Week Forty-four

Oh hey everybody!

Last week was just insane. This might just be the most exciting/weird email I send home haha. It very well could be. I just want to get to telling you about my week. I have a lot of pics to send tool.

Monday: Last monday Sister Wunderli and Holbrook (the senior sisters), Elder Stanley, and I went to this place called 'Karls Erlebnis Dorf'.

The happiest place on earth?

This place used to be/still is a strawberry farm, but now it's like Disneyland. There's this huge shop that sells these super indie products that are all made right there on the farm. Like a bunch of strawberry jam, they make soap, candy, toys, a bunch of Christmas stuff, any food product you can think of too. It was way cool. There's also an outside that's like a mini Disneyland. There are rides and animals and thins to see and do. It was way fun. There's also this super good restaurant where you get whatever you want on your plate, and pay by weight. It was cool. The food was so delicious. I ate a huge schnitzel and veggies and kohl and rouladen. It was amazing. And filling. So we hung out  there all p-day. When we got back, we had Family Home Evening. My planner says that we taught a lesson. I'm guessing it was with M. He's so cool. We also made out an eating appointment with one of T's friends. It was a good day.

Dienstag: Tuesday morning we went by on a less active again. I've said it before, but it's just amazing how the people you NEED to get in contact with are just never home and never answer the phone. People might just be really good at dodging the missionaries. BUT we just keep on keeping on haha. So the member wasn't home and we did a couple of doors there. An old guy told us not to do doors in Mecklenburg....which is like the giant region/state of Germany that we're in haha. We met with M. after that. AH M. We want to help him so bad, but he's not letting us help him! He's super nice and chill but a little hard to teach. We really want to focus on working with him and helping him out. You'll hear a lot about M. in the coming weeks. So after M. we went to Toitenwinkel/Dierkow. This is basically the ghetto of Rostock. The sisters aren't really allowed to be there after dark...that's how sketch it is. We spent our whole evening walking around going by on contacts and less active and got nothing. But this is the great part. Elder Stanley and I were crossing over these train tracks to get to the other side, and I stepped on this huge piece of glass that went right through my shoe into the bottom of my foot. NO JOKE it felt like it went right through my foot. I freaked out haha. I'll send the pic. So we had to ride the bahn back to the church. That only took like 20 minutes and my foot is just bleeding this whole time haha. We got to the church and Sister Linford (just one of the sister missionaries here) is like a med major and worked on an ambulance and stuff so she checked it out and said it was good. We got some neosporin up in there and bandaged it up. Crazy though.

Mittwoch: Well I couldn't walk on my foot haha. We had to let it heal up or something. So I spent Wednesday in the apartment. With orders from Sister Kosak. It was hard just because there was NOTHING to do! So boring. Elder Stanley an I did a puzzle. And caught up on sleep. T came and hung out with us for a little too. That evening I HAD to get a haircut because President interviews were the next day. So with my foot and all and hopped over to the haircut place and got one. It's a very average haircut. Nothing special haha. It was kind of cool actually. Talking to the haircut lady in German. Classic. So that night we had an appointment with Marcel at the church. Sister Holbrook was there too helping us. We taught the gospel of Christ. Marcel is super smart and catches on quick. he studies a lot on his own too. Like he knows a lot of Book of Mormon scriptures now. We had institute after that. And that was the day.

Donnerstag: Thrusday was interviews! We all went to Berlin to meet with President. I had a cool interview with him. Nothing super crazy. He told me I was staying in Rostock, which was cool. It was cool to see everyone in the zone too, even though we see them like every week. It was way cool to see President and Sister Kosak though, and the Assistants. SO GET THIS! I got a package from Sister Brockbank! I was so happy! But like it was 2 months ago!! Like what's up with that? Weird German Post. But I was super happy and just thankful for it. I'm going to write her a way good thank you note. SHE SENT ME PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!!!!!!! And letters from the Primary. I died. Overall good day.

Freitag: Friday we did zone finding in Neubrandenburg. It was boring haha honestly. He did doors (because of my foot I couldn't walk around all day) for like 4 hours. It was killer. We came in contact with one lady who had met with the missionaries before. And we saw the biggest dog on earth. That was it. We went home and ate with T. and his friend L. We really want to get L. involved and excited about the church. So maybe! She was way nice and we're like friends now. So good.

Samstag: Saturday morning was transfer calls! It was exciting but not much changed in the Zone. We have a new ZL, Elder Riesen, who is my 'brother' so Elder Thorley trained him too. And a new DL from Austria. Other than that everything stayed the same. Elder Stanley and I are still in Rostock. Which is good haha. After the call we went home and studied/planned. We played BBALL that afternoon and made out two appointments with the bball guys! That was just a huge blessing. We came home an go ready for Ping pong. So Y is one of the bball players and he came to ping pong. He won haha. And we taught him a little after. It was sick.

Sonntag: Yesterday was just killer. Before church started M. told us that he wanted to be baptized! Which is just great for him. T. taught a good lesson in Investigator class. And Sacrament was good too. We ate with T. and his family after church. It was way good. And after that we went back to the church to watch this fireside. We ended up watching a Mormon message about the priesthood and taught M. HE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY! How great is that!? So hopefully we'll have a baptism this week. It's sad because he's moving to Switzerland in a couple of weeks. I just want to see him totally understand baptism and see him do it. It'll be sick.

So the week was exciting and crazy! And Elder Stanley and I are stoked to stay together and keep working. We feel real good about this transfer coming up. Pray for us!

Parents!

Thanks a lot for the family history stuff! So the Senior sisters here help out at the geneology center here and were asking me and like I just had no Idea. I knew that Grandpa was Irish and that Grandma terry was eastern Europeanish haha. But thanks a lot. How cool is it that my great great grandpa (?) was born in Hannover! That's awsome. So you guys don't need to worry about my foot haha it's all good and healing up. It hurt really bad though. Glass like right through the bottom of my foot. And how crazy is it that it went right through my shoe?! But it's all good. I'm still enjoying my time a lot here!

Thanks for the money. I'll try to take it out today. We're going to Ikea today! How fun is that. Well hey! Thanks for everything you do. Elder Fullmer (the assistant) said I had a package already!

Everything is GOOD. I love Rostock and I'm super stoked to keep working. I want to send you some Christmas presents though! So maybe a little more money......I just want to send you some German chocolate and maybe something cool.

I love you all!
Elder Pollard

Week Forty-three

My adoring fans,

Elder Stanley and I put in work last week. We seem to have the same conversation a lot: we are just always busy and working, but we can't seem to make out appointments, and get any teaching in. It's hard, because I love teaching way more than finding, and it's rough to not see any direct result of all the work. But as long as were doing it and not being lazy then we have nothing to worry about. I love being a missionary and having this aim and focus. It makes life really simple, and I just learn a lot about myself and life and all these deep
philosophical things. Loving it.

But like I said, we were super busy last week and ran around non-stop. We just didn't get through to anyone really, or even have the opportunity to.

Montag: Last Monday. Oh my gosh. It started off pretty normal. You know, waking up, eating Nougat Bits, studying, cleaning, emailing. We ate lunch at McDonald's, because we got some sweet coupons in the mail. But while we were eating, we got a call from Bruder A. He told us that the toilet in the church was overflowing and that we needed to come hang out at the church and wait for the repair guy. On P-Day. Haha at least we had something to do. But it gets better. We got another call like 10 minutes later, saying that we had to go and pull up the old carpet that was now soaked in poo water. So, Monday from like 3 to 7, Elder Stanley and I tore out the old Poo Carpet. It was wonderful. We had Family Home Evening after. I think only like 1 person showed up, but it was still fun.

Dienstag: Tuesday we were supposed to go on splits with the Zone Leaders, but that didn't happen. Instead, we finished up some planning and then one of the Sisters investigators took us out to lunch to celebrate the election. We're not sure why, but he thought that election day was like a super huge deal and that we celebrated and stuff. Oh well he bought us some Chinese food. After eating, we went back and finished this 'grid'. We made a grid of the city and marked where we have old investigators and contacts and stuff. Just so we know who lives by each other and where they live. It's helping. We then went and bought some gummy bears. We met T. and ate at the D's that night. It was so cool. They made this 'bread soup' thing from Italy. It was super good and Sister D. made Snickerdoodles that we just ate in 2 seconds. It was delicious. After eating, we went with T. and dropped the gummy bears off at M's house. M. is investigating the church and has a lot of friends and connections with the members here. She just got back from a big trip and has been really sick. So we got her a present.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was alright. We had District Meeting in the morning and after that, I was on splits with Elder Smith, our District Leader. He's sick. He's from Beaver Utah, and is a wrestler. He's pretty good too, like he's wrestling at college when he gets back. He's super nice too. He had a good time on splits. We went by a bunch of people on our grid thing. It's been really helpful in finding out who still lives in Rostock/has interest to learn about the Book of Mormon and stuff. We've been weeding down our area book and getting
rid of teaching records that we don't need. We also met with Mark, who's super cool. We didn't really teach a lesson, we just kind of talked about a lot of different topics. It was good though. We then had Institute, which went well. After Institute, we talked to people in Innenstadt and made out 2 appointments. Bonus.

