It's totally cool to hear about all the missionary news back at home! I can't imagine Brandon speaking Tongan. I don't even know how that sounds! But that's way cool. Elder Stanley said that the Billings Montana mission has to be the most boring mission on earth, but that every companionship there gets a car. So that's a plus. Elder Stanley played basketball at a school in Montana, and he lived in the mission boundaries haha. But I'm just happy that I'm in Germany! I feel like it's totally fun and great, but when I think about it I realize how hard it is. I like it though, because I just feel like I have things that I have to prove to myself. And being here can help me! I love Germany.
Thanks for the money mom! That will be enough to send some presents home. Hopefully I can send them off today, so you can have them kind of in time for Christmas haha. I want to send home some authentic German stuff. Like stuff you won't be able to get unless you're in Germany! I'm doing that. I will pick up the packages that you sent here on Thursday. We have another big missionary conference then.
German food is excellent. If you feel like you want to make some INTENSE German food, look up a recipe for Rouladen. Eat the Rouladen with boiled...not mashed potatoes and a gravy/sauce. That's just the most typical German meal I can think of haha. Kohlrouladen would be even better! I certainly do miss you cooking though mom and dad! I haven't eaten a steak for 10 months...that's just a problem.
So get this story...
It started snowing A TON this last week. It's around 20 degrees during the day, and there's like a foot of snow everywhere. It's winter. But the giant hole in the bottom of my shoes was just a problem haha...I'll send the picture so you can see just how much snow was coming through the bottom of my shoes. It was a real problem. And since I had just zero money, I had to call President Kosak about it. Luckily, there is a mission fund that is especially for missionaries like Elder Pollard, walking around all day with freezing feet. So they hooked me up with some new shoes! Elder Pollard is stomping around with great new shoes. It was a Christmas miracle. I was also given just a little money 'for other warm things' so I think I will survive this winter! But keep praying for me! haha
 |
| Elder Pollard is cold... |
This last week was really slow and now that I look back on it, there was definitely a lack of motivation and effort on my part. Partly because the snow just dumped and my feet were cold and I'm getting sick and all these excuses. But that like shouldn't stop the effort part of missionary work. You know? So I only have a couple of things to report on from this last week. I feel like I didn't do much, but I learned a lot.
Noteworthy events:
Last P-Day was fun. I helped Elder Stanley shop/ship all of his Christmas presents back home. P-Day is always just great. Nobody showed up to Family Home Evening though! Which wasn't really the biggest problem, but it was kind of weird. So Sister Holbrook (one of the senior sisters) led FHE with some tradition Swedish Christmas activities like singing and lighting candles and other Christmas-y stuff. It was great.
Tuesday I went on splits to Greifswald. Tuesday was the day that it really started snowing a lot. Like it all just came down Tuesday night. We had a couple of good lessons while I was in Greiswald, and got to spend the whole day riding a bike around in the snow and slush. Good times.
Wednesday was district meeting in the morning. Elder Dospil is our new district leader. He's from Austria, which means that Elder Pollard is like the only missionary in the mission to have directly worked with both of the Austrians here! Kind of cool.
But we did an egg-drop activity which represented taking care of our investigators. It was fun.
 | ||
| The construction of the egg safety pod... |
 |
| It didn't work... |
Wednesday night though, (I say night, but I mean 4 in the afternoon, because that's when it gets dark here) we went by on a less active member in this little city called Krakow am See. This was just an adventure. We got there after riding a train and a bus for about an hour, and noticed that the bus going back left in 30 minutes, so we only had 30 minutes to find this member and meet with them. So Elder Stanley and I are running through this little town while on the phone with Sister Holbrook who's using Google maps to lead us to the right address haha. Turns out that the address on the ward list just doesn't exist. And the number for this member belonged to a guy who had no idea who U. was. Oh well haha. But here's the problem...we looked and saw that we only had 5 minutes to get to the bus. So it was just a dead sprint for like 5 minutes!!!!! When we got back to the bus stop that bus was just leaving so we waved it down and got in. Miracles.
Friday was fun. This worker for the church came to inspect the mission apartments here. Not like a check to see if we're keeping it clean like pass or fail thing, just to see what they need to fix and stuff. And our apartment is just horrible haha. Nothing works. So the guy was there for like 3 hours. He was really nice and cool though. We have a list of things we need to clean, which is great.
Saturday was basketball!!! But before that we met with M, one of our investigators. Our lesson went really well. We always have bomb lessons with Mark. Then we played bball and ping pong. That was that night.
Sunday was cool. After church, we ate with Schwester L. The ordered this Kohlrouladen and potatoes and it was so delicious. BUT SO MUCH FOOD. I don't think I've ever eaten that much. It was just amazing how much food I put down. That night we planned, cleaned, and studied.
So the week was just slow. Like there's no reason for it, it just was. Oh well. This week is going to be better. This transfer is half over, so these next three week just have to be great!
I'm really not sure when we'll be skyping. I know it will be on the 25th. But we haven't worked out anything else. I'm guessing that we'll know by next week. And don't worry, I will definitely let you know when I know haha.
To end, I wanted to talk about this scripture that really impressed me last week. It's in 2 Nephi 25: 23. It says basically that we are saved through the grace of Christ, but only after we've done everything that we can. You know, you hear a lot of people say 'You're saved through grace! Just believe in Christ and you're saved!' which brings me to the scripture in James 2, faith without works in dead. So like that goes hand in hand with my whole effort thing. God's totally here to help us, but he definitely wants to see us put forth the right effort. Does that make sense? I feel like I get it.
Anyways, I love you all! I hope you're enjoying the season! Just remember that I'm doing well.
Love,
Elder Pollard
No comments:
Post a Comment