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

Week Sixty-four

Hey! So my 5th transfer in Rostock is halfway over...that's super weird haha. Maybe you've noticed, but I like talking about how fast the time flies! It's incredible. I don't necessarily like it either haha. Pros and cons. It's always nice to look and back be able to say, well I've been a missionary for 15 months now...but at the same time it seems like so long! Same thing when you look at how much time is left. It's not a lot of time at all......which is too bad because I just have so much more to learn. On the other hand, it seems so far away from now. Naja, needless to say, I'm super grateful that I'm in Germany right now as a missionary. I love being here and doing what I do. Maybe looking back at last week can help you understand why I dig missionary work haha.

I talked about Monday in my last email...

Diesntag: Tuesday was P-Day! It was relaxing this time haha. We ate out with Sister Holbrook, got some ice cream, went shopping, and RELAXED. I wrote some letters, cleaned up. It was all bueno. After P-Day, and because it was Tuesday, we ate at institute and then I had a conference call with the leadership people. It went well.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was kind of cool because we had some bomb lessons. We met with F and talked about repentance. He's making such great progress and he wants so bad to be better. It's like amazing and motivating. I look up to him. He's changing a lot about himself to live in accordance with the gospel. I pray for him so much that he can reach his goal of being baptized. We also had an appointment with B. B is one of the investigators that we have to take over because the sisters left. He's super cool though I like him a lot. I don't really know where we're going to start to take over teaching him though, it's kind of hard to know. But it was a good day!

Donnerstag: Thursday was also great! We had district meeting in the morning, which was strange, because the district in Rostock is so different now haha. We have new elders in Schwerin, as well as the sisters leaving. But the new elders are awesome! I'm super stoked to get to know them. It was also a really awesome day, because Brother G took us out to see a crazy old church that was built like in 1200 or something. It's called Münster Bad Doberan and it was way cool to see.

Münster Bad Doberan

Church back then was kind of a show though, which is sad. But it was just amazing. Brother G is an awesome person. I like him a lot. We came back and had FHE that night.

Freitag: Friday was relaxed-er. We had planning, which went well. We had a great joint teach with T and T. She made us some more Ghana food. Fried fish and potato ball with this spicy salsa stuff. It was really good. I'm super grateful that she likes to feed us haha. It's always fun. We talked about tithing with her after. I think it went well.

Samstag: Saturday was the first day of conference weekend! The most exciting time for missionaries. It's like a legit holiday for us. We come together and listen to conference with the ward and our investigators and everyone's happy! Before conference, we had a joint teach with D, the new member here, and T. It was ok haha. D is great though, he's a huge help. Then we watched conference.

Sonntag: Sunday was the day. Conference was awesome! We watched it all day, has some investigators there. A MIRACLE HAPPENED! C M is his name. He basically walked in, said he watched the Saturday session already. Said he's been reading the BoM for the past 6 months and believes that the church is true.....how often does THAT happen??!! Oh my gosh it was great. We ate cheese leak soup and mett. It was an overall good day!!

So conference! 3 crazy things! First, President Sabin is now Elder Sabin. That's way cool! When they were saying the names, I was just thinking that they'd say his haha because he was released recently. And then they did! Weird haha. Second, the story about Mister Pollard in Canada! It was weird to hear President Monson say Pollard so much...and third, the story of the man in East Germany visiting the member in Hungary...the daughter of the German man is in the Rostock branch! And he lived in Mecklenburg Vorpommern. The members were freaking out when he told that story, because they'd heard it so much haha. Kind of cool right?

I really enjoyed the talk from Elder Cardon about repentance! That was an awesome talk. I think we'll be using that one a lot haha. I liked Elder Bednar's talk...it was hard for me to follow at times. I was tired haha.

I love you guys so much, sorry this email is short! But I pray for you every night and morning. I hope that's helping! Have a great week and love each other.

Elder Pollard

Week Sixty-three

So hey! This last week was like kind of crazy haha. To say the least. Ups, downs, sicknesses, holidays. It was just what you'd expect on a mission haha. Oh yea and I'm emailing on Tuesday because yesterday was a national holiday in Germany. Germans go big on holidays. Even though a very small percent of the population believes in Christ and his Resurrection..or even knows what those things are haha, they still take the day off of work and all the stores are closed. We had to work yesterday and take P-Day today. No big though!