Donnerstag: Thursday we were in Prenzlau haha. Prenzlau is interesting. It's super small, but has like 5 huge churches. It's a cool place. We were doing zone finding. It was rough, because there's not a lot of people in Prenzlau, but we were there for 5 hours talking to everybody haha. We had 6 missionaries there, and we probably talked to everyone twice. It was cool though. We made out a couple of appointments for the Elders in Prenzlau. I ate a huge Döner too. like 5 pounds. It was just a mistake. After Prenzlau, Elder Stanley and I rode back to Rostock and did some studying that night.

Freitag: Friday was hard. We had Gemiko with T. in the morning, but from like 1 until 7:30 we were walking around, going by people on the grid, going by members, and talking to everybody. But at the end of the day, we made out no appointments, and taught no lessons. Just like a whole day of walking around and talking to people haha. Oh well.That night we studied German with T.

Samstag: Saturday was just a blessing. We had all the elders in the zone come to Rostock and we did service for the zoo.

Working at the Zoo...

It was so sweet. We raked leaves for about 3 hours, but after that we got to go for free to this thing called 'Darwineum'. It's about Darwin's theory and evolution. It was super interesting, and we got to see a lot of monkeys. The monkeys were the best. Like orangutans and gorillas and little monkeys. I just love zoos.

Velociraptors in Germany...who knew?

After serving, we decided to have ping pong that night. So we invited M. and he said he'd come. Which is just awesome. We had to go buy some ping pong balls, which was a hassle, but ping pong was fun. We met with M. after and talked about Joseph Smith, and how we can find answers to our questions. It was a good lesson, I just hope M. can see how bad we're trying to help him.

Sonntag: Sunday was church. Marcel was there, which was cool. We had 'investigator class' and one of the sisters investigators was there, too. T. taught the class in English and it was cool. Sacrament meeting was also fun. After church, we went home and planned and then had an eating appointment with the F's. We ate potatoes, Rotkohl and some sort of meat. It was way good. Bruder A. drove us back and was driving like 130 in his VW on the autobahn. It was a little crazy. Well Sunday night was hard, too. We just got nothing. We came home earlier and studied/made and ate home made potato chips. It was delicious.

So as you could probably tell, not a lot happened last week. Going on splits and visiting the zoo were super fun, I just wish we could have done more work. Missionary work isn't all about finding! And sometimes it just seems that way. We just need to get more people who we can TEACH. It seems like everyone is super busy always, and has no time to meet with us. But next week will be better. I'm already looking forward to it.

In other news, I hit my 10 month mark this week. 10 months doesn't seem special haha. But I've been in Germany forever haha it seems like that. I love Germany! It's super cool.

Learning to appreciate German Art...

It's not as cool at America, but there are thing in Germany that American just doesn't have. Like public transportation. The bahns and buses here are just nice and everyone uses them. It's way too expensive to have a car here, which is ironic because Germany is known for their cars. Also, bakery. There are bakeries on every corner and they're all so good! I could just eat bakery all day. And Nougat Bits!  Chocolate cereal, filled with Nutella. Just try to imagine that. So good.

Elder Stanley and I are doing real well together. Like I said, the work needs to pick up, but we get along really well and always have fun. It's a real blessing to have a companion who wants to work haha. I'm loving my time in Rostock. Transfer calls are on Saturday, which is crazy. Hopefully we'll stay together! We're praying for it.

I love the ward. It's small, like 30 people, but it's fun. T, who is the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency, and our Ward Mission Leader, is awesome. We hang out with him a lot. We only have like 4 or 5 people who are 'investigators'. M.S. and M.E. are our most promising right now. M.S. is cool he's like 28 and from Indonesia. He has some really intense emotional problems, but he's super friendly and outgoing. He's a Bible freak and doesn't really want to change. We heard very quickly that Obama won. President Kosak even texted us at 6 in the morning haha. I'm kind of really indifferent about it at this point. Like I just don't know anything about the situation haha. It's something I'd like to know a little about when I come back.

Thank you very much for the more money. I just need stuff. Like a couple weeks ago I had to buy new shoes. I honestly need a new suit, but I don't want to get one right before winter. Hopefully after. It's not too terribly cold yet, so the jackets I have will do for a while. I do need long underwear. I'm gonna buy some more super warm socks, too.

Everything is going well! I'm so happy that I have a loving family who emails me every week haha. I love talking to you guys! And before we know it, we'll be skyping! It will be great.  I'm super stoked for Christmas, even though it will be my first away from home. Germans go hard. The Christmas Market is going to start on the 22nd of November, and last until Christmas haha. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures!

Anyway, I hope everything is going well at home and that you're all happy. I'm getting really into reading conference talks. They just rock. I suggest it!

Elder Pollard

Week Forty-two

How's it going?!?

This is Elder Pollard reporting from the mission field. I am currently in Rostock, Germany just hanging out at the usual internet cafe and reading all the great emails from home. I love P-Day so much. It just means cleaning the apartment, e-mailing, eating out, and walking around the same 5 stores we do every week haha. It sounds boring, but it's just the best. I eat it up. So this last week was hard. Elder Stanley and I were just always busy all the time, running around the city non-stop, but we just didn't get to see any reward from our
efforts. It was rough, and finding people was really hard this week, but this one week doesn't effect anything. We know like what we have to do and why, so on a daily basis, it's nice just to refresh your mind and get back to basics. It's just great. But let me tell you about this last week.

Montag: Last P-day was cool. Our weekly shopping only cost 12 Euro, which was nice. we emailed, ate Döner, and shopped. We ended up playing games with the sisters at the institute, and listening to music. We also started a beast puzzle, that we didn't get to finish, unfortunately. Oh well. After P-Day, we were supposed to have an appointment with a guy named K. K is super cool and really wants to meet with us (we think) but the appointments keep falling out. It's hard to tell if he really has interest haha. Hopefully he does. Well Monday night was Family Home Evening. Only one member came, so it was 5 missionaries (the senior sister was there too) and 1 member haha. Kind of weird, but it was cool. We had a spiritual thought, and ate abendsbrot. It was delicious. We also worked on the Puzzle. Good times.

Diesntag: Tuesday was just great. After studying, we met the sisters to go help an investigator clean up his apartment. This guy, E, is really sick and old, and we really wanted to help him. It wasn't going to be a lot of work, but it would have helped him A LOT. So like we were really in the mood to help him clean up. We got to his house and klingeled him. He talked to us over the speaker box and said we couldn't come up because his cat was sick...and then all of my good happy service thoughts just left. It was a joke haha, but he was dead serious. Oh well. Like we showed up and were ready to help him out. Then we went to anmeld. In Germany (and probably all countries) you have to register yourself with the government to tell them where
you're living/where you're from and all that good stuff. So I had been putting it off for a while, but decided that we just had to do it. So we took care of that. After lunch, we made a bunch of calls from the numbers in the phone/area book. We made out one appointment for Sunday night with a lady named S. After that, we met up with T to help him do his home teaching. He doesn't have a partner, so we just go with him. We met with Bruder S, who is just the coolest, and talked with him about teaching with the spirit of God. Bruder S has this dog named Mopple. Mopple is like the strongest animal on the face of the earth. When Mopple wants to sit where you're sitting, he just does. And there's nothing you can do about it. I love it. After
meeting with Bruder S, we went by on a couple of less actives, who weren't home. That night, we went to talk to people in Innenstadt. This was just the most memorable night of my mission haha. We were walking up Innenstadt, and we heard like a bunch of yelling and screaming. Then we saw the Zombies. Apparently a bunch of students got together and had a zombie flash mob thing. It was just crazy. And when they saw the Mormon missionaries, they just went crazy. Elder Stanley and I just got mobbed haha. They were all around us like bumping up against us, just being zombies. Fun times. After our little moment with the undead, I asked Elder Stanley if he had everything (wallet, keys, name tag)...and he just didn't have his name tag. I was thinking a zombie took it. So we found the zombies again and asked if any of them had the name tag. They did haha. We got it back and talked with them for a while. They were really cool guys actually.

Elder Pollard and Elder Stanley make a friend...

They were all students, so about our age. Then they wanted us to be zombies with them. We politely declined.

Mittwoch: Wednesday morning we had District Meeting in Greifswald. So we got on the train super early and rode there. The walk from the train station to the church was just miserably cold and long. But we
survived. After district meeting, I went on splits with Elder Risley, from Greifswald, and we both rode back to Rostock. Right when we got back to Rostock, we had an appointment with Mark. Mark is way cool. He
invited us up to his apartment to take part in his Indie Kid Muffin Party. We were kind of surprised, because it turned into us teaching a first lesson to 6 students. Kind of a cool experience, because they were all interested and asked questions, but I wasn't sure how many were super interested. Oh well! We left cards and stuff so if they have questions, hopefully they'll call us. After that, we had to go to institute. There was no official institute, because it was a holiday, but Mark showed up! Which was super cool, because he left his Indie Kid Muffin Party to come to Institute. It ended up being only him, which was rough, but we watched Johnny Lingo, did the Puzzle, ate food, and played Kniffle.

