Week Seventy

Alright family, here we go! Another week of emails! To start everything out, it's important to know that for the past 3 weeks, I've had no money. The mission is getting a new system in for how they deal with the money, and we haven't been allowed to send in receipts and stuff to get reimbursements. Life has been real over here! We're looking at a week of eating a lot of rice....which is good and bad. This transfer has definitely taught me that you only really need a couple of dollars to stay not hungry haha. If you like eating rice it's just no problem.

This last week has been pretty good. It was pretty nice to meet with a lot of people and get out and do some good stuff! Oh it basically rained like the whole week. Non-stop. Let me just tell you about it.

Dienstag: I'm starting with Tuesday again. We were in Hamburg to email and enjoy p-day again. I had no money, so the term 'enjoy' is being used very loosely. It was still fun though. Elder Lykins paid for the KFC....yea KFC again haha. 

 

Hamburg Fried Chicken???

Worth it. Not much else. I took a nap. We had GEMIKO that night with Bruder Z.

Mittwoch: Wednesday morning was District Meeting in Lübeck. It was a good meeting! We didn't have too much to talk about in terms of our investigators and how we can help, but the Themas that were given were pretty good, in my opinion. I learned a lot. The Zone Leaders were there, which was good. When we got home, we changed right away, and went to the S's to help with the ceiling. We are so close to being done! Scraping the paint/stucco stuff off the ceiling is way harder than it sounds. She gave us some delicious pastries, so our efforts were rewarded. That took a while haha. We ended up coming home, getting changed, and getting back on a train to Kiel to go on exchanges. I was with Elder Rückauer, a German missionary from Freiburg. He's sweet. I spent a long time on trains that night! All the way to Kiel and all the way back was like 4 hours. Riding trains is so tiring....

Donnerstag: Thursday was way cool. I learned a lot of German hints and tricks from Elder Rückauer, who just happens to speak like perfect English. It's not fair at all. Americans are just at a disadvantage because English is our mother language..usually. Almost everybody in Germany can speak English, and if not, they can at least say a couple of words. But yea he helped me with some things. We had a couple of great appointments...one with Herr V. He was the referral from the other missionaries. He's way cool, I like him a lot. He's very open and honest about what he understands and knows. We just have to help him realize what he actually believes in. He has a family, so hopefully we'll be able to help the whole family! Elder Rückauer and I made a very interesting lunch, after he decided to challenge me to a hot chili eating showdown. I didn't have any problems....but oh man haha he did. Germans aren't the biggest fans of spicy food...as a general stereotype. Anyways we made some spaghetti, pea, carrot, spicy chili, egg pasta thing. It was good. After lunch we went by a couple of contacts in Ahrensburg. We got into contact with one man who told us to come by in a couple of weeks, which was sweet. We also had an appointment with Herr S, the man we found right when I arrived in Ahrensburg. He talks a lot....so it's hard to teach. That seems to be a problem with a lot of investigators. It turns from a teaching/learning environment into a sit and listen to me talk one...Oh well. After that appointment we had to race home, pick up Elder Rückauers bag, and ride the bikes back to the train station. No big deal. Elder Lykins was back in Delingsdorf area, and we had an appointment with the family W. They made us some delicious potato cheese thing. I just ate it up. After the eating and spiritual though, we went home and crashed.

Freitag: Friday was weird. We studied in the morning, went and had to carry a 50 pound package into the city and mail it.....my goodness that sucked. It was actually one of the most challenging things I've ever had to do. No big deal though. We came home and ate lunch, and started weekly planning. That went for a while until Bruder S from the office came and had us clean out our basement. That took a while haha. There's like this big push in the mission to make nasty old apartments nice again. With new furniture and painting and what not. It's a blessing and a curse. It usually takes like a lot of time and is annoying and hard work. But then you can just enjoy the nice new apartment! well after finishing planning, we had an appointment kind of far away with the family Thomas. They're way cool! They young and the have bunnies like Emily and Matt. I don't know if they still have their rabbits after the move...but it's cool anyways. They made us taco salad. Taco Salad is apparently like the most American thing you could make for the missionaries. It's really good, but we eat it a lot haha. We ate and gave them a Book of Mormon. They wrote their testimony in it and then we got them to promise to pass it out to one of their friends. Good stuff!

