Week Forty-five

Hey guys!

So this last week was just like...amazing. I guess that's a good word for it! Elder Stanley and I were just way busy, but it was great because we got a lot of work done, and experienced some cool things. It's been getting like cold though. So that's always rough. When it's noon here it's colder than the coldest night ever in San Diego. It's just rough haha. Anways let's get to the week!

Montag: So last P-day was kind of cool/hectic. So in the morning, we got up and cleaned like usual. We were emailing, and in the middle of emailing I get this phone call from an unknown number. So I answered and heard 'Hallo, hier sind die Polizie'. The police were calling me! I was just like...what. I really didn't know how to respond. Well apparently, we left our front door open. A neighbor called the police, because we weren't there and we had to stop emailing and go home to talk with the PoPo. That was just lovely. Well everything worked out and the police told us to be more careful. It was just weird. After that, the senior sisters, regular sisters, and we went to Ikea! Haha there's a tradition with Sister Holbrook (one of the senior sisters) to go to Ikea on the last P-Day of the transfer. She grew up in Sweden so she likes Ikea. We went there and ate some delicious food (Ikea in Europe goes hard with the cafeteria). After eating, we walked around the store for a little. I bought some house slipper things. They're purple. It's cool. And some way nice and cheap pens. Ikea rocks. After P-Day, we met with M. M told us that he thought about his baptism and decided that it would be better to be baptized in Switzerland. Which is great actually, because we agree with that. It's cool that he's making these decisions that are just good and best for him. So unfortunately, we didn't have a baptism on Saturday, but it's ok. After meeting with M, we had Family Home Evening. There was a spiritual thought, some good snacks, and we played this game called phase ten. It's my new obsession. No big-just naturally talented at card games. THIS IS REAL LIFE.

Diesntag: Tuesday morning Elder Stanley and I made the decision to go by on a less active member. Schwester P is her name. She live(s)(d) in the city called Ribnitz-Damgarten though, which is like a 20 minutes train ride from Rostock. And she doesn't really live in the city. She lives like 45 minutes outside of the city haha. Well we got there and just had no idea how to get to her street. Luckily we found a map and figured it out. After a 45 minutes walk we got the Papelallee 24. And she just doesn't live there! Haha we walked forever just to find out that the address is wrong. Oh well I guess that's missionary work. There's no number on the ward list, so there's no other way of contacting her! And nobody knows who she is. It's ok though because it was an adventure. After we got home we hung out a little to recover and then had another lesson with M. We talked about Tithing and Fasting and he just had no problems with either of the subjects. After that we had Institute, which was cool because T came! We changed it from Wednesday to Tuesday night just so T could come. We love T. If you don't all know by now, T is our 2nd councelor/ward mission leader. He's 24 and speaks 100% perfect English with no German accent. He did an internship at BYU for teaching English or something. He's just amazing and we talk with him at least once a day about the work. That went well. Bruder G came up from Berlin to teach institute and he taught an amazing lesson about Luke 5 and Christ telling Simon to cast out his nets again. He related it to trusting in Christ and never giving up when we need to find an answer or overcome a trial. It was cool. We ate some good food after.

Mittwoch: Wednesday morning we had District Meeting. Our new District Leader is Elder Dospil from Austria. He's cool! We had a good meeting and got to know each other again haha. After DCM we went home and ate. That afternoon we were going by old investigators and two things happened. We made out an appointment with this older man named Herr S. Herr means Mr. He's Atheist, but made out the appointment and was super nice. And after that, we got in contact with this old investigator. She said she couldn't meet because she was moving, but we said we'd love to help the family move and she said that'd be cool. We're still waiting for them to call us, but hopefully we can help! After that we met again with M haha. After meeting with M we hung around for English class and played this game with Sister Holbrook and Bruder G, who's learning English. It was cool to get to know him better. That night we played basketball with a new group of guys. So like 4 weeks ago this British guy just stops Elder Stanley and I and says, 'You're those American guys aren't you?' haha he invited us to play bball and so this week we actually went and it was super fun. Elder Stanley is so good at baskteball it's insane. I'm just average. But average for an American is super for a German, because they're just not athletic people. It was fun though. And best twist! This British guy who invited us to play turned out to be T's English Professor! haha that's just great.

