Week Thirty-nine

DEAR FAMILY!!!

OH HOW I LOVE ROSTOCK!!!!!

I can't even describe to you all in words how happy I am to be here with Elder Stanley. I am supposed to be here in Rostock. I love it so so so much. I love Hof too, but exciting things are happening here, and it's just amazing. I'm having the time of my life.

Let me just tell you about my week. That will be the best way for you all to understand how awesome Rostock is.

Monday: Last P-Day was kind of sad, because we had to explain to all the members in Hof that Elder Huber and I would both be leaving. But anyways, we emailed like normal, and did some packing. Schwester Y. took us out to Chinese food, which was pretty good. We then got ice cream.



I had RedBull ice cream. It was interesting. Probably won't eat that again. After that, we packed a bunch. I am so grateful for the vacuum bags that I bought at Rossman. It made packing a little better. Then we went the the M's house. That was sad haha. We just hung out, played Ligretto (awesome card game) and played with the puppies and what not. It was super sad to say bye!

Tuesday morning was STRESSFUL! ALL OF TUESDAY WAS STRESSFUL. So the ehepaar actually helped Elder Huber and I get our luggage to Bahnhof. Then the left haha. I rode the rain with Elder Huber from Hof to Dresden. At Dresden I transferred onto a train that was going to Berlin. There was another missionary on that train, so we hung out and talked haha. The train going to Berlin was late though, so I missed my train leaving Berlin. So I had to spend 40€ of my personal money to buy a new ticket to Rostock. It's OK though, because the church will refund it. It wasn't my fault anyway. I just hung out in Berlin Hauptbahnhof by myself for an hour. No big. Then I caught my train to Rostock! My luggage survived, and did not break more then it already was. When I got into Rostock, my companion, Elder Stanley, and a member, Tobias were waiting for me. It was freezing when I came into Rostock. It's super cold here. We then went and checked out the church, because we were supposed to have a lesson, bu the guy never showed up. Oh well, we just ate some sketchy Chinese food and talked and got to know each other.

Wednesday: Wednesday morning was normal, study and such. After that, we went and bought the ticket for the train going to Berlin on Sunday to see the Prophet. After that, we went to the church (literally across the street from the apartment) to have Gemiko (ward mission leader/missionary conference). Which is just awesome. Tobias, the member that picked me up, is like 25, speaks perfect English, went to BYU and stuff, is the 2nd counselor in the branch, and our ward mission leader. He's amazing. He is the heart and soul of the missionary work in Rostock-he does so much for us. I love it. So at Gemiko, it was Elder Stanley and I, the sisters Sister Linford and Moon (Sister Moon was in the MTC with me) and the Senior sisters Wunderli and Holbrook. All amazing people. I love it. After that we went shopping. The church in Rostock is above a Netto, which is like a small grocery store. Legit. We ate, then did some doors, which was fun. At night, we had institute, which went well. We had an investigator there. His name is M. He has a crush on a member in the branch, but not super interested in the gospel. We'll change that. It was a good day.

Thursday: After study, we were supposed to meet this guy at his work, which turned out to be this huge building, and he is the head psychiatrist of this business or something weird. Too bad he wasn't there, but we made out another appointment. We went home and ate then did some study. Because I'm finishing Elder Stanley's training, we get 4 hours of study for 'New Missionary Study' or whatever. It's fun. We made a bunch of calls then. Then we OYMed. Which is Open Your Mouth. Just street contacting. Finished the night with a load of Doors. I love it.

Fritag: After study, we went by on this referral, who just wasn't there. Oh well. The referral actually lives on the street that the sister missionaries do so IDK why it's ours. But good. After that we went home, ate, and did weekly planning. Some good stuff. After that, we went by a super old investigator that Tobias told us to go by on. His name is Mark S. He is from Indonesia, but speaks English, German, Indonesian, Dutch, French, and Spanish. No big. We went on a walk through the Rostock University Botanical Garden, and had a good talk about life and religion and the Bible/BOM.

Botanischer Garten Rostock Teich

Hopefully we'll get to met with him more. He's super busy always because of school.We ended the night with Doors, taught one lesson doing that, and went home to study.

Saturday: Sat Morning was District Meeting. Our district is interesting. There are 12 missionaries. (Which is kind of a big district) but only 2 areas haha. Rostock and Greifswald. And there are 6 missionaries in each area. Good stuff. After that, we had an eating appointment with Bruder S. haha he's the man. Just super funny but a solid members. He's actually the Elders Quorum President. He's super super funny. He has this huge dog named Moppel. Who just owns the place. Moppel stole my seat, and they just brought out a chair because they said he wouldn't move haha. I love it. We then met up with some cool Asians playing basketball, and they invited us to play next week. That's happening. We met with this Asian guy named Xu after that. He actually was baptized a year ago, but went to China before being confirmed. So we were like what the heck. Nobody could get contact with him. But we did. Bonus. After that, we went back to the Institute center and played Ping Pong with our newest Investigator DANNY! My man! We had an awesome lesson with him. I loved the week.

Sonntag: WAS SUPER STRESSFUL. But totally worth it. We left at 7 in the morning to go to Berlin.

Elder Pollard and Friend in Berlin

We got there, and ate lunch with the Sister in Eisenhüttenstadt. After lunch, we went to the conference center. THAT WAS INSANE. There were soooo many missionaries there! I got to see everyone. It was amazing. I got to see all my best friends. President Monson was awesome. He's so cool. He talked eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that feel. In regards to working with less active members. It was awesome. I was actually asked to translate for this American family that was there. Monson spoke in English, obviously, but there was a speaker in German. So the translation was hard, but I did alright. After the conference, I got to see the whole branch from HOF!

The Hof Branch, Elder Huber and Elder Pollard

They all came up!!! It was awesome to see them again. I loved it. Then we went home. We got home at 11:300........

I LOVED LAST WEEK! EVERYTHING ABOUT IT WAS AMAZING!

So Rostock...such a cool city. I love it. It's super North, right on the Ostsee. The Baltic Sea. It's super pretty and kind of big. 200,000 people, as apposed to the 54,000 in Hof. I love working with the other missionaries in the city too. Elder Stanely is a champ.

