Week Forty-six

Hey guys,

So honestly, this last week was just rough. For a bunch of reasons. But mainly: we lost like ALL of our solid investigators, my health is down the hole, I had no money, and I have no warm clothes and it's just freezing outside. So it was just like really hard to step back and see all the positive sides of the week. It's sometimes just a lot easier to complain haha. It goes along the lines of the natural man in Mosiah 3. But it's the Christmas season, and Germany is going hard with the festivities haha. So it's a cool time of the year. I just wish I wasn't a walking ice cube. The week was long haha and just not a lot happened.

Last Monday was P-Day. We went around and explored the Christmas market in Innenstadt for most of the day. I ate a delicious smoked sausage thing. It's supposed to be very local and special to Rostock, but it just tasted like a Hillshire farms polish sausage. Still good though. It was way cool to walk around and see all the the 'German' Christmas things. They're really into little wooden things. It was a fun P-Day. After that we had Family Home Evening. It was only the missionaries and M, so pretty low key. We had a spiritual thought, ate some food, and decorated trees. It was solid.

Last Tuesday was rough. We had 3 appointments fall out. And we were like pretty sure that 2 of them were super solid and just wouldn't fall out haha. But oh well. We got in contact with this family that had investigated the church a while ago, and they told us they were moving so we offered to help and they invited us to come over on Saturday! Kind of random but super cool. We had institute that night. We had a good number of members and investigators show up, so it was pretty cool. Sister Wunderli made pumpkin soup which was good. We gave M a blessing that night, because it was the last time we'd see him! And now he's gone. So sad.

Wednesday we were in Berlin. We got up super early and got on a train. It was way cool though. I got to see literally everybody that I know! Which was cool. We heard some good workshops, exchanged presents (I got a magnet...) and ate Subway. Except the mission ordered like no food haha. We each got like a quarter of a sandwich. That took all day.

Thursday was cold. And long. 2 of our 3 lessons fell out. Just wonderful. But we used the extra time to go by on some members. We visited M. R., who's been less active for a while. Hopefully we can start meeting with him often and get him back into it. We also stopped by on Bruder S, who's just awesome. That night we had this insane lesson. 5 missionaries and 1 investigator haha. It was just chaos and nobody could get a point across. The investigator was B, who's been investigating/taking English lessons for a while. It was still an ok lesson. He wants to learn more, which is cool.

Friday was better. It started snowing on Friday though.....In the morning we had gemiko. We gave T some birthday presents, because Thursday was his b-day. That was fun. Then we went home and finished studying. We ate out with T and all the missionaries. And a guy named J from England who served in Rostock a while ago. He was really cool. After eating, we went and tried to find some people in our außländerheim. That's like a college dorm where they house foreigners who don't have money. We got in contact with a guy who knew like everyone haha and he told us who still lived that and who'd been moved. Then we had a lesson with an old investigator names K. He's a boxer who's like 5'4, looks 45 but is really 26 haha. He's cool though. And that we went by on more old investigators. We did weekly planning that night.

Saturday is always a good day. In the morning, the sisters and we helped the family K to move. It was super random but it was good service. One of their friends was saying how impressive it is that we just help total strangers. It was fun and they gave us sandwiches so worth it. It's all about the immediate temporal blessings. After that we went and played Bball. That's always fun. It's starting to look like there's not a lot of interest from the people who play though, which is sad. After bball we went home, showered, changed, and went to ping pong. Always fun.

Sunday was great actually. We had a cool church meeting, and after we had a Christmas party/singing thing. The food was way good. We got M to come, but he told us that he doesn't really want to meet any more. We'll see. B was there too. It was nice to celebrate with the whole branch. I was feeling sick though. After that, we walked around, trying to find old investigators. We came in contact with quite a few actually, but a couple said that they didn't have interest anymore. That night we finished studying.

IT WAS FREEZING THIS PAST WEEK. And it's only going to get worse. I am going to need some warmer clothes if I'm ever going to live to see summer again haha. It's like seriously cold here! I'm not a fan. But, when you focus on the negative parts of life, then you're going to have a bad time! So it's all about attitude. I forgot where I heard it, but someone said something along the lines of...Peter cut someone's ear off because he was mad, and denied Christ three time....if that's all you know about him, then he sounds like a bad dude. But if you focus on the great things he did, then we realize the miracle and everything. So I've been trying to be really optimistic lately. It's good for you.

The Weihnachtsmarkt here is huge. It's like all of downtown is filled with little booths selling Christmasy stuff. It's way cool. We like like a 5 minute bahn ride from Innenstadt. That's crazy that Brandon is already home! Time really flies. That recipe sounds really good mom. Germans love pork, it's all they eat. I haven't gotten the packages yet. I'll pick them up on the 13th when I'm back in Berlin. Carrying 4 packages through Bahnhof is gonna be crazy! But totally worth it. You sent them to the mission office right? Germans love advent calendars they're like everywhere haha. M, our investigator, gave us this intense one with little games every day instead of chocolate. I'll totally be in Rostock for a least 9 more weeks. Probably 15 really, so I'll be talking to you from here.

I love you all a lot. This last week I feel like I got away from prayer and scripture study, which is why I was in such a bad mood. I've realized how important it is to stick to studying, and making sure that your prayers are good. So I invite all of you to try it too!

Enjoy your first advents week!

Love you all!
Elder Pollard