 

Last week was busy. Here's what happened:

 

Montag: Last Monday was fun. P-Day is always fun. The sisters were in Berlin because they were having interviews, so it was just us and T in Rostock. We ate Vapianos, our favorite Italian restaurant. We went shopping a little, bought groceries, and hung out. It was pretty average haha. After P-Day was over, Brother E came and fixed some stuff in our apartment, so we had to be there for that. It was weird timing. We worked on this grid thing that I like doing, which grids out the cities and shows us where all the contacts and members are. So we can work more efficiently! German engineering. We also had a lesson with F, which went well. We talked about following the Prophet and keeping the commandments. It was a good lesson. Elder Collins and I have to boast in the Lord haha because our teaching has gotten a lot better. I'm never really concerned about appointments because we plan well and execute. Like Marines. Except Missionaries. It was a good P-Day.

Dienstag: Tuesday we were in Berlin. We had to wake up at 4 in the morning! Dang but all was good and we made our train and everything. We got to Berlin and met up with Sister Holbrook and a bunch of other missionaries and got to the church building there. It's so cool! In the middle of Berlin. Super close to the Brandenburgertor and the Siegersäule. 

Brandenburgertor

Siegersäule

 Cool German landmarks. Well we got there and it was great to see all the missionaries that I know. It was so fun. We heard some great themas. President Kosak talked a little about Easter. In Russian, the word for Sunday is also the word for resurrection. Apparently haha. I like that. So every Sunday they celebrate Christ! Subconsciously. I didn't spell that right. Sister Kosak talked about taking care of our companions and the assistants talked about 'risking the awkward' and talking to people on trains at bus stops etc. It was really cool. We ate lunch, too. Kassler and veggies and potatoes. I didn't eat too much. It made me a little sick...it was just a good meeting. We had to wait a long time after Zone Conference for the assistants to take us to Bahnhof and buy us tickets. But it was all god. I was able to lead the troops through Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Which is huge and bigger then the airport there). We got home very late haha.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was kind of craziness. We studied in the morning, and took an early train to go out to Neubukow and visit our Branch President. They made us delicious food oh my gosh! Schnizel, Kartoffeln, und Gemüse. Some solid German food. After we came home, we taught English class! We only taught Ljuba, a Russian girl that we met on the way home from Berlin haha. She was on the train and we just started talking and we rode all the way from Berlin to Rostock together. Like really crazy miracle/coincidence. It went alright haha I'm really bad at teaching English. After that, we went with Tobias and met with Rong-Ling. It was a pretty cool appointment. Pretty relaxed and we taught about families and pryer. Good stuff.

Donnerstag: Thursday was weird. In the morning, we met with the sisters and 'saw them off'. They were both transferred out of Rostock all of a sudden! Not cool at all! I was so upset really. Like one second they were there, and the other the had to pack and leave Rostock. No idea why. The got transferred to somewhere else. It was so sudden. Nobody was happy. But we helped them get to Bahnhof and talked about the investigators that we're taking care of now. Still not OK with me haha I'm really upset about the whole thing. Rostock feels so empty now. Oh well. We met with D, which was OK. He still has some worries about really 'investigating' the church and everything. We'll see how it goes. After that appointment, we met up with T and had two appointments with J and T. They are both African and speak English. And single women, so we bring a joint teach. And T speaks English so it just works out perfectly. Both really really good lessons! J is awesome, and said she'd read 20 chapters of the Book of Mormon before we met again. T is being baptized on the 13th, which is coming up way soon! Good stuff. After those appointments, we came back and had Family Home Evening.

 

Freitag: Friday was cold! That's all I remember haha. We had Gemiko in the morning and President Albrecht was there, which was super good. We got some good unity with the ward here. We're still working on it too. But steps are being made. We went home and ate, and then had two appointments with members. We visited Bruder S and talked about keeping the sabbath day. He gave us a cake and candy. And then we met with the L's and talked about Easter haha what else. It was way good. They have 2 puppies that were hilarious. We ate some crazy good apple pastry things. I was grateful. Still am. After all the we went home and did weekly planning. Actually we had to go and empty the sisters apartment of perishable food. Sad.

