Germany Week 75

Well, as far as the Transfer is concerned, Elder Linderman and I will be having another six weeks together in Bergedorf. Elder Baker is getting a real live companion in Lauenburg.

In other news, Elder Pack is now district leader, and will be training - and he's still in Nienburg. Awesome, no? I'm gonna be a grandpa on Thursday.

 We've had a great Christmas here. It was actually really cool to have both gemeindes, because it meant that we had a lot more invitations - So we got invited by more members, and we were able to have a couple investigator lessons too, even though it's a week in which so few people have time and a lot of the appointments we did have fell out. We were certainly kept busy running back and forth between Lauenburg and Bergedorf. Monday night, Heiligabend, we were with M and his family. It was really great. It felt almost like home. We had a nice dinner with them, and then had the Bescherung, or gift exchange. A lot of different ward members bought us little things, and chocolate, so we were able to take part in it. It was great.

 On Christmas morning, we woke up, and Elder Baker led us in a little Christmas devotional thingy, which was nice. Then we opened our presents from our families - Thanks for the Tie ;) That day we stayed in Lauenburg and were with the W family - we had a really good time, that's where we called from, and for Joseypookins sake, yes, apparently they are related to Sis. W, even though I have no idea who she is. On thursday, Aka, Christmas number two, we went to the Rs, then R, then a family in Lauenburg. It was a really great time. It was really cool to take part in all of those different families' Christmas Traditions.

 Thursday we had district meeting with the Hamburg district again, which was pretty cool. In the afternoon we visited another member in Lauenburg and then wandered around looking for people to teach.

 Friday was really cool - we had a really nice lunch appointment with some members in Lauenburg. We asked them if they knew anyone that might be open for the gospel message - it was cool to see how as we started the discussion, they were really hesitant, but as we talked, they started thinking of people and of different ways they could maybe share a little bit. Then in the evening, we had this really cool appointment with another guy there, and he accepted a baptismal date. It was really cool to be there for that.

 Yesterday was really cool too - we did splits so that We could be in Lauenburg and Bergedorf in church at the same time - So the others dropped me off at R's and I had breakfast with him, then we went together and picked up an Elderly sister and brought her to church too, And it was a nice meeting. I was grateful to be able to be there. Afterward, the other two got back to me, and we were able to have a really nice eating appointment with a family here - which was especially nice of them because I had cancelled earlier because I thought we wouldn't be there, but they invited us over again and made something spontaneously for us. That was a really good day too.




 Today we've just been hanging out in Hamburg, but now we've gotta take off so we can be in the Apartment by Six. Love you! Happy New Year!

Germany Week 74

I'mma try to get all the important stuff out of the way today so we can just talk about Spargel Worship or something totally random tomorrow. ;P That is if I can actually remember anything that's happened to me in the last little bit... Seriously though, if there are any specific questions or anything, you may want to write them down, cuz I remember last time I was super happy to talk to you but had no idea what to say. Not that I want it to be a formal interview or anything - I'm not cut out for that kind of pressure.

 I've gotten mostly over my sickness. My nose still runs a bit, but that's probably just because of the cold (temperature). Things are going pretty well in the Dritt, I really like both of these guys. Sometimes it's a lot harder to make decisions and it can be even more awkward than it usually is to talk to people on the street or to do doors, but overall it's been good. We're also running back and forth between Lauenburg and Bergedorf, which quite honestly has been more of a blessing than anything because it's split up the time more, and we've been able to have more appointments through it, despite the fact that so few people have time.

 I'm trying to think of some specific stories from the week.... not too much is coming to me. ummm.... Monday - Monday we had our Pday... we did something... ah, we had Zone sport in Hamburg, then afterward made our way over to Lauenburg - Tuesday we met with two recent converts in Lauenburg - two very different, but both cool people. Wednesday we had a party in the morning, when we had Breakfast with R... Biscuits and gravy... nom nom nom... and we threw his cat across the apartment a couple times... Then we visited the Rs for lunch, and M in the Evening. Thursday we had our distrikt meeting in Wartenau, with the Hamburg/Altona district, since... Our district is just the three of us at the moment. Then we visited a member in Lauenburg and did a bunch of finding. Friday was pretty intense, seeing as it was the last day of the world... We went by on a bunch of kontakts and visited a really cool member, and we intended to have our weekly Spielabend, but no one showed up (aka R didn't come...) so instead we totally ignored everything they ever taught us in elementary school about stranger danger and talked to randoms on the street. (Kinda like we do every day. I'm still not convinced it's a safe practice though....) Saturday we wandered around a lot. It was a party. We covered some new, exciting territory (like a more different path to Reinbeck, and the city of Aumühle), and were able to meet a couple cool people along the way. Yesterday we ended up going to Lauenburg for church, which was good because they ended up cancelling Church altogether in Bergedorf. Afterward we had a nice little Christmas lunch, had an appointment with a long time investigator and had our weeklyplanningparty. Yee haw. Hopefully that's not too boring for ya.

