Week One Hundred and one (9 days left...)

Skying was so cool guys! I'm happy that everyone could be there! Except Matt. It's a bummer he had to work. But I'll see him soon. I missed your beautiful faces you glorious people. I really enjoyed it! Now we only have to wait 9 more days! If we want to plan on going back, I would love to give your the tour of as much of Germany as I know haha. We'd have to go to Hamburg, Rostock, Berlin, and a day trip down to Hof haha. (you only need a day to see stuff down here.)

Hof at Christmas

Actually, the countryside is like really cool looking down here. So much an official visit to the 'Vogtland'. But good, we'll plan on coming back to Germany. I missed the Christmas traditions we usually do. Like BAGELS! Oh my gosh I miss bagels. Can we have bagels on the Sunday morning when I'm back. Please?

The week was pretty good for us. We had p-day, and then 3 days of holiday. Germans take Christmas seriously. It is three solid days of nobody on the streets. And it is strongly discouraged to go door to door by the mission. Sooooo....I studied a lot. We deep cleaned to apartment too! That was good. On Tuesday we went to the Montgomery's and ate sausage and potato salad and played games. Then we met with Sister S and taught her and went back the the Monty's to Skype. That is when I saw you. It was such a wonderful time to see you all and Rachel too! Blessings. Wednesday we ate at Sister E's house and she made many a duck for us. Like 3 or something. With Rotkohl and Klösen. Perfect. Then we had a cool lesson with a man named A. He's the coolest man from Iraq. He wanted to be baptized into a christian church. We're going to help with that. Then he came to church on Sunday. SOLID. He really liked it. Bruder L was also there at church, which was pretty cool. We ate with the G's on Sunday, which was just a hoot. They're a funny family. It was a good week! Like seriously.

And the biggest news, Elder Donner and I will receive a new companion haha. Today actually we're picking Elder Stoddard up from Bahnhof. He's super cool and we both know him. We're going to have to show him Hof before we leave on Sunday. We're both super excited. It's be a love triangle.

Elder Pollard on guitar with Elders Donner and Stoddard at Christmas

Well...one more week! I can't wait to see everyone!

Love,

Elder Pollard

Week One Hundred (16 days/2+ weeks left...)

Mom I'm so tired. I couldn't sleep last night for some reason. But, to remind you once more, I'm going to be able to Skype tomorrow at around 10:30 am your time. Tomorrow means the 24th of December, or in other words, Christmas eve. I really hope that still works for you. There could be a very small possibility that I could do it on the 25th, but the 24th is just going to be way easier for everybody involved.

I am craving an Oreo cheesecake, by the way...

I am really looking forward to meeting and helping the missionaries at home. It's like a little dream of mine.

Well......this is totally lame, but I'm just going to wait until we Skype haha I can't write emails every week! It gets hard to sit and focus on my past week. I could sum it up...tough. We were allowed to go to the temple on Saturday. That was great. I did the session in German. We had a couple of appointments with investigators and some with members. They were all really good actually. We ate at the F's house yesterday. The food they made us was delicious. And I finished the Book of Mormon this morning in German. That was my exciting week!

I'll be on the computer at around 10:30 AM (San Diego time), and while have an hour face time with you! Even though I'll be seeing you two weeks after that. It'll be good!

I'm good. I'm California dreaming. The work is going. We're trying to find. The health could be better, I have a little cold. Elder Donner is being dramatic and the people of Hof haven't changed. Good thing that Christian is home. I prayed the Campaign Showers (a lovely 1992 Mercury Topaz known and the Potatomobile...) wouldn't explode outside of Barstow. Hopefully he could get me a job at Nordstroms. That'd be primo. Tell him to start asking.

Well, I'm super excited to talk to you all!

Love you all!!!!!

Talk to you tomorrow!!

Santa?

Elder Pollard

Week Ninety-nine (23 days/3+ weeks left...)

These is the first of my last 4 emails home.  Enjoy!

Well this last week was slow, just slow. Work wise, that is. On Thursday, we had a sweet zone conference in Berlin. More deets later. And we were also in Plauen for a street explay and then had a ward christmas party. All those things were great! But everything else was just kind of slow.

We only had 2 lessons this whole past week and they were with members. No investigator lessons. That does not happen. Like ever! That was the first week of my mission without a lesson. Oh well, it wasn't too bad. Just kind of frustrating with everything falling out. And it was cold. My departure will be very timely. Winter is coming. Berlin was super cool. We drove up on Thursday, which means we had to leave at like 6 in the morning haha. But it was OK. Traffic wasn't bad until we got into Berlin. The stake house is literally in the middle of Berlin right next to all of the embassys and what. So driving through traffic towards the middle of Berlin is like trying to stuff a turkey through it's mouth. The conference was super good, though. We watched 17 miracles about the Martin and Wiley handcart companies. I cried. Totally. So sad haha. I got to see A LOT of really good friends. I was super happy. We also got presents from President and Sister Kosak! Haha pillows and pens. What missionaries need. I got my packages from home! All 3. THANKS! And then we were with M, a new convert from Berlin that Elder Donner knows. We checked out the Christmas market and talked with him. I have purchased gifts. We stayed over night at the Tiergarten Elders apartment. It was super nice. Then the Christmas party was sick. Elder Donner played Santa and it was a riot.

Soooo that was about it haha the highlights at least. OH MY GOSH I am bringing home such good presents. You have no idea. You'll love it.

My shoulder is a-ok. My health is also. Elder Donner says his feet are cold, but that he's superb. The weather in Hof is pretty spastic haha right now it's about 40 I would say. No clouds or anything. Last week there was a big snow storm, but it didn't stick on the ground. Kind of weird.

Dad, if I could ask you for any favor ever it's that you listen to the missionaries when they talk about member-missionary work. You can't imagine how frustrating it is to prepare really good lessons to try and help members with their work, and just get shot down from every angle. Super lame.

So I'm speaking in sacrament meeting on January 12. I think I could talk for the whole hour if they let me. But cool! I'm stoked for that experience. I would much rather have a topic to talk about though haha sometimes I just can't decide what I want to talk about. That's the hard part.

As for Skype, I don't know what account I'll be using, but if you send me your info, I can just find you. There are no plans yet as far as when I'll be doing it. Probably around the same time last year to be honest. Like 10 or 11 your time.

Other then that, life is bueno. sehr gut.

Love you all!

Elder Pollard

Week Ninety-eight (30 days/4+ weeks left...)

Last week's email was super lame, so I apologize. But I was in Chemnitz, getting ready to play our Turkeybowl. In an internet cafe with 10 missionaries and a bunch of Middle Easterners all yelling really loud. It was kind of stressful considering there were only like 12 computers. But I tried haha. This week will be better.

