Week Sixty-four

Moin.

Oh man! Last week was kind of long. Not in a bad way though. We were just really busy and we had to travel a lot. Usually being busy means that time goes by fast, but traveling in trains just slows down the whole week. Not cool, but this last week was still fun. We got to have a zone training meeting, and I was able to go on splits with the Schwerin elders. It's good to work in other areas for short periods of time. It's fun, and a good way to switch it up and try some new things. I enjoy it haha. We also ate a lot of Döner this last week. I had the best Döner of my life...of the past year of my life haha. It was amazing. Made the whole week.

Last week:

Montag: Last Monday was fun, and again, pretty relaxed. We've kind of exhausted the immediate possibilities for P-day activities, and going to the same stores and eating at the same restaurant every week gets old fast. But the relaxation part of it all is great. I also got my haircut at the salon. Fancy. I get the 'Facon schnitt' which basically means I come out looking European. It's a good thing. After P-Day was over, we had an appointment with T. We were planning to baptize her on Saturday, but she ended up having to go to Hamburg to meet with her lawyer, so that was a no-go. Too bad, but we're not too worried at the same time. After meeting with her and talking about the baptism/authority and all that, we went to a student dorm and passed out invitations for a fireside we were having called, 'Are mormons christian?' I'll talk about that later.

Diesntag: Tuesday was interesting. So we were planning on having a German class and L, one of our investigators, wanted to come. We were there and waited for him, but he never showed. Turns out he had just gotten news that he was accepted for an internship! Which is cool. But no excuse for missing German! Geez. But good for him. We ended up having our own mini German class and we made more invitations for this fireside. After that, we went with Sister Holbrook and we went by on an older lady that the sisters were meeting with before they left. She didn't seem to remember missionaries....but she is kind of old haha. We'll be going back a different time. We went by on the older couple, the S's, that day too. Herr S is doing not too good health-wise and we just stopped by and chatted for like 5 minutes. We also gave him a blessing. It was a good experience. After that, we went home and prepared/finished our workshop for zone training. We meet with F in the church and we talked about Heleman 15:7-8 about how everything really starts with scripture study. I'll talk about that later too. At the end of the day, we helped with institute food and it was so delicious. Sister Holbrook is an AMAZING cook. So is Sister Wunderli!

Mittwoch: Wednesday was insanity. We woke up at 5:30 to catch a train to Neubrandenburg. Everything went smoothly, until we had to switch trains in Güstrow. I was sitting on the next train with everybody, and realized that I had forgotten my bag! Like all the stuff that I needed to go on splits (my English scriptures, clothes, toiletries...). It sucked. I wasn't too bummed though. Stuff happens haha. But we were talking about it (in English) on the train and somebody overheard us and asked about my bag and stuff. It turned out that he had this number for the train lost and found stuff. He gave it to us and I was way grateful. When we got to Neubrandenburg, we called the number and the lady told us that she had the bag! It was still in Güstrow. Miracles. So we went to Zone Training Meeting. Elder Collins and I gave our workshop about committing people and why commitments are important/effective/essential.

 

Teaching at Zone Conference with Elder Collins

 We related it to sandwiches somehow.

 

The making of a sandwich was likened to an invitation...

It was good. We got our point across haha. 

 

Cool glasses...

It was a great meeting. 

 

Elder Collins and Elder Pollard

On the way home, we stopped in Güstrow and I picked up my bag! That was a miracle. And then I rode with Elder Atkinsen to Schwerin. We got there and had a lesson with a very interesting Muslim man. We was from France. He clarified that only a third of Muslims are middle eastern, and that any 'true' Muslim would never ever miss an opportunity to learn more about another religion and to just sit down and talk. That was very interesting to me. He had a sweet husky dog. I liked it. It was a long day haha.

Donnerstag: For the split, Elder Atkinsen and I went to this city called Wismar, which is on the Northern coast.

 

Wismar

Interesting fact, the first move filmed outdoors, Nosferatu, was filmed in Wismar. Fun fact of the day. We walked a lot in the rain and talked to a lot of people. I then ate the best Döner on earth.It was so good. The guy put like a bunch of Turkish cream cheese on it. It was just amazing. When we got back to Rostock, we went directly to Family Home Evening. It was a great day. I was really tired at the end haha.