Elder Stanley and Pollard in front of the German Reichstag

He reminds me of Brother Wertner, but 20 years old. He's in his 2nd transfer in Germany. He's a way good guy, and a hard worker. I just love it. I love Rostock and everything! The apartment is kind of...interesting. A little small and definitely hasn't been taken care of, but we're cleaning a lot.

So I hope you can tell that I'm happy haha. Being sent here was the answer to a lot of prayers. I love working, it's the best. But no Wal-Mart here...booo.

Sorry if I can't answer all of the question. I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!!!!





Love you all SO MUCH!  And miss you a ton.

Love,
Elder Pollard

Week Thirty-eight

WOW

That's all I can say right now. WOW what an exciting week! Like I don't even know where to start! So many feelings came out of this week. All I can do is just tell you.

The week was awesome! Monday we had district P-day in Zwickau. It was fun, we got on the train early in the morning to get to Zwickau and email and stuff. After emailing, we went to C&A (Like H&M but a little for JCPennyish) and I bought a snazzy new white shirt! One that actually fits. Slim Cut because that's how Europeans do it. Pictures to be included. After shopping, we ate some delicious cheap Asian food, and played sport. We played football and soccer for a couple hours. Then we came home! Tuesday was our day of service. We continued our efforts in the M's garden, which included digging trenches for new walls that need to be built, using a jackhammer to get rid of some concrete, and transporting hundreds or pounds of cement bags from the front yard to the back. Good stuff! Shwester M made us delicious food. Saurkraut and some meat thing, which was from the neck of a pig. It was super delicious. We spent basically all day doing service. Wednesday was district meeting. The W's drove Elder Huber and I to Plauen and back. It was a sad district meeting, because it was the last of the transfer. And we were expecting about half of the district to be transferred.It was OK though. We took pictures and stuff. Friday was super awesome. We went by on Shwester E, and when we were there, the ehepaar was already there! Coincidence? No. We had a really good lesson. Not a lot about Schwester E's beliefs were cleared up, but we came upon a good understanding of her faith, and how we can help her. It was a good appointment. Saturday morning was transfer calls! More about the later. Saturday night was Conference, and all of Sunday.

Conference was amazing! I totally regret not paying too much attention to it when I was home. Something about coming on a mission makes conference the most exciting thing ever. Something cool - we watched conference in Zwickau, which is where President Dieter F. Uchtdorf first had contact with the missionaries! So we got to watch Uchtdorf speak, while being the church building that he was taught in. What a cool experience! I especially liked Elder Holland's Talk where he said (using his own words to quote Christ) 'If you didn't know then, then you've certainly learned by now - that if I want fish, I CAN GET THEM!' I lold.  But really Elder Christofferson's talk was my favorite. His 'call to manhood'-it was awesome.

Transfer calls....WELL I was sitting back in my chair super comfortable on Saturday morning, NOT expecting to be transferred at all. And then I heard this, 'In Rostock....Elder Pollard will train.' I just kind of sat there shocked. I didn't expect that I'd be leaving Hof! And I still don't really want to leave Hof. I like Hof a lot. But now I am being assigned to Rostock (an 8 hour train ride North) to finish the training of Elder Stanley. Oh well! I heard Rostock is super awesome, so I'm really excited, but I still don't want to leave at all. I guess that's that haha. Actually Elder Huber is leaving too. They're bringing in two new missionaries to Hof. President did that with a lot of areas this transfer. Almost everyone is moving. More than half of the missionaries haha.

So I spent the weekend at conference and packing and cleaning when I was at home. I'm really excited now! But super nervous to travel. I hate traveling. Especially with my two broken suitcases.......the ones I won at grad night. Turns out, they're not the best quality.

STRESS! Family, please pray for me during my travels!!!! I will be traveling from 8:30 in the morning until 5 at night! That's 11:30 PM to 8 in the morning. The day you will read this! PRAY FOR ME PLEASE! I NEED HELP TRAVELING. I hate it.

Other than that, the week was super normal. Everyone is super stoked for sister missionaries reporting at age 19 now. I even have two girls emailing me who are dropping school to go on missions! How exciting is that. That's some straight up revelation that we got to witness. SO COOL.

Well, really not much to say! I get to see Thomas S. Monson on Sunday in Berlin! That's exciting. Other than that, I'll have a lot to tell you about next week!

Love you all SO much!

Elder Pollard

Week Thirty-five

Editor's note-this posting is a high light of the last three weeks emails-we'll try to keep up with the weekly postings going forward...

Hey guys,

Wow! The emails I got from the family today were awesome. It's cool how I come to this little internet cafe every Monday, and I am always SO excited to read the Emails from my family. It's the highlight of my day! And most of the times of my week. This past week was....meh. Not enough work was done for me to say that I enjoyed it. Still 'stuggling' in Hof. We're not supposed to write home about when times are hard or annoying, but I don't want to, and won't lie haha. Times are hard and annoying in Hof. Anyway, there's certainly room to improve! Which is a blessing.

Last week:

Montag: Last Monday was super normal. Just did shopping in the morning, then emails, then ate Mai Tahn Lang, the Chinese Imbiß across the street from our Wohnung, (freaking delicious) and then hung around, I read a little, we watched some movies. Good stuff. That was basically Monday.

Dienstag: Tuesday, we were going to meet with Schwester Ernst, but she called and rescheduled. Which is great progress for her. Normally, she would just not call or anything and then not be home when we showed up. So good for her.

Mittwoch: Wednesday, we actually did meet with Schwester E. Going there is always fun. She has two dogs, one is like 15 years old and small and kind of sickly looking. The other is named 'Pepino' and is the craziest, wildest dog on Earth. Pepino has already succeeded in breaking my shoes haha. Apparently they taste good. And she's getting a new one soon. Kind of crazy, but the are friendly dogs, and Schwester E. is super friendly too. We talked about stuff. We are planning on going over the Preach My Gospel lessons with her, because, even though she's already a member, she needs to learn A LOT. She told us that she doesn't believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, even though she believes that the Book of Mormon is true. And also, that none of the Prophets or Apostles are called of God. So, obviously we need to talk about a lot of things. Our Branch President told us to teach her like we were teaching an investigator. So, we'll see how that goes.