Plauen District at Zone Conference in Chemnitz...

That's so cool that you get to feed the missionaries in SD! I'm sure they're super excited for turtle brownies. At Zone Conferences, I was just happy that I had food haha I didn't really mind what it was. But the old German ladies always made SUCH good food for the missionaries. It was a blessing. So for advice....just food. I'm sure they'll like it.

What I would like to eat when I'm home......well:

Caramel Turtle Brownies

Mexican food of any type

Mac n Cheese

Stay away from things like spaghetti and Lasagne...I get that all the time haha

STEAK

STEAK
STEAK

Artichoke dip please

But most importantly, anything that YOU make Mom haha it's all good and you know that!

Elder Donner is honored by the invite, and plans to make it down at some point in time. He keeps saying that he wants Dad to teach him how to surf. There are some wrong preconceptions of life in San Diego.

My last week was super fast.

The highlights were playing football in Chemnitz, and not getting injured. Elder Donner, however did get a ticket on the bus for not having paid. It totally wasn't his fault, though haha we wanted to pay, but the driver just waved us through and didn't let us. I had a ticket, because a girl on the bus randomly gave it to me. It's a long story, but I think he won't have to pay the 40 euro fine. Chemnitz was super fun. That's where communism was born. Wooo. On Wednesday, we had president interviews. My interview was super good and I had some good bonding time with my favorite German mission president. He's amazing haha. We also got pizza from him, because our last appointment for interviews fell out, so he paid us back with food. Good pizza, too. Other then that, we found some cool guys from Syria and Iraq to teach! They read the bible and have a LOT of questions. Good thing Elder Donner and I can answer most of them. Gift of the Holy Ghost is crazy haha. But the week was pretty average. Only 3 weeks left of December! It's getting real!

Hey Papi!

Hope you feel better soon. I really have been pretty blessed on my mission that I haven't been sicker then having the cold for the last 2 years. Injuries is a different story. But it's a testimony builder! My patriarchal blessing says that I will be able to witness and experience how God strengthens his missionaries. He sure does. So I haven't had to experience being that sick in a while. I'm sure it's not fun. Especially if you have to miss Disneyland. Sad face...

I'm super excited to speak in church. I've learned to love talks and this opportunity to learn more on my mission. Learning and explaining something to somebody else helps me a lot to get it all together in my brain. The 12th it is....is there a topic? I guess I could start preparing now...but my study at this time is blowing me out of the water! Elder Donner and I study so much and we just talk like all day about the gospel and stuff. The mission as a whole is studying the BoM until Christmas...I just finished 3 Nephi this morning. Mormon's word at the end of the book are insane. Go read them haha. But I've been reading Matthew as well with a study guide. I love the gospel and I hope that excitement like never leaves haha. It keeps me going now! And it's great because my job and purpose in life right now is to explain what I learn. Double points. We should have many a study together Father.

Food for thought: In Genesis, after Adam and Eve had sinned, God asks, 'Adam, where are you?' (we know this from the Temple as well, and in the book of Moses God asks, 'Adam, where are you going?') Now, we know that God is all knowing, and we know that God even knew that the fall was going to happen in the way that it did. So why does he ask Adam where he is? It's interesting. In comparison with that, Jesus Christ says something very similar to Judas, when they meet again at the Garden of Gethsemane. As Judas walks up to give his sign, Christ asks him, 'Friend, wherefore art thou come?' We all know that Jesus was fully aware that Judas was the one who would betray him. So why are these people asked these questions? My understanding is that we will learn more in certain situations, when we will realize exactly what we're doing instead of being told. Adam had to learn something about Adam, and Judas had to as well. Even though his newfound knowledge wouldn't last long. Sometimes we should asks ourselves, 'Where are we?' 'Where are we going' or 'Why are we here?' in terms of the gospel and our eternal progress. 'Which road am I walking down right now?' and 'Is what I'm doing right now good for my eternal progress?' are both questions that can lead us back to the narrow path that leads to eternal life. God is our Father, Christ is his Son, and Jospeh Smith is their Prophet.

Well I'm doing well still. Healthy, happy, just swell. I hope you're all doing good as well. Have a great week!

An early Christmas present from the Branch members...

Elder Pollard

Week Ninety-seven (37 days/5+ weeks left...)

A note from the Editor:

Elder Timothy Pollard will be completing his mission and returning to San Diego on January 8th.  He is scheduled to speak during the Rancho Bernardo Ward sacrament meeting on January 12th; the meeting starts at 9am and will be held at the Poway Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (15750 Bernardo Heights Parkway, San Diego).  Everyone is invited to hear from Elder Tim.

And now, on to your regularly scheduled Timmygram...

I have to write this super fast, sorry.

Last week was gooood, but we didn't have too many appointments. We did eat DELICIOUS food at the Hemmans on sunday. That was like so good, Goose and american style stuffing for a german thanksgiving. We're doing good and are happy. We celebrated the first advent on sunday. It's a german thing. Look it up online. It was the first week of the last transfer. The missionaries that we were in the MTC with are already home...which is a weird feeling. But Elder Donner and I are just Hofin it up in Bayern ganz oben. Ok we actually have more time then I thought. So last week was just COLD! Oh my gosh negative 6 in the morning. Convert that to fahrenheit and you might understand. We had a couple of cool lessons with members and investigators together. We're making progress with the investigator pool, but nobody is too ready to baptized...they won't even accept a date...

We're doing real good though!

 

Elders Pollard and Donner being served Thanksgiving dinner by Elder Montgomery

Love you all!

 

Elder Pollard

Week Ninety-six (44 days/6+ weeks left...)

It won't let me read your email, Mom! OH NO! Like it just redirects from your email to a sign-in page super fast and I can't figure out how to read it. Oh well...

My last week was prima!

We found out that Elder Donner and I will be staying together in Hof until we go the way of all the earth...that is until January 8th. We also found a new friend that we're going to meet with! J from Nigeria. We talked to her on the street last week and she said we could come and give her the Book of Mormon at her house. So the next day, we went by and gave her the Book, and made out an appointment for the next day...so when we went back, we asked her if she had read. She said she couldn't read, because her friend saw the Book and snatched it from her and started reading. Apparently this friend had met with the missionaries before and saw the Book and lit up because he had been looking for one! So we're going to contact this guy soon. 