Samstag: Saturday was sweeeeeet. We started with soccer in the morning. There were these kids there from Spain or something. They couldn't speak any German but the were sooo good. It was incredible. Not too big of a deal though...still scored two goals. Be proud. It rained a lot and I was very tired afterwards. We had an appointment right before lunch with a man from Angola, who had grown up in the Congo, so he only knows French. His German is alright, but it was hard to communicate. We're going to try to bring a member from the ward who can speak French next time obviously. He was way cool though! We also had our weekly meeting with Dr. M. This time was a lot better. Bruder M went an hour early to talk and we could come in and start with teaching. We taught about reading the scriptures. It was good to focus on that. We learned a lot about where he stands right now with God and what he expects from him. We said he'd try to read in the Book of Mormon. That would be good progress. After that appointment, we walked around Bargteheide for a long time in the rain to go by on contacts there. 

 

 

We found a couple of them. We came home and ate and then something crazy happened.....I just passed out. I sat in my bed intending to sit there for like 15 minutes. I woke up on Sunday morning.....

Sonntag: Which just proves how tired missionaries really are! I felt bad, but am grateful for the 12 hours of sleep. We were intending on planning anyway. Elder Lykins said he just let me sleep because I seemed really tired. When's the last time you remember me being tired? I slept so much at home that I was never tired haha. But anyways Sunday was good. It was great to see some people at church that we've been trying to help come back. No investigators yet, but members that we've been working with. I love seeing that. Because members see their old friends and people they already know and everyone talks. It's like coming home for the one who's been staying away. H A came to church for the first time like a while. Probably like a month. Not SUCH a long time, but it was still good to see him there. After church we had to RACE our bikes home and RUN to the train station to catch our train. It was annoying. But we made it and were one time for our eating appointment with the family Z. Brother Z served in HOF a while ago! So it was super cool to talk about the city and the people there. We ate delicious lasagna. We came home and cleaned up the apartment a little, and then had an appointment with Herr Friedrich, who I met for the first time. The guy is so cool and he loves reading books about religion. He has so many of the same beliefs as us, just not hat he needs to belong to a church or anything like that. I loved the appointment. He's a smart guy.

So that was the week. I also talked to the Mission Doctor about my knee. The bad one haha. It was bothering me pretty bad yesterday and it was even swollen. He said that I could have some torn cartilage in my knee, but he really can't say anything. His prescription was to tough it out and not destroy my knee while I'm in Germany haha. Good stuff. The week was long and wet. So much rain...but it was also way good. I'm happy in Delingsdorf area. I'm super excited to get the work going here.

Oh by the way! Do you remember F from Rostock? He was baptized confirmed over the weekend! How cool is that?! I didn't get to go to the baptism, but it was just super good to hear that he finally made it. It seems that the Rostock branch is also pretty excited for him. I remember that night that he talked to us that night in the bahn! Like it was yesterday! the Lord is hastening his work.

I hope you have a good memorial day! Enjoy the day off of work. Eat good food for me.

Well anyway, things are still chugging along here in Germany! I love and miss you all and I pray all the time for you!

Have a great week!

Elder Pollard

Week Sixty-nine

HELLO

Emailing the world from Hamburg, Germany. It's a good place to be right now if you like grey skies and drizzle. It's been kind of bad weather for the past couple of days. But bad weather doesn't come into account when you're planning for the day. You just go and do....which is good. Annoying some times when it rains because come on....who wants to stop and talk when it's just pouring? The PREPARED people, that's who! Still doesn't make walking around in the rain fun...but oh well we do it anyway. I'm still super pumped from the Mother's Day call, too! It was really great and basically a small miracle that we got it to work at all haha. I apologize again for not telling you any information about when and how we were going to skype.....just slipped my mind haha. I feel very bad. But thank goodness everything worked out. It was the best Mothers Day gift for me too haha.

I've been riding the excitement wave of skyping this whole past week haha. This past week was just CRAZY! I'm telling you haha. It was super hectic and surprising. We had to travel a lot, too. Let me tell you about it.

Dienstag: (We did P-Day last Tuesday instead of Monday) P-Day was good. Elder Lykins and I were in Hamburg for a while and we had a district P-Day in Schwerin after. We got permission to all go and visit the castle in Schwerin, which was pretty cool. It was kind of boring on the inside haha, just like a small selection of art....wooooo. It was nice and cool but it was just because we could be with the district and all hang out. We ate lunch together and then came home. Not much else!