Fritag: Friday was cool. Right after lunch, we were supposed to meet with Brother R. and his friend C., but his friend wasn't there, so it was just Bruder R.. He's pretty much less active even though he believes 100 on everything. he just has trouble getting to church. We had a good talk with him. After that, we went and did service in Bruder M's garden. This garden is basically all of our project haha. I'm really into it. I love garden work! Like taking something that's old and nasty and making it look good is fun. And it's a nice break from wearing white shirts and ties all day. And it's really good exercise. I basically spent 4 hours taking a big bump/hill in the ground and making it flat. It was a workout. After that, we ate Abendbrot, and played Ligretto, a super fun card game. It was a good day!

Samstag: Saturday we had our weekly planning.

Sonntag: Sudnay was fun. We got to church (the Hotel Quality) and set up, and chatted with Bruder M. It was fast Sunday, of course, and we had a grand total of 8 people at church. Which is kind of sad, but it's awesome, because everybody was the opportunity to get up and speak. And surprisingly, we filled the whole hour just with 8 people. It was cool. I did door service, so I hung out by myself in the back. After that, we had a combined relief society/priesthood meeting lesson. After church, we ate with the H's. They're way cool. We ate goulash and noodles and cake. Yum. On the way home, we had a pretty good chat with Bruder H., who isn't a member. It was cool. After that, we went home and cleaned the apartment.

That was the week!

Like I said earlier, there is A LOT of room for improvement. Hof is getting a senior couple though! To work with us. Hopefully that will help the situation.

Other than the work going slow, everything is good with me. I need some mom help though! MOM! Hey. I need some help and advice. I weighed myself this morning at 90.4 kgs. Which is roughly 200 lbs. BUT I need to lose more! It's getting hard to keep loosing, and I want all of your advice and tips on how I can keep losing weight. PLEASE! Anything you have.

I love my family! I say this every week, but I am so bummed that I'm going to miss Emily's wedding. Weddings sound awesome. And I'll be in Hof. But oh well, I'm happy that Emily and Matt are doing this! I hope everyone else is coping well with the excitement!

I love you all!

Elder Pollard

Good Morning Rancho Bernardo,

And greetings from Europa. Am I really your favorite Elder Mom? That's sweet. You are my favorite parents, and favorite family too! I've actually been having A LOT of really vivid dreams, and my family is in
almost every one of them (or related to what I'm doing). Last night, I dreamed that I was on a plane home, and I was sitting in front of Jerry Seinfeld and Kramer, and they were making fun of me because I was Mormon. Kind of sad, but it's just a dream. Well this last week was definitely better. I feel like I've just been in build up mode to actually get back into the swing of things, and last week was the first real step. Not a giant step, but definitely progress. Which is awesome.

Last P-Day was tragic, because we ran out of money haha. Literally, I had 5 Euros Monday morning. 2 went to the internet cafe so I could email, and I had to save the rest to pay the bus for district meeting on Wednesday. So we didn't do anything. We couldn't even get Mai Tahn Lang! My favorite Asian food! I cried a little. So P-Day was the most boring day of the week haha. Asides from Emailing of course, which is
my favorite part of the week.

On Wednesday, we had district meeting in Plauen, which went well. We went on tausch with the district leader, Elder Fullmer, and he and I rode the bus back to Hof (50 minute ride). BUT I got my rückerstattung
back in, so I had money on my card again! YAY money! So, Elder Fullmer and I came back to Hof, and bought Mai Tahn Lang, because we couldn't shop for groceries on Monday, so we had no food, and had to eat out. Delicious. After lunch, Elder Fullmer and I went by on a lot of contacts. We got in touch with our old Polish man investigator, but he didn't have a lot of time, and went to the hospital the next day  because he has blood clots. It was raining pretty hard, and like nobody was home, so that was sad, but it was good to be out. I remember being happy that I couldn't feel my fingers or hands haha. It had been so long since I was out in the cold. By the way, Germany is already getting cold. It's scary. After going by on contacts, we did some doors. We had a walk in with an ex-Jehovah witness, which lasted a long time, because she liked to talk. She was really nice and we had a cool little lesson, but in the end she told us that she wouldn't read the
BOM. Oh well. We talked to some other people, made out a lot of appointments. It was awesome. After all that, we went and looked for a tausch treat. We were looking for Baklava, a Turkish desert, but none of the Döner ladens had any. I just made pancakes.

Thursday morning, Elder Fullmer and I went on a run, which killed me haha. I'm pretty out of shape. Still loosing weight, but definitely not in shape. But that was fun. Thursday we went to the temple! So Elder Fullmer and I got ready, and went to Bahnhof. The ride is around  2 hours to the temple, but it's fun with Uno. We play Uno a lot haha  because we ride trains a lot. The whole district is 8 missionaries, so it's way fun. The temple was awesome, and I even went through it in German! Without the English translator thing. That was cool. Iunderstood it all too. After the temple, we ate Döners. Actually, I ate a Dürüm, which is like a Döner burrito. It tasted like Taco Bell. SO GOOD. We caught the train home, and when we got to Hof, we had to help put some stuff into the new senior companion's apartment. That lasted basically all night, but it was worth it, because we got payed in PEANUT BUTTER!!!!!!!!! Best day ever.

Friday morning, we went back to the new senior missionaries apartment, and put washing machines, fridges, other stuff in. After that, we went to the M's house and did a whole day of service. Our job was to move giant logs from the front yard to the back yard. They got a huge shipment of just like logs haha. It's for fire wood. The big ones had to weigh like 400 pounds. The little ones were like 200. It was crazy. A whole day of being a lumberjack.  It was a good workout. We got half of the pile done haha. Crazy. We also played with their two new puppies. Presh.

Sunday was fun. The only priesthood holders were us and president M. haha no big. Church went well. I blessed the sacrament. We had 11 total, and despite a minor meltdown where a member said she wanted
a calling and kind of yelled at everyone, Church went well. There was some gathering of old army vets at the hotel, so I spoke to some old guys in English haha. It was sweet. After church, we ate at the M's. SO GOOD! Oh my gosh I love German home cooking. Not as good as moms, but still. We had an appointment at 17.00 but it fell through.

