More Pictures

These are just additional pictures to the previous e-mail!

Talk About Heat!

Hey all!

Just for your information, I will be posting a few pictures of my adventures at Schloss Marienburg (A castle in the Hildesheim area).  I may add other pictures too, I don't know, we'll see haha. It may be a lot of pictures, so I hope that it still works okay!

Let's start with a week ago yesterday.  I had the opportunity that Sunday to TRANSLATE!  Crazy huh?  So there is a member here that speaks only English and it was my turn to translate for him.  I had never translated before and so naturally it was really intimidating!  I wasn't sure that I could actually do it!  He asked me to translate for him, and I accepted.  It was a really good experience.  I have gained a better understanding of what it must be like to translate for the Spanish Branch in the Carson Valley 2nd Ward, or anywhere for that matter.  It takes complete attention, and it was difficult to try and hear what people are saying, and translate it in a way that makes sense on the spot.  Just like any language, it cannot be translated word for word, so sometimes I would have to wait until a few sentences are finished before it can make complete sense in English.  Then, I had to listen while I was saying it in English so that I could continue to translate later.  It was really interesting!  I didn't expect to ever have to do that as a missionary, haha!  I am glad I had that experience though.

This last week was definitely an interesting week.  To start out with, we had a lot of time to walk the streets and talk to people.  So we did so.  We made out so many more appointments this week than the previous one's.  I realized that we were able to do this with an increased faith on God, and that he will help us find those who are ready.  I realized I was slowly falling into a false thought that it's nearly impossible to find people in this area!  I was wrong.  The members sometimes like to tell us this is a difficult place to find people, but our district leader proved that otherwise.  I was able to learn a lot by going on an exchange with him on Wednesday in Nienburg.  Talk about a Faith builder!  

Next, I must talk about our day on Thursday.  Thursday was a Holiday here in Germany.  It's called "Christi Himmel Fahrt" (or Christ's ascension to Heaven).  It also kind of doubles as Vater Tag, or Father's Day, but it doesn't mean the same thing as the American Father's day.  As it was explained to me by a German, this holiday is a holiday meant only for going out as males and getting drunk.  It is specifically a male get drunk day.  That being said, you can imagine what two guys with white shirts and ties look like to a bunch of drunk people.  In Germany, it's quite common for everyone to be drunk out on the streets, just sitting on benches, walking around the city, or sitting on the curb at an intersection.  So, we had plenty of people to talk to.  We were invited to parties, invited to smoke Hookah, and yelled at all over the place.  It was really quite interesting!  There are many many many Jehovah's Whitnesses in this area, and so most people yelled at us at first thinking we are the JW's.  Of course, after a quick clarification, they were set straight on what our name was, and it was time to ask questions.  You can imagine how intelligent these questions must have been considering everybody was intoxicated.  We met two guys that night who insisted that we continue talking to them.  We talked to them for a long time!  I mean, multiple hours.  Maybe an hour and a half on the street, and then they invited us over to their place later that night.  They wanted to hear what we would normally teach somebody.  So, we showed up outside their apartment complex at the allotted time, and come to find out, they had been gathering people on the streets to "Come listen to the Mormons!" (in German of course).   They gathered quite a crowd!  They were even reading to each other out of the Book of Mormon we had given them. As soon as we walked up the crowd disappeared and it was just the original two guys.  One of the two guys insisted on finding more people to listen to us, so he is just yelling at everyone on the street.  Finally, one person agrees and we ended up going to HIS apartment instead!  We walk up to his apartment complex at the top floor and talk with the three of them.  We explain the Book of Mormon a little bit, but mostly they just wanted to tell us their problems they have in life.  So we couldn't say a whole lot.  We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it is true or not.  Then, the guy who had been gathering the poeple on the street, spoke up suddenly, "Es ist wahr!" ("It is true!").  Such an interesting meeting.  We tried to leave, but the guy who told us the Book of Mormon is true wanted us to meet his wife.  So we walk over to another apartment, go up the stairs, meet his wife (who wasn't drunk, fortunately), and then leave to go home.  It was definitely a crazy day!  haha.

Now, I must say that we had dinner on Sunday with some members.  It was so delicious!  The best tasting meal I have eaten since I have been in Germany!  The two we met with are travelers and love traveling all over the place, so they made this meal up from several different cultures' foods.  It was amazing.  They even said that they bet that we haven't eaten something like it in Germany before because it's definitely not a typical German dish.  I just wanted to throw that in there, that I had some delicious food that you probably didn't have, haha.

