So we got on that Plane on time, then spent a good two hours on board, while they said there was a minor issue that they had to check out - by the way, in Germany they have QWERTZ keyboards instead of QWERTY keyboards ( the two are just switched) so prettz much every word with a Y or a Z in it, I type wrong first and then have to go back and correct it.... There're also umläuts where there are usually punctuation marks. - anyhoodles, yeah, so after 2 hours sitting on that plane -it felt like it was it's own flight- they had us get off and we ended up having to board another plane that took off at 11:30 - And the first one was a 747, so they had a fun time dealing with a bazillion people missing their flight - I got a bit of sleep on each of the flights - in one way the delays were really nice, because when we finally got to Berlin it was nighttime instead of noon, like it was supposed to be, and my body was so confused about when it was supposed to be sleeping, that I really haven't had much trouble with Jetlag. Not to say I haven't gotten really tired at random times during the afternoon - but that happened at home and in the MTC too, so it's nothing special. I'm always super tired when it's time to go to bed. Several of the mornings I've woken up just a bit before 6:30 on my own - I think it has more to do with light than anything.
So I'm in Elmshorn, which is pretty close to Hamburg, though we're in the Neumünster Zone, rather than the Hamburg one. It's a really nice place, though I can't decide how big of a city it is... It's pretty small, but also much more densely populated than amerika... there're mostly Apartments, though there are also lots of houses further out.... But even with that, most of it doesn't have much of a metropolitan feel... but some of it does... basically, I don't know, and I'm just giving a nice, vague description, just like I do with everything. We (just Elder Baake and I) have an apartment - it's actually quite large and quite nice - it's got six rooms... counting the entry hall, which is a bit bigger than ours at home, and the bathroom - yeah, it's nice. I would be able to describe the area better with pictures but I really haven't taken any, which is a little bit unfortunate, but I haven't got much of a chance - maybe I'll send you some more from the MTC - maybe I'll also get a harddrive some day.
Vorbereitungstag is today.
My companion is Elder Baake, who is from Wiesbaden, in der nähe von Frankfurt. He's really funny, and I think it's awesome that I've got a native speaker as my trainer. He's got really good English though, and he talks to me mostly in English - all the missionaries just speak English together, which I think is kind of silly, but I understand why - I'll often try to talk to him in German, so sometimes we do - communication's just a lot easier in English.
We've taught several lessons, mostly to less active members, members at eating appointments, and a new convert, but we've also met with an investigator, and have been able to make several appointments for this week. I of course, do very little of the talking, practically none - All of the members have been quite impressed by my German, but I'm not able to keep up with them - some of them are a lot easier to understand than others, but due to their rate of speech, failure to sustain a ridiculous level of annunciation, and extensive vocabularies, I usually have no idea what they're talking about. Even in just the last couple days though, I've noticed that I've been able to make out more and more. A lot of what we do is just talking to the people we walk by on the street (again, when I say 'we' I mean Elder Baake) we've gotten the broad range of responses, all the way from, "No! No! No! *runs away*" to "you know, I'm really not interested, but I'll gladly take your card if it means you'll leave me alone." All of that is a lot less scary than I imagined it though - at least as long as I'm just watching Elder Baake do it...
Anyhödles, I'm loving it all so far - perhaps I'm just in a honeymoon phase, but I don't think that's a bad thing. The Members are so marvelous here too - at the 'Golden Konferenz', where we were assigned our areas and companions, several people came up to me and told me how amazing the members in Elmshorn are when it comes to feeding the missionaries. That has so far proven very true. Tonight we've got an eating appointment with one sister who is infamous for feeding us way too much and making us eat it all - we actually cut her Hedge on Friday, and she fed us a bit then too - but she said that wasn't a proper meal. Elder Baake says you have to eat really fast, so you can trick your stomach into not realizing it's full, because she'll make you eat it all... which I find really funny, because your strategy makes infinitely more sense - the message you send the people matters far more than the message you send your stomach - I guess I'll see whose theory holds tonight - of course, I was also raised as a Hausschwein - A word which Elder Baake thought it was hilarious that I knew - so I'm really not too concerned about it either way... though I think it would be nice to lose weight here - which I don't think will really be too hard - it's a biking area, but right now our bikes are broken, so we've just been walking. I love going for long walks, but there can be some unfortunate side affects... for instance I've got shin splints, not fun, but I've gotten them whenever I walk at anything more than a leisurely pace since my senior year.. I'm really hoping that they're something that will go away if I keep walking. Builds Character, says I.
Well, I love your guts, I know the church is true, and I know that God has given us the gift of agency, in order that we may seek happiness for ourselves - but I also know that he's given us the best coupon book in the history of the universe - the commandments - through them we get the most happiness for our agency - ok, maybe that was a bit of a stretch of an analogy, but I was just trying to point out that the gospel applies to everyone, even hardcore couponers whose basements are full of deoderant that they only paid three dollars for..... Does that count as a spirit of digression? Sorry, I was probably just thinking about how this is going on the blog, and therefore I'm really not allowed to make sense, but I am allowed to make inside jokes...
Love you! -Elder Cloward
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