocking on Door yesterday.  That was cool.  We get rejected so often, that when we finally find somebody ready to hear us, it's wonderful!

Well that's how the work is going!  I'm sure there are those who would like to know how my apartment is and about Germany.

Well I haven't been here that long, so I still don't know a whole lot about Germany.  I am just trying to speak the language and make the best use of the Lord's time.  My apartment that I live in DOES have a Bidet, or whatever those things are called.  I thought that some people would find that interesting.  Although, I have not yet used it! Haha.  The houses here are very interesting, very cool, and much older than most of the houses in the United States.  It's cool to see them and stuff.  Usually a few families will live in a single house that is separated into parts by walls and there are a few klingels by the door.  So you klingel the person you want, and they can either buzz you back or come down and open the door for you.  It's interesting.

There is so much for me to learn!  I hope I can learn it fast.  I thank everyone for their prayers and support!