 Well, I love you! Merry Christmas! I'm excited to talk to you!

Germany Week 73

So the big news of the day, which I'm pretty sure I've already told you about, is that joining Elder Linderman and I for the next two weeks will be one Elder Spencer Baker - Yes, the very same as is from Uncle Mark and Aunt Barbara's ward, and the same with whom I spent 9 weeks in the MTC, and the very same who has been my district leader for the last four weeks. Yep. That one. But we all ready knew that. Part of me's really excited, but part of me's not - It'll just be quite the adjustment, especially hopping back and forth between Lauenburg and Bergedorf. Of course, hopefully it will be a great adjustment, because we haven't been seeing the most success here of late, and maybe this will somehow help things get going. One thing's for sure. We're gonna party like it's 1699. If not later. So we'll be meeting up with him in Hamburg later today.

 Some highlights of the past week: We went around and talked to people, we went around with a member and talked to people, we got talked to by a person, named President Richards of the Seventy/Area Presidency. That was good. He talked to us a lot about how we can work more effectively and live more effectively. It just reminded me that I'm terribly ineffective.... But really it was good. It was also another half-the-mission deal - so we got to see everyone from any of the zones I've ever been in. I also got some post for the first time in several months (not that I deserve any, I've been wretched at writing people myself....) among which was a wonderful little package full of nummy dried cinnamon apples which I was secretly delighted that the missionaries around me didn't want to take part in. Lunch was provided for the approximately 100 missionaries there by the relief societies of our branch with a couple of others. It was pretty intense - I was in relief society translating while they were planning out who all was going to cook the meat, then which checkpoints they would bring it to, and who would pick them all up to bring to Wartenau, and who would sacrifice their firstborn in order to feed the missionaries. It was a good meal, and I was a fair deal more thankful for it than I usually think to be. Overall, I really enjoyed the conference even though my nose seemed to be confusing itself with a firehose.

 I've been pretty sick for the remainder of the week, and we've taken it a little bit slower, but mostly we've just gone about things the same as usual - of course, our schedule wasn't really usual, because we spent quite a bit of Friday and Saturday helping M take apart, move, and reassemble a... Schrank... piece of furniture which one uses to store clothes and stuff... So yeah, that was a party. Then yesterday we had church. And then we filled up a taufbecken. I mean baptismal font. and then we watched a baptism from Lauenburg. And then we locked up And shipped Elder Patterson off to the mortuary. Or the Premortuary? Or maybe it's more like an Old Folk's Home.... No idea. And then we went and had lunch at about 8:30. It was a good day. I love ya Mom! Thank you for everything! Have a marvelous week! Don't worry, dear loyal reader, I love you too. Especially if you still exist.

Germany Week 72

Yepperdy doo da.

 So, yeah.

Well, the week started off pretty excitingly when last Monday after Zone Sport in Hamburg I was able to meet up real quick with the damalige Elder Baake, who was up in Hamburg for work for the week. It was marvelous to see him and to get to talk to him, even if it was just a few minutes of walking with him to Hauptbahnhof.

Then Tuesday we had that thing at the school. It went quite well. We didn't get to see the presentation the girls gave, we came in at the end of it to answer questions, but from the questions asked and from what we did hear the girls say, it sounds like they did a very good job. It was also awesome to be able to answer all of the questions that the students had. It was almost like teaching a real lesson again. It was really nice.

 I also got to Tausch with Elder Baker, my MTC companion. It was really cool to be with him and to see how far he's gone. And chances are that in a little over a week I'll be in a dritt with him anyway. So yeah, that'll be quite the party.

We also got our first snow this week. Wednesday night it snowed a bit - it was a pretty dry snow, and it never melted really. Then Saturday night we got dumped on pretty well. Several inches of a lot wetter, good slushy packing snow. With the snow, things warmed up a bit, but now we're wetter... and Church attendance took a real toll on Sunday. There were around half as many as usual... It's kind of funny - the snow's in some ways made me feel at home, it was pretty nice for me. Elder Linderman, on the other hand has spent most of his life in California and spent a year and a half at BYU Hawaii, so he's kinda freaking out still.

