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! 

What a week!

Wow!

So this last week has been crazy.  We have had so much happen, and I am leaving  on this coming Tuesday for Germany!  Without Further Ado, make sure that if you send me a letter, you send it to the following address, and not the MTC:

Germany Berlin Mission

Zerbster Strasse 42

12209 Berlin

Germany

It's 98 cents to send to Germany, and all of Europe I think. 

So this week we have had a lot of activity.  First off I am learing a lot.  I can feel the Spirit increase in power the closer to Christmas we get.  I love Christ and Christmas is very focused on him.  I am super excited to hear from several speakers this weekend.  A speaker on Christmas Eve, two on Christmas, and one on Sunday.  I don't know how I could be more spiritually uplifted.  The MTC is great, and I will have an awesome Christmas.  I have had a little too much Candy though, haha.  It's everywhere!  Everyone is receiving candy and giving it away, and such.  It's quite a time of excitement.

I tried out to be in the Christmas Day Talent show on Tuesday.  I messed up once and I was upset =/  But the lady told me that if I promise not to mess up again, that she liked my piece and wants me in the Talent Show.  I go to rehearsals tomorrow and play on Saturday.  I am so excited!  This will be the largest group I have ever performed anything for... 2,000 or so missionaries!  I'm happy :) 

On Sunday, during Sacrament meeting, our district president had something to tell us. (District president is similar to Stake President... it's like a branch president is to a bishop).  He told us that we have a problem in the German Zone.  The Zone of missionaries going to Germany has had more problems, sicknesses, problems at home, and injuries than any other zone in the MTC.  He informed us that this doesn't happen without a reason.  Satan knows that God has something planned for Germany and he wants to stop it from happening.  We are all meant to go to Germany, and we need to remove any contention from among ourselves to ensure that Satan doesn't hinder the work.  It was such a powerful day.  I thought at the beginning of my MTC experience that God has something important for Germany, and then it got reaffirmed.  We, as missionaries, are here to do the Lord's work. We cannot allow ourselves to fall off track.

I have been packing and getting ready to take off for Germany!  It's going to be quite a change, to go from such a confined space such as the MTC to the open world where everybody speaks a language I can barely understand, let alone speak.  I am putting my trust in the lord, and in Christ.  Christ has experienced all things and knows exactly how I feel.  I will be able to rely on him in Faith, and go and do the Lord's work.  Christ loves me and each one of us in the World.  He knows us each individually;  I know that Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  We should all remember this this Christmas Season!

Coming up on the last weeks!

Only one more P-day before I am off to Germany!  This is really crazy.  My German is improving at unheard of rates!  The gift of Tongues is real, I don't know how missionaries would be able to teach effectively without it.  This last week Elder Barnes and I taught a man in the Teaching Resource Center here at the MTC.  I know it's all just volunteers and such, but he committed to being baptised and obeying the word of wisdom.  It's so hard to do things all in German, but I love it!  I can't wait to be able to be fluent enough to teach even more effectively.  I'm definitely happy here at the MTC.

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to be a "Missionary Host".  Basically I went around and brought missionaries just barely coming to the MTC to their rooms and classrooms.  It was a lot of fun!  I met many people and one of the sisters Elder Schwendiman and I helped was from Hawaii.  After we helped her with her bags over to the Sisters' Residence, where we dropped her off with one of the sister missionary hosts, she asked if she could give each of us a lei.  We looked at each other and said, "Well I never heard anything against receiving a lei!"  So Elder Schwendiman and I had the privilage to receive a real authentic, handmade lei!   I don't know if that's how it's spelled though.  That was fun.  I also met an Elder Miller from New Jersey.  Turns out he was good friends with Elder Naval who was serving in Gardnerville, NV before I left!  That was cool.  I told him that Elder Naval was at my house when I opened my mission call, haha!

So I am no longer a zone leader.  Elder Barnes and I got relieved from our assignment as the zone leaders on Sunday.  It's really interesting.  I don't like not being in the loop with things.  When I don't know what's going on I start worrying about all the missionaries in our zone.  I just need to learn to trust our new zone leaders (whom Elder Barnes and I are currently training in their duties).  It is hard, but it's also different to not have all the responsibilites.  It's a very cool experience.

Pretty soon I shall receive my travel plans to travel to Germany on December 28th!  It will be a lot of fun!  Christmas is soon, then right after Christmas is Germany, and right after that is new years.  I hope that I will be able to communicate at least a little bit with the German people! 

Well, all is well with me!  Good luck to you all!  Have a Merry Christmas, and remember Christ and all he has done for us!

Quick Post

Grüße!

Sorry I dont have a whole lot to say because the timer is running out.

It has been an excellent week, and the Spirit of Christmas and Christ is definitely here in the MTC.

I know that Christ lived and died for us.  He loves us and wants us to come back to him and Heavenly Father.  I feel their love everyday!  I hope everyone can feel their love this Christmas Season.

I leave for Germany on the 28th of December!  Its coming up quick!