Samstag: Saturdays are good still. We had a lesson fall out in the morning, but we ate lunch instead. So we went and played basketball, which was great. We're bringing one of Ts' friends, who is super cool and maybe he'll have interest in meeting with us! Or coming to church. We always invite. I liked it because I just need exercise. I need to move or I get all weird and anxious haha. That was good. After that, we came and got ready for ping-pong, but nobody showed up, which is too bad. So we took care of some other things instead. We ended up having a mini eating appointment with T. We ate met. MMMMMMMM almost raw meat. I love it.

Sonntag: Sunday was Easter! And it was great. Well except for the fact that Elder Collins was sick. That was rough. He had/has a flu type illness. But church was good. We had like 4 investigators there! T came, which is great. After church the A/E family had us over for Easter. It was sooo fun and SOOOO GOOD! They made Kassler, Suarkraut, Knödel, Kartoffeln, there was a bunch of chocolate, and Mousee. It was just a great meal. Too bad elder Collins was like really sick haha. We went and walked on the beach and then came back and ate cake. That's how Germans do it. Lots of cake. We had to cancel an appointment that night because Elder Collins was sick.

Montag: Yesterday wasn't P-Day! It was a holiday and everything was closed. Sad days. I remember a year ago when I was in Hannover and we didn't have to worry about the internet laden being closed on Easter because it was run by Muslims. Those were the days. But we had to 'work' yesterday. It was good for Elder Collins, weil er sich erholen musste. He had to take a break because he was so sick! It was crazy actually. I was scared. But he's doing better today. I spent all of Monday reading. Literally. I read The books of Ether, Moroni, and Deuteronomy. All day. It was amazing.

That was the week! It was such a long week. Oh my gosh haha I feel 2 years older just from Easter week, 2013. But it was way good, too. I really learned a lot this last week haha it sounds cheesy but it's true. Zone Conference was great, church was really cool, and just dealing with disappointment is always a learning process. Like the pioneer lady who thanked God in a prayer for all the locusts eating the food! But I complain way more.

Easter in San Diego sounds like it was super fun! I miss food from home....so much...but the German food here is amazing. I really do feel at home with some of the families here in Rostock and in Germany period. It's great how much the members take care of us. I love it. Thanks for telling me I'm good looking. It's really important to me. NO spring has not come to Rostock yet. It's still colder. It's warmer actually but not spring yet. There's still snow on the ground. And good job Thomas for passing your Eagle Board! Woo!

I really like this thought from last week. It's about dealing with trials. It all starts with D&C 121:1. Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail (Ironic that the jail was called Liberty) and how he asks basically why is God hiding from him? Humans always come to a point when we feel alone and just really upset. 2 Nephi 2:25 says that we're here to be happy, so why do we have these moments of being upset? Read on to 2 Nephi 2:27 which says that we have this choice to be happy, and that we need to CHOOSE eternal life or happiness and not 'eternal damnation' as it is, or misery. Satan tries to make us miserable like himself. Whenever we're feeling that way, he's having an affect on us somehow. God doesn't make us miserable haha he can give us trials, but only good feelings come from God. Satan brings us down though. Like Peter walking on the water, in this moment of pure faith and trust, Peter looks away and focuses on the hardships (waves and wind) around him, and starts to sink or be pulled down by Satan. Christ saves him, though. Christ also felt alone and forgotten on the cross when he asked God why he left him. He had to experience this to know how it feels. It was part of his Atonement, being separated from Heavenly Father. That's like the worst thing that can happen to us, but Christ know how it feels. Thank goodness he never gave up and now we can go to Christ when we feel this way. He knows EXACTLY how it feels. So choose happiness! Joshua 1:5-7 gives some good advice and motivation also.

I love missionary work. Its so great, and really just helps me learn so much. I'm put into all types of weird situations, and try to help all types of people in theirs. I really like meeting new people and just talking. It love it haha.

I know that this work is true! I am so thankful for all the people who support this work and pray for us. We need the help! Especially me! I'm looking forward to this next week!

I hope you all have a great after Easter week. I love and Miss you all!