 Well, I hope everything goes well for all y'alls.
Love you!
Have a great week!
Merry Christmas!

Germany Week 71

Those girls have their presentation tomorrow. I'm pretty excited for it. But also nervous. What if those 14 year olds tear me to shreds?

 I feel like my week was pretty boring. We just did a lot of walking and a lot of talking to people. Well, we also had Zone conference, but that just seems like part of some misty distant past... It was also a ginormous Zone conference, with all of the Western zones. So I saw tons of missionaries that I haven't seen in a while. Of course, there keeps being stuff like that - we were all together for President Monson, and we're going to all be together for another zone conference this next week - I really like it.

 We had a joint teach set up for Wednesday, but when we got there, nobody answered the door. or the phone. So we left. It turned out they just have a tricksy klingel, and the number I had was old. But Bruder I taught them on his own. But then they came to church on Sunday, which was awesome. They're the boys who's mom is a member, assuming I've mentioned them before. Yeppers.

 Well, kids. Love ya. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a glorious resurrection.

 - Elder Cloward

Germany Week 70

Wooheee. That week was sure a week. Uuuummm...

On Monday, the Lauenburg Elders came and we played Risk with them and our GML. It was kind of a last Hurrah for Elder Robinson before leaving Bergedorf. He was a good guy. I'll Miss him. But then on Tuesday we got around to picking up Elder Linderman. Eventually. It was quite an adventure of a day. First, Elder Robinson and I left - he went to Hauptbahnhof, but I got off at the Church and waited there alone until Elder Patterson, who had dropped his Companion off at another Train station came and joined me. Then we were together for a couple hours - it was a lot of fun actually, we made lunch, then went to Pick up Elder Baker, his new companion/my MTC companion, then they brought me back to Bergedorf, where I hopped on a train to Hauptbahnhof to pick up Elder Linderman. It was the best way we could figure it out with the least amount of alonetime. It was also an adventure. We've got a really cool district now.

 Then we spent the rest of the week walking around talking to people. yeppers. And we would sometimes talk to each other in between. After a couple days, Elder Linderman asked me, "Did you ever watch Card Captors?" And I was like, "Oh daddy, yes." I pointed to my name tag and said, "It's cool because Cloward is really close to Clow Card." Turns out he'd been thinking the same thing all along and was just trying to figure out how to wiggle it into a conversation.

 We were also able to get a few lessons in. That's always good. I don't feel like we're making too much progress there, but hopefully things will build up. Mostly I'm just in a really crummy mood right now - things get better as long as I buckle down and work through those. Otherwise it just keeps slipping along.

 One cool thing is that a couple 14 year old girls are giving a presentation on our religion for school, so they came and talked to some members and came to church, and they asked us to come when they give their presentation to answer questions at the end. It'll be exciting. I'm pretty nervous, actually. What if I say something stupid and all the 14 year olds make fun of me? But I'm also super excited. It'll be quite the party.

 Well kids, that's it for today. Love your guts! The church is true!

Germany Week 69--Tengo dos gatos en mis pantalones!‏

I'm just joshin' ya. I don't have two cats in my pants. I just felt like saying one of the only Spanish phrases I know. We had dinner with the Z Family last night, which always makes me want to pretend to speak spanish.

 So the big news of the week is that we had the transfer call on Saturday. Elder Robinson will be spending the last four weeks of his mission in the Office in Berlin. He was pretty disappointed about that. We'd kind of been counting on him dying here. I'll be getting Elder Lindermann, who I spent a day with in Kiel during what was his second week in the field while Elders Liechty and Evans were in some sort of District leader meeting. Hey! Remember that one time when I had those flashbacks? Well, Elder Lindermann was one of the ones for whom I bought that ticket. I think. If not him, then it was Elder Robinson. So either way, it's a small world. Or small mission I guess. Also exciting is that Elder Baker, my MTC companion, will be joining Elder Patterson in Lauenburg, making our district that much more awesome. Then, after four weeks, Elder Patterson gets dead and we'll become a dritt split between Lauenburg and Bergedorf. yeppers.

 The first major adventure of the week involves the Thema that Elder Robinson and I gave during district meeting. Our main themes were Prayer and Fire. Our connections were a little bit of a stretch, but it was fun. We started off reading "die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug" (Something like "the very sad story with the matches") from Struwwelpeter, wherein a girl, Paulinchen doesn't listen to her cats and ends up as a pile of ashes. We said that we as missionaries are like the cats, and if we don't get investigators to pray and find out for themselves, it doesn't matter what we tell them, we won't be able to help them. We also read the Story of Elija and the Prophets of Baal. And then we burned stuff. It was pretty stupid, but hopefully it was a good reminder to focus on prayer. and fires....