Freitag: Friday was a good day. We had Gemiko in the morning, and we ate a good lunch. We did weekly planning, which is always fun. But we didn't get to finish it. We also had an appointment with F in his apartment, which went pretty well. We talked about the natural man and how we can get rid of him. We only had 30 minutes, but it was still good. We then came back and we had this fireside that Brother G from Berlin gave. It was way cool and T invited like 5 friends who were there. The fireside was awesome, and it ended with us, the missionaries, explaining way we came on missions. It was just good. And I got to talk with T's friends after and give out Books of Mormon. It was just good haha I can't say that enough.

 Samstag: So originally, we were supposed to have a street display and a baptism on Saturday, but T had to go to Hamburg, so that didn't happen, and the weather wasn't good enough to have a street display, Everything would have been kind of wet. So instead, we went to Schwerin and helped the elders there do some finding. I was with Elder Huebsch for the time, and we had some great conversations with people. Talking to people is so interesting. You just get to learn what other people like and stuff. I can definitely improve at that though. Sometimes when I hear or think that they don't have interest, I just lose interest altogether. But that's total hypocrisy! People are great. I love people. We barely caught our train home to Rostock, and cleaned and finished planning and studied. It was solid.

Sonntag: Sunday was fast Sunday because of general conference. It was a great meeting. Tobias taught the investigator class first hour, which was good. He did a great job. We had three investigators at church, also bomb. And the testimony meeting was jut prima. We had gemeindeessen after everything. Like break the fast. The food was so good. We made bread to bring to eat. We make bread. It's cool. After church, we made some calls. We went and tried to have an appointment with one of the sisters cold investigators, but we couldn't get a joint teach. We had met in the past with her and F together, but he couldn't come. So we had to leave. But she gave us ice cream. After that, we went by on old investigators. We made this grid to group all of our contacts together, and we started taking for of that. We contacted 5 old investigators and it was cool. Figured out what had happened with them. We then came home and studied.

Solid week. Not too many appointments, but we were really busy. It's weird/funny how that happens sometimes. I often have to take a step back and think if I'm using time effectively. We try our hardest, but we make mistakes haha. A lot. But it's a learning process. This last week was good though, the weather started shaping up and acting like April weather! It was 19 degrees C yesterday.....that's almost short sleeve white shirt weather. How great is that? It's beginning to look a lot like spring. Trees are budding and people are smiling again. Rostock is being pulled out of the depressing winter. I love it.

That's super cool that a whole family was baptized! That's like the missionary's dream. No joke. I'm glad you found the Andrus' blog. They have those pictures from our workshop. And yea I wear those glasses because they look good. I don't wear them too much actually haha. It's kind of a joke. That's way exciting that Thomas is going on the pioneer trek. Good for him. That's crazy that they found an old bomb in Berlin. Right when I came to Hannover, the whole Innenstadt was under construction because they found an old bomb...right in the middle of Innenstadt! That's just insane. It sounds like everything is well though. That house will be empty and lonely again with just Thomas there haha.

Heleman 15:7-8! Kind of a cool story. I was just flipping through my Book of Mormon, trying to think of a good lesson to teach Frank, and I noticed that this section was marked and with notes and stuff. I could tell that it was my handwriting, but I just don't ever remember marking that scripture and all the notes I wrote! Kind of confusing. But luckily I did at some point haha. The scripture says

'And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them— Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free.'

I made some interesting notes that lay out a process, which leads to being steadfast and firm in the faith. It all starts with a desire (knowledge of the truth/knowing the wickedness that we do). Followed by (and the real solid part of it all) scripture study. Scripture study leads to faith on the Lord, which will ultimately lead us to repent. Repentance is essential always. Progress in this life, both spiritual and temporal, are end products of the repentance process. Whether we know it or not haha. True repentance is that change of heart mentioned, and this change of heart is a great and essential platform for testimony. Kind of cool! So study the scriptures! Scripture study is like my favorite part of the day. I love it.

I love you all so much! 2 more weeks in this transfer, hopefully we'll see some miracles. Have a great week.

Elder Pollard