Donnerstag: Thursday was Thanksgiving! But not in Germany. It was just a normal day. Thursday morning was normal, except we did our German study at the church with Sister Holbrook and the other sisters. It was cool. We learned a lot. So we went by on this guy who said he wanted a Book of Mormon, but he had no time so we made out another appointment for this week. He's cool and hopefully we'll be able to meet with him a lot. We went back and had lunch, then met wit M. We had a KILLER lesson with M! But at the end we talked with him about baptism and he just said that he could never ever be baptized. He showed us this letter that he wrote to us and it was way confusing but basically said he'll never be baptized. We're still working on that. After M, we met with Herr S! We gave him a BoM and talked a little. He's Atheist so it's kind of different teaching him. That evening we were walking around going by on old investigators. We came in contact with one, and made an appointment on the street. Good stuff!

Freitag: Friday morning was Gemiko (Ward Mission Leader/Missionary meeting) and it went well. We taught M again after the meeting. After meeting with M, we went out to lunch with T. I ate Kassler. It was good. We went and check out the Christmas Market at Innenstadt after that! Our whole downtown is just a huge Christmas Market! It's way cool and intense and packed. Germans go hard on Christmas. After that we went back and studied more. Then went by on old investigators. Then we had an appointment with this guy named Herr G. He has a super intense story about living in Chile during the revolution down there. We talked for a while and we were able to relate the gospel to his life, which was awesome. And my German was just firing! It was the best. That night we planned for the week.

Samstag: Saturday is always a good day. We studied in the morning and ate an early lunch. We went to the basketball guys, but had a meeting with A before we played. T came with us. A wanted to learn about Tithing before he committed to learn anything else, and T is just the best teacher on Earth so it went really well. Hopefully we can meet more often with A. We played Bball. We killed it. The Germans love us because we're athletic. After Bball we had Ping Pong, which was fun. One of the sisters investigators came and brought a bunch of old DDR coins, which was cool. After Ping Pong we had a good discussion with M about 'real intent' when reading and prying about the BoM.

Sonntag: Sunday was normal. We had church. I gave a talk about the BoM and it's 'converting power'. We had 3 investigators at church, which was cool too. We ate at Bruder S's with the sisters after. It was way good and Bruder S is just awesome. After that, we went by a couple old investigators. We met with the senior sisters for a little and talked about M and then went home and planned.

It was a good week! Probably the best week I've had in Rostock, and definitely the best week German wise. I love German, especially when it's just working for you. Some days it just comes out, and some days you just can't speak a word of it. It's cool though. It's super hard to learn, so when you can actually have a good conversation, it's just the most fulfilling thing ever.

Family! There's a new laptop!? That's just amazing news! Is there a webcam?? That's the important question. I really don't know how we're doing skype this time. The senior sisters have laptops, so we might use though. I just don't know though haha. It'll be on Christmas, and definitely before noon, because we're 9 hours ahead. But it's all good. We have a zone conference this week, so I'm assuming that president will tell us what to do there. Not too worried about it, but I'm super excited to skype!

I'm just so jealous of the Thanksgiving you guys had! On Thursday, Elder Stanley and I at tortellini for lunch, and then fasted the rest of the day. Fun right? haha. It'll just make coming home THAT much better when I can eat some home cooked meals.

I'm glad my raptor picture amuses you all.

I love you all! So much! I can't wait to skype and see how you all are! I want to see your faces. I really want to send you a present too! I'm planning on sending you some authentic German Christmas stuff! You'll love it!

Love you all!
Elder Pollard