The week was better. With a lot of help from our district leader, Elder Fullmer. He's an awesome missionary. It was also really cool to go to the temple. I love the temple, and I regret not going more in SD. It's just so relaxing, and like you feel way good after. It's like a reset button on all the dumb things in your life. It's an awesome place, and everyone there is always so nice! It's getting cold now in Germany. I have to wear the big fuzzy socks that a member in Hannover knit for me to bed. I'm so happy I have those. It's back to suit
weather too. Which is fun. I'm doing ok with the diet. I weigh under 200 pounds. Under 90 kilo actually, which is like 197. So that's going good. (I left SD weighing 230...) my goal for when I see you all again is at least 180. Hopefully under that! That would make me happy. I'm also having a 6pack contest with Rachel, so I have to beat her. That is my motivation.

I am SO EXCITED for Emily!!! I can't believe it's happening so soon. And that I'm missing it...oh well. But I want her to now how happy I am for her and how much I miss her! But she doesn't write me. Sad Face. but I'm stoked to have a brother in law. Especially because it's Matt.

Everything else is running smoothly. I love being here. If I didn't, I would come home. But i do, so I'm staying, sorry haha. I'm healthy, relatively happy, and don't miss home TOO much. I do miss my friends a
lot. I miss food from home haha. Chic-fil-a.

Anyways, I love you all more than you know!

Pray for me, I pray for you

Elder Pollard

Week Thirty-two

Hey ya'll,

 

I Love P-Day. I love logging on to the computers here in the 'Taj Mahal' Indian cuisine and internet cafe, and seeing all the emails I get! I am really blessed, because I have a lot of people who seem to find me interesting. My 2 hours of emails every Monday are PACKED! And I love it. I love hearing about what other people are doing, and sometimes it's crazy to hear about all the changes going on at home. Not too much with the family, but a lot with my friends. I love hearing about it all, because I pray for all of you so much! I wish the best for you all, every night.

 

Last week was OK...the two owners of the 'Taj Mahal' are arguing really loud in front of me in a strange language. Anyways, last week was cool. Kind of relaxed and lazy, which sucks, but all is well and is going to pick up. Let me just tell you about it.

 

Monday: Last P-Day, we went grocery shopping in the morning. The food this week was boring again, so I probably won't tell you what I ate everyday haha. We bought food to have bratwursts, and tune/rice/curry ketchup. So that was that haha. After shopping, we went and did emails. It was really hot on Monday haha, I think I was sweating a lot just after walking to do emails. I loved emails. After that, we walked back to the apartment, and picked up Chinese food at 'Mai Tahn Lang' across the street. Our favorite Chinese Imbiß. The Chinese food in Germany is good haha. Not like restaurant good, but 5 buck take out good. It's always worth it. We spent the rest of P-Day hanging around, watching movies, and cleaning. And I read a lot of Lord of the Rings. I'm so nerdy, I can't even put the book down. It's very strange, because I've never been too much of a reader. But I'm already half down with the trilogy. I'm a nerd. After P-Day was over, we went to M., our Polish investigator, but he wasn't there! So disappointing. But oh well. Next time he'll be there.

 

Dienstag: Tuesday was pretty normal. Woke up, ate, got ready, all that stuff. In the morning, we went by on someone who said to come back whenever, but they weren't there. So we came back and ate lunch. After eating, we went back out on a lot of contacts. After going by on like 6 people, we found at that 2 of them don't live there anymore, and that 2 said we could come back on a different time, so we made out appointments. We've been doing a lot of contact work. We have a list of about 150 contacts, and we made a grid to go along with it, so we could sort out where they live in the city. It's going a little slow right now, but it will pick up. After that, we went by on Bruder L. We had a nice visit, didn't really talk about much because he had company, but he was in a good mood. He started playing Bob Marley for us on his little guitar haha it was funny.

 

Mittwoch: Wednesday, the only interesting things to report is that we did service in Bruder M's garden for a long time. He's totally renovating his house/garden, and we've been helping out a lot. It's going to look awesome when it's all done, but the garden still needs some work, which is awesome for us, because service is a nice break from wearing the white shirts and ties. And it's always good exercise. I got to us a pick to get rid of a lot of stone that the previous owner had put in the back along time ago. I came out with 4 huge blisters on my hands, and a cut on my wrist, but I got a lot of work done, and I felt good helping Bruder Merkel. He's the Branch President here. He's such a cool guy. After we worked for a really long time, he made us some pasta thing. It was good.

 

Donnerstag: Thursday was interesting. In the morning, we went out and bought some stuff we needed. Like soap and stuff. We didn't eat lunch, because we were supposed to eat with Schwester E. Last time we had an eating appointment, she wasn't home, so we had bought an extra meal at the supermarket just in case she fell out again. As we were walking up the her house, we saw her also walking up with her dog. Apparently she didn't have any time/totally forgot haha. Anyway she invited us in and we had a spiritual thought. It was kind of hard because her crazy dog was trying to eat my shoes the whole time. She then gave us all the ingredients to make spaghetti at home, and we left. At night we took the bikes out for more exercise. We rode like a long way out of town on this little kind of cool dirt road. It took us all the way to the next town. It was a long ride, maybe 10 miles or more. But it was super fun.

 

Fritag: Friday we had weekly planning.

 

Samstag: Saturday morning was transfer calls! That was pretty cool. It's crazy to think that 6 weeks have already passed since I've come to Hof. I was listening to President Kosak talk over the conference call just thinking about how fast the time flies by. Next month, on the 18th will be my 8 month mark. Which is like...a third of my mission! I'm not trunky or looking forward to going home..yet...because like I still have a long way to go. Thinking about the end of my mission is a LONG time in the future. I like being a missionary. The call was boring, because we knew already that we were staying together and in Hof. But it was interesting to hear where everyone else was sent and stuff. Elder Donner is coming down from Elmshorn and going to Mittweida, so maybe I'll be able to see him soon. That means that all of the Elders from my golden group (the group of missionaries that I came to Germany with) are now in the Leipzig or Dresden zone, which means we should see each other at the next zone conference. Yes! that will be exciting. I spent Saturday night preparing a talk for Sunday.