Donnerstag: Thursday was zone finding in Greifswald's area. Elder Risley and I got on a train at 9 and rode to Stralsund, which is a big city in Greifswalds area. And we did finding there for like 5 hours. It was cold and raining. And talking to people for 5 hours straight can be kind of rough. Whenever I find myself in situations that I just don't like, I just remind myself that it'll be over sooner than you know it. And when you look back, it's always great to know you didn't complain or cry about it. Just stick it out! Learning experiences. Good stuff. We ate at McDonalds and I came home with Elder Stanley.

Freitag: Friday was hard haha. We had Gemiko in the morning, which is always fun. Tobias is just a cool guy. And he's our Ward Mission Leader, so we just see him all the time. Almost every day. Its just great. Well after Gemiko (Ward Mission Leader - Missionary meeting) we hung out with Tobias and went in the city to find a card for one of his friends. We had a good talk about finding and how to find effectively. We found a good card. After that, we went home and worked on mapping out where all the less active members live. We really want to focus on working with less actives. After that, we met Tobias again at the Universität, and we ate at the Mensa (cafeteria) with him. He said it was going to be really good and cheap. It was actually super good, but kind of expensive. Bummer. After eating, I had to go buy shoes. So here's the story haha. Both the pairs of shoes I came here with are just toast. The brown ones fell apart super fast, and the black ones were doing OK. Until Friday. We had just walked home, and right before I was going to walk inside, I looked down at my shoe and noticed the GIANT just ice cream scoop sized piece of dog poo on my shoe. I tried really hard to scrape it off on the sidewalk, but that just made my shoes fall apart. So I had to go by shoes. I bought 30 Euro shoes, that look pretty good. After that little escapade, we printed out a talk from conference, and wanted to give it to a less active. We walked around FOREVER trying to find where this person lived. It took like an hour. Not cool. We didn't find it, and after we tried doing doors in the area, we got yelled at and escorted outside. That's the biggest joke because we're allowed to knock on peoples
doors and stuff. So the people who yell at us and tell us to leave are just being silly.

Samstag: Saturday morning we did weekly planning. After that, we ate Tortellini and played basketball.

Basketball, Rostock style...

Fun stuff. After Basketball we played Ping Pong with the branch. And after that, we talked with Tobias for a while. Not much else haha.

Sonntag: Sunday was just wild. The sisters had a really cool investigator at church, so we had investigator class. Tobias taught it and we helped. This girl was way cool though. I blessed the sacrament, and it was testimony meeting. After church we had Gemeindeessen, just like break the fast with the branch. That was way good. After that, we printed out a bunch of talks, and planned to drop them off at less actives houses. We spent the whole night finding these places, trying get in contact with these people, and leaving them a note and a talk if they didn't answer. It was fun, but nobody answered haha. I don't understand how sometimes we can go by on a person like 15 times and they're NEVER HOME! It's crazy.

Well that was the week! We didn't teach a lot, and didn't find a lot either. We were both kind of curious about where the time went. Because we were always busy! Kind of weird. But the week kind of went by slow. I have just been way way tired and almost sick just this whole last week. My feet are always cold, and my nose is always runny. But I'm still loving it! Attitude really does make or break any experience you're ever going to have in life. I have to remind myself often that it doesn't matter how many people we find who want to learn more, or how many lessons we teach, as long as we're always working and always trying hard.

Halloween at home sounds like it was way fun! I miss clam chowder, of course, and home made rolls. On Halloween here I ate Subway, and spaghetti pie. Kind of weird, but it was all good. That's funny that
Thomas dressed up as a missionary. That kid. I'm not cool with the giant shark being built so close to the house. Thanks for voting for me! I'm really excited to hear who wins. I really don't have too much of an opinion, or desire who wins, because I just know nothing about what's going on, but I still want to hear.

King Tobias was already here when I got here haha. Just a ferret statuette ordained with some fake foliage. No big. The food in Rostock is pretty normal haha. We eat the typical missionary meals. A lot of pasta. And they have Döner here. Hopefully we'll have a real Thanksgiving dinner here. The senior sisters might make it happen. There's no such think as Libby's pumpkin pie stuff here, and they just don't eat pumpkin pie in Germany. I'm bummed about that. I'm going to send some pictures! I hope you enjoy them.

I miss you all so much! The holidays are coming, and I won't be with you all...bummer. But they'll be good anyways. I want to send home some candies and stuff soon! Maybe hit me up with some moolah, and you
could have some way good chocolate and Haribo in the mail!

Love you all!

Elder Pollard

Week Forty-one

Hey everybody,

So picture this. The Elders in Rostock walk into the normal internet cafe, and sitting in the corner on the pay phone, is a lady SCREAMING into the phone in some middle eastern language. She's intense and scary. And crying a lot. I feel bad. But it's kind of distracting. So bear with me on this email.

This last week was good! We taught a lot. We've been going through the area book, and trying to call and get in contact with everybody that the missionaries had met with earlier. It's boring work just sitting and making a bunch of calls, especially because it seems like nobody has a working telephone number, BUT we're getting in contact with a lot of people, and hopefully we can help them. However, because we were teaching a lot, we didn't have a lot of time to find, so we really need to find some people this next week. GOOD STUFF. We actually did a lot of finding/doors and we just got nobody. Sometimes that happens. It's not a big deal. President Kosak is actually having us focus more on really teaching well and building good relationships with investigators, than on finding. Kind of cool. Anyways, here's what I did last week.

Monday: I love P-Day. It's just the best. After emails and shopping, we ate at this grungy little Asian food place, which turned out to be all right. Big portions is all that matters really anyways. I enjoyed it. After that, we went around the city and looked in stores and stuff. I helped Elder Stanley pick out a scarf for his lady friend back home. But apparently I just have the worst taste in scarfs, and I picked out a man scarf. Oh well. We came home and finished cleaning the deep fryer, which is up and running and pounding out potato chips
like 24/7.

King Tobias, the official plaster ferret mascot of the Elder's Apartment...

I'm living the dream here. Well, after P-Day was over, we were supposed to have an appointment with this guy named K. We waited for him, but he didn't show up. So we just started with Family Home Evening. (We usually do it at the church/institute center and whoever comes just comes). So right when we started FHE, K showed up! He's a cool guy. We talked with him for a while and answered a lot
of his questions about Mormons. You know, the typical polygamy questions, and stuff about Mitt Romney, and all that quatsch. It was a good lesson though.

Dienstag: Tueday was kind of hectic. We studied in the morning, and went by on this one referral. We've gone by on this family like 15 times in the past 3 weeks, and the are just never home. It's kind of a joke. I don't know how you could just never be home. Oh well. After lunch and everything, we met with this guy named A. We found him by going through the area book and making calls. He's kind of cool. He's had bad experiences with the Elders/Church here in Rostock, which is really too bad. When we came, he just showed us a bunch of pictures from when he lived in Utah. He speaks good English, and makes a lot of
jokes, which is cool. I'm not sure just how much interest he has to learn about the gospel. He actually told us that if he was in Utah, that he'd be baptized, but he doesn't feel like the church is the same in Germany. That's just really too bad. After our appointment with A, Bruder A picked us up so we could go help him with his
wood pile again.

The ever-growing wood pile...

IT'S SO BIG! We spent a long time just finishing this thing. After that, we met T at the Bahnhof, and went to help him with Home Teaching. It went well.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was CRAZY! We had district meeting in the morning, and there are like 12 missionaries in our district. I think we have the biggest district in the mission. After DCM, we ate at an American diner called 'Little Money', which is just entirely ironic, because it's super expensive. I ate the 'Giant Mississippi Burger'. It was alright. After eating, we made a bunch of more calls. We met with M that day too. We went on a long walk with him, through some German Forests. No big. It's hard to teach M. We have more of like life chats with him. He knows the church and has met with missionaries for a long time. He's just refuses to change. That's what I think. But he's really nice and a cool guy. Hopefully we can get through to him.  After M, we had to go to Institute early to teach D. But when we got there, M was there! M is cool. SO Elder Stanley and I just split up and I taught D in German and Elder Stanley taught M in English. They were two good lessons. I talked to D about praying, and about 'real intent', like praying, and expecting to receive an answer, and wanting to do whatever that answer tells you. I got him stoked to pray. M wants to be baptized too! If he finds an answer. I think he wants to find an answer though, which is great.  We were talking a lot about baptism that night. Institute was way cool too, we talked about the 12 apostles in the Bible, and how Christ chose them and stuff.

Donnerstag: Thursday we were in Eberswalde ALL DAY. We left Rostock at 9 in the morning, got to Eberswalde at 1, ate, did a couple hours of finding, and got back on a train at 5 to get to Rostock at 9 at night. Worth it? Debatable.

Freitag: Friday morning we had Gemiko (Ward Mission Leader/Missionary Meeting) with T. T is awesome, I don't know if I've said anything about him yet. He's an RM that's like 24. Speaks 100% perfect English. Like it's hard to believe that he's even from Germany. He's super cool and the 2nd counselor of the branch presidency here. He's amazing. We went out and got lunch with him after Gemiko. We did some weekly planning after that. We met with Andy that night too. He tried to get us to watch some AMC TV series called Hell on Wheels. Some new age western thing and Common acts in it. It was really distracting because we were trying to talk to him about everything. I really hope he is willing to make some progress. We did doors after in the freezing cold. Oh btw, GERMANY IS FREEZING. It snowed this week too.

