Week Twenty-two

Hello Outside World.

This last week was amazing. We saw 10x more success than we earned haha. Not saying that we don't work, because I make sure that we do. Waking up at 6:30 every morning isn't the easiest thing in the world. In fact, it keeps getting harder. I need to think of a better way to get myself awake in the morning. Any ideas? I'd love to hear them. Well despite working our butts off and seeing a lot of miracles last week, both my companion and I were sick. I've actually been sick for about 2 weeks now. I lost my voice completely last week, which kind of sucks when you're trying to talk to people. But it was only gone for about a day. Since then, I've sounded like a 90 year old chain smoker. Which helps out with my terrible German accent. Germany is an amazing place with amazing people. It's so multicultural. Like right at this moment, I'm an American, in an internet cafe owned by Turkish people, there's a guy sitting next to me from the Ivory Coast (funny story) and someone is speaking Russian on the phone outside. Weird? Nope, just Deutschland.

Let me tell you about my week.

Montag: Last Monday we got ready, did emails, ate Subway, normal start to a p-day. After that I used the last of my personal money to buy some sexy pants. Yep I said it, sexy pants. Straight up Euro-trash slim cut sexy slacks. And they look dang good on me. Too bad I'm out of money, because they come with a way cool suit jacket, but it's 35€. Ein bischen zu teuer. Oh well. the pants were only 17€. Bonus. After that, we went grocery shopping, and headed home. We had a lot of time to kill, so we decided to go to the top of the Hannover Rathaus tower. It was way cool. I had already been up there once, but it's still cool to see the city of Hannover from above. This city rocks. It's so cool and well laid out. Perfect for doing missionary stuff. We ended up throwing pass along cards off the top of the tower, because the wind carried them all the way to Innenstadt. 'Fishing with nets'. After P-Day was over, we went and had an appointment with our new investigator. He's a cool guy, but with a sad story. he's on epilepsy meds, and he's pretty alone. The gospel and Book of Mormon can help him so much! we want to get him to church so he could meet a bunch of friends. The one problem is that he uses crazy high German. Big words haha and it's hard to understand him all the time. We'll be going back by him tonight, so we'll see how that all goes. One of the reasons last week was so good was because we got so much finding time in. We made out like 15 appointments last week, which is crazy good. So after that we did some doors and meet some new people.

Dienstag: Tuesday morning was normal. After study time, we went by on a less active member. We had a good lesson about patriarchal blessings, and she said she would want to come back to church to be able to meet with the bishop. It looked really promising, because she hasn't been to church in like 5 months. Anyways, that was good and after that we went home to eat. I totally forgot what we ate. It must not had been that special. After lunch, Elder Wightman wanted to look at our huge ward list and try to figure out some less actives so we could go by on them and see if they needed help. That took a way long time. Our ward list is HUGE and I'd say at least half of it is less actives/people who don't live here anymore. We've got to figure that thing out. So after that huge ordeal, we went by on this Russian guy that we've had problems trying to contact. We had a pretty fest appointment with him, but he still wasn't there again. Oh well, what else could we do. So after that we went to the church to meet a guy that we had an appointment with. He didn't show up either, but it was OK. We hung out with the JTE's (young single adults) for a while. Meanwhile, the ZLs are casting a demon out of a woman in the other room. That's a different story. After our time at the church we walked around a little and made out some more appointments.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was good. We studied a lot in the morning. We were supposed to have a joint teach with Elder and Sister Wilhelm (the senior companion), but that fell out. So we just went to an investigator appointment by ourselves. We had a good appointment. We talked about how we have the BOM. And because we have it, it has to be 100% true, or 100% false. So we talked about how we can literally ask God if it's true or false, and how he can give us answers. He thought the lesson was cool, and agreed with everything. so that was good. After that, we went by on our old baptismal date, who wasn't there. Apparently, he's been in Hamburg or Spain or Africa or somewhere for the past like 3 weeks. It's disappointing, but nah gut, was kann Mann tut. We then headed to the church to meet an African guy from the Congo.....he didn't show up. Whenever we make appointments and they say 'I'll just meet you at your church', they never do. After that we did A LOT of doors in this neighborhood called Laatzen. we found some success there, Including meeting this 18 year old kid from Ghana, which was cool. After that we went by on this less active member. She's from Ghana too, but the only reason she's less active is because she's pregnant and on bed rest. So we just went to see if she needed any help and shared a small spiritual thought. That was Wednesday.

Donnerstag: I fasted Thursday, which I really enjoyed. Fasting works by the way. We had Distrik Versammlung (Distrcit Meeting) in the morning, which was really cool. After that, we went by on an investigator from Ghana. She's cool. It was the first lesson we've had with her in awhile, so we kind of just came back to square one and talked about the Book of Mormon. After her, we had a first lesson with this really old and nice lady. She was cool, but she likes to quatch (like babble) Oh well, she's sweet. After that, Elder Wightman had lunch. I watched. We then met with an investigator in his garden. He is my new best friend. He's just like the most straight up, kindest, real person I've met in Germany. And he's from Iran. Sweet. We talked about the three ways of finding faith: Praying, Reading the Scriptures, and going to church. He agreed with it all. I think I explained his problem last week or the week before, about how he has to go to this non-denominational Christian meeting every Sunday or the German government will send him back to Iran. Oh well the Lord does not give us commandments, like going to church, without first giving us a way that we can do them. So if he really wants to come to church on Sunday, he'll find a way. After that, we did doors in a new favorite place we found. We've had a lot of success there. we met this 1 year old Turkish kid, and he was a walk in appointment with him. Way Cool! Thursday was good.