Elder Pollard

Week Sixty-two

This past week was good! Pretty normal, but there were just some gems and miracles here and there haha. It's been like crazy cold. Friday night it was like -13° Celsius. Das hat mir nicht gefallen. I don't like the cold. And all of you back home reading this in Southern California...I envy you. I CAN'T WAIT FOR SPRING! It should be here already. According to the calendar on my desk. But according to the snow on the ground outside, it's still cold as heck! I complain too much. The good thing about right now though is that the work is on fire! And getting better every day. Elder Collins and I have been working hard for the past 3 months and seeing some great things in Rostock.

Let me tell you about the week:

Montag: Last Monday was cold. We ate Döner! It was good. We also did some great grocery shopping. I think it cost like 11 euro this week. We don't really eat too much at home recently because we're so busy. Which is a good problem to have. But we did the usual perusing around the city. I bought a little Chia Pet guy. I'll send you the pictures. He's already growing. Technically,  our most progressing investigator haha. No just kidding. But P-Day was good and relaxing. I got to write a couple of letters. After P-Day we were going to wait for Brother E to come and fix something in our apartment, but he never came because of the crazy weather. So we figured out he wasn't coming after a while haha. We had started making bread. We make bread now. And got our area book in order. Like super organized. It's nice. And that's what we did on Monday.

Diesntag: Tuesday was a good day. A member took us out to lunch at Blockhouse, which is like a steakhouse!

...like a steakhouse...

 It was so good. We enjoyed our time and were very thankful. After that, we had an appointment with L, which ended up being real good. We talked about the pre-earth life and kind of about investigating. He is really interested in taking the free German class that Sister Holbrook does. Hopefully we can get him more involved with the church and the members. After Laxmi, we rode up to Brother S and had a lesson there. It was more like a spiritual thought. We talked about reading the scriptures and praying. It could have gone better now that I think of it. It's still kind of a weird relationship where we come and expect to teach and he expects that we hang out and chat. We want to help him though! Hopefully soon. There ended up being no institute because the weather was too bad haha but we went and ate the food that Sister Wunderli had already prepared. After eating, we had an appointment with Frank and taught the word of wisdom. It went pretty well.

Mittwoch: We worked on the area book/grid of the city to go by our contacts in the morning, then we were supposed to have Fufu with T, but she couldn't make it, so we decided to go out to lunch with T. We ate at a Chinese buffet. Mistake. After eating and getting kicked out actually because they were closing for a afternoon break, we all felt like death. That food was not good for the human stomach! We unfortunately just went home and did more paper work. I don't ever want to feel like that again. We then helped the sisters get luggage to Bahnhof, which was fun.

Donnerstag:Thursday was hectic! I had to go to Neubrandenburg in the morning for some meetings.

Neubrandenburg

  
Our train wouldn't leave Rostock though! How annoying is that? Like it just stood there for like 30 minutes. We were way late, but it's OK because they didn't start without us. It was cool to see the Zone leaders and Elder Duncan, the District Leader in Greifswald. We ate at Chinese buffet again in Neubrandenburg haha but this one was a little better then the one in Rostock. When we got home, we had an appointment with Schwester S and her home teachers we talked about prayer and 'wearying God until he blesses you' the parable in Luke 18. It was a good appointment and we got to know some members a lot better. After that, we went to Family Home Evening. Nobody showed up though haha. It was the missionaries, T, and his friend L. It was fun though!

Freitag: Friday was a busy busy day. We had district meeting in the morning, which was fun. It's weird leading district meeting. But everyone said it was good, so I'm happy. After that, we had planned on helping Schwester S with her grocery shopping, so we went and did that. It was great. She's such a saint haha. After that, a couple of appointments fell through, so we went and ate lunch and home. We went and had an appointment with a less active member and T came with. It went OK. We talked about families and about how the ward in Rostock is his family and they miss him. We invited him to come to church, but he didn't come. Hopefully we'll see some progress soon! We'll keep trying. We had a mini meeting with Frank in the church and then went and met with T, who made us Fufu! Pictures included. Fufu is a food from Ghana. They take like potato meal and make a big ball of goo basically. But it's solid and then there's a spicy soup and you eat with your hands. It's so great. I love Fufu. We had to run with T to catch his train after that haha that was an adventure.

