Week Sixty-one

SO. This is the news regarding the transfer call on Saturday. So President told us that we would get a call before noon. The assistants called Elder Collins and I at 12:15 haha. The news is...that Elder Collins and I are staying together in Rostock! Which is actually great. I'm going to be the District Leader here, which is fun. Not too much is going to change honestly haha. But Elder Pollard serves 5 transfers in Rostock! I've been here since October haha. I love it though! I actually wasn't too surprised when I hear I'm staying. Elder Collins and I will do some good work for the next 6 weeks. I'm really looking forward to it. And we'll get to see some baptisms! Let's Go!

So this last week was real fun/kind of weird just anticipating transfer calls.  To be honest, I forgot my old planner in the apartment, so I'm going to try my best to remember what we did this week. So here we go:

Montag: Last Monday was fun. We went to Ikea with the senior sisters, the sisters and T. I ate salmon. It was good. We walked about Ikea for a little like we usually do. Once a transfer we go and enjoy the Swedeshness that is Ikea. Sister Holbrook is actually Swedish haha so I like to ask her what the names of the things mean. It's more entertaining than it sounds. After Ikea, we did some shopping. I didn't buy anything. But we came back to the church later and I got some music from the sisters. Music helps haha. I really don't remember what we did that night. Sorry haha. I'm pretty sure we met with F. We meet with him a lot so it wouldn't surprise me.

Diesntag: Beats me.

Mittwoch: Wednesdy was District Meeting in the morning.

Elder Pollard with the gangster pose...

It went well. Then I went on tausch (exchanges) with Elder Barr to Schwerin. Schwerin is a good city. I like it a lot. It's small, but big at the same time. And there's a paöace/castle thin in the middle of a lake. Unfortunately, no pictures yet. We did some good work, walked a lot in the snow. We didn't get any lessons in, which was too bad, but it was still fun. Elder Barr is sweet.

Donnerstag: I came back from Schwerin Thursday morning. We went and ate cheese-leak soup with T in the church. It's always good to feed people haha. And we made bread. I don't remember what else we did on Thursday haha.

Freitag: Friday was great. We had Gemiko in the morning. We actually made bread before Gemiko. We like making bread. Germany has these packets where you just add water and it turns into bread the you bake. So we do that and give our investigators bread and the members. It's missionary work. But Gemiko was good. After Gemiko, we finished bread and I did some genealogy. I've been trying it out so I know what it is so I can talk to people about it haah. Like as a finding tool. I had no idea how it was done. But I'm working on our work! So good news. I probably won't do any more though because I know how it works now. We ate at Vapianos, which is like this cool Italian restaurant. It was so good. And We had an appointment with T, who' getting baptized on the 30th of March. And I get to see it! Woooo. T was there. We gave her bread. It was dandy.

Samstag: So Saturday was the day haha. We stayed in and waited for the phone call. Woo. Staying in Rostock haha. I'm actually stoked. After that, we went to Bruder S's and ate spaghetti. It was good. And a lot of food. We came back and made some reading calendars for our investigators for a while and then did Ping-Pong. After Ping-Pong we went and cleaned and studied.

Sonntag: Sunday was sick! We had a really good sacrament meeting and Gemeindeessen after. Like a break the fast pot luck kind of deal. But it was just a great Sunday, because so many people came and told me how happy they are that I'm staying. That made me feel good haha. It was also good because the ward really felt like a family yesterday. It's hard to explain but it was just great. We made out a lot of appointments with members. We had 3 investigators at church! T, F, and D came. That was way cool as well. I had to translate for T and another African, which is always kind of difficult because we have to try and be quiet. Hopefully we'll get some legit translators soon the the ear piece kind of deal. Gemeindeessen was way good. We helped clean up after. We had one appointment with F's friend, Frau K. She was way nice and really wants to meet with us haha. I'm super excited for the coming week!

Sorry for the super boring explanation of lat week haha I'll do better next time, I promise. It was a way good week though, and nothing really beats hearing that I'm staying in Rostock! I love it.

AH MOM I MISS YOUR BROWNIES WITH MINT FROSTING SO BAD.  Really though. It's exciting to hear about all the missionaries from the ward! So many haha. I'm feeling better kind of. The weather is just nasty. But I feel healthy. I haven't really lost any more weight. I'm around 195 still. But Morgen Sport is keeping me in shape! Haha.  Other then all that, I'm doing dandy!

Dad, I have to write this was fast, so sorry!

Frank can't get baptized yet because he has to have an interview with President Kosak first. Like yea. But T is being baptized on the 30th of March! Miracles!

I'm bummed I missed your chili. And I'm super impressed that you made 250 servings of chili. Wow haha good job.

The topic of human potential has been with my my whole mission, Dad. I'm going to tell you a story now. A couple of weeks ago I got up in the middle of the night and walked around and got some water and sat down in my desk. But I wrote something down in my planner. The next morning when I woke up I read what it said and it was like, 'Comparing yourself to anybody but Christ is selling yourself short of your potential. A Christ-like life should be our greatest goal and achievement.' Intense, right? I love the scriptures that say, 'Be perfect for I the Lord am perfect.' Along the lines of the Sermon on the Mount. It's a commandment, but also an invitation. We have this crazy potential. The only thing that ever holds us back from doing exactly what we want to is ourselves. Crazy stuff.

I love and miss you all!

Elder Pollard