Anyhödles.... Then We had a Tausch, Elder Beck stayed with me. We visited some hobbits, cleaned up some ashes, found some doors and started some work on a poster. The Poster is actually to help us keep track/focus on a branch mission goal to get 365 Contacts within a year. We'll get to put up a colorful piece of paper every time we've got a new contact, and we'll be able to see how close we are to the goal. That sort of thing helps me a lot. We'll see if the missionaries that come after me are into that sort of thing. Friday we met with a couple of boys (11 &13) who's mom is a member, and Br. I was there with us. They seem shy, but it was good, and hopefully they'll open up and will learn for themselves, and be baptized. Then we had a spielabend, and R was the only one that showed up. We had fun playing Ping pong though. I had just done something really clumsy, as I am prone to do, and Elder Robinson was making fun of me. So I thought it would be funny to throw my paddle at him. But I didn't mean to hit him. But I missed. And in this case, missing means hitting him square on the head. Luckily he wasn't badly hurt, but I felt so bad. R thought it was so hilarious though. In fact, after like a half hour, R just burst out laughing randomly in the middle of a game because he thought of it again. Manno.

 Saturday morning after Transfer Call we had the gemeinde Erntedankfest where we learned about Methods of Harvest and ate a little bit... And yesterday we had the primary program, which was awesome. Lots of people had invited family and friends for that. Then there were a couple of other really good surprizes. This kid that we sometimes play soccer with showed up, and so did a lady who said she'd just seen a picture of Jesus in the front of the church and decided to come. That was really exciting. I was so happy about it. Then we had a couple different appointments with members, which was a good chance for Elder Robinson to say goodbye. It was a good Sunday. Well kids, it looks like we've gotten to that point of moving on the the adventures that this week will bring. Woo hoo! Love You!

Germany Week 68

 I've had a few adventures this week. Quite a few. Monday night, we were with our GML and his family, as is often the case here. It was his son's birthday, so we ate cake and whatnot. He also had us eat Mattis (No idea if that's spelled right) But it's the fish like the one that they eat in the Best Two Years. It's really... salty. Then he was having fun with that, so M decided to challenge us to a competition of drinking soda without burping. My stomach was already not in the best of moods, and I was not about to do that. But Elder Robinson did. Oh, the poor boy. He spent a lot of time throwing up and his stomach was not a happy camper for the next few days....
  On Tuesday night, we were at the church after a fallen out appointment, and we got a call from the Assistants who were apparently in the area after a Zone Training Meeting, and wanted to do a couple hour Tausch with us. So I went with Elder Fullmer, and Elder Robinson and Elder Cottrell went together. I had a good time. It was great to be with Elder Fullmer, and it was really cool for him because he was trained in Bergedorf. So he was able to see a lot of the places he'd been around a year ago, and we were able to have a nice walk down memory lane.
  Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting and President Interviews, which was good. I always like those. We were supposed to be there at 8:00, so we had to get up early, but when we set the alarm, we accidentally set it for PM instead of AM. So the first thing I heard that day was, "Elder, it's 7:11" We were supposed to be out the door a minute before that. So we hurried and were able to get there only like 15 minutes late (Lucky that we're so close) which wasn't a big deal since we would've spent that time waiting for our interviews anyway. He also got new "Standards of Execellence," kind of the focus of the mission. We'll be focusing more on New Investigators and Progressing investigators - concentrating with our numbers more on the people we're helping than on the means we're using to help them. I think it'll be a good change.
  Saturday we met up with our GML in the Morning for Breakfast and Gemiko, and then we headed down south. We had about a three and a half hour train ride to get to Stadthagen for A S's baptism. She was an investigator in Nienburg. She had been an investigator for a really long time and was great friends with all of the members, and had a testimony, but never felt ready to take the step of baptism. It was so wonderful to see her finally make that step, and to see how great she felt about doing it. It was also great to see the members from Nienburg. They were all so happy for her. Another adventure is that we ran into Brother B at Hannover Hauptbahnhof and rode with him to Stadthagen. It was good to talk to him, and it was funny because Elder Robinson didn't know who he was. He was able to figure out throughout the course of the conversation though.
  Yesterday I gave a talk. I don't think I did that great of a job, but President Packer and Elder Bednar said some good stuff ;P. I wrote my talk down and read it, because last time I gave a talk, I tried to just go off of my outline and ended up doing little more than reading my outline, but I think I'd best try to do something in between next time.
  Then we went to the Is' for lunch, which was very nice. They're very funny and very friendly people. Then we went with them to the home of a really cool family - the mom is a member, but has been inactive for her kids entire lives. We had a game night with them and it was a lot of fun. They had invited the I's over, who said, "We have the missionaries over for lunch that day." And they said, "Bring the missionaries along!"
  Anyhoodles, it was a good week. I hope you're all doing well!