Samstag: Saturday is a special day. It's the day Elder Pollard stays sane for the next week. BASKETBALL is intense. And it's good because we interact with investigators and show them that we're normal people who can still talk about God and stuff haha. I love it. We played basketball for a while, came back and had Gemiko with T and the sisters, and then had another lesson with T about the Word of Wisdom. She said she'd throw away her cans of coffee haha. She's so cool!

Sonntag: This Sunday was great. There were a ton of people at church, including 6 investigators. Solid. I gave a 5 minute talk about testimony. And I had to translate into English for 2 people, which isn't always easy. We ate with the A's after church. It was really good and they had Kool-Aid haha. After church we went and met with J, our newest investigator from Ghana. She is Muslim actually, but we had a great lesson and she wants to learn more! So we're going to help her with that. We're growing an English branch slowly haha. After that, we had to plan for the next week.

That was it!

I can't wait for mothers day! Time really does fly! We'll be talking in no time....maybe for the last time on my mission. Who knows! Staying in Rostock is so cool! I always wanted to be a 'bleiber' or someone who stays long times in areas. I was super upset when I had to leave Hof. But 5 transfers in Rostock makes up for it. We'll see some baptisms here, and have a good time helping the ward. The names of the senior sisters here are Sister Holbrook and Sister Wunderli. Easter is kind of big here, there's like a lot of days off and holidays. There's an Easter Market in Rostock just like the Christmas one, but in Hannover, there wasn't really too much going on. It's just like in America haha kind of cool but not a huge deal. I just remembered, I've been in Germany for over a year now! Weird! Germans know very well that the German Pope stepped down, but not too many people care. Religion is bad in Germany. Saying your from the church is like saying you're part of a street gang that wants to steal everyone money. So the Pope is more like a celebrity then a religious figure. There are some Catholics here though. There were more in Hof haha. They're all 'evangelisch' up here.

I had a good study last week! We've been listening to a Truman G Madson talk about Joseph Smith, which has been crazy cool. Joseph Smith is like my hero haha. I've been reading the Old Testament too. Deuteronomy is intense. There's a lot of references to being obedient and keeping the commandments. It all boils down to that though! Especially staying true to the sermon on the mount. If everyone kept the commandments we'd just be translated haha. They definitely are challenging, but it's nice to know that God never lets us be tempted more than we can handle. He knows we can keep the commandments! I know you all can too. We have such a crazy potential as humans. It's remarkable.

I love you all! Miss you too! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Elder Pollard

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

Week Sixty

My 'potentially' last week in Rostock. It makes me sad. Change is never good! I was just talking with a member on the phone last night about how change just kind of blows on the mission. Actually, there are definitely pros and cons to change. It's always good to move one. Progression seems to be a huge theme of the gospel and of missions. It's hard to progress without change....It's impossible haha. But like leaving cities is hard. Especially leaving behind the ward and all the cool investigators. My opinion is that we should always work with our companions for at least two transfers. One transfer usually just isn't enough time to learn everything you need to from these people. So all I'm saying is that I would like to stay in Rostock with Elder Collins. Transfer calls are this weekend! We should all know where/if I'm leaving then. I just have too much that I still need to learn from Rostock/Elder Collins and the other people here. We'll see though.

This last week went by so fast. I can't even describe it any more haha. I had the same problem last week trying to describe this weird time vortex that I'm stuck in. The time just flies. Which is good and bad. I was on exchanges once in Schwerin, and another day we had a street display, and a BAPTISM! So that helped the week fly by.

I'll just tell you about it like I always do:

Montag: Monday was district P-Day, which is ALWAYS fun haha. We did emails in the morning, and Schwerin came to Rostock to hang out. We checked out this real big church in Innenstadt, called Marienkirche. (Church of St. Mary)



It's super huge and freezing inside. It actually has like the oldest astronomical clock in it. Pretty intense. There are a lot of like burial stone and catacombs and just like Indiana Jones style craziness. It was fun. We then ate at Vapianos, which is my new favorite restaurant. It's Italian food, but just so good and pretty cheap. After eating, we went up to Warnemünde, which is like the beach.