 

Sonntag: Sunday went well. I woke up early to make pancakes again, which turned out the best this time. Let me take some time to express my love for pancakes. I would eat pancakes three times a day 7 days a week for the rest of my life. That's how much I love pancakes. We got to church, and I think abut 15 people were there. It's still summer vacation which is the time that every German family drops all responsibilities and just goes on vacation. This happens every year with no fail apparently. My talk went well. Actually, the stake secretary was at church this week. He had to go over some stuff with the branch president. But he bore his testimony before I gave my talk. He stressed the importance of testimony and how we need to always try to strengthen our own. Which was odd, because the talk I prepared was about testimony haha. Kind of cool. I basically taught out of True to the Faith in my talk. The most interesting thing that I found was when Alma talks about how he gained his testimony. We all know that he saw an angel and everything, but he specifically says that he has a testimony though the power of the holy ghost, not because he saw an angel. I thought that was cool. After church we ate at the F's house. We grilled, even though it was super windy, and the wind kept knocking the grill over haha. That was interesting. But it was delicious, and the gave us a lot of food to take home, which was well accepted. We went home and deep cleaned the apartment after that.

 

The week was OK. We didn't do enough work for me to say the the week was good, but today is the start of a new transfer, and I really hope to get back into it. I hate sitting around the apartment. We do it way too much, and it's driving me nuts. I just want to go out and start meeting people again. Also, I look back on the transfer and I realize that I didn't even learn a lot of German. Which I want to change for this transfer coming up. My German is still doing pretty good. I can hold conversations and what not about pretty much anything. And I always know what people are talking about now. But I want/need to refine my German, so I talk more naturally. I love this language.

 

Dad - you can tell Brother Walder that the Bible I bought is a Lutheran translation. It was written in 1903, and is in old Deutsch script. It's way cool. Best 50cent purchase in Germany. We don't use the Einheitsübersetzung bible though. We use a new Lutheran translation. I think. It's red.

 

It sounds like die Familie is doing well. When exactly is Emily's wedding? Like what day? I'm still bummed that I'm going to miss that. Weddings sound fun. They look fun in the movies always. I'm so jealous! I'm sure you're all super busy preparing for that. And you said Christian is losing weight? I weighed myself this morning at exactly 200 lbs. Well, 91 kilo. I have a goal to come back at 180. I think I can do it, if I'm not too lazy. Losing weight is actually pretty easy.

 

Thanks for the banana bread recipe! We have been living SUPER cheap, and haven't really had time or money to experiment with new recipes, but I write them all down in case I ever get put with a companion who likes cooking. I really want to try them all out. Especially the wantons. Food in Germany is actually really cheap. Especially bread.

 

Dad - I'm excited for the fast on Sunday! I know I will be fasting with you all. I decorated my new planner with an artist's rendition of Jesus healing the blind man. It reminds me of how you always tell me to expect miracles. I think it's nice.  Not much else to report on. I'm healthy. Doing good in Hof. I am really excited to start this transfer, and hopefully we can work really hard for the next 6 weeks! 

 

I love you all!

 

Elder Pollard

Week Thirty-one

Einen schönen, guten Morgen!

Hallo famili ud freunde, ich dachte das ich dieses ganze Email auf Deutsch schreiben könnte. Nah? Wäre das in Ordenung? Oder soll ich noch das Email auf Englisch schreiben....das wäre am besten.

A little Deutsch to brighten everybody's day. German is a weird language, but at the same time, it makes a lot of sense. It's definitely hard to learn, but also very possible when you put your mind to it. All it takes is practice! ÜBEN ÜBEN ÜBEN! (Sagen die deutche Menschen) I'm really grateful that I'm here in Germany and that I can learn such a cool language.

Last week was....meh. We had zone konferenz, but it was definitely a lazy week, which I really hate to admit. Since coming out here, I've been doing really well with being a real, responsible, hard working person. But last week was....meh. It's coming to the end of the transfer, and we need to finish strong! I'm excited for this coming week, and hopefully we will get a lot done.

So last week:

Montag: Monday we left early in the morning to go and have district P-Day in Zwickau, a city about an hour north of us. It's a way cool and old city (actually where Dieter F. Uchtdorf found the church), and the elders there are really cool also. We got there kind of early, and did emails in a really ghetto internet cafe. After that, we got a little something to eat (Leberkäse....oh my gosh so delicious) and then headed to do sport. We played football and real football the whole afternoon as a district. It was really fun and good exercise. But it was incredibly hot. I heard the SD is pretty hot right now...so is Deutschland. Na ja, it was really fun. After sport we went and got more food (more leberkäse...my favorite. It's basically Germany's meatloaf, but way more greasy and delicious with mustard). We hung out and talked for a while, enjoying the shade. Unfortunately, we got home kind of late, and missed an appointment that we had with our new Polish investigator. That was really too bad, because I was looking forward to it. But we got back really late haha...

Dienstag: Tuesday morning, we went by on an appointment that we had made out a couple days before, but the lady wasn't there...schade. (That seems to happen a lot...) so after that, we went by on the nose doctor, because of Elder Huber's nose bleeds. We couldn't get an appointment then, but we made out an appointment for Thursday. We then walked home and went to go do weekly shopping. This week was tunafish and rice, and brats again. The cheapest way to eat, and still stay alive. Our weekly food bill is about 15€, which is like 20 bucks. So we're basically living off of around 3 dollars a day, when you factor in other small thing. Pretty solid. A missionary is thrifty. After shopping, we ate our lovely rice, tunafish, and curry ketchup. And we did some planning. During lunch, our only other appointment that day called and canceled...so we had to do some planning for what we wanted to do. Nothing else that special the rest of the day. We took the bikes out at night, which was really fun.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was OK. In the morning we went by on a couple of contacts, who didn't end up living there, so the battle against our 150 name contact list goes on. We came home for lunch and ate brats...mmmm. I think I could eat brats the rest of my life. It's the most perfect food on earth. This time, we made Kartoffeln Puree (basically instant mashed potatoes) and I ate it on the brats. These are my nutrients...bread, meat and potatoes. After lunch, the companion wasn't feeling awesome, so we hung out a little. It was terribly hot this whole past week, and I never really felt awesome either. We did some planning to, worked on our contact list, made calls, and so on. Nothing else that special. We took the bikes out at night, which was really interesting, because it was my turn to lead. I may or may not have accidentally led us through a trail full of stinging nettle...that sucked haha. But it payed off because we found this hill with a good view of a soccer game. We watched the 11 meter kicks at the end. It was kind of intense.