The castle at Schwerin

Mittwoch: Wednesday was day one of madness. Someone from the office called and wanted to come check out the mold in the apartment....there's a lot of mold in Germany. But he said that he was going to need like a lot of our help. I was thinking like why on earth would he need our help to check out mold? Well he basically walked in and started pointing out old furniture that was going to be thrown out. He said we were also going to paint the whole apartment and have to help build new furniture! Which is really a blessing. But when you have to do it all...it's pretty tiring. And we only had two days to finish everything. Well we started by like cleaning up a little and throwing a lot of old things away. We had to pull all the furniture away from the walls because someone was going to paint. It was kind of hectic. We had to leave in the middle of everything to go to a service project, but that fell through, so we went right back home to continue helping. That night we had an eating appointment with Bruder Z, our GML. It was way cool. They made like like different wraps and stuff. Just good. We were able to talk about some cool mission stories too. Bruder Z was in Manchester, England and Sister Z was in Temple Square. It was just way cool to hear the stories. Good stuff. We also had Gemiko.

Donnerstag: Thursday was more craziness. This time they brought a bunch of new furniture that had to be set up. We were able to get a bunk bed and 1 1/2 dressers set up before we had to go and eat lunch with Schwester B. She is so nice! I met her for the first time and we went to a Chinese buffet for lunch. It was pretty good. Chinese buffet in Germany is all the same.....average food for a great price. It's just a missionary favorite haha and there's so many of them. After that appointment, we met with Bruder D. We taught about how to stay happy in life. It was a good appointment and he gave us some cola which was very much appreciated because it got hot that day. We were busting out the short sleeve white shorts! After that appointment, we took a break and ate ice cream. It was good. Then me had an appointment with H A and Bruder M. H is a member that we're working with. He's super friendly and loves giving us food. Which is cool because he's a great cook. We ate rice and like lamb celery stew stuff. It was Persian food. So good. After that, we went home.

Freitag: Friday was kind of frustrating because we just didn't work a lot. We had planned two appointments, but one just didn't work and we couldn't get a joint teach for the other. That's just annoying. We should have planned better. But we didn't. We had weekly planning though, which was good.

Samstag: Saturday was fun. We played soccer in the morning, which was super fun as usual. I'm getting good. Watch out Wayne Rooney. We had an appointment fall out, which wasn't cool. But we had a good appointment with Dr. M that afternoon. His neighbor was also there and had some things to say. He's Albanian actually and said he would come to church haha so great. We missed out train out of Bargteheide though, so we had to wait a little more. And then another service project fell out. Not cool.

Sonntag: Sunday was church, which is always good. It was Pfingstsonntag, which is this big weekend holiday in Germany. Beats me why it's a holiday haha something to do with the Holy Ghost. Germany has a lot of religious holidays but not a lot of people know why. They just know that it's a day off haha. We did a lot of contacting the evening and were asking people if they knew why that day was a holiday. No idea usually. It was a good day though. We did a lot of work.

Montag: Monday was the highlight of the week. We got to play soccer again! Spontaneous ward soccer because it was a holiday. And there were people there the we as missionaries actually work with. So good stuff. We came home and studied and ate lunch. Elder Lykins was feeling sick so that was rough. The evening we contacted for like 2 hours. Walking around in the rain haha. It was great though. We made out an appointment with a past investigator and got the contact information for a referral for the Elders in Hamburg. That night we contacted and had an appointment with a referral. Herr V! It was a good appointment. He is very open and like wanted to learn. He said he'd be baptized if he can get an answer that everything is true. That is music to a missionaries ears. He has a small family too. So we were stoked.

And that was the week. It was actually pretty long and hard at times, but it was capped off with a great lesson and we got to meet an awesome guy. We also experienced cooking a lot of friend rice this last week. Getting fancy with our recipes haha. It was actually something that Christian and I cooked a lot at BYU. It's good food. I could sum up the week by saying: soccer, new furniture, contacting, and Herr V.

I've been doing this kind of intense study of the Book of Mormon from the beginning again. That's so much fun haha. It's just great to read and feel the spirit and testimonies of Lehi and Nephi always working together to improve the situation. I admire that! Whatever the situation was, they were both capable of saying yeah it's rough, but we know that what we're doing is true. I haven't gotten to the broken bow part where Lehi get's a little down yet though haha.

My adress is

Elder Tim Pollard
Kirche Jesu Christi

Hermann-Löns-Strasse 48

Ahrensburg 22926

Germany

I love you all so much! I miss you every day! I hope me serving this mission is having a positive affect on my family.

Week Sixty-eight

OH MY GOODNESS! Skyping was just a dream haha.

I told you like everything on Sunday, so I'll just let you know how the last week went.