Samstag: Saturdays are the best because we get to play Basketball and Ping Pong. In the morning, we were supposed to meet this guy in Innenstadt, but we just ended up waiting in the freezing cold and he didn't show. So after that, we went home and ate, and then went to basketball. I love sports. What would the world be without sports? Just boring. Germans are bad at sports too. So being American helps. After Basketball, we play Ping Pong at the Institute center. Good times for all. After that, we did some finding in Innenstadt, which
was rough. Not a lot of people like talking about God at 8 at night while it's freezing.

Sonntag: Sunday was cool. I blessed the sacrament in Church. After the sacrament, they showed the one session of conference that everyone missed. I didn't get to see it, because the sisters had an investigator at church, and we had an investigator class. It went really well. After church, we cooked a pre-made lasagna at the church and ate it. It was good. After all that, we went by on some less active members, who just weren't home. Then we tried some finding. We were looking at like 4 hours of finding, which would've been rough,
but Elder Stanley got some revelation that we needed to call an older sister in the ward. So we did and asked if we could do anything for her, and she asked us to come and reset some of her clocks, because
the time change just happened here. So we went and did that. She is super nice and cool, and we want to visit her like once a week.

The week was good. Elder Stanley and I get a long really well, and I just love being in Rostock. Times are good. We're making leaps and bounds in Elder Stanley's German. It's really hard to teach somebody a
language that you don't really understand 100% haha. But he's doing so good. I'm proud of him. And I'm  glad that I can be helping. We also have been cleaning the apartment a lot. It was kind of nasty when I got here, but it's looking good now. My life is good!

I wish it was hot in Rostock mom! Just enjoy the weather in SD for me, because I might literally freeze to death here. It's been like 5 degrees Celsius, and it even snowed once already! So it must have been under 0 degrees. I will just never get used to the cold. I have to wear a scarf and gloves everywhere I go! It's the worst. But it's cool to use all the winter stuff we bought like a year ago haha. Like I said earlier, the deep fryer is up and running. We make potato chips/fries. Kind of like In-n-out fries. It's good. We never really
have time to use it actually haha. The food in Rostock is pretty normal haha. I refuse to eat any fish I buy on the street here. It's just too risky. And since we're right on the water, there are a lot of food stands with just fish. Just like buy a fish and a roll and eat it. I'm not into that. We eat a lot of just easy and fast meals. Like
Bratwursts, Lasagna, Sandwiches, Pasta, and stuff. I made banana pancakes yesterday morning, and Elder Stanley's mom sent him maple syrup, which is just the best. Don't talk to me about Thanksgiving...I'm so upset that I don't get to eat mom's cooking. It's just the worst. Send me some cookies! And other stuff.

I'm doing really well!!!!! I have a new motto in life: '...try to show kindness in all that you do...' from the primary song 'I'm trying to be like Jesus' It's going well. I love my mission!

I love you all and miss you all a lot. Like always!

Elder Pollard

Week Forty

NAH!?

Nah is just something Germans say. It's like how American teenagers say 'like' or 'um'. so NAH!? Wie geht es euch?! Ganz gut, ich hoffe. My last week in Rostock was way cool. Ups and downs and sports and investigators. Just everything to expect on a normal mission. But I am just loving it. I'm eating every day up. And I am so tired lately! Which is a good thing. Well, let me just tell you about my second week in Rostock.

Montag: Last Monday was the first P-Day in Rostock. We woke up, and did some cleaning around the apartment. I find it hard to study on P-Day, because I'm just so excited to email and to check cool stuff out and everything. So we clean. After emailing, we went shopping for groceries. We shop at the 'Netto', which has earned the nickname in the mission as the 'ghetto'. Not too ghetto though, I like it. It's super cheap. After shopping, we met up with the Greifswald Elders. They came to check out Rostock and to do some shopping. Our Innenstadt is really big and has a bunch of stores. I looked for new shoes, because mine are totally broken. Apparently there's some deal at this huge German shoe store chain, that if you by these 20 euro shoes, you can turn them in whenever they break. Idk, but all the shoes there  were horribly ugly. I also checked out H&M and C&A for some sweaters. It's getting cold. I only ended up buying one thing. At 'TKMAX' (Just like T J MAX, but with a K instead...idk) Elder Stanley and I found matching Nike shirts. SWAG! They're sick.

A t-shirt that says "Berlin"

 We also checked out this gnarly old church. I didn't take any pictures. Next time. It was a good P-Day. After that, we meet with this kind of 'ewig investigator' (eternal investigator) named M. We didn't get through to him really, but it was good to get to know him. He's super shy but still comes to a lot of the activities (because of a sister in the ward). And after that lesson, we had FHE! It was fun. Elder Stanley and I taught a lesson on the gospel of Christ. Then we ate good food. Rice and soup of some sort.

Dienstag: Tuesday, we were in Berlin again for 'Zone Training' That was great, because Elder Stanley and I had to give a thema (lesson/workshop) on 'How to master German'. The best part was that I forgot to copy my notes down into my little thema book, so I just had to wing it from memory. People said it was pretty good haha. It was way cool to be with the zone, but riding all the way to Berlin again just wasn't worth it. We got to hang out in Berlin Hauptbahnhof again (my favorite place) so we ate pizza hut. Then the ride back basically took all day.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was supposed to be packed, but only about half of our stuff went through. After study, we went by on a coupe of contacts/referrals, but one is never home, and the other has moved away. So we walked around a lot. Then we came home and ate lunch. I don't remember what we ate, so it couldn't have been that good. Or bad. Elder Stanley and I have been tackling the area book and cell phone and just calling EVERYBODY haha. It's been working really well. We've come in contact with maybe ten people who have set out appointments with us, so bonus. And a good part of area book work, is that the GML (Ward mission leader) knows the people already. Which is cool. After that, we went by on this guy named L. He's from southern India, and is just studying in Rostock. We had a cool lesson with him. He speaks English and Telugu...whatever that is. He said some crazy long prayer in Telugu to start the lesson off.
Unfortunately, L is going back to India for a month and a half, so that was the last time we'll see him before he comes back. Oh well. After him, we went by on a Brother in the ward. He's not less active,
but visits from the missionaries help a lot. We talked about prayer. I shared how Nephi prayed for strength when his brothers tied him up. Instead of asking God to take him out of the situation, he asked God for the strength to help himself. Cool stuff. After that, we had Institute. D showed up! Which was awesome. Remember D from last week? He's cool. It went well.

Donnerstag: Thursday was cool. After studying, we had an appointment with P, the psychiatrist. We went to his office and got to know and taught a good lesson. The guy is super cool, and friendly. We got to know each other really well, and gave him the BOM and committed him to read and pray. After that, we went home and ate. The apartment in Rostock has seen better days. Missionaries just haven't been taking care of it. So Elder Stanley and I clean all the time. We were then supposed to have a lesson with someone named Enoch, but that fell through. We did a lot of doors and OYMs (open your mouth, basically street contacting), but didn't find anyone. That night, we met with the sisters to plan for Zone finding.

Freitag: Friday was Zone finding.

District Greifswald

Basically everyone in the zone (14 missionaries) came to Rostock and we found all day. Before that, we had Gemiko (the meeting with the ward mission leader) So everyone came and we split up throughout the city. It was good, and we got like 3 appointments out of it, and taught a bunch of good lessons. A family from the ward ran us down and bought us ice cream too. Delicious. After Finding, We went home and studied.

Samstag: Saturday! was cool. In the morning, we went to Bruder A's house to help him out and do some service. We ended up stacking a BUNCH of fire wood. He had us do it in some weird way...like in a big circle.

Before....

and after...

After that, we hurried home and went and played basketball with a bunch of German and Chinese guys! It was so fun! And good exercise. Germans are not athletic. At all. The average German male is just so nonathletic and uncoordinated. It's sad. We dominated. After that, we rushed home, showered, changed, and went to PING PONG! Ping Pong is a big deal. Bruder S is ridiculously good too. And he's like 70. Just super intense. After Ping Pong we set up the church for Gemeinde Essen. Break the fast.

Sonntag: Sunday was fun. I met the ward, which was awesome. Also, a random kid showed up to church! Which is just way cool. His name is Marcel, and he speaks 10 different languages. He's 19, and '...just looking for the right church' in his own words. GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR!  Elder Stanley and I are looking forward to teaching him and getting to know him. He was super friendly too, and stayed for break the fast. We had to have fast Sunday on the 3rd week, because the first week was conference, and President Monson was here last week. It was awesome. After church, both of our lessons fell out, which sucks, but we were blessed, and able to make more calls and make out some appointments. Also, some British guy just stopped us randomly and asked if we wanted to play basketball on Wednesday this week. Of course we do.

That was the week! And it was good. Elder Stanley and I get along really well. We've having fun too. I'm just super happy and blessed to be in a big city with a hard working companion. We're learning a lot and enjoying everything. Being a missionary rocks.