The back side of Elder Pollard's nametag...

 Donnerstag: Thursday morning was elder Huber's nose appointment. He said they shot a laser in his nose. It sounds like the just cauterized a broken vessel or something. They stopped the nose bleeds though. I waited in the waiting room and tried to withstand the attempts of 3 little Turkish kids to try and drive me insane. I succeeded. After that, we visited Bahnhof to see if the train to Leipzig was delayed. All of Germany is always under construction, so the trains are more often than not delayed. We then wet home and ate lunch. Tunafish and rice. After lunch, we had weekly planning. That was good. After that we visited Bruder L., a less active. It was kind of awkward, because he was in a really bad mood again. Oh well. I hope we're helping. When we took the bikes our this time, I found out that my gears are broken. Which isn't fun. I have to find a bike shop and see if they can fix that.

Fritag: ZONE KONFERENZ! I love zone conference. It's super cool. You hear the most awesome and inspiring themas and workshops and talks. The only not cool part is waking up at 4.30.....yeah. To be in Leipzig at 8.30, we need to catch the 5.52 zug, which means we wake up at 4.30. But I'm kind of used to it now. I had a really good doughnut at Leipzig Bahnhof. THAT was exciting. ZoCo was super cool. I got to see 3 missionaries from my golden group (the group of missionaries that was in the MTC with me). Elder Schole, Elder Beckstead, and Elder Guccione. That was AWESOME to see them again! I loved it. Lunch was good. We had some rice and veggie dish with bockwursts. We heard some really awesome themas. Sister Kosak talked about Psalms 23. I liked it. ZoCo went super long, and we missed our train leaving Leipzig, so we were stuck in Leipzig for another hour. Not cool. Hof elders returned home at 10.00 at night. It was such a tiring day.

Samstag: Saturday morning, we went by a referral, who said the had no interest. After that, we went by on more contacts. We came home and ate tunafish and rice. The meal of champions. Puts hair on your chest. After lunch, we got the two hours back from waking up early on Friday. I vegged. We then went by on Schwester E. We chatted for a while, and then left her a BOM that she could write her testimony in. She said we could come back this week on Thursday to eat with her. Hopefully she remembers this time haha. She also gave us a box of frozen "American" hamburger patties. We had to go home then, because I had frozen meat in my backpack.

Sonntag: Sunday is always a good day. Church was fun. I blessed the sacrament. There was a record breaking 36 members at church yesterday! A bunch of families from Plauen came down. I'm not sure why. But it was cool. at one point, I went to the bathroom and, because we meet in a hotel, the were playing the radio through the speaker. And of course, what song is playing when I go in? Purple Rain by Prince. I had an Elder Pollard moment, singing to myself in the bathroom of the Hotel Quality in Hof, Germany. After church, we ate at Brother M's house. A sister in the ward made us food, (Schwester M. is out of town) so we ate that. It was really good. I would call it German chili. Potato, goulash, stew. It was delicious. I love German cooking. We ate ice cream too. We then talked for a while about the Olympics, movies, the BOM, and Lord of the Rings haha. I had a conversation about LOTR in German. Beast. Then Bruder M. gave me a copy of the book in English to borrow. That is my new fascination. It's approved to read, so in my free time, I'm glued to that thing. Too bad we don't have too much free time. It's actually a goal of mine to read a book.

That was the week! Kind of awesome, kind of lazy though. I did reunite myself with my one true love though. Haribo. Haribo is delicious! Especially Pico Balla. Haribo macht kinder froh! Und erwachsene ebenso! The candy of choice. Also, we cleaned the apartment really well on Sunday.

Next week will be awesome. I can just feel it. I really want to work my butt off and just collapse at the end of the transfer. I've been a missionary for over 7 months now! Kind of crazy, but I still have a long ways to go. I'm really happy that I can be here. I am so blessed and honored to be able to do this work.

I hope all is well with the Emily fest. I am actually really sad that I don't get to see Emily super happy at her wedding. I wish every day that I could be there. But that's life. I hope that the whole family is doing good! I miss you all a lot! I pray for you all too.

That's it! Bis nächste Woche!

Love,
Elder Pollard

Week Thirty

Oh herro famry,

This last week was insane! We traveled so much. And traveling on trains is probably one of the most exhausting activities on Earth.Especially when every train in Germany is jam packed like a sardine can. Wall to wall, hugging some strange smelly German man. But last week was good as well. A lot went down! Let me tell you about it all.

Montag: Last Monday was boring. Haha no but we didn't really do much. We went shopping for groceries early in the morning. We then went to the Taj Mahal to send emails, and then we got Chinese food. My new
favorite Chinese food place, Mah Tahn Mal...or something along those lines, is right across the street for where we live. Dangerous haha. It's pretty cheap and you get pounds of Chinese food. It's great.
After we ate, we went around Innenstadt and looked in the shops, explored the town, and watched some mission approved movies. Fun time. The rest of the day wasn't too exciting, sorry.

Dienstag: Tuesday was cool/interesting. We started our day off by going by on a referral that we got from the Elders in Zwikau. We walked pretty far to get there, and when we showed up, it was a wrong
address. No name on the klingel, and nobody was home, which is sad. But it lead us to this second hand/salvation army shop. Which was awesome. Just old German stuff, but I came out of it with a super old
Bible (printed in 1900), which was written in old German script, so it's crazy looking. I'm keeping it to smack demons in the face if they try to mess with us. And also a really cool Bier Krug. Like a giant glass beer mug. German style. I bought both of those for 1€. We then went home. We ate Brats. Brats are great. They're super cheap, super fast to make, and super delicious. Not anything like Johnsonville Brats, or anything you get from Vons. After lunch, we went by on a nonactive member, who said we could come by, but wasn't there, so after that, we went back home. Elder Huber has been having problems with really bad nose bleeds. I'm talking like pints of blood flowing out his nose. Like it's bad. So that happened. We kind of chilled a
little because he wasn't feeling good after. I studied German. That was our Tuesday.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was busy. After study, we went and bought some stuff that we needed (light bulbs, soap, etc) and then came back at noon for lunch. I think we ate rice, tuna fish, and curry ketchup
again. Meal of champions. After lunch, we did a little planning, Elder Huber got another bloody nose, and then we left. We went by on this referral from F (the most interesting man in the world in Hannover).
We got all the out to where he lives, and his wife said that he would have no interest. That's annoying. Like we believe her and everything, but it would have been cool to hear it from him and not have someone
talk for him. But oh well. We were politely asked not to return. After that, we had an appointment with a new lady, who said she'd meet us on a corner somewhere. We were that, unfortunately she wasn't. So after
that, we went by on other contacts.