Knocking on doors in Hof

Hof got really cold. -1 degrees C now. It's snowed a couple of times, but nothing too intense. Elder Donner and I are doing well. We're eating very well haha and probably too much. But we also work out hard. We gotta look good when we come back! I'm totally kidding I'm so out of shape. I was on exchanges last week and got to know good old Elder Brown a little better. He's a great guy, serving in Plauen. Church was interesting. Not a lot of people showed up. And our investigator, Frau R, came back again! She feels good there, I think. It's good because the members here are really good at talking to her when she is there. She's getting into the groove of things and she knows she's welcome. We're also teaching English class once a week. We have about 4 students, and looking for more. Six weeks until I'm home. Getting ready for Christmas is cool, the market just opened up in Hof. Elder Donner and I have a Frank Sinatra best of Christmas album. PRIMO! It's actually making me really home sick. But we'll survive. The Montgomerys fed us thanksgiving dinner on Sunday! That was super super good.

Thanksgiving with the Montgomery's

That was about it....I left my old planner at home, so I tried my best to remember everything!

Elder Pollar's last mission planner...

I'm still doing good though! Fighting the cold in Hof - Germay's Siberia.

I love you all!

Have a good week and a good Thanksgiving!

Elder Pollard

Week Ninety-five (51 days/7+ weeks left...)

Hello friends and family! Your 'favorite Elder' is doing swell. Just another Monday at the Taj Mahal internet cafe and Indian restaurant. It smells like curry and people are screaming in strange languages. But to answer your questions, I am doing well and feeling great! Well I was sick last week for a day because my throat was killing me. It was the end of a long drag down haha and I needed to rest. I got these tablets from the drug store that make my mouth and throat numb. So it's going a lot better haha. And Elder Donner and I are seeing some cool miracles in Hof! This last week was slow, but still super good.

This is what it was like:

Mondays are super fun now because we go shopping in the morning, do emails, work in the afternoon and then go to family home evening at night as part of our P-Day. The sun goes down at like 5 now and it's really cold, so working in the afternoon is better for everyone involved. So we play games with our 'old lady' members after Family Home Evening now haha. It releases stress. And it's funny to hear Sister E cuss in Greek when she's losing.

Tuesday was good because we were able to meet with the less actives. We helped Sister S move some things in the morning. Actually, we helped her neighbor. But Sister S arranged this service project for us! Super cool all we had to do was put old things and trash in bags and carry it down the stairs to the street. It took about 2 hours and I think I might have gotten tetanus. But it's all good. We met with her after and talked about the gospel. We also met with Bruder R.

We were in Chemnitz on Wednesday (oh yea that violin guy with the long fancy hair that you like is coming to Chemnitz). We have zone training meeting! It was a nice meeting. And we ate at Vapianos after! It had been a long time. We had a crazy miracle that night. We have passed out a bunch of flyers for this English class we want to do in Hof and for like 3 weeks, only members came, but on Wednesday night we got a call and a guy named M came to learn English! He's new in Hof and is in the military. Cool guy. And after teaching him English, Frau R came and we taught her about the restoration. We talked about baptism and wanted to give her a date, but she is like really scared of dirty water or something, so she wouldn't agree to anything. We tried to explain that like it wasn't just a bath, that it's a promise to God. She wasn't getting over the water thing.

Thursday and Friday were both really boring days of 'grunt work'.

But Saturday was bumpin! We got a referral from a past investigator! He wants us to help his wayward son. He says he admires that we're so nice looking and well dressed and he wants that for his son, too. So he gave us all his info and we're going to try and get in touch with the son. After that, we were invited to a Romanian party! Woooo at M's house! We went and ate Indian food and talked to her friend. I practiced my Spanish (apparently Romanians speak Spanish too)...taco queso grande malo. We taught M and committed her to read more intensely in the Book of Mormon. And then her 3 year old daughter taught us Gypsie language. Me shinauto! means 'I will cut you'...

Sunday was interesting. We had branch council before church. It was kind of productive. But our branch kind of has problems with missionary work. Sometimes I feel like the bad guy telling them they need to do something before the branch will grow. But that's just how it is! We had TWO investigators at church! Like record breaking for Hof. Herr B and Frau R came. They both enjoyed it, too. We ate with Sister E after. Chili. Great. It really was good tasting. And then the rest of the day was work and we also cleaned the apartment.

Gooooood week. Especially because those two were in the sacrament meeting. They had a wine tasting across the hall from us in the Hotel Quality. It was hard for our non members to not be distracted.....

I miss you all so much! All this talk of everyone makes me want to see you real bad. I miss Dad and Mom and Emily and Matt and Christian and Thomas and Grandma and Grandpa and others too. I got Dad's post card with my news of landing at 4 pm in SD. That's exciting! Enough time to go to the hot tub that night! Wooo!

I did hear about the Philippines, but not too much. Hopefully everything's OK. Hof started setting up Christmas things already, and there has been Christmas snacks in the grocery stores for about a month now. It's coming!

Well.....that was my week! I'm doing good! Reading in the scriptures like I should. I was reading in Alma this morning when Moroni and Pahoran exchange letters and I love how Pahoran deals with Mornoi freaking out. Moroni thought Pahoran was just fat and happy on his throne and ignoring the fact that people were dying, which wasn't the case, so he sent him this dirty nasty mean letter and Pahoran realizes that Moroni had misunderstood so instead of freaking out, Pahoran is super cool about it and they work together in the end. I want to deal with situations better like that haha. The Book of Mormon is true.

Hope you all have a splendid week!

Elder Pollard

Week Ninety-four (58 days/8+ weeks left...)

I'm sorry to hear that you have to work on V-Day. But money is cool, too. It makes things easier haha. It's crazy to think that Javier is home. And that Momo is leaving. How many missionaries are there in the ward? It sounds like a lot. What ward are we even in? Is it Rancho Bernardo? I have no idea. The computer and my missionary profile says I'm in Del Sur and Bishop Whatcott is my bishop. Let me know if that is wrong....I assume that we're in RB with Bishop Brockbank.

There's like not much that you could send me mom! Haha save the money and use it for something else. I'll be home 2 weeks after Christmas, so I'm not going to be upset if I don't have presents. That's just more weight to bring home! Like I thought about it, and I can't think of anything that I NEED for the two weeks after Christmas! So I don't know!

Hof has started to feel the Christmas spirit. Especially in downtown and in the shops. Christmas starts at the beginning of November in Germany.

Well my last week was pretty cool. It went by really really fast haha.

This is what happened:

Monday night I went on exchanges with Elder Vaughan from Plauen. He's such a funny guy. We enjoyed our time on splits. We were together for all of Tuesday basically. He runs in school so I learned a lot about track and cross country. It was really motivating and made me want to get good at running. We'll see haha. Actually, Elder Donner and I have been going hard with our workouts. Usually every morning and night we're doing whatever exercises one could do in a small apartment. Slowly but surely haha. We ended our night with an English class though, which was pretty cool. Germans who learn English commonly make the mistake of saying the sound and a w instead of a v, so when I asked an older man what he likes to eat, he said wegetables. I died laughing! And then on Wednesday, we went by M in Hof and caught her at home. We were able to show her some cool things about the gospel, which helped her on that night. She is having problems with her daughter so it was nice when she told us that she believes that we're messengers of God who can help her. Thursday we went to Naile, a smaller city outside of Hof and got to know the area. It was an adventure.....to say the least. Our first order of business was to find a shop that would sell us a map of the city haha. Like we had no idea where we were. But it ended up well. Friday was just depressing. Hearing someone say they're giving up on God for reasons that prove to them why they need God more in their lives is frustrating. Pride is a powerful emotion. Naja. No names. We're working on it though ;) We also planned for the next week on Friday. Saturday we were in Oberkotzau, another little city outside of Hof. 