Montag: Last Monday was way cool. Writing emails was weird, but everything was so distracting and it was just hard for me to sit down for two hours and concentrate. Hamburg is a cool city. I had NO money though haha all my money was in the office waiting to be refunded. That was rough. But we got to see some cool stores and eat KFC......Yea I ate KFC last week. No big deal. It was way too much food and I just felt gross after. But it was OK. We cut P-Day short to visit Sister S and help her with her apartment. We have this on-going service project to help her chisel the stucco off of her ceiling so she can re-do it all. It's actually kind of fun. It's hard work and really tiring, but  it's always good to serve. After that, we had to walk to the church and pick up our bikes haha. It took like 40 minutes to walk to the church. Kind of annoying. But it was a good day.

Diesntag: Tuesday was good as well. We went by on a referral in the morning and contacted him. He had no interest, but it was good to meet him. Planting seeds of faith over here. We had some good lunch, and then had an appointment with Herr S, who we found on the street last week. It was an OK appointment haha. He talked a lot. We didn't get much teaching in, but we have an appointment today, so hopefully it will be better. We got to take some P-Day time from Monday that we had left over and kind of relax. We went home and did some area book work, calling and organizing and such. That night, we had an appointment with a less active member, who just has a lot of problems in his life. It was great though. We told him that we want to be his friends and help him. All in all, great day.

Mittwoch: We had a way cool miracle on Wednesday. We were eating with the K family (which was way good) and their friend came and started talking with us. He told us about how he visited Salt Lake and enjoyed it a lot and stuff. We told him that we would want to sit down and talk, and he agreed. We need to make out another appointment with him. The rest of that day, we cleaned. The office called and wanted us to move out because of mold. We had to clean up a lot of stuff so our GML could come and inspect it all. We also made a lot of calls.

Donnerstag: The only interesting thing that happened on Thursday was that a Russian lady talked to us for like 30 minutes about how her child's Bible with pretty pictures in it was more spiritual than the real Bible.

Freitag: I was in Lübeck on Friday. I led exchanges with the elders there. It was a really good exchange. I got to see how they work and everything. We had a cool eating appointment with members there and the sisters were also there. It was some good contact to the district. That night, we met with Dr. M. It was interesting haha. He also talks a lot. But we're going to help that guy.

Samstag: Saturday mornings are SOCCER! I love it. I get tan. And exercise. We also planned for the week, and did more service for Sister S.

Sonntag: Sunday was Stake Conference in Neumünster. 

 

Neumünster Zone Missionaries

We had to ride the train there. We also ate with the L family. They made us enchiladas. It was delicious. We also got to skype that night!

Montag: And yesterday was interviews in Kiel. I got to sit down with President and talk about the district and everything. We came home and ate with the M's. Also a very good eating appointment.

Other news: President Kosak is going to look into the ecclesiastical endorsement and the scholarship.

Sorry for the short email! We just talked though haha. I love you all!

Elder Pollard

Week Sixty-seven

 

Hey friends and family! I'm emailing you now from Hamburg, instead of Rostock! Hamburg seems like a pretty big place haha. I haven't seen too much of it, but I know it's way bigger than Rostock. I'm now serving in Delingsdorf, which is where the church building for our ward is. My area is way bigger than just Delingsdorf though. There is like 3 average size cities, and then a big chunk of Hamburg that we work in. So we basically work and live in Hamburg haha. 

 

It's a very unique area and situation. But I'm loving it so far. My companion is Elder Lykins from Iowa. We're getting along great so far! The district is us and two companion ships from Lübeck, which is a big city not too far away. There are elders and sisters there. It should be really fun to work with them. I kind of feel really rushed right now haha I have no idea why, but I hope I can write a good email for everybody.

I'll just start with the week.

Montag: Monday was my last P-Day in Rostock, which was pretty bittersweet. I mean after 5 transfers in a city, you start feeling like you're at home. So having to leave doesn't sound too great. But it was pretty fun. Sister Holbrook took us to Ikea so we could celebrate her Swedishness. That was way fun. Meatballs were good. We did the usual Rostock P-Day activities, which includes Tiger, T K Max, and walking around getting the essentials for the week. I can honestly say that coming to Delingsdorf has been a drastic change in my life. Kind of intense haha. But we also had some great lessons. We met with T and also with C M that day. We had two great appointments, and I felt great leaving these two baptismal dates in Rostock. After our appointments, we just walked through the city haha. A last night in Rostock.