We ate really good ice cream and walked on the beach and stuff. It was a good day. We ended up doing some more shopping in the city and writing letters. Good P-Day. I bought a super indie dictionary haha. And a 3€ scarf from H&M. After P-Day we had two appointments. Sister Holbrook came to one with a guy named M. He's a really cool guy and super friendly, but didn't really want to listen to use. He's a 'new age heathen' so like he believes in Thor and stuff. Interesting. After that, we met with F in his apartment, it was a pretty good lesson about the gospel of Christ (baptism, holy ghost, enuring to the end.) GOOD DAY!

Diesntag: Tuesday was hard because I wasn't feeling good again. So like I had 'take a nap' scheduled into my day haha. I was just so beat and sick I had to take a rest. But we still got a way good lesson in! T is a champion. She is the African girl who found us and came to church haha. We've been teaching her for a couple of weeks and on Tuesday we taught about the gospel of Christ and baptism. And we made out a baptismal date with T! She should be getting baptized on the 30th of March! Hopefully I'll be able to see it! But it was such a good lesson. I love teaching her because she just gets everything we try to teach. And she even introduced us to her friend who wants to come to church with her! Solid. We got to eat some good food at institute that night, and had an appointment fall out after...kind of rough but OK.

Mittwoch: Wednesday. I don't remember what we did on Wednesday haha. Everything must have fallen out because I'm looking at my planner and don't remember doing anything that was written down.

Donnerstag: Thursday was good. Bruder S invited us over from lunch at the last minute, which I really appreciated. He's such a good guy. Hopefully he likes me haha. We had to do weekly planning on Thursday because we were on exchanges on Friday. We had a lot planned, and were looking forward to this one appointment with a less active member, but he wasn't home which is really too bad. We had family home evening that night, which was fun.

Freitag: Friday was tausch day. Exchanges. So we had Gemiko (ward mission leader/missionary conference) in the morning. After that, I got on a train to Schwerin.


Schwerin is a cool city. There's this huge palace in the middle of a lake right in the middle of town. Look it up on Google images or something haha. We had a good day. We did a lot of service, and ate at a member's house. We taught English, had a lesson with a cool girl, and played ping pong with hilarious Asian people. Good day.

Samstag: Saturday was a great day. In the morning, we had a street display in Rostock. It was about genealogy. It was good. I made out an appointment with this girl, but she was super shy and I hope I didn't like push too much for it. We'll see! After the street display, we went to Schwerin to see a BAPTISM! J, one of the sisters investigators got baptized. It was such a good meeting I really enjoyed it a lot. That was the day!

Sonntag: So between Saturday and Sunday, it snowed like 10 inches and dropped about 10 degrees. In Celsius. It was kind of intense. Our whole branch presidency got snowed in so they couldn't come to church. I was kind of nervous to see how everything played out, but it was a really great Sunday. I was able to confirm Justice as a member of the church! I've never done that before haha. I also gave a blessing that day too. Priesthood all around. I'm happy I can help. F and T came to church which is awesome considering how crazy the weather was. I appreciate that. After church, we had to scrounge up all the food we had and eat with the sisters haha. It was this weird makeshift meal of noodles and meat. mmm. We went by this older couple and they let us in, which was so nice because it was freezing. We talked for a little and then made out a return appointment. I love it.

These weeks just fly! There's no other way to say it. I always sit down on Monday and just don't really know what to say, so excuse me if it's boring. But that was the week! I enjoyed it.

I'm sorry that you all lost some sleep. I remember being in the MTC when we lost an hour of sleep haha. It was horrible. Döner is kind of hard for Americans to pronounce haha. But just say it like this: Dew-ner. That it almost right haha. It's right enough. Stick with the lamb Döner mom, it's solid. Ah I love reading about all the delicious food you guys make at home but it makes me so jealous! I want good food. We only get good food when we eat at members houses.

In all honestly, I'll probably be transferred this weekend. But I would love to stay. I have no idea though! I DID get my package on Saturday!!! Thanks so much family. I am so grateful. I love it. I'm doing better with staying healthy. And I don't feel too sick haha. But we'll see because the weather just changed so drastically. Germans are convinced that that makes you sick.