 

Elder Pollard and friends...

THAT WAS SICK! This 17 year old kid named C let us in and listened to our message. He totally understood what the spirit is and had a lot of good questions. But he didn't want to make out another app. We'll see! And then Sunday. During the sacrament, a random couple came in that I had never seen. Apparently Elder Donner had spoken to the lady while I was in Plauen and she came! We'll be meeting with her this week on Wednesday.That was a real miracle. We ate with the F's, this awesome family and got to know them a lot better. And then we met with Herr B that night. He's interesting and knows his Bible very well. He's read all the way to 2 Nephi, so good for him. We're working on that as well.

 

Overall, a good week. Like I said, time is flying by so fast. I feel like I was just emailing you all last week haha.

 

 

Free yogurt on P-day...

 Well that's about it! I love you all and pray for you daily. I know that God loves his children. I know that!

Elder Pollard

A note from the editor...

Elder Pollard is scheduled to return to San Diego on January 8th.  In the meanwhile, he and Elder Donner are working hard and enjoying the fine Autumnal weather in the Siberia of Germany (Hof)... 

That's our Elder on the right...

If you would like to send him a letter or card, his mailing address (letters or cards only...no packages) is:

Elder Tim Pollard
Kirche Jesu Christi
Ludwig Strasse 52
95028 Hof
Deutschland

Of course, you can always email our Elder at timothy.pollard@myldsmail.net.

Thank you so very much for your prayers and good wishes for Elder Pollard during the last 22 months.  Only 64 days left...

King Papi

Week Ninety-three (65 days/9+ weeks left...)

FLIGHT PLANS!?

What the heck, I still have 9 weeks left! That's all the time in the world. Really. I say that now, but I'm guessing that in 9 weeks I'll look back and it'll have been no time at all. I'm going to Paris? Great haha I heard that that airport is crazy. But, looking forward to it. I'll bring back better German candy, you don't need pansy french cookies. So don't worry about it. I haven't heard anything about an international gift card or anything, but I'm sure there's something like that. If not, cash is easy enough. I could pull out cash in Berlin from my debit card as euro and then just exchange it in America. Sounds like a plan? Or if you have some genius Mom idea, that'd probably be better. Ok, enough about flying home.

I did meet the Rusts! They were very nice people and gave me a little present. It was awesome haha we talked for a little, but didn't have too much time. 160 missionaries in Berlin....that's a lot of talking.

Uh suitcases....I'm determined that mine will last. They are beat up and one has no handle and the seam broke on the side....but I think it'll make it. If not....a new one will cost like 70 bucks or even cheaper. I don't know.

My last week was super interesting......and kind of crazy. Very unexpected haha because of what happened in Berlin. It was like this:

P-day was insane because we had NO money. ZERO haha. Well, actually 7 euro. So we went shopping for super cheap. After that, we did normal P-Day things. We had no money though so not much.

Tuesday was interesting because S M came home from Nepal. She's a member in the branch here and we hadn't seen her yet, so it was cool to see her again after a year haha. We ate delicious food, like we always do at the M's.

Then there was Berlin. We left Wednesday morning at 8 and drove up to Berlin. It took like 3 hours. When we got there, the Montgomery's dropped us off in the middle of the city. Elder Donner had served in Berlin, so no stress. First thing: Money. And YES! our money for November was already in! Good, then we went to Alexander Platz, where Jason Bourne hung out in the movies. And we saw the famous DDR Fernseher Türm, the big tower. 

That's a big tower...

And we saw like a bunch of famous German things. Then we went to Marzahn, to the elders apartment to meet up. We watched them eat lunch and talked about stuff. They gave us cards to do work. We went to Bahnhof to pick up the Plauen elders, and then went to M's place. M is a new convert that Elder Donner taught in Berlin. We ate at his house! It was super fun. Traveling in Berlin takes forever because it's so big. That was the end of the day! We slept in Marzahn. The next day was our conference. Elder Kearon from the Seventy talked to us about missionary work, it was really great.

Zone Conference (extra points if you can find Waldo Elder Pollard...)

After the conference, we were supposed to catch a train home, but when we got to Bahnhof there were NO trains going to Hof.......like it wasn't going to work. This happened to a lot of missionaries actually haha so we had to sleep over again, this time in Lankwitz, with the assistants. It was a rough 3 days but we finally got home at 5:30 on Friday......Craziness.

Saturday was awesome because we had a street display in Hof in the city. The members were there and it was way fun to see them talk to people.  It was good because they were talking to people with the missionaries and really bearing testimony and doing WORK!

Yesterday I felt super sick. Probably from standing out in the rain all day and talking to Germans about God.

This last week was just insane! We found a Polish man who knows his Bible front to back, but doesn't really understand is spiritually at all, and doesn't want to....Pride is a huge stumbling block for us all.

That's so crazy that my flight plans are already there..........kind of set in stone. Sucks that I have to go through Paris, I heard that place is a nightmare haha. We'll see! Am I really supposed to bring cookies back for Mom? How is this going to work? I'm nervous enough with my customs junk haha because I have a lot of German things....we'll see! What time am I going to be coming into good old San Diego?!?! That's important info. Don't let my flight plans burn a hole in your desk haha I'll be home soon enough. This is surreal. Especially because I still have 9 weeks! That's a long time.

Sister Stohs told me that your singing was very pretty. Tear jerking really.

I am also reading in Alma. I'm in 25 right now, I believe. We're reading the whole book and finishing before Christmas. I have a study journal with all of my thoughts and what not. I like studying like that. It helps me straighten things out in my head and really get the...so what out of what I read.

Well I'm doing pretty well in Hof. It's cold haha. I'm excited to not be cold......other then that, I'm living it up and working hard.

Well that was it really....Berlin kind of engulfed my whole week haha. It was fun though. I learned a lot.

I love you all family!

Elder Pollard

Week Ninety-two (71 days/10+ weeks left...)

Hi family. And Friends. And strangers that read my blog.