FAMILY. I am doing so well. Don't even worry about me! Haha I'm loving it. Rostock is definitely looking and feeling like fall. The leaves are just everywhere on the ground and it's getting super cold. I'm glad you like the Bear picture. The bears really are everywhere and they're always painted differently. It's kind of cool. I'll remember to take pictures of them whenever I see them.

As for Christmas presents, I really don't know haha. Maybe peanut butter, or American candy. I can like get everything else here. I still have 50 euro of personal money. I might have to spend a big chunk of it on new shoes, because mine are just toast. That would be really cool if Emily and Matt could move back to SD. Everyone should live there.

So Elder Stanley and I found this NASTY old deep fryer in the apartment, and we've been cleaning it for the past week haha. It's so hard to clean. The last missionary to use it literally did not clean it at all before stashing it under the sink. Who knows how long it's been under there. Just getting nasty. We plan on using it though! Hopefully I can make some chicken strips soon. I love it.

I love everything about Rostock. Elder Stanley is way cool, the ward  is small, but awesome, and the weather is cold. I can tell that I am really going to enjoy my time here. Hopefully I stay for a long time.
Seeing President Monson was way cool. He talked about 'eyes that see, ears the hear, and hearts that feel' in regards to bringing less active members back to church. He talked a lot about his times in Germany, and shared a lot a stories about helping bring members back to church. He also talked about 4 L's. I think the were Listen Learn Labor and Love. Again, in regards to bringing less actives back. It was a cool conference. It was hard to focus, because he would talk in English, and then the German translator would talk, so at times I found myself listening and trying to understand the German more than the English.

Thanks for the Emails! I am doing really well.  I love you all, and pray for you every night.

Love,
Elder Pollard

Week Thirty-nine

DEAR FAMILY!!!

OH HOW I LOVE ROSTOCK!!!!!

I can't even describe to you all in words how happy I am to be here with Elder Stanley. I am supposed to be here in Rostock. I love it so so so much. I love Hof too, but exciting things are happening here, and it's just amazing. I'm having the time of my life.

Let me just tell you about my week. That will be the best way for you all to understand how awesome Rostock is.

Monday: Last P-Day was kind of sad, because we had to explain to all the members in Hof that Elder Huber and I would both be leaving. But anyways, we emailed like normal, and did some packing. Schwester Y. took us out to Chinese food, which was pretty good. We then got ice cream.



I had RedBull ice cream. It was interesting. Probably won't eat that again. After that, we packed a bunch. I am so grateful for the vacuum bags that I bought at Rossman. It made packing a little better. Then we went the the M's house. That was sad haha. We just hung out, played Ligretto (awesome card game) and played with the puppies and what not. It was super sad to say bye!

Tuesday morning was STRESSFUL! ALL OF TUESDAY WAS STRESSFUL. So the ehepaar actually helped Elder Huber and I get our luggage to Bahnhof. Then the left haha. I rode the rain with Elder Huber from Hof to Dresden. At Dresden I transferred onto a train that was going to Berlin. There was another missionary on that train, so we hung out and talked haha. The train going to Berlin was late though, so I missed my train leaving Berlin. So I had to spend 40€ of my personal money to buy a new ticket to Rostock. It's OK though, because the church will refund it. It wasn't my fault anyway. I just hung out in Berlin Hauptbahnhof by myself for an hour. No big. Then I caught my train to Rostock! My luggage survived, and did not break more then it already was. When I got into Rostock, my companion, Elder Stanley, and a member, Tobias were waiting for me. It was freezing when I came into Rostock. It's super cold here. We then went and checked out the church, because we were supposed to have a lesson, bu the guy never showed up. Oh well, we just ate some sketchy Chinese food and talked and got to know each other.

Wednesday: Wednesday morning was normal, study and such. After that, we went and bought the ticket for the train going to Berlin on Sunday to see the Prophet. After that, we went to the church (literally across the street from the apartment) to have Gemiko (ward mission leader/missionary conference). Which is just awesome. Tobias, the member that picked me up, is like 25, speaks perfect English, went to BYU and stuff, is the 2nd counselor in the branch, and our ward mission leader. He's amazing. He is the heart and soul of the missionary work in Rostock-he does so much for us. I love it. So at Gemiko, it was Elder Stanley and I, the sisters Sister Linford and Moon (Sister Moon was in the MTC with me) and the Senior sisters Wunderli and Holbrook. All amazing people. I love it. After that we went shopping. The church in Rostock is above a Netto, which is like a small grocery store. Legit. We ate, then did some doors, which was fun. At night, we had institute, which went well. We had an investigator there. His name is M. He has a crush on a member in the branch, but not super interested in the gospel. We'll change that. It was a good day.

Thursday: After study, we were supposed to meet this guy at his work, which turned out to be this huge building, and he is the head psychiatrist of this business or something weird. Too bad he wasn't there, but we made out another appointment. We went home and ate then did some study. Because I'm finishing Elder Stanley's training, we get 4 hours of study for 'New Missionary Study' or whatever. It's fun. We made a bunch of calls then. Then we OYMed. Which is Open Your Mouth. Just street contacting. Finished the night with a load of Doors. I love it.

Fritag: After study, we went by on this referral, who just wasn't there. Oh well. The referral actually lives on the street that the sister missionaries do so IDK why it's ours. But good. After that we went home, ate, and did weekly planning. Some good stuff. After that, we went by a super old investigator that Tobias told us to go by on. His name is Mark S. He is from Indonesia, but speaks English, German, Indonesian, Dutch, French, and Spanish. No big. We went on a walk through the Rostock University Botanical Garden, and had a good talk about life and religion and the Bible/BOM.

Botanischer Garten Rostock Teich

Hopefully we'll get to met with him more. He's super busy always because of school.We ended the night with Doors, taught one lesson doing that, and went home to study.

Saturday: Sat Morning was District Meeting. Our district is interesting. There are 12 missionaries. (Which is kind of a big district) but only 2 areas haha. Rostock and Greifswald. And there are 6 missionaries in each area. Good stuff. After that, we had an eating appointment with Bruder S. haha he's the man. Just super funny but a solid members. He's actually the Elders Quorum President. He's super super funny. He has this huge dog named Moppel. Who just owns the place. Moppel stole my seat, and they just brought out a chair because they said he wouldn't move haha. I love it. We then met up with some cool Asians playing basketball, and they invited us to play next week. That's happening. We met with this Asian guy named Xu after that. He actually was baptized a year ago, but went to China before being confirmed. So we were like what the heck. Nobody could get contact with him. But we did. Bonus. After that, we went back to the Institute center and played Ping Pong with our newest Investigator DANNY! My man! We had an awesome lesson with him. I loved the week.

Sonntag: WAS SUPER STRESSFUL. But totally worth it. We left at 7 in the morning to go to Berlin.

Elder Pollard and Friend in Berlin

We got there, and ate lunch with the Sister in Eisenhüttenstadt. After lunch, we went to the conference center. THAT WAS INSANE. There were soooo many missionaries there! I got to see everyone. It was amazing. I got to see all my best friends. President Monson was awesome. He's so cool. He talked eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that feel. In regards to working with less active members. It was awesome. I was actually asked to translate for this American family that was there. Monson spoke in English, obviously, but there was a speaker in German. So the translation was hard, but I did alright. After the conference, I got to see the whole branch from HOF!

The Hof Branch, Elder Huber and Elder Pollard

They all came up!!! It was awesome to see them again. I loved it. Then we went home. We got home at 11:300........

I LOVED LAST WEEK! EVERYTHING ABOUT IT WAS AMAZING!

So Rostock...such a cool city. I love it. It's super North, right on the Ostsee. The Baltic Sea. It's super pretty and kind of big. 200,000 people, as apposed to the 54,000 in Hof. I love working with the other missionaries in the city too. Elder Stanely is a champ.

Elder Stanley and Pollard in front of the German Reichstag

He reminds me of Brother Wertner, but 20 years old. He's in his 2nd transfer in Germany. He's a way good guy, and a hard worker. I just love it. I love Rostock and everything! The apartment is kind of...interesting. A little small and definitely hasn't been taken care of, but we're cleaning a lot.

So I hope you can tell that I'm happy haha. Being sent here was the answer to a lot of prayers. I love working, it's the best. But no Wal-Mart here...booo.

Sorry if I can't answer all of the question. I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!!!!





Love you all SO MUCH!  And miss you a ton.

Love,
Elder Pollard

Week Thirty-eight

WOW

That's all I can say right now. WOW what an exciting week! Like I don't even know where to start! So many feelings came out of this week. All I can do is just tell you.

