First of all, OYM stands for "Open Your Mouth" something you shouldn't be embarassed for not knowing, and which I thought I had probably just already mentioned. Of course, I think I really shouldn't've said that we were OYMing, because that would mean we were opening your mouth, which is just tacky. So the conjugations should probably be: I OMM, you OYM, we OOM, he/she OHM, it OIM, they OTM... anyhoodles, I don't think anyone else is up for conjugating it... actually, people usually say "Doing OYMs." I guess I'm just too classy for my own good. Anyhoodles.... that's just what we call street contacting.
We had a nice thunderstorm on friday night. I enjoyed it...
I bet you hadn't the faintest notion of the collosal degree by which those blocks would enrich our lives when you chose to make them in relief society.... (Feel free to parenthetically insert the story you told me to which I am responding - we wouldn't want to keep my loyal readership in the dark) (I had written to Jacob: Isaac started school and I'm not sure he's particularly happy about it. Joseph decided to put my little blocks in an order which spells "Back to School" and Isaac scattered them and then arranged them to spell "school is evil". Joseph responded by spelling out "school is the best". I just noticed that now they say "schools awfulest")
A large portion of Dad's email was like, "Some of the questions we are often approached with by the general public are..." so I respond to that part of his email in this one... -- I just imagined someone reading on the blog the stuff I write about "general public," "loyal readership," and "vast fanship," and taking it seriously. It was amusing. Dear imaginary reader: It's a joke. -- Anyway, here goes:
Things are going quite well with my companion, I like him a lot. It's funny, because what I'd heard as the stereotypical German companion is super staunch, stubborn, hardcore obedient, and always right. Elder Baake is really laid back and super fun loving. He definitely sees the rules more as guidelines, but he does have the desire to work and help people progress. I've really enjoyed being with him. We could definitely comunicate better, but I think that's a weakness that I have with just about anyone. Anyhoodles, I think it's most important for me that I focus on improving myself, and overcoming my fears and weaknesses.
We definitely speak less German than we ought to. In the Zone conference we had, they spoke English, due to several of us being Goldens (I don't know if I've already mentioned that, but it's just the Mission term for new missionaries), but Präsident said that some of them will be in German. Elder Baake speaks mostly English with me, but occassionally we'll speak German. A lot of times he'll speak english to me, I'll respond in German, and then he'll respond in English again. All of the missionaries speak English to each other. I think it'd be a lot more beneficial if we spoke German all the time, but English is just easier, so I don't really blame them... And I don't really feel like enforcing German speaking.... Actually, Elder Baake's basically learned English on his mission - he took it in school, but he couldn't really carry on a conversation before. That's great for him, but I think it's kind of silly that he's learned English better than some missionaries have learned German. We've actually taught a fair deal in English, mostly with people from elsewhere, who speak better English than German, or that have equivalent, but would rather hear my English than decipher my German. I haven't taught any like this yet, but our MTC teachers told us that a lot of students you teach will want to practice their english with you.
Let's see.... What did I do this week... well, On Saturday was the Transfer Call, which was exciting - I'll be staying with Elder Baake in Elmshorn for at least the next 5 weeks, which is good. The only change in our District is that Elder Weitzel in Glückstadt is getting shipped off to Dresden. So yeah, quite the party.
Oh, on Monday we went to Hamburg for realz this time - it was really cool, even if we were kind of directionless and spent a lot of our time just standing around in random stores. I enjoyed seeing Churches as we walked around the city, and Going through the Rathaus. There were also about a bazillion music performers on the street.
On Wednesday we had a lesson with the guy who talked to us while we were eating Döners, And we did it as a joint teach with Präsident Müller, a member of the stake presidency in the Ward, and who I want to be when I grow up. We had a really cool and a really long discussion about the plan of Salvation, and why Christ is necessary.
Wednesday night we got a call, informing Elder Baake that he should bring his own lunch to the leadership training the next day - only no one had ever told us that he had that at all - the exact same thing happened to Elder Weitzel, so Elder Popp and I ended up being together on Thursday, which was really cool, but rather intimidating, because we both are still pretty dependent on our companions for the whole communicating with Germans thing. We went out and worked in Glückstadt, on the Dike, where there are lots of sheep, but unfortunately that morning not really any people. Elder Popp likes to go there because it's a place were people go to think, enjoy nature, etc, so they tend to be a little more open there. But... we only found one guy who dismissed us pretty quickly.
But yeah, it's been a good week, those are just a couple things that stuck out to me. I've also spent too much time writing this.
I love you, I know this church is true, I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, and I know that God has a plan for us to return to him and become like him.
- Elder Cloward
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