Germany Week 67

Can I believe it's November? Nope, not even close.
What have  I done with my November so far? I can't remember.
I guess I'll have to make it up....
    Monday.... We went to Wartenau and played sports with other missionaries... that was way too intense for me... whew! but I did it anyway... Then...
Tuesday we did a bunch of searching.... We wanted it to be finding, but it didn't quite work out that way, and visited a cool recent convert...
Wednesday... we had a great eating appointment with the Rs, just like every week here. Then we met with R and his family and talked to him about the Priesthood and Missionary Work and what not. Then on Sunday his Dad gave him the preisthood and ordained him as a Teacher. So that was exciting. They are a great family.
  Thursday was actually quite the adventure. We had District Meeting, then we went and ate Chinese with a member, which was yummy and fun, then we went to Hauptbahnhof for to meet up with the Zone Leaders, then I tausched with Elder Burnett, which was a party. We got to eat a second lunch, do some finding, play some billiard, help set up tables for the Pfahlball, come across a newspaper that said something about them making Star Wars episode VII, teach a lesson, and overall have a party. It was nice.
   Then Friday we played with the I's and M.... Fun with Members.
Ummm... Yesterday after church we had a little gemeindeessen because M and K blessed their baby. That was also good. Then we went out and did street contacting with a member. Once we had given M his roller thing back - that was pretty funny. So as we were starting up street contacting, we went to the bus stop to check the times, and as we were doing that, Elder Robinson got a phone call. As he was talking, he looked at and put his hand on a rolly thing (I don't really know what to call it... it's like a rolly backpack shopping bag type thing...) that had a bunch of drinks and stuff in it. M had left it at the bus stop and had called to ask us to get it for them. So we did. It was a party. Holy Cow! Was that really only yesterday!? Yeah, I guess so.... Also, there were a bunch of people playing with fire in the streets.
  Well kids, that's it for today. I wish you a happy happy time! The Church is true!

Germany Week 66

Dearest Mommypoo - I bet my polling station is way shadier than yours will be. I just gave my ballot to the internetladen guy to scan for me. But I've got to look at and email the digital copy anyway, so it's not like he could get away with any tampering or anything, but I still feel kinda weird about it. Mission accomplished. I hope I don't prove responsible for the destruction of the world. The ward sounds like it continues to be quite the party. 
  Mmky dokey... what have I been up to this week...
We spent practically the whole week playing with our GML. We'd gone to their house last Sunday after church, then again Monday night, and that's just the beginning of the week.
  Wednesday was actually quite the adventure. It started out with District meeting, which is usually just the two of us and the two Elders from Lauenburg. But this week we had some pretty lofty visitors. The Zone Leaders wanted to visit our District meeting, and they were also meeting up with the Assistants for to do a Tausch of their own, so all four of them came to our District Meeting. So our numbers were doubled, with half of them being the overlords of the mission. It was pretty crazy. It was actually really good though, I love both of the APs. Elder Fullmer's from my group and it was great to see him - I hadn't seen him since he was in Bergedorf and I was in Elmshorn. He was also really excited to visit his Golden City. (Officially speaking, the term Golden is now taboo.. but back when we were that thing and we were in that place, it was officially Golden.... I don't know if there's some sort of ex post facto rule when speaking about the past..... Aaaaannyway...) He left notes all over the place for the members to see that he'd been there. And Elder Cottrell was one of my Zone leaders in Kiel.Then I got to eat Doppelkeks leisurely during the Thema... nom nom nom... Then I went on Tausch in Lauenburg with Elder Beck. We had quite the party there. We had an appointment with this cool Muslim guy, those are always fun.
  M, our GML, invited us over for lunch on Friday, and so we went over there and we talked a lot about the goals that the Gemeinde had set the night before in Gemeinderat, and goals that he had for the work, and talked about how we'd go about doing that. Then we visited a lady in the Gemeinde, played with a shopping cart we found, and went to Spielabend (Ward game Night), where I demonstrated that I'm terrible at Ping Pong. Then we met with him again on Saturday for a quick Gemiko. 
Yesterday was nice too. Church was good.... 
Anyhoodles, have a beautiful, beautiful, life everyone!
 