The week was awesome! Monday we had district P-day in Zwickau. It was fun, we got on the train early in the morning to get to Zwickau and email and stuff. After emailing, we went to C&A (Like H&M but a little for JCPennyish) and I bought a snazzy new white shirt! One that actually fits. Slim Cut because that's how Europeans do it. Pictures to be included. After shopping, we ate some delicious cheap Asian food, and played sport. We played football and soccer for a couple hours. Then we came home! Tuesday was our day of service. We continued our efforts in the M's garden, which included digging trenches for new walls that need to be built, using a jackhammer to get rid of some concrete, and transporting hundreds or pounds of cement bags from the front yard to the back. Good stuff! Shwester M made us delicious food. Saurkraut and some meat thing, which was from the neck of a pig. It was super delicious. We spent basically all day doing service. Wednesday was district meeting. The W's drove Elder Huber and I to Plauen and back. It was a sad district meeting, because it was the last of the transfer. And we were expecting about half of the district to be transferred.It was OK though. We took pictures and stuff. Friday was super awesome. We went by on Shwester E, and when we were there, the ehepaar was already there! Coincidence? No. We had a really good lesson. Not a lot about Schwester E's beliefs were cleared up, but we came upon a good understanding of her faith, and how we can help her. It was a good appointment. Saturday morning was transfer calls! More about the later. Saturday night was Conference, and all of Sunday.

Conference was amazing! I totally regret not paying too much attention to it when I was home. Something about coming on a mission makes conference the most exciting thing ever. Something cool - we watched conference in Zwickau, which is where President Dieter F. Uchtdorf first had contact with the missionaries! So we got to watch Uchtdorf speak, while being the church building that he was taught in. What a cool experience! I especially liked Elder Holland's Talk where he said (using his own words to quote Christ) 'If you didn't know then, then you've certainly learned by now - that if I want fish, I CAN GET THEM!' I lold.  But really Elder Christofferson's talk was my favorite. His 'call to manhood'-it was awesome.

Transfer calls....WELL I was sitting back in my chair super comfortable on Saturday morning, NOT expecting to be transferred at all. And then I heard this, 'In Rostock....Elder Pollard will train.' I just kind of sat there shocked. I didn't expect that I'd be leaving Hof! And I still don't really want to leave Hof. I like Hof a lot. But now I am being assigned to Rostock (an 8 hour train ride North) to finish the training of Elder Stanley. Oh well! I heard Rostock is super awesome, so I'm really excited, but I still don't want to leave at all. I guess that's that haha. Actually Elder Huber is leaving too. They're bringing in two new missionaries to Hof. President did that with a lot of areas this transfer. Almost everyone is moving. More than half of the missionaries haha.

So I spent the weekend at conference and packing and cleaning when I was at home. I'm really excited now! But super nervous to travel. I hate traveling. Especially with my two broken suitcases.......the ones I won at grad night. Turns out, they're not the best quality.

STRESS! Family, please pray for me during my travels!!!! I will be traveling from 8:30 in the morning until 5 at night! That's 11:30 PM to 8 in the morning. The day you will read this! PRAY FOR ME PLEASE! I NEED HELP TRAVELING. I hate it.

Other than that, the week was super normal. Everyone is super stoked for sister missionaries reporting at age 19 now. I even have two girls emailing me who are dropping school to go on missions! How exciting is that. That's some straight up revelation that we got to witness. SO COOL.

Well, really not much to say! I get to see Thomas S. Monson on Sunday in Berlin! That's exciting. Other than that, I'll have a lot to tell you about next week!

Love you all SO much!

Elder Pollard

Week Thirty-five

Editor's note-this posting is a high light of the last three weeks emails-we'll try to keep up with the weekly postings going forward...

Hey guys,

Wow! The emails I got from the family today were awesome. It's cool how I come to this little internet cafe every Monday, and I am always SO excited to read the Emails from my family. It's the highlight of my day! And most of the times of my week. This past week was....meh. Not enough work was done for me to say that I enjoyed it. Still 'stuggling' in Hof. We're not supposed to write home about when times are hard or annoying, but I don't want to, and won't lie haha. Times are hard and annoying in Hof. Anyway, there's certainly room to improve! Which is a blessing.

Last week:

Montag: Last Monday was super normal. Just did shopping in the morning, then emails, then ate Mai Tahn Lang, the Chinese Imbiß across the street from our Wohnung, (freaking delicious) and then hung around, I read a little, we watched some movies. Good stuff. That was basically Monday.

Dienstag: Tuesday, we were going to meet with Schwester Ernst, but she called and rescheduled. Which is great progress for her. Normally, she would just not call or anything and then not be home when we showed up. So good for her.

Mittwoch: Wednesday, we actually did meet with Schwester E. Going there is always fun. She has two dogs, one is like 15 years old and small and kind of sickly looking. The other is named 'Pepino' and is the craziest, wildest dog on Earth. Pepino has already succeeded in breaking my shoes haha. Apparently they taste good. And she's getting a new one soon. Kind of crazy, but the are friendly dogs, and Schwester E. is super friendly too. We talked about stuff. We are planning on going over the Preach My Gospel lessons with her, because, even though she's already a member, she needs to learn A LOT. She told us that she doesn't believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, even though she believes that the Book of Mormon is true. And also, that none of the Prophets or Apostles are called of God. So, obviously we need to talk about a lot of things. Our Branch President told us to teach her like we were teaching an investigator. So, we'll see how that goes.

Fritag: Friday was cool. Right after lunch, we were supposed to meet with Brother R. and his friend C., but his friend wasn't there, so it was just Bruder R.. He's pretty much less active even though he believes 100 on everything. he just has trouble getting to church. We had a good talk with him. After that, we went and did service in Bruder M's garden. This garden is basically all of our project haha. I'm really into it. I love garden work! Like taking something that's old and nasty and making it look good is fun. And it's a nice break from wearing white shirts and ties all day. And it's really good exercise. I basically spent 4 hours taking a big bump/hill in the ground and making it flat. It was a workout. After that, we ate Abendbrot, and played Ligretto, a super fun card game. It was a good day!

Samstag: Saturday we had our weekly planning.

Sonntag: Sudnay was fun. We got to church (the Hotel Quality) and set up, and chatted with Bruder M. It was fast Sunday, of course, and we had a grand total of 8 people at church. Which is kind of sad, but it's awesome, because everybody was the opportunity to get up and speak. And surprisingly, we filled the whole hour just with 8 people. It was cool. I did door service, so I hung out by myself in the back. After that, we had a combined relief society/priesthood meeting lesson. After church, we ate with the H's. They're way cool. We ate goulash and noodles and cake. Yum. On the way home, we had a pretty good chat with Bruder H., who isn't a member. It was cool. After that, we went home and cleaned the apartment.

That was the week!

Like I said earlier, there is A LOT of room for improvement. Hof is getting a senior couple though! To work with us. Hopefully that will help the situation.

Other than the work going slow, everything is good with me. I need some mom help though! MOM! Hey. I need some help and advice. I weighed myself this morning at 90.4 kgs. Which is roughly 200 lbs. BUT I need to lose more! It's getting hard to keep loosing, and I want all of your advice and tips on how I can keep losing weight. PLEASE! Anything you have.

I love my family! I say this every week, but I am so bummed that I'm going to miss Emily's wedding. Weddings sound awesome. And I'll be in Hof. But oh well, I'm happy that Emily and Matt are doing this! I hope everyone else is coping well with the excitement!

I love you all!

Elder Pollard

Good Morning Rancho Bernardo,

And greetings from Europa. Am I really your favorite Elder Mom? That's sweet. You are my favorite parents, and favorite family too! I've actually been having A LOT of really vivid dreams, and my family is in
almost every one of them (or related to what I'm doing). Last night, I dreamed that I was on a plane home, and I was sitting in front of Jerry Seinfeld and Kramer, and they were making fun of me because I was Mormon. Kind of sad, but it's just a dream. Well this last week was definitely better. I feel like I've just been in build up mode to actually get back into the swing of things, and last week was the first real step. Not a giant step, but definitely progress. Which is awesome.

Last P-Day was tragic, because we ran out of money haha. Literally, I had 5 Euros Monday morning. 2 went to the internet cafe so I could email, and I had to save the rest to pay the bus for district meeting on Wednesday. So we didn't do anything. We couldn't even get Mai Tahn Lang! My favorite Asian food! I cried a little. So P-Day was the most boring day of the week haha. Asides from Emailing of course, which is
my favorite part of the week.

On Wednesday, we had district meeting in Plauen, which went well. We went on tausch with the district leader, Elder Fullmer, and he and I rode the bus back to Hof (50 minute ride). BUT I got my rückerstattung
back in, so I had money on my card again! YAY money! So, Elder Fullmer and I came back to Hof, and bought Mai Tahn Lang, because we couldn't shop for groceries on Monday, so we had no food, and had to eat out. Delicious. After lunch, Elder Fullmer and I went by on a lot of contacts. We got in touch with our old Polish man investigator, but he didn't have a lot of time, and went to the hospital the next day  because he has blood clots. It was raining pretty hard, and like nobody was home, so that was sad, but it was good to be out. I remember being happy that I couldn't feel my fingers or hands haha. It had been so long since I was out in the cold. By the way, Germany is already getting cold. It's scary. After going by on contacts, we did some doors. We had a walk in with an ex-Jehovah witness, which lasted a long time, because she liked to talk. She was really nice and we had a cool little lesson, but in the end she told us that she wouldn't read the
BOM. Oh well. We talked to some other people, made out a lot of appointments. It was awesome. After all that, we went and looked for a tausch treat. We were looking for Baklava, a Turkish desert, but none of the Döner ladens had any. I just made pancakes.