I loved my study this week, even though I didn't get too much study in. I read Elder Neal L. Anderson's talk from last conference about trials. I loved it. It's called 'Trial of Your Faith' and I really liked it. One thing he said is, 'These fiery trials are designed to make you stronger, but they have the potential to diminish or even destroy your trust in the Son of God and to weaken your resolve to keep your promises to Him. These trials are often camouflaged, making them difficult to identify. They take root in our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities, our sensitivities, or in those things that matter most to us. A real but manageable test for one can be a fiery trial for another.' It makes trials just sound like crazy hard! But we too often call these 'trials' and 'hard times' when we should really be calling them 'opportunities'. So it's obvious that these times can be super hard. But God trusts us and loves us so much. He knows that these trials can really destroy us. But at the same time, he doesn't give us any hard times that he knows we can survive. I love the scripture in 1 Corinthians that says, ' There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.' God is faithful and true, and won't let us carry a load that he knows we can't. Another thing about trials, Peter said; 'Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery atrial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you' You hear people in times of trouble saying 'Why is this happening to me?' In my opinion, the answer is, 'Because God knows that you're prepared enough to grow.' Don't ask for mountains to climb, but remember that these mountains are climbable, and the view on the other side will always change us for the best. I love the gospel and know that it's true.

I love you all!!! Have a great week and be good to each other.

Elder Pollard

Week Fifty-nine

Hey Family! And Friends!

This last week went by in one second. It's so strange and just mind blowing how fast the time is going by now. It's already March! For the second time! It's totally bittersweet though. Like long days and you just look at your plan and think that the night will never come...but it just does haha. I just can't blink too much or I'll look back and realize all the good times that slipped through my fingers. I love being here! I'm in this weird avatar-state of learning and progressing and being able to help other people through that. I don't ever want to look at my life and find myself being in no position to help the people around me. I really love that.

But thank goodness I write down my plan everyday! Or else I wouldn't be able to tell you what I did all week haha.

This is what I did:

Montag: Last Monday was good. It was pretty cold haha I remember that. I remember we ate Döner at the 2€ döner place. Döner macht schöner! That's what they always say! Monday was also interesting because we had like 15€ between us haha. The end of the month is always rough. So we didn't get to do too much shopping. We did get ice cream though, which never upsets. I tried to write some letters too but we didn't have enough time. So after P-day was over, we had a really good lesson with T! She's the girl from Africa who found us! We bring T along because we can't meet alone with women unless there's another man there. It's part of the missionary rules. But it's great, because T is a great teacher! So having him there is only a blessing. We taught about the plan of salvation. Her reaction was great haha because I said, 'T, did you know that you lived with Heavenly Father before you came to this Earth?' And she was like 'REALLY?!?!' it was just great. She's super cool and I'm so grateful that she found us.

Diesntag: Tuesday was a little different haha. A lot of what we planned for fell through. But we did end up going by on the S Family and getting to talk a little with them. I don't know how interested they are in investigating, which is too bad. But Herr S is doing not too great - health wise - and we really want to do anything that we can to help. We had an appointment with M that night. M is a pagan. Like literally. He worships Idols and believes in Thor and stuff. It's way cool haha. He had read a little bit in the Book of Mormon which is always great! We'll see if he can learn anything from us haha. It's going to depend on if he has an open heart. We got to go to institute after and eat some good food.

Mittwoch: Wednesday morning we had district meeting. The Zone Leaders were there too, so that was cool. It was a good district meeting. The day was slow...some finding haha. But we did get to meet with M, a member here. He doesn't come to church, and has some other issues so we're really going to try and work with him. And our appointment was really promising! We talked about God haha, pretty general and talked about prayer,  too. He asked when we were coming back! Which was huge. It was a good appointment.

Donnerstag: Thursday was a good day. We had another joint teach with T! We went and met with T and taught the rest of the plan of salvation. She's making some good progress. Helping people come closer to God! Good stuff. We also got to meet with Brother G, and his wife who is not a member. We ate a lot of cake haha. They had a really nice house, which isn't too common in Germany. A lot of people live in apartments. Especially in the city. But there are a lot of really nice houses in Germany, too! And Brother G's got one. We ate cake and got to know them better. We had an appointment with F and we started talking about repentance with him. Then we had FHE that we taught haha it was a busy day.