Donnerstag: Thursday morning we had district meeting, which means an hour bus ride to Plauen. Waking up early and getting on the bus. The best. District meeting was cool. After that, Elder Coleman came home
with me, because we were on exchanges. Elder Coleman is cool. He's from London, England. I have international friends. We had a good day in Hof. We got back and ate more Chinese food haha. I love that stuff. After lunch, we had an appointment with this guy named Herr M. He's from Poland and he's awesome. We we came in, he was watching Olympic Women's Kickboxing. He was getting into it, too haha.
We came in, gave him the book, got to know him a little, and had a good lesson. It ended with him telling us that he doesn't understand too much German, and wants a Polish BOM. He's our new investigator.
He's awesome. After that, we went and bought some stuff for our tausch treat. Elder Pollard is a strong believer in tausch treats. Basically on exchanges, the missionary who's city they're in buys or makes a
treat. I bought vanilla eis, peanut,butter, and oreos. Milkshakes. After that, we went by on contacts, and did doors. And ended our night with milkshakes.

Fritag: Friday was the best. We went to the temple! The temple in Freiberg is super small haha. But it was awesome. Elder Coleman and I got on a train at around 9.30. The train met up with all the other
missionary's city, so by the time we were in Freiberg, all 8 of us were there. The temple was a really cool experience. Everything was in German, so I had an English translator thing, but I understood the German, so I stopped using it halfway through. It was just sweet. After that, we met up with the Elders in Freiberg, and we got döners. Elder Huber and I ate our döners with the Frieberg Elders, and everyone else went home. We got home super late. Like 8.30, so there wasn't much time to do work.

Samstag: Saturday morning, we got back on the train. We road from Hof to Zwikau to do a Straße Austellung. (street display). It was pretty successful. I talked to 3 different people who actually had interest,
which was cool. We were there for about 2 hours doing the street display. After we were done, I bought leberkäse. MMMMMM. It's basically Germany's version of meatloaf  (I think?) but it's delicious and you eat it on a brötchen with onions and mustard. SO GOOD. We also got bubble tea. Which isn't really tea. It's kind of like boba (the Asian drink with the tapioca balls) but it's fruity. It was good. Unfortunately, we missed our train going back, so we had to wait an hour in zwikau. We were entertained by the riot police battling against the angry drunk soccer fans for a while. That was interesting. We got home pretty late that day too.

Sonntag: Sunday was pretty normal. We went to church, which was pretty normal. In the middle of church though, some random guy came and just started listening. Too bad he left before it ended, because I wanted
to talk to him and see if he wanted a BOM or anything. Oh well. After church, we ate at the Hemmans house. Which was awesome. Bruder H isn't a member, but he's an awesome guy. He owns an antique shop in Hof, so there house is like crazy filled with everything. Like a million old books everywhere, and just cool stuff on the walls. I read this comic book while I was there. It's called "Bones." I liked it a lot because it was in German and I understood it. And it was funny. We ate chicken, potatoes, and some veggie mix. With quark for desert. MM. After, we went home and did weekly planning/cleaned the apartment.

It was actually a good week. This transfer is flying. Like I feel like I got to Hof yesterday haha. I love the branch in Hof. Everyone in it is super cool. And now I've met basically everyone on a personal
level, because we've eaten at everyone's house for Sunday already haha. Hof is a cool place.

Exciting news: P-Diddy was caught on twitter quoting L. Tom Perry haha. Check that out familie. Ok, thanks for the email! I'm sorry this week wasn't more exciting and that I have no pictures, but next week will be super exciting.

Die Kirche ist wahr, und ich weiß, dass Missions Arbeit die Arbeit des Hernn ist. I habe alle eauch sehr Lieb!

Elder Pollard

Week Twenty-nine

Herro Famiry.

Greetings from the Taj Mahal Restaurant/Internet Cafe in Hof, Germany. This last week was really awesome! I can't believe that this transfer is almost over, too. The time is flying SO fast, I can't even believe it. Sometimes I feel like it's going by too fast. Like I'm missing out on opportunities to learn and progress personally. But it's all good. I don't like to think about the time as a whole (like in regards to two years). Taking it week by week is what works well for me. I love the missionary work.

This last week was jam packed, but at the same time kind of uneventful. I'm going to apologize in advanced if this email is boring. I'm trying to keep them interesting! But let me tell you about my last week.

Montag: Last p-day was cool. Our morning was normal. After emails, we headed to the M's house. We had planned on going to the 'Hofer Volksfest' that day. Basically the San Diego County Fair, but 1/50 of the size and awesomeness. Just kidding, it was super cool. I ate 6 Burger Kings burgers before. On Mondays, they're only 50 cents. Which is dangerous for missionaries. Anyway, we all went to the fest. We rode 4 rides. All pretty normal fair rides. Except for this super shady Rocket ride that brought us super high up, spun us in circles, and then rotated the rocket things we were sitting in, so we were upside down. The whole time, the cables holding us up are making the most terrible noise ever. I thought I was going to die. For the first time in my life I was scared of dying haha. You all would have been so upset if I died in Germany on a 3 Euro Rocket ride. That would have ruined the week. But I had fun. After the fest, we left P-Day early to meet someone. We were supposed to meet in front of a supermarket, but unfortunately, they never showed up. Schade. But the Lord works in mysterious ways, and on our way back, we were spotted by this part-member family eating ice cream. They're super cool. We got free ice cream, and got to have a good little spiritual moment. It was coooool.