Thursday morning, Elder Fullmer and I went on a run, which killed me haha. I'm pretty out of shape. Still loosing weight, but definitely not in shape. But that was fun. Thursday we went to the temple! So Elder Fullmer and I got ready, and went to Bahnhof. The ride is around  2 hours to the temple, but it's fun with Uno. We play Uno a lot haha  because we ride trains a lot. The whole district is 8 missionaries, so it's way fun. The temple was awesome, and I even went through it in German! Without the English translator thing. That was cool. Iunderstood it all too. After the temple, we ate Döners. Actually, I ate a Dürüm, which is like a Döner burrito. It tasted like Taco Bell. SO GOOD. We caught the train home, and when we got to Hof, we had to help put some stuff into the new senior companion's apartment. That lasted basically all night, but it was worth it, because we got payed in PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!!!!! Best day ever.

Friday morning, we went back to the new senior missionaries apartment, and put washing machines, fridges, other stuff in. After that, we went to the M's house and did a whole day of service. Our job was to move giant logs from the front yard to the back yard. They got a huge shipment of just like logs haha. It's for fire wood. The big ones had to weigh like 400 pounds. The little ones were like 200. It was crazy. A whole day of being a lumberjack.  It was a good workout. We got half of the pile done haha. Crazy. We also played with their two new puppies. Presh.

Sunday was fun. The only priesthood holders were us and president M. haha no big. Church went well. I blessed the sacrament. We had 11 total, and despite a minor meltdown where a member said she wanted
a calling and kind of yelled at everyone, Church went well. There was some gathering of old army vets at the hotel, so I spoke to some old guys in English haha. It was sweet. After church, we ate at the M's. SO GOOD! Oh my gosh I love German home cooking. Not as good as moms, but still. We had an appointment at 17.00 but it fell through.

The week was better. With a lot of help from our district leader, Elder Fullmer. He's an awesome missionary. It was also really cool to go to the temple. I love the temple, and I regret not going more in SD. It's just so relaxing, and like you feel way good after. It's like a reset button on all the dumb things in your life. It's an awesome place, and everyone there is always so nice! It's getting cold now in Germany. I have to wear the big fuzzy socks that a member in Hannover knit for me to bed. I'm so happy I have those. It's back to suit
weather too. Which is fun. I'm doing ok with the diet. I weigh under 200 pounds. Under 90 kilo actually, which is like 197. So that's going good. (I left SD weighing 230...) my goal for when I see you all again is at least 180. Hopefully under that! That would make me happy. I'm also having a 6pack contest with Rachel, so I have to beat her. That is my motivation.

I am SO EXCITED for Emily!!! I can't believe it's happening so soon. And that I'm missing it...oh well. But I want her to now how happy I am for her and how much I miss her! But she doesn't write me. Sad Face. but I'm stoked to have a brother in law. Especially because it's Matt.

Everything else is running smoothly. I love being here. If I didn't, I would come home. But i do, so I'm staying, sorry haha. I'm healthy, relatively happy, and don't miss home TOO much. I do miss my friends a
lot. I miss food from home haha. Chic-fil-a.

Anyways, I love you all more than you know!

Pray for me, I pray for you

Elder Pollard

Week Thirty-two

Hey ya'll,

 

I Love P-Day. I love logging on to the computers here in the 'Taj Mahal' Indian cuisine and internet cafe, and seeing all the emails I get! I am really blessed, because I have a lot of people who seem to find me interesting. My 2 hours of emails every Monday are PACKED! And I love it. I love hearing about what other people are doing, and sometimes it's crazy to hear about all the changes going on at home. Not too much with the family, but a lot with my friends. I love hearing about it all, because I pray for all of you so much! I wish the best for you all, every night.

 

Last week was OK...the two owners of the 'Taj Mahal' are arguing really loud in front of me in a strange language. Anyways, last week was cool. Kind of relaxed and lazy, which sucks, but all is well and is going to pick up. Let me just tell you about it.

 

Monday: Last P-Day, we went grocery shopping in the morning. The food this week was boring again, so I probably won't tell you what I ate everyday haha. We bought food to have bratwursts, and tune/rice/curry ketchup. So that was that haha. After shopping, we went and did emails. It was really hot on Monday haha, I think I was sweating a lot just after walking to do emails. I loved emails. After that, we walked back to the apartment, and picked up Chinese food at 'Mai Tahn Lang' across the street. Our favorite Chinese Imbiß. The Chinese food in Germany is good haha. Not like restaurant good, but 5 buck take out good. It's always worth it. We spent the rest of P-Day hanging around, watching movies, and cleaning. And I read a lot of Lord of the Rings. I'm so nerdy, I can't even put the book down. It's very strange, because I've never been too much of a reader. But I'm already half down with the trilogy. I'm a nerd. After P-Day was over, we went to M., our Polish investigator, but he wasn't there! So disappointing. But oh well. Next time he'll be there.

 

Dienstag: Tuesday was pretty normal. Woke up, ate, got ready, all that stuff. In the morning, we went by on someone who said to come back whenever, but they weren't there. So we came back and ate lunch. After eating, we went back out on a lot of contacts. After going by on like 6 people, we found at that 2 of them don't live there anymore, and that 2 said we could come back on a different time, so we made out appointments. We've been doing a lot of contact work. We have a list of about 150 contacts, and we made a grid to go along with it, so we could sort out where they live in the city. It's going a little slow right now, but it will pick up. After that, we went by on Bruder L. We had a nice visit, didn't really talk about much because he had company, but he was in a good mood. He started playing Bob Marley for us on his little guitar haha it was funny.

 

Mittwoch: Wednesday, the only interesting things to report is that we did service in Bruder M's garden for a long time. He's totally renovating his house/garden, and we've been helping out a lot. It's going to look awesome when it's all done, but the garden still needs some work, which is awesome for us, because service is a nice break from wearing the white shirts and ties. And it's always good exercise. I got to us a pick to get rid of a lot of stone that the previous owner had put in the back along time ago. I came out with 4 huge blisters on my hands, and a cut on my wrist, but I got a lot of work done, and I felt good helping Bruder Merkel. He's the Branch President here. He's such a cool guy. After we worked for a really long time, he made us some pasta thing. It was good.

 

Donnerstag: Thursday was interesting. In the morning, we went out and bought some stuff we needed. Like soap and stuff. We didn't eat lunch, because we were supposed to eat with Schwester E. Last time we had an eating appointment, she wasn't home, so we had bought an extra meal at the supermarket just in case she fell out again. As we were walking up the her house, we saw her also walking up with her dog. Apparently she didn't have any time/totally forgot haha. Anyway she invited us in and we had a spiritual thought. It was kind of hard because her crazy dog was trying to eat my shoes the whole time. She then gave us all the ingredients to make spaghetti at home, and we left. At night we took the bikes out for more exercise. We rode like a long way out of town on this little kind of cool dirt road. It took us all the way to the next town. It was a long ride, maybe 10 miles or more. But it was super fun.

 

Fritag: Friday we had weekly planning.

 

Samstag: Saturday morning was transfer calls! That was pretty cool. It's crazy to think that 6 weeks have already passed since I've come to Hof. I was listening to President Kosak talk over the conference call just thinking about how fast the time flies by. Next month, on the 18th will be my 8 month mark. Which is like...a third of my mission! I'm not trunky or looking forward to going home..yet...because like I still have a long way to go. Thinking about the end of my mission is a LONG time in the future. I like being a missionary. The call was boring, because we knew already that we were staying together and in Hof. But it was interesting to hear where everyone else was sent and stuff. Elder Donner is coming down from Elmshorn and going to Mittweida, so maybe I'll be able to see him soon. That means that all of the Elders from my golden group (the group of missionaries that I came to Germany with) are now in the Leipzig or Dresden zone, which means we should see each other at the next zone conference. Yes! that will be exciting. I spent Saturday night preparing a talk for Sunday.

 

Sonntag: Sunday went well. I woke up early to make pancakes again, which turned out the best this time. Let me take some time to express my love for pancakes. I would eat pancakes three times a day 7 days a week for the rest of my life. That's how much I love pancakes. We got to church, and I think abut 15 people were there. It's still summer vacation which is the time that every German family drops all responsibilities and just goes on vacation. This happens every year with no fail apparently. My talk went well. Actually, the stake secretary was at church this week. He had to go over some stuff with the branch president. But he bore his testimony before I gave my talk. He stressed the importance of testimony and how we need to always try to strengthen our own. Which was odd, because the talk I prepared was about testimony haha. Kind of cool. I basically taught out of True to the Faith in my talk. The most interesting thing that I found was when Alma talks about how he gained his testimony. We all know that he saw an angel and everything, but he specifically says that he has a testimony though the power of the holy ghost, not because he saw an angel. I thought that was cool. After church we ate at the F's house. We grilled, even though it was super windy, and the wind kept knocking the grill over haha. That was interesting. But it was delicious, and the gave us a lot of food to take home, which was well accepted. We went home and deep cleaned the apartment after that.

 

The week was OK. We didn't do enough work for me to say the the week was good, but today is the start of a new transfer, and I really hope to get back into it. I hate sitting around the apartment. We do it way too much, and it's driving me nuts. I just want to go out and start meeting people again. Also, I look back on the transfer and I realize that I didn't even learn a lot of German. Which I want to change for this transfer coming up. My German is still doing pretty good. I can hold conversations and what not about pretty much anything. And I always know what people are talking about now. But I want/need to refine my German, so I talk more naturally. I love this language.

