Week Ninety (86 days/12 weeks left...)

This last week was like super long and nothing happened. But those kinds of weeks happen. The week ended pretty well though. Right at the end, Elder Donner and I heard that we're going to stay together for the next 6 weeks until the end of Novemberish. Good news! We got to announce that in church and some of the members were really happy haha. That's good to know. And then Sunday night Elder Donner and I freaked out at Hof and went home and did some good planning on how to help the area more effectively. This area is hard! I didn't realize that last year. We just worked our butts off for a transfer and we've seen success and have met some cool people, but it is definitely not as much success as we wanted. So we're changing it up and doing a lot more planning, a lot more activities, and a lot less grunt work door to door. We want to be working with the members to teach their friends and everything, but that work seems to not excel in Hof. But personally, I feel really good about the work we can go here. And I'm excited to plan out a lot of activities and find some new people. 6 weeks at least!

That was our big freak out at Hof haha. I feel like Hof has had missionaries in it for so long, but nobody wanted to do more than just doors and talking to people. Something's gotta give! We're working hard.

I forgot my planner for last week, so I don't remember everything I did. But we did have a Zone Training Meeting in Chemnitz on Wednesday. Elder Donner and I taught a workshop about the Book of Mormon. We wanted to focus on practicing applying the BoM to investigators. I personally feel that a lot of investigators don't understand the gravity of the message that we're laying out in front of them. Missionary work in Germany is like trying to motivate people to take baby steps to God. And a lot of people (probably not only in Germany) just want nothing to do with these baby steps! It's frustrating. But our workshop was good. We got all the missionaries to listen to us and do some ROLE PLAYS! My favs.

Zone Conference in Chemnitz (that's Elder Pollard on the right with his new look..."Blue Steel...")

Other than that, we had a couple of appointments this week, but they all ended with a, 'When you have time and interest, give us a call, but we're not going to try to force you to listen to us.' Including Herr S (grain man) The Romanian family, and a member's son who wanted to stop smoking. Kind of a bummer saying bye to people, but like there has to be prepared people in this city that we need to find! They're there!

Your Oktoberfest sounds great. I miss the Fishers! They're cool. Cool enough to have an Oktoberfest in SD. Oh my gosh, I love Rotkohl with all of my soul. The pictures look good. Except the Brezel! Even though I'm in Bayern, we're too north to have Brezel. I love Magi Packs though. Are there Magi Packs in America?

Elder Donner and I will celebrate Columbus day as our p-day.  It's way cool with Elder Donner though haha my comp is the least of my few problems. We're way tight. It's good to work with someone like that. It's just like always stress free and total equal respect and stuff. Fun. The weather is starting to get kinda gnarly though. It's like 6 or 8 degrees every day and cloudy if not raining. I miss the sun already. The trees are going crazy and they're all yellow. And I don't think there are any good festivals coming up. Besides the Hof film festival, but we have nothing to do with that haha. The Mormon missionaries will have a street display coming up. WATCH OUT!

I read Mosiah 3 this morning and it's sticking in my head. I have this book of Mormon study guide and this is something Neal A. Maxwell said:

“Imagine, Jehovah, the Creator of this and other worlds, ‘astonished’! Jesus knew cognitively what He must do, but not experientially. He had never personally known the exquisite and exacting process of an atonement before. Thus, when the agony came in its fulness, it was so much, much worse than even He with his unique intellect had ever imagined! No wonder an angel appeared to strengthen him! (See Luke 22:43.)

“The cumulative weight of all mortal sins—past, present, and future—pressed upon that perfect, sinless, and sensitive Soul! All our infirmities and sicknesses were somehow, too, a part of the awful arithmetic of the Atonement. (See Alma 7:11–12; Isaiah 53:3–5;Matthew 8:17.) The anguished Jesus not only pled with the Father that the hour and cup might pass from Him, but with this relevant citation. ‘And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me’ (Mark 14:35–36).

“Had not Jesus, as Jehovah, said to Abraham, ‘Is any thing too hard for the Lord?’ (Genesis 18:14). Had not His angel told a perplexed Mary, ‘For with God nothing shall be impossible’? (Luke 1:37; see also Matthew 19:28; Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27).

“Jesus’ request was not theater!

“In this extremity, did He, perchance, hope for a rescuing ram in the thicket? I do not know. His suffering—as it were, enormity multiplied by infinity—evoked His later soul-cry on the cross, and it was a cry of forsakenness. (See Matthew 27:46.)

“Even so, Jesus maintained this sublime submissiveness, as He had in Gethsemane: ‘Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt’ (Matthew 26:39)” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1985, 92; or Ensign, May 1985, 72–73).

Hopefully you like that! It really hit me.

Thanks for emailing me always!

I love you all so much!

Elder Pollard