The last week was distinctively average for us in Hof. We did a lot of work. The big things were meeting with M, our newest investigator from Romania, and U. We also started an English class that some members will be attending, and hopefully investigators and others who need help with English. Well, we met M while talking to people on the streets in Hof. It was actually a little miracle because we had passed her once and didn't talk to her. But on the second chance we did and she was interested. She has 2 daughters and has only been in Hof for a couple of months. We met with her 3 times last week and she came to English class...she speaks really good English. Good enough that we talk in English instead of German. She couldn't come to church unfortunately. We also met with U, who said he doesn't want to come to church because we might be the "M.I.B." haha. Two young guys in suits inviting him to the Hotel for church. Oh well, he'll never know until he goes. Also, we were awoken at like 3 in the morning a couple of time by drunk people yelling. One night we heard, "I am the undertaker!" over and over again in English.......That was our week basically. Oh and I learned how to juggle.

Elder Donner and I are doing well. We're looking at 10 weeks on our missions left, which is a weird feeling. Trying to balance working with stubborn members and people on the streets trying to get their dogs to attack us. Oh and we"re flat broke. 0 moneys haha. But the church is true, so it doesn't even matter. We"re both pretty happy to be in Hof and giving our best.

We were both complimented on our German, which is good because I've been studying really hard. Complicated German grammar that Germans don't even use like, "Ich habe gehört, dass er das nich hat machen können." And some members were super complimentary of our Germans! So that was super nice to hear. I like being an "experienced missionary" It's good.

Our week was pretty average. We had mixed reactions from the ward here to missionary work...I hope you do what the missionaries ask you to haha and aren't complacent about the work.

Hof is alright. We just had "Hof Film Days" which is like a film festival that people freak out about. It sounded kind of lame. My health is great. I am really going hard in the morning and evening with my workouts. And I've been losing weight (kind of) I'm at about 195 right now. hopefully 190 or 185 when I'm home. Which would be weird because I haven"t been that light forever. I was kind of tubs when I left on my mission. Oh boy. That weather is actually pretty nice right now. About 15 degrees Celsius.

Check out the changing leaves...

I don't have too much time so I'll talk to you next week!

Love you!

Elder Pollard

Week Ninety-one (80 days/11.5 weeks left...)

This last week was a slap in the face from life haha. Elder Donner and I put in so much work haha. We didn't have any investigators at the beginning of the week...and Sister Kosak said it best, 'When you can't teach investigators, teach members. Finding is not efficient.' But, being in Hof, we don't have a ton of members to go by on. The two main priesthood holders in the branch are not in Hof during the week, and the rest don't live in Hof, and a trip out to them would take a day....so we were finding. Basically hour blocks of dooring in one place and then moving on to the next or talking to people in the city. Who haven't we talked to in this city? We're looking for them. There's only 45,000 people here. We'll probably talk to them all by the end of the year haha. So we found all week. God was really testing our patience and faith haha because it took until Friday to get somebody to stop and talk with us. But, on Friday we found 2 people who wanted to learn more. The Church is true, the book is blue.

We did get to meet with our recently activated members though. Sister S is the best. She understands the gospel and notices the difference it makes in her life when she applies it. What more could a missionary ask for?! That's true conversion. We meet with her every week usually on Tuesdays with the senior couple, the 
M's.

Elders Donner and Pollard doing work...

We also taught family home evening, which was focused on missionary work. We shared a thought and a video and then talked about inviting others to family home evening. Super easy goal. 'Hey, who wants to come and eat good food and play games?' I'd be down haha.

Yummy...

We got to meet the new district on Wednesday. By new, I mean Elder Brown. He's our new district leader, and the only change in the district. He's cool. We like him.

Friday was the crazy day though! We met with M, a lady from Romania, in the afternoon. We found her earlier in the week and she said we could come by. We couldn't really stay, because she was alone at home, but we talked for like 5 minutes about the message and if she had interest. She had a lot of questions! And like she said she'd read the Bible and didn't understand it and that the church she was in didn't help her understand it, but she believes in Christ and everything. So we're going back tonight actually. Then we were walking to go do doors somewhere else and we talked to a guy named T who listened to us, asked us, "so this book can actually help me understand Christ better?" And then made out an appointment with us! Super cool. And then that night the cops were called on us.....haha we apparently scared a little kid who was home alone when we rang his name. We didn't even see him or anything though. But the cops were really nice to us! We're cool now.

Saturday and Sunday we were in the great city of Leipzig for Stake Conference. That city is so cool. And big haha. The conference was good. Only one family from Hof was there though...

So that was the week! Kind of not too much, but the weekend was great. We literally went finding the whole time haha.

A Brezel is a Pretzel mom. And I love Rotkohl so much. You need to learn how to make Klöse too! Sometimes they're called Knödel. They're like potato mush balls. And Rouladen. Or Leak-Cheese-Soup. I like those Maggie packs. 

Well, the work goes on! Elder Donner and I are chugging away.

The work in Hof is interesting. We're being told like left and right to work with the members better and encourage them to do missionary work but.....we're in Hof! And there's less then 10 active adults...we're trying though! I hope you are able to do some missionary work. Do the missionaries talk about the work when they're over? Elder Donner is doing well. He says, 'I want to visit the beach with you guys and learn how to surf from you.' Can you surf? When's the last time you got in the water?! We should go. My shoulder is interesting. I can work out in the morning no problem like pushups and weights. But sometimes after a long day it aches. I can move my bone back and forth too. Kind of cool. And my health is alright. I'm doing good.

I found my newest favorite scripture the other day.

And it came to pass that he planted vineyards round about in the land; and he built wine-presses, and made ^awine in abundance; and therefore he became a wine-bibber, and also his people.

In Mosiah 11. Moral...don't surround yourself with sin.

Food for thought!

Love,

Elder Pollard

Week Ninety (86 days/12 weeks left...)

This last week was like super long and nothing happened. But those kinds of weeks happen. The week ended pretty well though. Right at the end, Elder Donner and I heard that we're going to stay together for the next 6 weeks until the end of Novemberish. Good news! We got to announce that in church and some of the members were really happy haha. That's good to know. And then Sunday night Elder Donner and I freaked out at Hof and went home and did some good planning on how to help the area more effectively. This area is hard! I didn't realize that last year. We just worked our butts off for a transfer and we've seen success and have met some cool people, but it is definitely not as much success as we wanted. So we're changing it up and doing a lot more planning, a lot more activities, and a lot less grunt work door to door. We want to be working with the members to teach their friends and everything, but that work seems to not excel in Hof. But personally, I feel really good about the work we can go here. And I'm excited to plan out a lot of activities and find some new people. 6 weeks at least!

That was our big freak out at Hof haha. I feel like Hof has had missionaries in it for so long, but nobody wanted to do more than just doors and talking to people. Something's gotta give! We're working hard.

