Week Forty-eight

Family and Friends,

So like every week I get to come and email back and I just reflect on the past week and it always just seems so hectic and crazy! But like this like week was good even though it was hectic and crazy. All the snow started melting! So the whole city of Rostock is covered with an inch of ice, with standing water. Just everywhere! It's crazy and not good if you really don't enjoy slipping in public. I'm good though! I survived the first week and a half of snow and ice and haven't slipped yet. Going strong. It is way cold though. It got down to like -5 degrees Celsius here the other week, and it was just painful to be outside. I am definitely grateful that I've lived in Southern California my whole life. Snow and ice just aren't fun! Well anyways, here's what I did last week.

Montag: P-Day was good. I didn't have any money yet (from the office of from home) so we couldn't do all the shopping I wanted to do! But it's ok. We walked around, emailed, hung out, and all the p-day activities that we love. After P-Day, we had Family Home Evening. BUT NOBODY SHOWED UP. It was kind of a bummer because it was the the senior sisters and us. The other sisters were on splits somewhere in Hamburg. So we spent the night singing Christmas songs, eating, and playing card games. Just the 4 of us haha. It was fun.

Dienstag: Tuesday was boring. We did street contacting in the morning, and ate lunch. We cleaned a lot, because someone from the church came and inspected the apartment and gave us a list of things to clean. Like stuff that hasn't been cleaned for the past 5 years. It's great. After that, we went by on a lot of old investigators and came into contact with a couple of them. We had institute that night.

Mittwoch: Wednesday morning we had an appointment with M and the sisters. M told us that he'd rather meet with the sisters than with us...which was just insane and weird. That was rough haha. After that, we went to Brother S's and he made us lunch. It was like a rice ball with Chicken soup on top. Straight up good. We had a good spiritual thought with him. His dog Moppel attacked me with love like he always does. Moppel is like the biggest dog on Earth and he loves missionaries. It's just a funny situation. After Bruder S we visited a less active member names M.R.. He's super cool and loves Pokemon and collects rocks. He hasn't been to church in a while though. Elder Stanley and I really want to start working with M and seeing if there was any way to make him active again. After that, we had an appointment with a guy names H.J. He was an old investigator. It was kind of a miracle that we meet with him. So we showed up to the street that he lives on like 10 minutes early. But it literally took 20 minutes to find his house. Germany just has streets layed out in the strangest ways! And like houses will be behind other houses and stuff but still on the same street. It's just confusing haha. But we found it and we were late. We rang his name and he didn't answer and we called him and didn't answer. So we just started to leave when he walked up and was saying sorry for being late and all. BUT if we didn't take forever to find his house, we might have missed him! Little miracles haha. We had a good lesson. After H we went by on some people, talked to some people on the street. It was good. That nigh we played basketball.

Donnerstag: Thursday was our Zone Conference! President Richards was there from the area 70. He gave a really good 4 hour workshop haha which was a little painful to sit through, but it was so interesting and I learned a lot. Especially a lot about teaching. It was great. For lunch we ate Rouladen, Klöse and Rotkohl. The food was super good, and I picked up all my Christmas packages! Getting them home was a little struggle, especially because my companion got like 9 packages haha but I was/am so grateful! Thursday was all in all a good day. Oh yea our train going back to Rostock was delayed an hour....haha

Freitag: Friday was the coldest day ever. Literally. I think it was like -8 Celsius. I just died. I though my ears were going to fall off. Good thing we got those ear muff things at Target a year ago. They keep me alive. No joke. We had Gemiko early Friday morning, which went well but ran a little long. So we left right from Gemiko to this appointment that fell out. So after that, we went and ate with T. After lunch, we had an appointment with an old investigator named L. He has the deepest voice on earth. We makes James Earl Jones Jr. sound like Peewee Herman. He's was cool and shared some nice German Christmas treats with us. He has some solid fundamental beliefs that we thing are going to be key in teaching him more. After that, we helped T home teach. We met with O. We taught about Ether 12:4 and faith being an anchor. It went well. After O we went home and prepared for our lesson with B. We then taught B and had a solid lesson on the plan of salvation. THE MISSIONARIES IN ROSTOCK ARE ON FIRE!

Samstag: Saturday morning we did OYMs (open your mouth, or street contacting) we didn't find anybody though. After that we went home and ate lunch. Then we played basketball. Basketball keeps me alive haha. I was sick though so I felt horrible. Kind of like Michael Jordan in the playoffs. Game 6 verses the Jazz...Except I played better than him. It was way fun. We went home and showered after and went to ping pong. After that we oymed at night and found one guy who say we should come back.

Sonntag: Sundays are always great. I love church! Listening to talks is great, and I can't wait to come home and be able to listen to talks in English haha. There were like 15 people at church though. After church we ate at the A's and they made delicious food. Potatoes, Veggies, and meatballs. So good. After that we went to the außlanderheim. that's where like all the political refugees and illegal foreigners live. It's a sad place, but a lot of the people there are super receptive to our message. We met with this guy named J, from Ghana. Craziness haha he's super cool. We asked him what he would do if he had to ask God something. He said, I'd get on my knees, pray to him, and then listen for his answer. My jaw was just on the floor! haha we've never had such a solid answer! It was awesome. Sunday night we planned.

So a good week! Like we got a lot done haha. The week was like a rollercoaster with up and downs though. But at the end, it was just solid. Also, I was able to get everything to send home for Christmas! So I'll be sending all the packages today. So I'm happy and feeling the Christmas spirit! It's hard not to when you're hanging out in Germany haha They love Christmas!

So Mom! I got all four packages! I have to admit that I already opened some.....It's so nice and I'm so grateful that you sent me all that stuff! I know it wasn't the cheapest thing...But thank you so much. But everything else is still wrapped and I'm waiting patiently until Christmas! We're going to open all of our presents together (the missionaries). But I got all of them, so no worries! It was cool to see a Sephra box after a year of not seeing one haha. And it was so weird to see your handwriting! Both your's and Dad's! I opened the letters haha. That's why. Thanks for that by the way, I really enjoyed them.

Well today is Elder Stanley's B-Day, so we're eating out. It should be good!

That picture of Thomas and Christian is crazy! Christian looks exactly the same but Thomas looks like a different person haha. WEIRD! Who dressed up as Santa? It's cool that Ryan is leaving so soon.

Well, everything is going great with me! You guys should expect a package in the next week or so, and a Christmas card soon too! You're going to love the package!!!!!

I love you all so much and miss you!

Elder Pollard