Week Thirteen

Dear Parentals:

Here was my week.

Monday: After emailing, we ate subway (WAY TOO EXPENSIVE here in Germany. Like 7€ for a sandwich. Total ripoff.) Oh well, it was good. We then played this board game that Elder Locher (aus der Schweiz) had. It was pretty fun. After that, I took a nap because we couldn't go shopping for food, because Monday was a holiday here. Kind of like an extension onto Easter. When P-Day was over, we visited a member family. They're pretty cool, but they only eat BIO food. It was good though, they made us about 2 kilos each of spaghetti. SO MUCH FOOD. We shared a spiritual though, played Kniffel (Yahtzee) and went home.

Tuesday: We had our regular study, and then went on a street contact we made out. He was way cool-like way, way intelligent and has read all the Bible and Koran. He said "Wir bescheftigan uns in philosophy" Which means they study it and and discuss it and stuff. Way smart. We gave him a Book of Mormon, but didn't really get much out of the appointment. After that we had a different appointment fall out, so we used that time to go shopping at Kaufland (Buy-Land) for groceries. We got home, made delicious bratwursts in brotchen rolls. Lunch of champions. Bratwursts here are like hotdogs back home. There's a million different brands and they're dirt cheap. We then went out and had another appointment fall out. After that we had a meeting at the church with one of our ewig untersuchers (eternal investigators). So sad...she Tschussed us. Said she received an answer that the Church was false and corrupt, and kinda left a little angry. It was so sad and just like demotivating. But right after that, we said a prayer to make out another appointment, and the Lord answers missionary's prayers! Honestly every day I see prayers answered. It's great.

Wednesday: Zone conference. You saw the pictures on that blog (http://germanyberlinmission.blogspot.com/) . Dad - the lapel pin I'm wearing says Berlin Germany Mission and was the Brandenburg gate in the background. It's pretty cool. President Pimentel gave them to us the first day we were there. Zone conference was way cool. We just heard the President talk (he compared green eggs and ham to sharing the BOM) and other zone leaders and APs give themas (workshops) It was way cool. I got to meet everyone in our zone, which was also cool. After that we met a brother from Ghana (by the way, I'm learning the language of Twi, which is what the speak in Ghana-Ahoontisae is hello and Madauasae is goodbye) and he's just way excited about the gospel. He loves meeting with us and he's always smiling and I just love meeting with him. Hopefully he will go through and be baptized on May 10th. After that, we met with a brother fromy from Iran who just has had a hard life. It's fun to meet with him, but he likes talking and he likes complaining. He needs to open up and see how the gospel can help him with his life before he just keeps complaining. He will though-I have faith. We made out 2 more appointments that night.

 The missionaires of the Hannover Zone

Thursday: I was on tausch (splits) on Thursday with Elder Locher. We visited an African lady, and we MADE ANOTHER TAUF DATUM (baptismal date) OUT! It was way cool. After that, we went by on a neubekehrt (recent convert) and taught about the plan of salvation. I didn't get a lot out of that, because Elder Locher is from Switzerland, and the neubekehrt is German, so they just spoke way too fast and with vocab I don't know yet, but it was good. We then meet with another neubekehrt. We taught him about temples. It was a good day. It rained SO HARD and SO MUCH though. Not cool. My shoes and suit got soaked, even though I had an umbrella. It was rough.

Friday: We had our regular study, then went out to an appointment that fell out because the untersucher was sick. After that, we went by a member family to have lunch. They're so nice and they love the missionaries. They feed us ever week, and they have this super intense garden with crazy hedges and it's way cool. They made us pork shishkebabs, boiled potatoes, and Eierfrikassee...which was like this sauce\stew with mushrooms, curry powder, and whole hard boiled eggs. It was actually really good. I loved it. Dessert was strawberries and Eis (ice cream). We went home after that and got some study in. After that, we visited with a less active from Spain. The one who speaks Span-glish-deutsch.

We started off Saturday morning with study, then service at a member family's home, planting some flowers for her insane garden. It was nice. After, we ate german Kartoffeln Salat. It was interesting, and it had meatballs in it.  We then had Gemiko (meeting with the ward mission leader). That was nice. We then had TWO appointments fall out...it hurts. But we made out 3 new ones that night so it was OK.

Sunday: Yesterday was Fall Konferenz (Stake Conference) It was way cool, because our stake president just got called to the 70, so he left and a new stake presidency was called. I also met Elder Kapishka, who is in the area presidency for Europe, That was way cool and he spoke. I got to shake an area president's hand. WAY COOL. After that we ate at a sister's house. They're two sisters that are 24 and 29 I believe. The younger one went on her mission to Poland, so we had polish food. Like Potatoes, and this goulash with cabbage and meet. It was good.

Elder Thorley, President Pimentel and Elder Pollard at stake conference

It was a pretty good week!

Now for my daily routine because dad wanted to hear it.

I wake up at 6:30 every morning and pray and do morgensport. At 7 we all take turns showering and getting ready,and then it's study time by 8. Recently, I've been reading the old testament, just because we teach a lot of Muslims and intense Africans who love the Bible, so I want to know it better. The old testament is really weird though. At 10 we're usually out and on our way! Our day consists of talking to people on the streets to make out new appointments, doing doors, and meeting with our appointments that we've made out earlier (just with new appointments, members, or investigators) We come home around noon to make food and eat. We work literally all day. Elder Thorley is really good about being diligent so there are no breaks haha. We ride bahns a lot to get around. We're home usually by 9 when we plan out our next day and we're in bed at 10:30. That's a typical day!

Now comes the part where I make my puppy eyes and send you my wish list of stuff I want...

It would be so nice if you could somehow send me: PEANUT BUTTER. Like a huge jar of Jif or Skippy. There's no peanut butter here and I'm craving it!

I love you guys so much and the picture you sent is on my wall and I see it everyday. I'm happy that everything is going well back home. I don't know what else to say haha. I love getting emails from you.

BYE!

P.S.

I FORGOT TO TELL YOU ABOUT ARE NEW INVESTIGATOR!

He's an older man, and reminds me A LOT of Grandpa Dick (how is he doing by the way). Anyways, this brother is way cool. He speaks perfect English, but with a British accent even though he's from Germany. He worked for Mercedes for like 40 years and he's totally loaded. He bought us ice cream the other night! He's like the most interesting man in the world, and he found the church through free masonry....if that's possible. He heard that Joseph Smith was one, and he is one so he decided to check the church out. We're going to eat Spargel (asparagus) with him later this week. He's way cool and I wanted to tell you guys about him.