Diesntag: Tuesday was the day of travel. I got up at the normal time, had everything packed, caught a train at like 9:30. It was really sad then to say bye to Sister Wunderli and T at bahnhof. But it was just like so fast that I'm still dazed and shocked haha. I'll get over it though. So it was only a 2 hour ride to Hamburg bahnhof, not too bad at all. I met Elder Lykins there. It was only like a 20 minute ride to Ahrensburg, where we really live. And then a 15 minute walk with the suitcases to the apartment. The apartment is actually pretty nice. It's bigger then the apartment in Rostock, but that's not saying much. And the beds are nicer and more comfortable. But like it's not really home yet. It'll get there. We started working that day, and rode to Hamburg where we talked to some people. It was nice to just talk to people and they were usually pretty nice haha. We did some doors as well and got a couple of contacts that we need to go by on.

Mittwoch: We started our first real day of working off with a mini intro to the area and going through the area book. It was fun. We have a big area book with a lot of old records, so we're sorting and going through and seeing who we want to go by on. We ate with the V family in Delingsdorf. It was a way good first member appointment. They made us chicken and veggies and stuff. Super good. And it was nice to meet members. We rode our bikes (yes bikes) back and worked on the area book more. After that, we went to Hamburg again and started going by on members and less actives and talking to people. We spent a lot of time walking haha. But we got to talk to some people. It was good. We had language study that night.

Donnerstag: Thursday was fun! We rode to Lübeck and helped build the sisters new apartment!  We built like dressers and shelves and just everything. They have such a nice apartment with like everything all brand new. Just jealous. I also had a good opportunity to have a baptismal interview with S, from Lübeck. He was really cool and I felt like he was prepared to be baptized. It was a good first baptismal interview. After that, we got on a train and drove to Hamburg and had Gemiko with Bruder Z. he's way cool and a great teacher. It was fun.

Freitag: Friday we rode back to Lübeck and had district meeting. It was good to meet the sisters, and to come together and talk about the work. I'm like really excited to work with the district. Especially because there's no real reason for anybody to be transferred soon, so we could stay together for a while. It went well. I gave a thema about staying happy and obedient. We ate with the F family after, which was just was cool too. I say way cool too much, but that's just what it was haha. They made us like taco salad which was good. It was super good to meet Brother F, who then told us that we really wants to go on joint teaches with us and we wants to be involved.  We had a service project with Sister S after. We helped her scrape like glue off of her ceiling. And we had weekly planning after.

Samtag: Saturday morning was my favorite! Soccer in the morning. Soccer is great. I'm actually not too bad. I think haha. I was surprised that I could run that whole time. I scored two goals. Because I'm a beast. After soccer we helped the ward clean. We also had a  lesson with an old investigator in Delingsdorf. It seems like he isn't ready to make any big steps right now, which is too bad. After that, we had to ride to Kiel to have a meeting. It was good.

Sonntag: Sunday was amazing. Church was so good and I got to meet a lot of way way cool members. Like the ward here is amazing, that's all I have to say. Church went well. I gave my testimony and introduced myself in relief society and priesthood. After church, we ate at the bishops house and we had a great talk with him about the work. It pumped us both up like a lot haha. The bishop here sounds like he's just on top of everything. It was nice. After that, we had an appointment with a less active sister in Hamburg. It was just good.

The week was good. Way way cool haha. I'm really thankful to be here and to be working with Elder Lykins. I know that I'm going to just love working here. Just as much as I liked Rostock.

I'm like really rushed though, so have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Pollard

Week Sixty-six

Elder Pollard is leaving Rostock. Leaving behind the blood, sweat and tears that stain the streets of this great city! After 5 transfers...6 months of walking around the streets of the Hansa City Rostock, I am being transferred to a place called Dellingsdorf.

The next destination...

I have no idea what this place is like, and basically everyone I ask also has no idea. Haha I'm not sure if that's a good sign. But we'll see! I'll just have to try my hardest to make it a well known place. It is apparently really close to Hamburg, and I'll actually have a chunk of Hamburg in my area. So it's like Dellingsdorf/Hamburg/Ahrensburg. That's my new area haha. I just need to say that I would probably stay in Rostock a lot longer if I had the choice, but I don't. It is so incredibly comforting knowing that wherever I am and whoever I serve with is really the will of God. Facing hard times or maybe slow work can just be put to the side, but I know I'm supposed to be working in Dellingsdorf with Elder Lyken (spelling?). I'm super excited!