Alles Gute!  Have a great week!  Until next time,

Awesome Week!

Wow! I think I say that a lot.  Wow.  I can't think of a better interjection!  It's just really awesome when so many good things happen.  Want to know what I mean?  Here you go:

First, this week we had three different people come up to US and ask us if we were the mormons.  They asked for our card and said that they wanted to meet with us.  Three times in one week!  That is unheard of!  That was just amazing.  We now have three more people that we are sure we can meet with.

Next, we received new cards!  New cards that are only being used in the Germany-Berlin mission!  We hand out these cards like crazy!  During the last week, we handed out around 500 cards.  We are hoping to generate our own media referrals.  If we can do this, then we will have more people to teach.  If we have more people to teach, we can show more people the joy of the gospel.  If we can show people how much joy they can have in the gospel, then we can help them on their way to receiving Eternal Life: The

Greatest Gift of all the Gifts of God.

We just had a great week.  It felt long, and we worked hard, but it was rewarding.  We are really seeing the miracles.  We also have the opportunity today to go to a castle in our area.  That will be fun.  I hope to take plenty of pictures! 

Enjoy your week! 

Deutsch:

Die Woche war wirklich wunderbar!  Drei vershiedene Personen haben sogar zu uns gekommon.  Die sagten, "Sind Sie Mormonen?"  Natürlich haben wir mit "ja" geantwortet.  Jeder von dieser Personen wollte mit uns treffen!  Es war super!  Das passiert nie!  Wir sehen so viele Wunder, dass ich es kaum glauben kann! 

Wir haben auch neue Karten bekommen.  Diese neuen karten sind nur in die Deutchland Mission Berlin benutzt.  Letzte Woche haben wir ungefähr 500 Karten verteilt!  Wir hoffen, dass die Leute Intresse haben werden.  Wenn sie intresse haben, werden sie uns anrufen.  Dann können wir mit ihnen treffen.  Wenn wir mit ihnen treffen, können wir ihr zeigen, wie wunderbar das Evangelium ist.  Wenn wir das machen, können wir mehr Leute helfen und taufen.  Ich freue mich darauf!  Wir wollen die Leuten helfen, Ewiges Leben zu empfangen, was die beste Gabe von alle die Gabe des Herrn ist. 

Wir hatten eine gute Woche.  Wir haben viel gearbeitet aber es hat uns belohnen.  ´Wir sehen viele Wunder.  Wir haben auch die Gelegenheit heute, zu einem Schloss zu fahren.  Das wird Spaß machen!  Ich hoffe, viele Fotos zu machen!

Genießen Sie ihre Woche!

Mit Freundlichen Grüßen,

quick!

Here are a quick couple pictures of a cool street and a large church in Hildesheim... Funny story, we were taking this pictures then a guy thought we were waiting for a bus and offerred us a ride.  He said he wanted to pay us back for saying hi to him on the street.  That was cool.

Phew!

Talk about a good week!  We had a great week actually.  We did a lot of talking with people on the streets, knocking on several doors, and even more!  We found several problems in the Apartment.  I'm surprised that missionaries lived in the apartment with how bad it was.  Our Ward Mission Leader came over and decided it was not fit to live in and called the mission office about it.  So, the last week we also spent several hours working on the Apartment: getting it up to shape, repainting, and getting rid of TONS of trash left by other missionaries.  This week we get to put it all back together with new furniture and everything.  For the last couple weeks we have just been sleeping on mattresses put on the floor.

Now for the good stuff!  

First off, last week, right after we got done with writing e-mails in the Internet cafe, a fight started out inside the cafe.  It was pretty weird because it started right in front of us.  It didn't last long but it was definitely interesting.  

The next day, we were calling investigators to try and regain contact with them.  We were doing this outside on the street, and some drunk guy walked passed us.  Then he stopped, took a double look, and came up to us.  He started talking to us about God and that he believes in God.  He even asked us how we like Germany and things like that.  Then, the weirdest thing happened.  We asked him if he wanted to meet with us and he just said, "Bin Laden is dead, I believe in God, and... yeah that was it."  Then he came up to me and said that he likes us, and gave both me and Elder Hair a hug.  It was definitely interesting.

Also something interesting that happened.  It's pretty normal for groups of young girls (13 to 18) to watch us.  Sometimes they say something to us, sometimes not.  There was one group of particularly young girls watching us and then out of nowhere all six or so of them said "Hallo" at the same time.  I just thought that was funny that they all said it at the same time.  It's pretty ridiculous sometimes though.  There can be some pretty up front girls here!  The other day my district leader got asked on a date.  It was actually kind of funny to hear about.