I forgot my planner for last week, so I don't remember everything I did. But we did have a Zone Training Meeting in Chemnitz on Wednesday. Elder Donner and I taught a workshop about the Book of Mormon. We wanted to focus on practicing applying the BoM to investigators. I personally feel that a lot of investigators don't understand the gravity of the message that we're laying out in front of them. Missionary work in Germany is like trying to motivate people to take baby steps to God. And a lot of people (probably not only in Germany) just want nothing to do with these baby steps! It's frustrating. But our workshop was good. We got all the missionaries to listen to us and do some ROLE PLAYS! My favs.

Zone Conference in Chemnitz (that's Elder Pollard on the right with his new look..."Blue Steel...")

Other than that, we had a couple of appointments this week, but they all ended with a, 'When you have time and interest, give us a call, but we're not going to try to force you to listen to us.' Including Herr S (grain man) The Romanian family, and a member's son who wanted to stop smoking. Kind of a bummer saying bye to people, but like there has to be prepared people in this city that we need to find! They're there!

Your Oktoberfest sounds great. I miss the Fishers! They're cool. Cool enough to have an Oktoberfest in SD. Oh my gosh, I love Rotkohl with all of my soul. The pictures look good. Except the Brezel! Even though I'm in Bayern, we're too north to have Brezel. I love Magi Packs though. Are there Magi Packs in America?

Elder Donner and I will celebrate Columbus day as our p-day.  It's way cool with Elder Donner though haha my comp is the least of my few problems. We're way tight. It's good to work with someone like that. It's just like always stress free and total equal respect and stuff. Fun. The weather is starting to get kinda gnarly though. It's like 6 or 8 degrees every day and cloudy if not raining. I miss the sun already. The trees are going crazy and they're all yellow. And I don't think there are any good festivals coming up. Besides the Hof film festival, but we have nothing to do with that haha. The Mormon missionaries will have a street display coming up. WATCH OUT!

I read Mosiah 3 this morning and it's sticking in my head. I have this book of Mormon study guide and this is something Neal A. Maxwell said:

“Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other worlds, ‘astonished’! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially. He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fulness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined! No wonder an angel appeared to strengthen him! (See Luke 22:43.)

“The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement. (See Alma 7:11–12; Isaiah 53:3–5;Matthew 8:17.) The anguished Jesus not only pled with the Father that the hour and cup might pass from Him, but with this relevant citation. ‘And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me’ (Mark 14:35–36).

“Had not Jesus, as Jehovah, said to Abraham, ‘Is any thing too hard for the Lord?’ (Genesis 18:14). Had not His angel told a perplexed Mary, ‘For with God nothing shall be impossible’? (Luke 1:37; see also Matthew 19:28; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27).

“Jesus’ request was not theater!

“In this extremity, did He, perchance, hope for a rescuing ram in the thicket? I do not know. His suffering—as it were, enormity multiplied by infinity—evoked His later soul-cry on the cross, and it was a cry of forsakenness. (See Matthew 27:46.)

“Even so, Jesus maintained this sublime submissiveness, as He had in Gethsemane: ‘Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt’ (Matthew 26:39)” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1985, 92; or Ensign, May 1985, 72–73).

Hopefully you like that! It really hit me.

Thanks for emailing me always!

I love you all so much!

Elder Pollard

Week Eighty-nine (91 days/13 weeks left...)

How is everybody doing?! I'm just swell here in Hof. Coming to the end of my third transfer in this town. With 2 more to go. Last week was weird and the work was so slow....especially because we were out of Hof for 2 days watching conference. But the work goes on! I thought of something cool this morning during study. I was reading Jacob 5 about the wine garden. The thing is the the Lord will always have a PLAN for us that WORKS. He just needs the right servants who will also WORK. And if it ever got to the point that there was nobody willing to work for him, there would still be a back up plan. God is good. And he loves us. Oh yea and sorry about last week. We did district P-Day and I literally had 30 minutes to email. I usually take 30 minutes to read all the emails before I start writing back. So a thousand pardons. But the week was interesting.

The week was something like:

Montag: Last P-Day was good. We were in Plauen for district festivities. We got there early....well our train was being a fart and didn't come on time....but then we emailed super short and played volleyball. We ate at the McStanky's and went home. We got home in time to visit this old book shop. The husband of a member owns this little shop full of cool stuff. He went and purchased some super indie high school classics in German. I'll be able to read them when I'm home. Among the classics that were purchased are: Lord of the Flies, and Fahrenheit 451. That was just a side note haha. We then had family home evening and Elder Donner and I taught about personal revelation and how our own actions are a big part of that. We were supposed to have a lesson with an investigator that night, but Uwe got sick, so we visited Bruder L instead. I love that guy! We played guitar for like a little and then had a good gospel talk. He's less active but really wants to come back, so we'll be working with him a lot.

Diesntag: Tuesday was full of finding. We didn't find anybody, but had some good discussions. We did get to meet with Schwester S again and she taught us about repentance! That was really cool. She's only recently come back to the church and she taught a bomb lesson about repentance! We loved it. And that night we got to meet with Bruder R and talk about missionary work. It was ok haha.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was district meeting...and then Elder Donner got Pink Eye. No bueno...or maybe some sort of irritation, but it looked gnarley.

Donnerstag: Thursday was the pits. Tag der deutschen Einheit....the day that east and west were reunified...or the day they celebrate it. Holidays in Germany are funny. Because NOTHING HAPPENS. Thank goodness we were invited to two member appointments. Sister E fed us some great food! Sauerkraut, Schweinbraten, and Klösen. So good. And then the M's ate Döner with us. We shared some things from the work of salvation and tried to inspire some missionary work with the members......yeah.

Freitag: Friday was weekly planning, and some fallen out appointments. Elder Donner and I spent a long time planning because we had stuff to take care of. We were able to call a lot of people and make out appointments with investigators and members. It was splendid. That night, Elder Struve from Plauen came and we went on exchanges. I stayed in Hof, which was cool.  I don't really like staying though, I like getting out and seeing other areas. It was a good though.

Samstag: Saturday was good. Elder Struve and I had a very interesting discussion with a Russian guy about the Bible. He was just kind of crazy and wouldn't listen to us at all. Like he'd ask us a questions and then start talking before we could finish haha. It was just kind of funny. Then we went and ate and then played basketball with U! It was legit haha. Well we taught him a little about the Book of Mormon. It was cool because he has so many questions. And he wants to meet more and learn. Solid. Then we rode a train to Plauen and watched General Conference and slept over. Elder Vaughen told scary stories about Bigfoot. I couldn't sleep.

Sonntag: GENERAL CONFERENCE. So sick haha. There was only like 3 themes though...missionary work, repentance, and the atonement. That was about it haha. I wonder what the church needs to work on as a whole...