Germany Week 65

Well, Well, well, More actually happened this week than I thought, now that I'm looking back on it. 
On Tuesday, our GML randomly showed up at our apartment and chatted with us for a bit in the morning. And later in the day we went to the church to make a copy of my Monatskarte to get it refunded, but the copier was broken, but Bro. I. was there and we ended up helping him with a Broken lawnmower there. (We're weren't actually much help, and we didn't even figure out what the problem was, but I still enjoyed it) In the Evening we played a smashing game of Trivial Pursuit. mhmmm.
Wednesday we had our Zone Training meeting which was also a party. We got there a little bit earlyish and helped President Kosak carry in the post and books and whatnot. Then we had a nice chat with him for a few minutes, he talked with us about the "Training Model" - Explain, Demonstrate, Practice, Evaluate, Repractice. He also gave me a big side hug and asked me how much longer I had, then said, "Oh good. I've still got you for a long while." It felt good... I've started to feel like I'm on my way out... Does that make sense? Not like Trunkiness, exaclty, just like I'm running out of time. It's probably a combination of Elder Pack being comparitively so young and fresh and the flies that are already circling over Elder Robinson in anticipation. I don't even know what I'm talking about now. But It was a nice reminder that I've still got time (Though I know it'll go quickly) and that I can still do a lot in that time. That night we visited the Zs again, I really like that family. It's just funny how the son speaks german and the parents speak English, so we teach him in German, translate for his mom in English, and read the scriptures in Spanish.
  Thursday we had a joint teach with the J Family. Their neighbors are some ward members, and they set it up for us. The father of the family has apparently been taking the lessons a lot, but his wife and kids don't usually participate. This time they all came and listened too. It was just cool to have a real live, "I'm teaching a family of investigators and there are Joint Teaches present" lesson. I'm pretty sure that's the only time that's ever happened to me. I don't think I've ever taught a full family period. That's definitely the ideal though - the fact that it was set up by the joint teaches definitely has a lot to do with that. They were really cool people too. I'm excited to teach them further.
  Friday Evening we visited a recent convert who's super cool, and Saturday we went to a park to play soccer with people from the Gemeinde. No one from the Gemeinde was there, but this cool kid, N, who apparently plays with us a lot was there, and we ended up playing with this other group of kids too. I was about to say it was fun, but then I remembered that I really didn't enjoy it. Man, I hate sports. ;P I'm definitely glad we did it though. 
  Then yesterday I had normal church for the first time since being here. It was cool to get to meet the rest of the Gemeinde. They're Sundayschool class was crazy - The teacher would just ask questions and moderate through quick comments... A lot more participation than I'm used to... Then After church we went to our GML's house for lunch, and had a fun afternoon with him and his family. He's so funny, and his kids are adorable.
  I feel like I've been boring this time. Hopefully not. But if so, it stinks to be you! hehehe.
  Well, Kids, I love your guts, and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. And Halloween. And Mayday. Ok. ok. I'm done. The Church is True! Jesus Said love Everyone! Treat them kindly too! When your heart is filled with with Joy, others will love you! Ok, this time I'm done for reals. Have a great Week! Love ya!

Germany Week 64

My Oh My is that crazy that the ward got all switchamarooed. And that's also super intese about Uncle Andy. He's famous! I didn't know anything about any assassinations. I don't know much of anything that goes on in the world. Mom, you're right that I just have an apartment in a bigger building. That's how it always is in Germany. Well, some people have houses, but there's a lot more apartment living going on here than at home. In Germany they don't have apartment numbers, they just have mailboxes that you put your name on. I really love the city. Elder Baake taught me to love Hamburg. And it's just so lovable anyway. There's something about the air quality. And it's just so beautiful. I'm super excited about being in Bergedorf, which is officially a part of Hamburg. It's definitely much larger than Nienburg. 