This last week, I learned something valuable.  I learned that we need to be good examples as members of the church.  Not necessarily an example for the people who aren't members, but for the members who are in our ward.  Some people can get upset that people don't live the religion they belong to and leave the church.  I know that these people are choosing to be offended, but we can still do our part to help them.  I have met members who have left the church, but still know that the Gospel of the church is true.  The Gospel IS true, and we should live it.  As it states in D&C 88, we need to stop fighting with one-another, especially in public.  We should use this life to build each other up.  Brag about your Lord, show other people that your friends are good people.  Don't go tearing people down, especially the people you love.  We should always say positive things to each other because when we leave this life, we will still have our relationships.  It's important that our relashionships with others are good ones, instead of negative.  That also means we should be careful with making fun of people when we are joking.  Many jokes can go too far.  Instead of joking at another person's expense, joke in ways that creates a positive atmosphere.

Last, I want to talk about a story on the way to go write e-mails today.  We were walking down the city and we heard somebody say, "Hey, Elders!"  So we went over, and there was a man visiting German cities where he served his mission.  It was really cool.  It turns out he is from new mexico and knows my cousins!  They mentioned that my cousin was married (to one of their relatives I believe) and I told them that I was at that wedding!  Apparently they were too!  How funny is that?  We were at the same wedding in New Mexico, and somehow we met on the streets of Germany about four years later.  What a small world eh?

Anyhow, just have an excellent week my friends.  The world is out there to bring you down, make sure you don't let it.  Build your friends up, and let them build you up.  We can be strong in Unity and with help from God.  We cannot do this alone.  Don't get caught up in being mad at others when you don't need to be.  Life is good.  Make sure you do your best to make it good for others as well.

First week, again!

Hey!

So I got to experience another first week!  This time in Hildesheim.  I was finally happy with Heide and getting used to everything.  Now I am in a new place!  That's okay.  I like my new companion, Elder Hair.  He's cool.  We did a lot of adjusting the first week, as is normal for a new transfer.  I like being in a bigger city.  We are also fairly close to Hannover, which is an even bigger city.  It's cool to have new people to talk to and different things to experience. 

Ludolstrasse 9

31137 Hildesheim

Germany

If you feel like sending me a letter or anything, I wouldn't be upset ;)!

Anyhow, as of yet, we have a few investigators.  A couple russian investigators, an a German investigator who is into metal music and stuff like that.  He's trying to quit smoking and working on having a good atmosphere in his house.  He is a pretty cool guy.  I really enjoy being here and working with these people.  I have already met several really nice people willing to talk with us.  We see miracles all the time.  For example, a few minutes ago a guy saw me in the internet cafe and asked if we were mormon.  I said yes and then he asked if I was from america.  I also said yes, then he started speaking in english.  He's happy that he met us and wants to meet with us some more.  Way cool!  I didn't even say anything.

Anyhow, I'm outta time.  Until next week!

Transfer!

Yep!  You guessed it!  I am being transferred!  No more letters to Heide!  I am going to Hildesheim!  That's a little bit south of Hannover.  I have already heard so many good things about it, so I am excited.  Sorry, I forgot to bring my new address to the internet cafe, so I won't be able to give out my new address until next week!  :(  I was hoping for post too!

The last week has been pretty awesome!  We have seen so many miracles here in Heide.  I can't even count them!  We have worked so hard to find people, and we found some!  We have seen things happen that I would never have expected.  For example, we were doing doors one day and there was a guy sitting in his garage with the door open.  We had 15minutes for doors before our next appointment and we weren't sure if we would make it to that guy's house before our time was up (we try to keep organized where we do doors so that we can keep track of where we have been and where we still need to go).  The Lord had a different plan for us!  This guy yelled for us to come over, asking us if we were afraid to talk to him or something.  We explained that we wanted to go up one side of the street first, then down the other side, but that we would be happy to talk to him now.  This man listened to us and told us he would love to meet with us.  We made out an appointment with him and left on our way. 