Let me just tell you about my last week:

Montag: Last Monday, seems like a long time ago haha. I remember that T took us to this Italian restaurant, which was really good. I had pasta. We also kind of milled about and went shopping and enjoyed resting. I wrote a letter, too. We actually just kind of relaxed and hung out at the church. After P-Day was over, we rode to Neubukow with T and helped him with his English class. It was a really good way to help out and to meet knew people and introduce them to the church. We were pretending like we couldn't speak German at all until the end haha it was great. They were so surprised. It was so hard not laughing at the jokes in German or like responding in any way to the German. It was just really fun!

Diesntag: Tuesday was a great day! Oh my goodness haha probably one of the better days since coming here in October. We started by eating with F and Frau K. They made us Roulade, Rotkohl, and Klöse. It was pretty good! I was just grateful that they made us food, because I know that they both can't be throwing money around. It was cool though. We went after that and had an appointment with M R. Also great! We talked about reading in the scriptures again, because it's been a while since he's been active at all. We gave this plan and told him that we'll be reading with him as well. He got kind of excited haha so hopefully we'll be helping him through that. After that appointment, we met with the P's haha. Two members from India! There names are M K and A K. They're not related though. They are so cool. We shared a good thought and they just bore testimony about how the Gospel gets them through hard times. It was so cool. After that, we went and met with T! We brought Sister Holbrook and it was just a good appointment. T has been really sick lately. But we had a good lesson, talked about baptism (she's being baptized on the 11th of May) and gave her a blessing. It was a really cool opportunity. After that, we went and ate at institute.

Mittwoch: Wednesday was pretty cool. We had an appointment with A in the Ausländer Heim. He basically lives in this place like a really bad student dorm. It's where they put people who don't have their papers for Germany yet. They can't work and they basically sit around all day and wait for something to happen. It's really sad I really don't like those places too much. I couldn't imagine not knowing what's going to happen with me haha. It would be scary. But we had a good lessons about reading in the Book of Mormon. After that, we had to come home and I caught a train to Neubrandenburg. We went on splits with the Zone Leaders. We had to go to the meeting on Thursday.

Donnerstag: Thursday was good. We were in Berlin for the leadership meeting, which was awesome! It was good to see like everyone I know and it was even better to listen to the workshops and everything. I took a lot of notes and learned a lot. We also got Subway. For free. That's just a blessing. We had to wake up at 5 in the morning, and we got home to Rostock at about 11 haha. It was a long day with a lot of sitting. Uncle Craig sent me a package! Oh my it was so exciting! It had a bunch of American candy in it haha. Such a blessing haha.

Freitag: Friday was great. We had a really good lesson with R L. We talked about reading in the Book of Mormon with her, too. It was super cool, because she got excited to read with us! Also, on Sunday when I saw her again, she said she's been reading. That's like amazing haha. It was so cool. And then we met with Schwester S and the G's. That was also a great appointment. That night, we met with B and took a tour of his house and all his taxidermed animals. Kind of creepy. But way fun.

Samstag: Saturday morning was the call! We also played basketball, and I got to say bye to all of them. That night was a miracle. We met with F and had the best appointment we've ever had with him. We went over the baptismal interview questions and he basically passed. He's made so much progress and he gives us the credit, even though he needs to give himself and God all the credit. He's just very thankful and that helps haha. It was great to see that.

Sonntag: Sunday was kind of boring. We went to church and watched general conference, then we went and gave Bruder S the sacrament at his house because he was sick. We came home and did weekly planning, cleaned and ate, and studied/packed.

So the last week just went by really fast. I can say that I just don't want to leave Rostock at all haha, but it has to happen.

Say goodbye to Rostock...

I am looking forward to Dellingsdorf though. Especially because we work in Hamburg kind of. Hamburg is like the second biggest city in Germany. It's just huge and I've never been there. So things will be ok.

I was really impressed this last week from what I read in the Bible 1 Corinthians 13. It's about love! Definitely something I need to work on. But it basically talks about how we really can't do any of God's work if we don't have love for the people we're serving. I would suggest that you all read it.

I love you all so much! I'm moving on to another city, but not quite moving on back to San Diego. We'll just have to wait, because I have so much more to learn and so much more work to do. Wish me luck! Thanks for all your support and love.

Have a great week.

Elder Pollard

Week Sixty-five

Well, to start everything off, I have to mention that I forgot my planner in the apartment. So this email might just be weak. So sorry really I'm kicking myself. But It's OK. I'll try to remember everything that happened this past week. It shouldn't be too hard! This week did go by kind of slow. Elder Collins and I both realized it. I think it's only because transfers are coming up soon! This Saturday morning will be transfer calls. It's exciting to think about, but it's also rough. Totally bittersweet. I've been in Rostock for 5 transfers! That's like a third of my time in Germany. And it's going to be hard to say bye. Whether that happens next week, in 7 weeks, or in 13 weeks. It's just gonna be rough! Plus traveling is really just a pain in Germany. Suitcases on the train is just really annoying. Well anyways, let me try my best to remember what I did last week.