  My new companion, Elder Robinson, is really cool. It's definitely very different to be back with someone older than me. I got used to just deciding stuff... Not that I was a big fan of it... but now I find myself getting all caught up in what I should do and what I should leave for him to do. It's really silly, and I imagine it would be best to just be decisive... I'm sure he's ok either way. He's a really chill guy. I'm blabbering to you just like I do in my mind.
  Umm.... yeppers. So as I walk along I typically say "Hallo" or "Moin" or whatever to the people I pass. And everywhere else I've been, people have always responded, even if it's with a, "man I wish you hadn't noticed me" look. I got here, and I thought to myself, "I'm back in the Hamburg area. I'm gonna be getting some Moin Moins. woo hoo!" So I started out saying Moin to everybody. And nobody said anything back. It got to be pretty fun. I was just ruthlessly moining these people, and they just speed up and look forward. On Saturday, on the way to see the Prophet, I caught a post delivery lady off guard, she looked up at me and let out an almost inaudible "moin." But it was there! I felt so victorious. bwahaha. Since then I've got a couple back, but overall these people must not be into the whole greeting thing.
  And President Monson was fantastic. He's so adorable. He pretty much said he just felt like visiting Germany again. The German people really love him, and he really loves them. President Texiera said a similar sentence to the one I just did in his Introduction, and President Monson pumped his fist high in the air as he said, "and I know President Monson loves the German People." It was pretty cute. He talked to us about Choices, how they shape our destinies, and that we can make four specific choices: to listen, to learn, to labor, and to love. And that our resolutions can become realities as we let Christ in and act. It was really good. It was so cool to see him there. As I've said to many of the members, "I live in the same city as him, but I had to come to Germany to see him!"
  It was also great to see so many people I know. Missionaries from all over this half of the mission, as well as a few I knew from the MTC who are serving in the Dortmund Zone of the Frankfurt mission. In addition to that, there were people from every Gemeinde I've ever served in there, since I've never made it out of the West. It was wonderful to see many of them. It would've been wonderful to spend more time with everyone, but the quick hellos were still fantastic. It also would've been wonderful to go shake the prophet's hand, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. Many people did though, As he was leaving he went over to some of the people, and a huge mass made their way over to him. I couldn't see what was going on, but I imagine there were many who were able to shake his hand.
  Umm... I sang in the Stake Choir Yesterday. That was quite the party. We sang this one song called "Gesang der erlösten" (Singing of the Redeemed), which was a whole ton of fun. Elder Koppe said it was weird though. He's back from the dead - but not for long. Anyhoodles, Stake Conference was also really good. Their focus was on obedience, and they had a lot of really cool talks. It's kind of funny, because the last couple of weekends have been super hardcore spiritual experiences, but It feels like I haven't had the sacrament in an eternity. I'm pretty excited for that next week.
  In other news, we visited these people who are definitely hobbits. We get to eat with them once a week. Hobbits make good food.
  Well, I can't think of anything else exciting.... So have a beautiful week!

Germany Week 63

Well Kids, this week was quite the whirlwind adventure. I can't really remember anything from before Saturday though, so I'll have to make it up. Jk. I can consult my notes (As taken by my temporary secretary, Elder Pack).

 My first notable, or rather, noted, event occured On Tuesday the Third of October, also known as the birthday of everyone and their dog, The Day Gandalf fought Ringwraiths on Weathertop, and der Tag der Deutschen Einheit, among other things. I decided it was time to buy our 344€ Monatskarten (That's for both of us, but it's still a way expensive one, but it works out to be cheaper than our other options). Due, However, to the last of the mentioned identities of the day, the Reisebüro (travel office) wherein such a monthly pass might be obtained, was closed. Now. At this point, an old curiousity of mine began to creep its way into the forefront of my consciousness. I understood that even ridiculously expensive Monatskarten can be purchased through the Automats.... And I'd been wondering how that would differ from the Reisebüro experience. So I decided to try it. But the automat wouldn't accept my card. It would only accept giro/EC/cash cards, and no one even knows what those are anyway. So, defeated, I began to walk away. I then had an Idea which led to a flashback. Wsehsehsihfes (that's the sound that comes as the screen goes blurry and we find ourselves in flashback mode)  - I'm much younger. Like 12. or 15. Or 5. or something. We're switching our bank accounts from Bankone to the Beehive credit union for some reason that adults understand and I didn't. But in order to do that, we took out all of our money in cash. So Joseypookins and I are sitting in the car counting our Benjamins as we drive to Beehive - Cool Conference Talk, na? C L really liked it - Anyhoodles. wooooossssccchoooop! Flashback over. I turned my head to see a certain Geldautomat on the other wall. Or for our american speaking friends, the ATM Machine. And yes, I do mean the Automated Teller ATM Machine. I'm snarky like that cuz I was in the ELP Program.... Ok, Don't you just love it when I'm in these moods, dear readers? I imagine you can't really tell what I'm saying, but that it's much more entertaining. The real tragedy is that I'm nearing the end of my email time and I'ven't even finished my first, and actually rather insignificant story. Schade, schade, schade. So I went to the Geldautomat and I pulled out 350 €. It was pretty intense. Everything is going hunkily dorily as I feed my 50 Euroscheins to the DBAutomat beast. Only then a tragic thing happened. As I only owed 4 more Euro, and started to put a 5 Euro bill in, Elder Pack said to me, "You've got to pay with Coins. It won't accept any more bills." I looked at the screen in horror to find he is correct. WWWSChesfuhsewww I'm in the Kiel Hauptbahnhof, currently serving in Flensburg. My companion was just in a District leader training, and I had been with another junior companion. But now we're ready to go home, and Elder Evans runs up to us, explaining that they'd tried to pay an automat with cash, but that they didn't have enough, the automat timed out on them, gave them around 20 euro of their money back in coins, and the rest was just gone. I was then able to pay for their ticket home, and we all go on our way. WWWOooshhhhoop! Ach Mensch! I couldn't let that happen to us. Elder Evans had gotten his money back, but only after obnoxious paper work and like a month. I desperately clawed through my change, cramming in as much as I could as fast as I could. But it was clear that we were coming up short. We were stopped dead at 60 cents. I looked with wide eyes at Elder Pack. Then I heard the clinking of change in the Automat next to me. I turned to the man there, and I'm not sure how frantically asked, "Do you have change?" He said something along the lines of, "only a little.." I asked, "How much have you got?" "Just 90 cents...." I handed him my 5 and said, "That's worth it to me." I slapped in sixty of those cents and breathed a sigh of relief. I learned two lessons from that story. 1. Always Buy Monatskarten from the Reisebüro. 2.Manage my email time better.