 

Dad - you can tell Brother Walder that the Bible I bought is a Lutheran translation. It was written in 1903, and is in old Deutsch script. It's way cool. Best 50cent purchase in Germany. We don't use the Einheitsübersetzung bible though. We use a new Lutheran translation. I think. It's red.

 

It sounds like die Familie is doing well. When exactly is Emily's wedding? Like what day? I'm still bummed that I'm going to miss that. Weddings sound fun. They look fun in the movies always. I'm so jealous! I'm sure you're all super busy preparing for that. And you said Christian is losing weight? I weighed myself this morning at exactly 200 lbs. Well, 91 kilo. I have a goal to come back at 180. I think I can do it, if I'm not too lazy. Losing weight is actually pretty easy.

 

Thanks for the banana bread recipe! We have been living SUPER cheap, and haven't really had time or money to experiment with new recipes, but I write them all down in case I ever get put with a companion who likes cooking. I really want to try them all out. Especially the wantons. Food in Germany is actually really cheap. Especially bread.

 

Dad - I'm excited for the fast on Sunday! I know I will be fasting with you all. I decorated my new planner with an artist's rendition of Jesus healing the blind man. It reminds me of how you always tell me to expect miracles. I think it's nice.  Not much else to report on. I'm healthy. Doing good in Hof. I am really excited to start this transfer, and hopefully we can work really hard for the next 6 weeks! 

 

I love you all!

 

Elder Pollard

Week Thirty-one

Einen schönen, guten Morgen!

Hallo famili ud freunde, ich dachte das ich dieses ganze Email auf Deutsch schreiben könnte. Nah? Wäre das in Ordenung? Oder soll ich noch das Email auf Englisch schreiben....das wäre am besten.

A little Deutsch to brighten everybody's day. German is a weird language, but at the same time, it makes a lot of sense. It's definitely hard to learn, but also very possible when you put your mind to it. All it takes is practice! ÜBEN ÜBEN ÜBEN! (Sagen die deutche Menschen) I'm really grateful that I'm here in Germany and that I can learn such a cool language.

Last week was....meh. We had zone konferenz, but it was definitely a lazy week, which I really hate to admit. Since coming out here, I've been doing really well with being a real, responsible, hard working person. But last week was....meh. It's coming to the end of the transfer, and we need to finish strong! I'm excited for this coming week, and hopefully we will get a lot done.

So last week:

Montag: Monday we left early in the morning to go and have district P-Day in Zwickau, a city about an hour north of us. It's a way cool and old city (actually where Dieter F. Uchtdorf found the church), and the elders there are really cool also. We got there kind of early, and did emails in a really ghetto internet cafe. After that, we got a little something to eat (Leberkäse....oh my gosh so delicious) and then headed to do sport. We played football and real football the whole afternoon as a district. It was really fun and good exercise. But it was incredibly hot. I heard the SD is pretty hot right now...so is Deutschland. Na ja, it was really fun. After sport we went and got more food (more leberkäse...my favorite. It's basically Germany's meatloaf, but way more greasy and delicious with mustard). We hung out and talked for a while, enjoying the shade. Unfortunately, we got home kind of late, and missed an appointment that we had with our new Polish investigator. That was really too bad, because I was looking forward to it. But we got back really late haha...

Dienstag: Tuesday morning, we went by on an appointment that we had made out a couple days before, but the lady wasn't there...schade. (That seems to happen a lot...) so after that, we went by on the nose doctor, because of Elder Huber's nose bleeds. We couldn't get an appointment then, but we made out an appointment for Thursday. We then walked home and went to go do weekly shopping. This week was tunafish and rice, and brats again. The cheapest way to eat, and still stay alive. Our weekly food bill is about 15€, which is like 20 bucks. So we're basically living off of around 3 dollars a day, when you factor in other small thing. Pretty solid. A missionary is thrifty. After shopping, we ate our lovely rice, tunafish, and curry ketchup. And we did some planning. During lunch, our only other appointment that day called and canceled...so we had to do some planning for what we wanted to do. Nothing else that special the rest of the day. We took the bikes out at night, which was really fun.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was OK. In the morning we went by on a couple of contacts, who didn't end up living there, so the battle against our 150 name contact list goes on. We came home for lunch and ate brats...mmmm. I think I could eat brats the rest of my life. It's the most perfect food on earth. This time, we made Kartoffeln Puree (basically instant mashed potatoes) and I ate it on the brats. These are my nutrients...bread, meat and potatoes. After lunch, the companion wasn't feeling awesome, so we hung out a little. It was terribly hot this whole past week, and I never really felt awesome either. We did some planning to, worked on our contact list, made calls, and so on. Nothing else that special. We took the bikes out at night, which was really interesting, because it was my turn to lead. I may or may not have accidentally led us through a trail full of stinging nettle...that sucked haha. But it payed off because we found this hill with a good view of a soccer game. We watched the 11 meter kicks at the end. It was kind of intense.

The back side of Elder Pollard's nametag...

 Donnerstag: Thursday morning was elder Huber's nose appointment. He said they shot a laser in his nose. It sounds like the just cauterized a broken vessel or something. They stopped the nose bleeds though. I waited in the waiting room and tried to withstand the attempts of 3 little Turkish kids to try and drive me insane. I succeeded. After that, we visited Bahnhof to see if the train to Leipzig was delayed. All of Germany is always under construction, so the trains are more often than not delayed. We then wet home and ate lunch. Tunafish and rice. After lunch, we had weekly planning. That was good. After that we visited Bruder L., a less active. It was kind of awkward, because he was in a really bad mood again. Oh well. I hope we're helping. When we took the bikes our this time, I found out that my gears are broken. Which isn't fun. I have to find a bike shop and see if they can fix that.

Fritag: ZONE KONFERENZ! I love zone conference. It's super cool. You hear the most awesome and inspiring themas and workshops and talks. The only not cool part is waking up at 4.30.....yeah. To be in Leipzig at 8.30, we need to catch the 5.52 zug, which means we wake up at 4.30. But I'm kind of used to it now. I had a really good doughnut at Leipzig Bahnhof. THAT was exciting. ZoCo was super cool. I got to see 3 missionaries from my golden group (the group of missionaries that was in the MTC with me). Elder Schole, Elder Beckstead, and Elder Guccione. That was AWESOME to see them again! I loved it. Lunch was good. We had some rice and veggie dish with bockwursts. We heard some really awesome themas. Sister Kosak talked about Psalms 23. I liked it. ZoCo went super long, and we missed our train leaving Leipzig, so we were stuck in Leipzig for another hour. Not cool. Hof elders returned home at 10.00 at night. It was such a tiring day.

Samstag: Saturday morning, we went by a referral, who said the had no interest. After that, we went by on more contacts. We came home and ate tunafish and rice. The meal of champions. Puts hair on your chest. After lunch, we got the two hours back from waking up early on Friday. I vegged. We then went by on Schwester E. We chatted for a while, and then left her a BOM that she could write her testimony in. She said we could come back this week on Thursday to eat with her. Hopefully she remembers this time haha. She also gave us a box of frozen "American" hamburger patties. We had to go home then, because I had frozen meat in my backpack.

Sonntag: Sunday is always a good day. Church was fun. I blessed the sacrament. There was a record breaking 36 members at church yesterday! A bunch of families from Plauen came down. I'm not sure why. But it was cool. at one point, I went to the bathroom and, because we meet in a hotel, the were playing the radio through the speaker. And of course, what song is playing when I go in? Purple Rain by Prince. I had an Elder Pollard moment, singing to myself in the bathroom of the Hotel Quality in Hof, Germany. After church, we ate at Brother M's house. A sister in the ward made us food, (Schwester M. is out of town) so we ate that. It was really good. I would call it German chili. Potato, goulash, stew. It was delicious. I love German cooking. We ate ice cream too. We then talked for a while about the Olympics, movies, the BOM, and Lord of the Rings haha. I had a conversation about LOTR in German. Beast. Then Bruder M. gave me a copy of the book in English to borrow. That is my new fascination. It's approved to read, so in my free time, I'm glued to that thing. Too bad we don't have too much free time. It's actually a goal of mine to read a book.

That was the week! Kind of awesome, kind of lazy though. I did reunite myself with my one true love though. Haribo. Haribo is delicious! Especially Pico Balla. Haribo macht kinder froh! Und erwachsene ebenso! The candy of choice. Also, we cleaned the apartment really well on Sunday.

Next week will be awesome. I can just feel it. I really want to work my butt off and just collapse at the end of the transfer. I've been a missionary for over 7 months now! Kind of crazy, but I still have a long ways to go. I'm really happy that I can be here. I am so blessed and honored to be able to do this work.

I hope all is well with the Emily fest. I am actually really sad that I don't get to see Emily super happy at her wedding. I wish every day that I could be there. But that's life. I hope that the whole family is doing good! I miss you all a lot! I pray for you all too.

That's it! Bis nächste Woche!

Love,
Elder Pollard