Montag: Last Monday was actually great. T took us to the zoo!

 

 

 

He knows that I just love zoos haha. That's definitely something that has come out since coming on a mission. Animals are fascinating. And zoos just rock. I can't compare the Rostock Zoo to the San Diego Zoo, but it's still way big and cool. Right after emailing, we went there. We got to see some interesting animals. Like cheetahs. They make super weird noises. Kind of like birds. And meercats are great. I really like the monkeys though. There's this intense exhibit called 'darwineum' which is about evolution and stuff. The monkeys are the only cool part. Elder Collins unfortunately left his planner in the zoo on accident...the monkeys now know all our plans. After the zoo, we went and got some Döner. Pretty good stuff. We shopped for the week, and that was it! Monday night, we met with F in his apartment. We read in the Book of Mormon with him. He has been taught everything, and really wants to be baptized. He knows that the Book of Mormon is true and everything. We're working with him and trying to help him stop smoking, so he can keep the Word of Wisdom and be baptized. He's made some great progress! We pray that he can be baptized when the time is right for him.

Dienstag: I don't remember too much about Tuesday...I know that we were waiting to have an appointment with C M, who found the church by himself, but he showed up late because he had been in the hospital. Haha like a crazy story! But he was released from the hospital and came to institute! Good stuff haha. C is awesome. He investigated everything himself, and then came to us and said he knows it's all right. So we're working with him. He should be baptized on the 11th of May! Coming up soon. I don't know if I'll be here for that though...

Mittowch: Wednesday was a good day. We had district meeting in the morning, which went pretty well. We had a lot of time and it was very relaxed and just nice to talk. We had district Ratteil, which is like the time we talk about our investigators and how the work is going and everything, and it was just way good. We're doing our best to help each other out. The Schwerin elders and we are pretty stoked on the work. After district meeting, we ate some leftover deliciousness from institute. Like this apple pie thing that sister Holbrook made. Prima. After that, the Schwerin elders helped us to help F. We went and helped him take out parts of his old kitchen and put in new ones. It went surprisingly really well haha. We replaced a cupboard and a coat rack. I hope they stay up though. It felt way good to just do some work and to help F. We ate Döner, and went home and got dressed and all rode the train to Neubukow with T. It was actually pretty hot that day, I remember. Which is a great sign. We got off and the Schwerin elders kept riding. We helped T teach his English class, which was way fun. And then we met with their family and had a spiritual thought. It was an overall good day.

Donnerstag: Thursday, again is hard to remember. We've been trying to take care of spring cleaning off and on, so I remember doing that. I also remember eating some good food at home. We make excellent food. We rode the bus out to Bad Doberan and met with A and O at the Heim there.



We had to take over teaching them for the time that the sisters are gone out of Rostock. We set out a date to be baptized with Anthony for the 25th of May! I also remember walking a lot and going by on a lot of older investigators. We have this list that we're whittling down. It's going well. We also had Family Home Evening that night, which went well.

Freitag: Friday morning was Gemiko. After that, we ate some food with Sister Holbrook. The leftovers from FHE. We taught C M that day too. D, a new member, was there in the lesson. It went really well! We talked about the apostasy and restoration. And that's when we set out his date to be baptized on the 11th of May. Miracles are happening in Rostock, and we are helping people come closer to Christ! After that appointment, we had a ward cleaning in the church. I vacuumed a lot. Then we went on splits. The Zone Leaders came up from Neubrandenburg and picked me up and I went back with Elder Wolfley. We got back pretty late, just in time for us to make a chalk drawing of a part of the plan of salvation. That was way fun.

Samstag: I woke up in Neubrandenburg haha. Got some good study in. We went and held a class with members on how to invite friends to church and stuff which went well. Came home, ate some lunch, and went out again and had another good lesson with members with a focus on inviting others to church. It went well. We did a lot of doors in a nice neighborhood, which was super fun. We didn't find anybody, but it was good to be outside and talking to people. We also went by on a lot of contacts for them. I got to practice my Russian skills with a lady. We had a very short conversation with consisted of, 'How are you? Good, How are you? Good, Book of Mormon?' Haha it was great. We then went to Bahnhof and greeted Elder Collins and Elder Hansen. Then Elder Collins and I bought Döner and rode home.