Dienstag: Tuesday morning we shopped for groceries. Last week I was on the 'tuna fish-rice-curry ketchup' diet. It's really cheap and apparently it helps lose weight. So the bill for the week was like 10 dollars. Which is always nice. We wet home and ate, and made some important phone calls to try and get in contact with some old investigators and contacts. After calls, we had an appointment with this man named Herr S. (Herr means Mr.) It took forever to find his house/walk to it. He gave us his address over the phone, and we didn't really understand it too well. But after like 45 minutes of walking and looking, we found him. Turns out, he's a super cool old guy who loves to talk. He admitted that he really didn't have interest in finding the truth, even if we were the ones who had it. That was weird to hear, but I'm in super missionary mode and I think everyone should be having these deep thought-provoking questions like is there a God and where do we come from?. Turns out some people just don't think about that or don't care. Anyways, he was really nice and said we could come back whenever we want to talk with him. Maybe we can help him change his opinions. After Herr S., we looked for a referral that F from Hannover (most interesting man in the world) gave me when he heard I was coming to Hof. That only took another hour of walking. We got to his house and his wife answered and said he was out...Schade agian. But at least we have this contact.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was Mission President Interviews! In Leipzig. It was a 2 1/2 hour train ride to get to Leipzig from Hof. We woke up at 4 a.m.....totally worth it. President Kosak is a super awesome person. His wife is, too. I had a good interview. President shined and polished all of the missionaries shoes. I think it was symbolic for washing feet....it was cool. We heard some good workshops and such. I gave the closing prayer and my new Zone Leader said I have awesome German, which is also cool. Vollprima.
 

 The Hohenstein District

It was cool being with my new zone for the first time, and I even got to see Elder Scholes! He was in the MTC with me. The first missionary I saw that was in the MTC with me. It only took 4 transfers haha. We then rode the 3 hours back to Hof. And got Chinese food.

The Leipzig Zone (Elder Pollard is in the back...)

Donnerstag: Thursday was a little annoying. The morning went normal. Right at 11am, we left to go by on some contacts. We found out that one doesn't live there anymore which is useful information. Then we meet this other guy who said we could come back another time. We were then supposed to eat with a member and he friend who is a non member. (It was supposed to be an awesome eating appointment and joint teach) but she wasn't there! Oh no! haha Now we were hungry, didn't know where the member was, and the whole situation was just a little tragic. So then we went home and ate. Because we were hungry. After that, we made a grid of the city. We have around 120 contacts that we need to go by on, and they live all over the place, so we're making a grid of the city to categorize all of the contacts. That took a while. At night, we went out on the bikes. Elder Huber got permission from President to take the bikes out every night. Exercise and stuff. Hof is a beautiful city, and Germany is a beautiful country. We just rode up hill until we found a cool view. It was fun.

Fritag: Friday was Friday. We woke up, did stuff, ate lunch. After lunch, we started our weekly planning session. That went well for a couple of hours, then we had an appointment, so we had to take a break. We went to Brother R's place. he's way cool. He has a super strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and he's super friendly. He has a friend who wants to be baptized, but is always super busy and stuff. I think we're meeting with the two in a couple of weeks. After that appointment, we went by on an inactive member who lived by Brother R. She was busy, but nice and said we could come back later. So went went home and finished Weekly Planning. We then took the bikes out again. At night, I wrote some letters! I got a lot of letters this week. From. Chris Sherman, Nicole D'Souza, Christina Shoesmith, and the RB ward Relief Society! Much love from back home. I replied to all of them as fast as I could.

Samstag: Saturday was SICK! In the morning, we had district finding. The Elders in our district (from Plauen, Zwickau, and Meerane) came down to Hof to help us out with some finding. It was awesome. I was with Elder Coleman (my new British friend) we walked around, talking to everyone. Some homeless people asked us if we had a Bible to give them. We said no, but we have this other book haha. They took it gladly and said they'd read it. Hey, why not. District Finding was a success. This Indian Restaurant just started making some delicious smelling. After District Finding, we ate lunch. Tuna. Rice. But this time I used Zaziki instead of Curry Ketchup. I love zaziki so much. After lunch, we went to Untreusee for the branch Sommerfest. We hung out with the branch, grilled, and relaxed at the lake. ALSO, Bruder G. taught us how to throw boomerangs! Like really. How cool is that? Parents: Your middle son has thrown a boomerang, had it come back to him, and caught it. Be Proud.

Sonntag: Sunday was low key. We had fast and testimony meeting, with 8 people. Haha the branch here is kind of small.... But it was an awesome meeting. After church (which is only two hours here) we ate at the F's house. They're a super cool family. Super nice, and Schwester F. made AMAZING food. Oh my gosh. Like some meat that reminded me of pot roast, Knudle, Rotkhol, and veggies. With a lot of gravy. We had Strawberry Tort after. I ate so much. It was delicious. I am so thankful for the members here haha. After that, we went home and kind of hung out. Elder Huber is sick, and I kind of feel something coming too. So we relaxed to try and prevent further illness. I feel good today.

The week was awesome. I really like Elder Huber, he's a cool guy. We get a long pretty well. I'm excited to be here in Hof and with him. And President kind of hinted to him during interviews that we'd be staying together another transfer after this one. I'm excited. The work in Hof WILL explode. I love being a ´missionary.

MOM! Thank you so much for all of the recipes! I'm going to see if I can get everything for the wontons. There's an Asian store kind of by our house, so I'm sure I can get everything. So excited to try out these recipes! Can I get a recipe for chicken strips?! Please and Thank you mama.

It sounds like you (Mom and Dad) had a good week. The house was empty, you got to road trip, and visit a huge Cotsco. That sounds awesome! I'm happy to see everything going well back at home. I love and miss you all so much! I really miss your cooking Mom, like a lot. I didn't realize how lucky I was... haha but I am well fed here, so don't worry! I actually gained weight this past week. I need to keep losing! Right now I'm at like 205. But still 25 pounds lighter than the last time you saw me!

I want you to know that I'm actually doing really good. I am comfortable, happy, and trying my hardest. Or trying to try my hardest haha. Like I sound all good and happy in my Emails, and I AM! I love it here in Germany. I love the freedom to responsibility ratio we have as missionaries. I love having goals and seeing myself reach them. I love the scriptures and being able to study them everyday (starting Alma soon) (third time through the BOM since January). I love how my prayers have gotten soooo much better. My relationship with prayer and Heavenly Father is awesome. The church is true! This stuff is real! And I know it.

I LOVE YOU ALL!
ELDER POLLARD