I was super grateful for General Conference. We've been trying hard to motivate members to do work and the responses we've gotten were poor. Some even said the the missionaries were asking the members to do something impossible. Who says that?! 1. It's not even the missionaries asking the members to do this. It all comes from above. And 2. it's NOT impossible. Why on earth would God have missionaries if this work was impossible. Why would there be such a huge increase? Let's think.

I did get to watch all session of general conference except for the Sunday afternoon. But oh my gosh so many good talks! My favorite was from Elder Dyches (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1fM-K-U2Ic&feature=youtube_gdata). It really spoke to me and my situation and stuff. You should watch it again. It's weird to take a step back from life and to think like really what can I do better? There's so much. It's crazy. I loved all the talk of missionary work. It's so hard to motivate members here! It's kind of funny. How can you believe in everything, but not want to do missionary work? It's all pride and a lack of understanding.

The weather here is good. It's light coats weather over the suit. But not too cold. I like it. It's brisk. Like clear skies but cold and windy. Brisk haha.

Weird that you got a letter from the mission. Yep I'll be home in 3 months...what about it. I'm scared haha. Home sounds scary.

The week was good. I learned a lot about myself haha how cheesey is that? But I did. I love the scriptures and I love all the blessings in my life. I'm pretty content with my life. I do need to fix a lot. But at least I know what needs to be improved and changed. God loves us.

Germans do celebrate Halloween! Not as intensely as Americans. And it's more of a fall/harvest fest...going back into the day you know?  But they have parties and stuff. The zombies last year was a flash mob of students on Halloween haha. So yes. I'm glad to hear that you're taking care of the missionaries. Think about tithing and stuff and how much we sacrifice for them to be there. Why would we not treat them great now that they're actually in front us us! I'm going to be so good to missionaries when I'm home haha. 

Well...that's about it! Another week. I started collecting presents for everyone for Christmas. Some good German stuff. So get excited!

I love you all!

Hope you have a good week!

Elder Pollard

Week Eighty-seven (15.5 weeks/107 days left...)

I'm too old for this.

Not really. All's well in HOF! From the Mexican partnership of Donas y Poyard, I thank you all for reading this letter. Last week started off pretty rocking. We also had a cool day in Dresden at a zone conference. It was my first time in Dresden, and it was sick! I had always heard so much about Dresden, but had only been there twice in the Train Station to catch trains. Unfortunately, we didn't get to actually see the city haha. We drove with the M's there, in the car. We rode the train home. But it was still cool. The end of the week slowed down a lot......we didn't slow down, but our 'success' did. We worked hard and walked a lot but didn't find too many people who were interested to even stop and talk for 2 minutes. Hof can be hard at times. But it's way cool having a comp that you already know super well and just joking around and staying positive when the circus comes to Hof and nobody wants to stop because they're all going to the circus....in a small town like this, the circus is a big deal. Oh yeah, I saw tigers. Crazy.

Elders Donner and Pollard on the trapeze (window scaffolding...)

 Montag: Last P-Day was intersting...as Elder Donner and I gave out our last Euros....haha we ran out of money fast. But that happens when you have to whitewash an area. Buying stuff like old broken lightbulbs and bottles of ketchup and silly stuff like that adds up after a while. But It's all good in the hood. We had a pretty relaxed P-Day. Just hung out and checked out cool little shops in Hof. We had Family Home Evening that night and ate Abendbrot. Which is like a bunch of bread and meat and cheese and stuff like that. It was just the M's, Schwester S and us. We also made pumpkin cookies and put our Reeses pieces in the cookies.

Missionary gold...

They were way good. We went to drop off cookies at the G's house that night when he invited us in to help him build a closet thing. Good thing is, that it was the same one from Ikea that I've built like 5 times now on my mission haha. So it went pretty fast. That was it though!

Diesntag: Tuesday was cool because we found someone new! It's kind of a cool story. We came to a fork in the road.....classic situation. We knew one was had a huge hill and the other had a smaller. Naturally we'd take the smaller, but we knew that there was this store on that hill with inappropriate stuff in the windows, so we decided to take the big hill. And that's where we found U! Some hippy guy with strange ideas about religion. That's how he described himself haha. But we had a good convo with him and made out another appointment. Good stuff! We also visited Schwester S and taught her. We were able to help her neighbor carry some stuff up the stairs, too! Service opens hearts. That night we visited Brother R at his house and talked about missionary work with him and after that we dropped cookies off at the M's!

Mittwoch: Wednesday was interesting haha we had an appointment with Herr S, an older investigator. Funny story, I actually found him a year ago when I was here haha and now we got to teach him. He made us lunch. He's on some weird diet that only lets him eat a handful of grain....so he made us his hippy food and we taught. He's Unitarian, but doesn't believe in anything, really. We established that we can help him and he agreed and said we can come back. SOLID! That night we met with our Romanian family! It was kind of disappointing, though. The father said he got an answer that he only needs to read in the bible and that the Book of Mormon isn't important. That can't be though! God wouldn't tell him that, and Satan wouldn't tell him to read in the Bible. So I'm concerned that he's just scared to learn more or something silly like that. We'll meet with them again though.

Donnerstag: Thursday was Zone Conference. We learned about working with the members better and bearing pure testimony. It was way cool. We had some good food, but not a lot. Then I got to have a temple recommend interview with President Kosak. That was also cool. He told me in the interview that Elder Donner and I could stay together until the ends of our missions. That'd be sick. Oh and we almost missed our train home haha it was so close.

Freitag: Everything fell out of Friday haha and we planned.

Samstag: Saturday morning was sick. I almost cut my toe off. We helped the M's in their garden. We stacked wood, chopped wood, walked dogs, and picked up leaves. And I was using this crazy sharp axe to chop wood. It came off the wood at a wierd angle and hit me right in the toe. Good thing Nike shoes are just solid and I remain uninjured haha. Kind of disappointing though, because everything fell out on Saturday, too. the M's took us to pizza because we were cold and sad that everything fell out.

Sonntag: Sunday is usually a good day haha. Church was good. We taught Elders Quorum. That was interesting. We wanted to talk about the work of salvation and working together to find people. But they just ended up blaming everything on the fact that we don't have a room. Lame. We ate with the M's after. Oh we had an interesting meeting with a way less active member. It was weird.....but good that we were there.

The week was slower. But good. Dresden was the highlight! Such a cool conference!

Zone Chemnitz

I've been doing pretty well. My shoulder is a little better. It's getting better all the time. Better, better, better. I worked out this morning with weights and it was OK. My left arm is SO week. I'm curling like 20 lbs and struggling. I guess that's what happens after 7 weeks of not really using it. But my health is pretty good. I'm at like 80% health I'd say. Chugging a long. I kind of feel like a have a small lingering cold. But that's it. It is starting to get colder here in Hof. Like between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius. I don't know how much that is in Fahrenheit. Maybe like 50-60. Kind of chilly. It's still suit weather though.