Sonntag: Sunday was a very good day. We had three investigators come to church! That was wonderful. T also gave a great talk about forgiveness, which was just uplifting and great haha. We ate with Schwester G in the church right after, which was pretty good. After all this, we went home and realized that we had a referral in our mailbox haha. So we went by on this guy, but he had no interest. We came home, had a great planning session for the week, studied, and das war's!

The week was well. This week should be great haha. I'm looking forward to doing some good work this week. This could potentially be the last week in Rostock. We'll say probably actually haha. I've been here a long time. There is nobody in the whole zone that is still here when I got here, which is crazy. That makes me the King of Mecklenburg. I feel old! Ending my 10th transfer in Germany. I only have 6 left...I wonder if the time has flown by for everyone else. I still remember going into the MTC. I remember that day crystal clear! And now, 15 months later. It's a great thing. I love being a missionary.

I'm so jealous to hear about the weather in San Diego! Even though the weather is getting better here (it's pretty sunny and warmer now), it just doesn't compare! It's great to hear the Kenny is doing well in Boise. Missionaries rock.

Other then that, everything really is going swell. We'll be closing the books on this transfer at the end of this week, and starting a new one. Exciting times family! To be honest, I really do think I will be transferred next week. But I'll be stoked if I can stay!

I had some way good studying opportunities, and heard a lot of good talks and such last week. I'm reading through the bible right now. I'm in 2nd Samuel. I love the Bible so much. I just feel like there's so much to learn. And I love learning. We totally have a lot to learn from the lives of the people written about in the scriptures. Just think about the lives of Saul and David, and how different they were, but how they made similar mistakes. It's good to know that everyone makes mistakes, even those in high power and of a high knowledge and learning. But it's even better to know that we can be forgiven of these mistakes. Tobias shared a really great story in his talk about a man. This man had somehow and at sometime done something really bad. It got him in prison for like 10 to 15 years. It was so bad, that he stopped communicating with his family out of shame. For around 15 years he sat in prison with nothing, only the thoughts of regret and terrible sadness. But he payed his time and was going to be released. He sent a letter to his family that said he was coming home. He added that the family should tie a ribbon to a tree at the train station that he would get off to go home, only if they would take him back and forgive him. If he saw no ribbon, he would just keep riding the train and know. As he approached the train station however, he noticed not only one ribbon on the tree, but hundreds! Of course the family wanted him back! The feeling of being forgiven is one of the greatest we can experience. And we really need to work hard to forgive those who deserve to be forgiven. Sharing this feeling is helping these people.

Hopefully I can be forgiven of a lot of things haha I sure have done my share of dumb things in my life. I know that our Heavenly Father forgives us when we repent and try to make things right. And I'm so grateful for that.

The work is going pretty well in Rostock. To be honest, I feel like I'm leaving soon. I feel like I set this area up to explode with success and baptisms, but now I'm leaving before it all happens!! Hopefully I'll stay and get to see some reward for my efforts haha. We do teach a lot. A lot of people actually find us in Rostock. It's a huge blessing haha. we've had 4 people 'find' us, and they all had baptismal dates at one point. None are baptized yet for various reasons, but they were prepared enough to find the truth. It's always their decision in the end if they want to accept the truth or not. But finding people hasn't been the biggest problem. It's still hard though. Our health is doing well this week. It's on an upswing haha.

I really like that subject about trial and hard times. I actually just gave a workshop about that in district meeting, and related it back to obedience, and how obedience is always the key to success and getting through hard times. It went something like this:

We made a list of things that make us happy as missionaries. The list included: good health, knowing that our families are doing well, nice people, baptisms, seeing success, good weather, good friends on the mission, and so on.

The thing is, can we still be happy people if one or all of these things are missing? Well of course. D&C 121:1 is Joseph Smith in Liberty Prison. He asks God where he is..because he totally felt  alone. He had friends in the prison with him, but the times were hard. He didn't really have those things on that list haha. But the advice that God give him is cool. 'My son, peach be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;'

This life, these hard times are incredibly temporary. It's hard to think that way always though! 2 Nephi 2:27 basically lays out this it's our choice if we are going to happy. And the 25th verse kind of tells us that it is super possible to be happy!

The last point is in Joshua. 'Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.' Talking about being obedient is the key! Not turning from the Right or Left, being obedient, is the key to 'prospering'.

That's a very short version of it all haha

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Pollard

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