Fritag: We studied in the morning, and then tried to anmeld after that. Missionaries have to anmeld (register) in ever city the serve in, or they can get in trouble with the government. Too bad the place was closed just as we got there. We'll have to go again sometime next week. For lunch, I experimented. Our Iranian investigator had given us these weird potato ball things, so I tried to make those with spaghetti meat sauce. I thought they were horrible and inedible. Elder Wightman disagreed and snarffed them down. I was so sick feeling haha. After that, we went by on this African lady.Unfortunately she wasn't there. Appointments fall out, it's inevitable. After that we went by on our old baptismal date again...nothing. So we went to the church and made some calls to make out appointments. It was a good use of time. We then met our Iranian friend at the church and gave him a tour with the Wilhelms there. He loved it so much. We really wants to come to church. Hopefully he does this week! Das wäre sehr klasse. After the church tour, we went and taught one of the ward sisters. That was fun too.

Samstag: Saturday morning, we went to Nienburg to help with eine Straße Ausstellung (street display) Apart form having to ride on a train without a ticket (sketch) and the fact that it was pouring rain, it was really cool. We got to help them set it up and talk with some people. We couldn't stay too long because we had an appointment with one of the ward brothers. He's a champ. He buys the missionaries Döners every time a new one comes in. He's an angel. He devotes with whole life (at 85 years old) going by less active and struggling members, making sure he's doing everything he can to help everybody. He's sweet. After that, we went by on one of our African investigators again to help fix her curtains. Unfortunately, we couldn't help too much, but we still had a little lesson about why church is important. That went kind of well. And we left feeling really good and thinking she was definitely going to come to church! After that, We were going to meet a guy at the church, but he didn't show up. Instead, our Iranian friend was there with his family this time. The Wilhelms had invited his family to this youth music konzert. I think they liked it. After that, we went by on a Ghanian investigator again, and luckily, she was home. Too bad it kind of turned into an African screaming argument talking about how the BOM can't be true and she only needs the bible. We told her to pray about it. Some people reject the BOM before even trying to read it. It's like saying you don't like the taste of salt, but never having tried it. YOU NEED TO READ THE BOOK BEFORE YOU CAN SAY IT'S TRUE OR NOT TRUE. Simple. Mühelos. Oh well. After her we had this way cool lesson with this guy from India. He was cool and it was a good lesson. We didn't have a BOM in Hindi though, so we're going to give him one this week.

Sonntag: Sunday was good, bad, and ugly. I love going to church haha but I was sooo tired. I fell asleep so much in church. Not cool. And on top of that, NOBODY came to church! None of our investigators. That was what was so disappointing. Oh well after church we ate with a member family. They're like the coolest people on Earth. The brother speaks 5 languages - English, Deutsch, Finnish, Greek, and French and he's like fluent in all. they're just the coolest. They made us tacos haha. After that we doored a studentenwohnheim (dorms) and met some cool students. After all that we had weekly planning.

This morning: we got ready, came to this internet cafe, and this African guy sat next to me haha. We had met him around before, and he's way cool. Not ready to meet with us yet, but we see him all the time.

That was my week! I hope it entertained you all that read it. I know I had fun living it.

Sooo family. I love emailing you. But sometimes I don't know what to say! I'm having a lot of fun in Germany. I love learning the language, and I get kind of a lot of compliments on it. I know the grammar pretty well, I just need to power boost my vocab. The words I committed to learn today are : gesamt - whole, anerkennen - to acknowldege, ermessen - to judge, to tell, unvermeidlich - inevitable, verlangen - to ask for, demand, and fortsetzen - to continue. In case you wanted to know haha. German is not easy. There are like 5 different words for every one English word. And you have to know which one to use in which situation. And my accent is not the best haha. But the language is coming a long. Elder Staheli, on of the Zone Leaders that we room with, has ridiculously good German. One of the best in the mission, from an American. So I'm learning a lot from him. Und ich bin ganz dankbar dafür.

Thanks for sending me the taco recipe! I was actually going to ask like if you could send me recipes more often. Just stuff that would be delicious, easy, and cheap. And doable with the very limited kitchen and supplies we have. And fast to make. I'd love to get more recipes.

Last night I went on a cleaning spree. I keep reading in the New Testament that scriptures about the greatest leader being the greatest servant, and when Jesus washed the apostles feet. I'm trying to apply that to my life right now. I just want to be more humble and charitable. It's a work in progress, so pray for me! haha. I need the help.

The pictures from the fair are cool! I'm so bummed I have to miss that...especially because I had to much fun last year! Being pushed around the in the wheelchair was just a blast. But I really really miss San Diego. I never realized how lucky I was to grow up there until I got here haha. The summer here hasn't really came yet. it's usually cloudy. It gets warm though. I think on Tuesday it's supposed to be 27 degrees Celsius, which is hot haha. But it's still supposed to pour rain. That should be fun. Germans love vacation. The don't really need an excuse to just get up and leave. It's kind of weird.

It's cool that Robbie and Matty come home so soon. And that Kenny is going to Idaho.  But that's super exciting. And now Sister Nelson will have 3 returned missionaries. I'm sure she's happy about that.

Well I hope I answered all your questions and entertained you sufficiently for the week. I love reading your emails! Let me know just what's going on with stuff. Tell everybody that I love them.

Love, Elder Pollard