I like what you said about obedience. It kind of has something to do with the topic of 'The will of God/Free Agency', which is just way over my head. What is important to know is that the commandments are there to enable us to return to our heavenly home. Why wouldn't we follow them? But knowing that all commandments are both timely and spiritual, it's safe to say the the commandments help us be happy during our time of probation AND set us up for eternal joy in the time after this. I like to think that obedience is also training. Let's get real, God follows the commandments of nature. He also at one time experienced what we are experiencing now with our lives. Being obedient on earth will help us in the life to come. Obedience, laws, and commandments don't end when this life does. It's an eternal aspect. To end it off, I like what's said the the Book of Mormon like 60 times, that if the family of Lehi would keep the commandments, that everything would be well with them. What a promise!

Well, everything really is going well here. I love my comp! He's sick. And we work well together. I love missionary work. And the gospel is true. Word.

Elder Pollard

Week Eighty-six (16.5 weeks/115 days left...)

Hello!

This last week was just fantastic. Elder Donner and I were able to do a lot of work and we didn't go insane. That's always a goal on the mission. We saw some crazy cool miracles this week, too and got to meet some amazing people that we want to help. I love missionary work, because it's so easy to develop a love for these people. It's obviously what we should be doing (how do you help people that you don't like), but it's just so cool when you leave an appointment on some spiritual high thinking, 'I can really help these people. And I want to.' I felt that a lot this last week.

Elder Donner and I are scraping the floor to find change haha we have NO money. We are 'whitewashing' this area, which means we both come in at the same time and the old Elders leave. So that's expensive to buy all new food and stuff. The apartment wasn't in the best shape when we got here....a lot of cleaning. But our apartment is now pretty clean and we've arranged everything the way we want to.

Our last week was like:

Montag: Monday was good. We went shopping, got some new Turkish haircuts (great looking) and did P-Day stuff. We went to Family Home Evening with the M's and a couple members, which was also good. After that we did a couple more hours of work, but didn't contact anybody that we had planned to. Too bad. #turkishswag

 

a new haircut...

 

Dienstag: Tuesday was slower. We only had one appointment go through. That was with Sister S. We're working with her to keep her active because she JUST came back to church. She's super nice and I think she likes us. She's been a member for like 15 years I think but only recently came back. She actually remembers me from a year ago haha Elder Huber and I went by at least once...other than that the day was slower. A lot of talking to people. We made cookies for the M's though and we gave them to them. That was good. #doagoodturndaily

Mittwoch: Wednesday was our miracle day!!! We had district meeting in the morning, which was cool...kind of boring actually. Elder Donner and I were both released from District Leaderness so we just kind of go and hang out now haha. We're the oldest in our district by a long time haha. The day was alright, just trying to contact some older investigators and referrals. Nothing really. But at night, Elder Montgomery drove us to Rehau to go have an appointment that fell out. Good thing we made back up plans and stopped by on a family that the older missionaries said that we'd be good to go by on. Turns out...they have 8 kids! Wow haha that was overwhelming. And they totally listened to us which was cool. The parents and all the kids. They're actually from Romania! And they had lived in Switzerland for a couple of years. They learned German there and met with the missionaries and went to church there. They didn't know how to contact the church in Germany, so they said they were super happy when we came by. We taught them a get to know you lesson and said we want to teach more! We're meeting like 2 times a week now. It'll be hard to get them to church because they don't actually live in Hof. But it'll happen. I like love this family so much and all their kids are so cool. It's the best. #wearefamily

Donnerstag: Thursday was also slower. We found out that our DVD player is broken....that's fun haha. We kind of went insane on Thursday. If I remember correctly. Just trying to fix the DVD player and stressing about stuff. We ended up going by on an investigator who has no phone number, only an address. We walked like 45 minutes uphill to get to him haha it was the worst. And he wasn't even home! We had to talk to his mom. Hopefully he'll call soon. I don't want to walk out there again for nothing.#iwouldn'twalk500miles

Freitag: Friday was planning day. Always solid. We actually had a really good planning session and got a lot taken care of with the time. We ate Mai Tahn Lang, the Asian restaurant across the street from our apartment. It was good to be back haha. We were supposed to have an app with the really cool guy we found last week, but it fell out. He was nowhere to be found. Didn't answer his phone either. I don't like that haha it's so frustrating. We ended up going to Schwester E's house and eating left-over chili from when she fed the senior couple. We taught a good lesson about Jonah and running away from the Lord. Don't do it. #gottaplan

Samstag: Saturday was super legit! We started the day with service! An American family in Rehau (the little city outside of Hof) invited us over and asked that we helped in the yard. They're from Virginia. We pulled weeds and chopped down bushes and shredded stuff for like 3 hours. Then he fed us some really good vegetarian stuff and rewarded us with two huge bags of Reese's. Not too interested in the church, but service opens the heart. Then we went back to Hof and got changed. We met with Schwester S's son, and we're going to help him stop smoking. That will be interesting. That night was the best! We called G, a guy from Africa, and met him in Innenstadt and taught a lesson and he agreed to meet again. I love me Africans!

Sonntag: Sunday was also great! We had church, only 15 members there. Sad, but good. We ate with the Merkels after, which was SO good. Shcwester M made some legit gourmet spaghetti. After that, we drove with the Montgomery's out to Rehau and met with the S's, the Romanian family. We taught for like an hour and finished talking about Joseph Smith. The father and oldest son have some concerns, but nothing huge. They're the best. After that, we met with Schwester L. She was super cool too! And way nice. She needs a lot of help from the branch and from us. Just spiritually. We're going to meet weekly and it'll be wonderful. I'm glad I met her. After that, we came home, went by on contacts and went door to door. And made pancakes. #keepthesabbathday

SOLID WEEK!

And now it's Monday. We finally got our water heater fixed. We were taking freezing cold showers, which was NOT fun. But the nice man came in this morning and hit our heater with a hammer until it worked again. Blessings. 

Mumsy! I am in the same apartment with the same DDR fryer haha. We're going to use it this week actually. And I love the cookies and cream chocolate bars from Ritter. That's dirt cheap in Germany haha I eat way too much chocolate. It sounds like everything is going well with the family! I'm jealous that you ate bagels. No bagels in Germany. Lachs is a German word though. It means salmon. Bagels and Lachs sounds legit.

Well I was reading the Jonah story this last week and it was really interesting how Jonah, being a prophet, still made mistakes. We all do! It's unavoidable. Good this we have the atonement. Life would suck without it.

I love you all so much!

Have a good week!

Elder Pollard