Freitag: Friday was good, too. We had Gemiko in the morning and ate lunch with all the missionaries and T. We also planned that day for the week. After planning, we had a movie night with the branch. We watched 'Das Himmels Fenster' Which means "the Window of Heaven". It is about Lorenzo Snow when he went to St. George and talked about tithing. It was a super old movie. But kind of cool to watch in German. We met with Brother S that night. We helped him move some stuff in his apartment and shared a thought about following the commandments.

Samstag: Saturday we just did a lot of finding and played ping-pong.

Sonntag: Sunday was so nice. We had church. T and F came to church! We taught F and read from the Book of Mormon with him. After church, the E's realized that nobody signed up to feed us, so the invited us out to Neubukow. We ate a lot and saw the beach. Good times!

The week just went by so fast haha I can't explain it at all. But it was such a good week for me. I was pretty much sick the whole week, and am still sick now. I realize that I'm sick when I wake up every morning with a headache and my body is just weak. But the work goes on haha. I am especially excited about my study still haha. I love the scriptures! They're so cool. And I love them so much because the story is so applicable in life. And it should be haha that's why it's scripture. I have no doubt that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are from God. And that they're here for us to learn what we need to do in this life. 2 Nephi 32: 3 says  'Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.' I like how it mentions feasting upon the words of Christ (the scriptures) and from that, learning and knowing what to do. My study can kind of be described as feasting haha. But I've been learning a lot just from reading for an hour every day.

I read some really great scriptures this last week. Pertaining to Sunday, and keeping the Sabbath day holy. In Leviticus 23:3, God is speaking with Moses and telling him to remind Israel why we have a Sabbath day. It says, 'Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.' That word convocation is hard haha. In German it says that Sunday is a day 'of holy meetings'. Convocation means meetings. How applicable is that for us! Going to church is a commandment of God. And like all commandments, it's only there because we will benefit when we follow it. The interesting thing then is trying to find out how we can make Sunday a better day for US. Ezekiel 20:20 says, 'And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.' English uses the word sign, but German uses the word covenant. I thought about that for a while, that keeping the sabbath day holy and going to church is a covenant. Something between US and GOD. Everything we do on Sunday, not only going to church, but everything else we do the rest of the day is holy and should be between us and God. From waking up in the morning to coming home after church and going into 'relax mode', everything we do is between us and God. Let's remember that! It might change our attitudes when we want to run down to the store to buy soda, or when we want to go to the Chargers game. Are doing these things strengthening the relationship between us and God? Let's remember to keep the Sabbath day holy and to set apart this day and let's keep our actions and everything we do on Sunday in coordination with this sacred 'sign' or 'covenant'.

THAT'S WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK IN THE SCRIPTURES.


This segment brought to you by Elder Pollard.

Everything is going great family! Only two weeks until transfers....that's kind of scary.

I hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you all!

Elder Pollard

PS...

Daddio,

I wish I could say that I'm getting healthier haha. I'm not doing GREAT, but the work here is. We have 5 progressing investigators! I love that. A couple are harder to get in contact with because they're sick or busy, but all in all, it's going great. We still have a lot of finding to do. It's kind of hard to work with the ward here, because there are like two less actives that we can work with. Like literally haha and we do work with one of them. The sisters work with the other. So our work pretty much focuses on Finding and Teaching. But it's going well.

That's super exciting about the stake changes. Are Brother Clyde and Brother Romney in the same ward? Or do we have one of them?

Good luck making chili for 250 people. I thought you were in the High Priests group, not the relief society haha. Thanks for sharing with me what you've learned in the scriptures. I like the example that Ammon sets by staying 100% obedient and putting everything into his calling of being a missionary. Even after the arm incident, when King Lamoni's servants bring the arms to him, Ammon is taking care of his horses. There was no 'I just cut off a bunch of people's arms break'. But the point about the armless looking back at Ammon and how they felt is interesting. I like that. We always have to remember though, that some people aren't going to like it when we stand up for what we hold as truth. Christ himself was a stumbling block for A LOT of people, even though he stood for 100% truth and love. As long as we're standing up for the truth and being the best disciples of Christ, it's not going to matter what people think of us. We don't want to offend anybody, but if we do, hopefully these people will be able to look back at sometime and be glad that the 'stumbled' on the truth.

I hope some of the themas that I sent you and mom will be able to help in your weekly tradition now! I love being a missionary!