I also got to go on another companionship exchange in Flensburg.  This time I was with a missionary I met in the MTC!  That means, both of our German is not really that great.  At first I was afraid I wouldn't know what to say to people!  We went on our way and talked with the people of Flensburg.  We prayed for help and trusted the Lord.  Our prayers were answered!  The Lord gave us what we needed to say, all we needed to do is open our mouths.  It was amazing!  We even met a guy on the street who talked with us for about 30 minutes!  Imagine that, a 30 minute conversation with a man in German when we have only been speaking German for 4 months! (3 months for the Elder I was with).  That was definitely a testimony of the gift of tongues for me.  We both taught this guy what life is about, and how we can find out to know if the church is true.  I know we helped this man, and I am so glad we did!

This week I get to travel to Hildesheim and meet all new investigators and members!  I'm excited and know I will have another great city.  Heide was awesome, and I can't wait for Hildesheim!

I attached a picture of the sunset yesterday. It was pretty cool! :D  I also attached a picture of my (first) district, Heide, Flensburg and Rendsburg!

Remember: I have a new address!  I'll send it next week, don't write to my address in Heide (the Berlin Address still works)

Miracles are everywhere!

Wow! 

The last week was quite an adventure.  It started out with a P-day in Hamburg.  We went and checked out the city, and just enjoyed it for the few hours we were there.  That was a good time, and I am a little better acquainted with the German City-culture.  It is quite a different experience to be out in the country for so long. 

The Heide area is a tourist area.  There are a few beaches along the coast, and so people like to take vacations over here.  This last week has been a prime time for vacations because of Easter!  We took this opportunity to talk to people about Easter and the true meaning of it (namely: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ).  It turns out that not many people really understand that!  (And many of them don't want to understand it).  I talked to Germans who were complaining to me about how Americans are un-christian because we don't close all the stores and take extra time on "Good Friday" to observe the Crucifixion of Christ.  That is also a big holiday here in Germany.  I actually heard a lot of "Germans are better than Americans" speeches this last week.  I don't know why they insist on telling me that when I am talking about Christ and God, and his plan for us.  Oh well, what can you do?

This last week we tried praying and fasting specifically for one investigator.  Our answer we received was not anything like we had expected!  Instead of helping us with this specific investigator the Lord showed us something else.  As we ended our fasting time, we went to some previous investigators.  We have gone by their houses several times, and they are never home!  We were hoping to catch at least one of three that we decided to go by.  We went by the first one... he was home!  He wanted us to come in right then, but we didn't have time.  He said that for sure we could come by on Thursday.  It was already successful!  Then the next person.  We went by him, and to my utter surprise, he was also home!  He said he was so so so sorry for letting the other appointments fall through.  He said that is not okay and we can come over again this week on Wednesday.  Awesome!  Another Appointment!  Two in a row like that rarely happens.  Finally, we went to the last person we planned to go by.  We went by and she let us in to talk a little bit.  We had a few minutes so we went in and got to know her a little better.  She used to be a Jehovah's Witness, but didn't like that the teachings and the practices were not in sync with each other (I guess in the area where she used to live, the Jehovah's Witnesses weren't living like this lady thought they should).   She left the JD's, and was interested in learning more about our religion.  We didn't have much prepared, but we shared a few things and she said we could come back again on Wednesday.  It was definitely an answer to our prayers and fasting.  The Lord was showing us that there are still more people out there that he has already prepared, and we shouldn't push too hard on somebody who isn't quite ready yet.

The weather here is warming up significantly.  The members are starting to want us to come over for eating appointments more often.  We eat outside and my companion and I are getting some nice tans!  At least from our hands to our elbows and from our foreheads to our necks.  Gotta love the nice farmer's tan look!

This week ends the transfer!  Watch out everyone!  I might be transferred next week!  We get our transfer calls on Saturday, and I will be able to tell everyone on Monday where I am going or if I am staying.  I would be okay staying here;  I like the members, I have a good companion, and when we get transferred we have to travel with the train and bus system alone!  Regardless, I will go where the Lord needs me to be.  We'll find out next week where that is!

Für alle Fälle:  Ich möchte ein bisschien Deutsch schreiben, um die Deutsche Sprache zu üben.  Die letzte Woche war wunderbar.  Ich hatte vieles erlebt und ich freue mich für die kommende Woche.  Ich danke ihr alle für eurer Unterstützung!  Ich weiß gar nicht, was ich schreiben soll!  Mein Mitarbeiter schreibt emails noch.  Darum schreibe ich noch auf Deutsch.  Na ja, es geht schon.  Später haben wir einen Termin mit Mitglieder.  Wir haben schon vieles gegessen!  Hoffentlich kann ich mehr essen. Vielleicht muss ich ein bisschien Sport machen, bevor wir zu die Mitglieder gehen.  Okay, jetzt muss ich los!  Dankesehr!  Bis nächstes Mal!

Alles Gute! 

Travelssssss

This last week has been full of travels.  We were first required to travel to Hannover with the car.  We did this in order to get our winter tires changed out, and our summer tires put on.  It was a 3 hour drive to get there, and a 3 hour drive to get back!  Talk about a long time in the car!  My companion does not have a driver's license, so that means I had the opportunity to drive the entire way! :D

Later that week, we took the train to Hamburg.  We had president interviews there in Hamburg.  Normally we go to Kiel, but this time we were in Hamburg because on Saturday we went to Oldenburg for a baptism.  We took the car to Oldenburg.  That took us a good 2 and a half hours to get there too!  We went to the baptism because it was Elder Baake's investigator that he taught before he got transferred to Heide.  Our mission President said that it would be okay if we went down there so that Elder Baake could baptise him.  That was a good travel!

During our travels I did see some strange stuff.  For example:  On the way to Hannover I saw a skiing "hill".  There are no mountains here so there was a man-made hill for skiing and snowboarding!  It was so weird!  It was smaller than the smallest hill in Heavenly, but it was about the size of a normal "bunny hill" at other ski resorts.  I didn't get a picture, but it was definitely an interesting thing to see.

We also saw a Ferrari Enzo driving around Heide.  That was cool!  I had never seen one of those in real life before.  Same with an Audi R8 parked in Hamburg.  The nicer weather is coming, and I guess that means nicer cars too!  Cool stuff. 

We have a member in Husum area that we visited this last week.  That was interesting.  We visited this member because she is less active and we wanted to see if we could help her with anything.  It turned out she wanted us to play a game called, "Flash cups".  It was an interesting game.  My companion did not like it at all because she was always telling him he was doing it wrong.  He said, "I didn't know there were rules for putting cups on top of each other!"  It was funny.  We're going back on Friday, maybe we will play again!  Haha, mal gucken!

Well, it was a good week, we found more people to teach, and we were able to witness a baptism.  I'm excited to go another week.  Maybe we can find somebody that will be baptized!  That would be awesome!  I know this Gospel can help each and every one of us come closer to God and return to him someday. 

Enjoy your week!

General Conference weekend!

Yay!  So it was a really good weekend.  I learned a lot, and still have more to learn!  I was able to watch all the sessions except the sunday afternoon session which I will probably be able to see next week.  I even watched one session in German!  The priesthood session was cool.  It was really funny that President Monson talked about marriage.  I was thinking that after I get home I will stay single, have fun, have a cool car, stuff like that.  President Monson spoke specifically against doing that!  He said we should not delay marriage for silly things like that, we should find someone we are compatable with and get married.  I think I want to be a missionary for a little bit longer! haha!  Good thing I still have a year and a half or so left!

While talking to people on the street, one lady crossed the main road and then saw us walking in her general direction.  She stared at us for about 5 seconds and then turned around and walked right back where she came from.  That was funny.  Also, another funny thing, we were talking to a lady on her door.  She was obviously not listening... you know how we found out?  She kept saying "nay, nay, nay, nay" (slang for nein, which means no), and then my companion started saying, "nein? nein? nein? nein?" and she kept on saying "nay" without end it was so funny.  It was definitely something you had to be there to see. 

Last week we spent an hour and a half cleaning our bathroom.  Wow!  It must have been a long time since missionaries cleaned that thing!  It was dirty!  Now it's super clean!  So awesome! 

While sitting in the apartment, we found out that if someone spends 3 transfers with one companion, he will have spent more time with that companion than he will his wife during the first year of marriage!!!  (Assuming you spend about 8 hours a day with your wife for the first year)

I had my first McDonalds here in Germany!  McDonalds is more popular here than I thought!  It didn't taste particularly good, but it was less greasy than the American version.  I'm still not a big fan of fast food, haha.  The members think I'm un-american because I don't like fast food very much!  That's pretty funny.  Also, one of the girls in the ward said I look like I'm 22.  She thought I was joking when I said I was 19!  That was funny. 

We wanted to go somewhere cool to do some door to door, so we found a place in our area called Jerusalem!!  We went there and it turned out that there are no houses there, but now I can say I've been to Jerusalem, haha!

Well, it was an excellent week, and a very spiritually uplifting weekend.  I'm super-excited for the next ensign/liahona!  I can't wait to read all the talks again!  This gospel is true and can help everyone who chooses to accept it!  :D  Until next week!