    But wait, there's more! I know, that's crazy enough for a whole week, but there's even more that I'll be able to report. One of those things is that when Elder Pack and I were doing doors in Neustadt, this lady opened the door and said, "I have two really good reasons why I don't have time right now. My son has a Latin Test tomorrow, so we're studying Vocabulary, and we're strong, active Catholics, so you won't get anywhere. But come in, I've got something for you." Then She gave us yummy candy and chatted with us for a few minutes. She said she was really sorry that she didn't have time, and that we should come back another day. I love wandering into awesome people.

  Skip forward to the most exciting stuff. So Saturday Morning we Went to Hannover for a distrikt breakfast/gemeinsames Transfer call listening experience. The Mission had a lot of changes. Half of our district is leaving, I among them. I'll be going up to Bergedorf in Hamburg, Address: 

Brookstraße 19

21029 Hamburg

Where I will serve with Elder Robinson, who has two transfers left (I get to be Junior Companion again! jk, I'mma try not to be a senior companion gone once again fisherman). I've met him a couple times, and heard a lot of good things about him. I'm pretty excited. Elder Pack on the Other hand, will be getting a companion who is only one transfer older than him, who he knows from the MTC. Crazy, crazy, crazy. They'll do great, and it will be a wonderful opportunity for him to learn and grow by figuring things out himself. I wish I would've taught him more and better though. Two other missionaries from Elder Pack's group are training. It's so exciting.

   Then an even bigger (Ok, much, much bigger) change in Missionary work was announced by President Monson in General Conference. We, much like everyone else were totally geeking out about President Monson's announcements that missionaries will now be able to serve at 18. And the rest of conference was so wonderful too. I've always loved conference, and this one really spoke to me that I need to get my act together in a lot of things. The whole conference had an interesting tone though. I felt that from President Monson's first words as he talked about the empty seats in the back of the conference center. This Conference seemed to me to be much more sober, almost grim. I felt like we're really buckling down to resist the moral decline of the culture around us. I kept thinking of the feel of the last few Harry Potters, as Voldemort is moving openly, and those fighting for good have to make a show of pure grit. It's kind of a silly comparison, but a very similar feeling. 

   One other very cool thing was that on the way to conference, A man on the train invited us to sit with him and we had a great conversation with him. He told us about his incredible story of repentance and becoming a Christian. We invited him to come to one of the sessions of conference. I didn't find him if he did make an appearance, but he gave us permission to pass his number onto the Elders from where he lives. It was really cool.

  Well, I've unfortunately gone ridiculously overtime, but I want you to know that I love you and that I love this gospel. Have a fantastic week!

Germany Week 62--Klingelingelingeling

Here, have some pictures.

1 - me

              2 - Cave of Wonders (completed Edition)

Soo...

One exciting story from the week...

Tuesday night, somebody klingeled us. She was all like, "Are you the guys from the Church?" I'm like, "yeah, that's us!" She said, "I visited your church one time. And I got baptized. But now I have a friend that wants to meet with you." So we sent up an appointment to meet with the two of them. Then two days later we klingeled, and nobody answered. But then that night, she kilgeled us again. And said, "sorry, I had to work late, but do you still have time today?" It was 8:20, so we did, so we were like, yeah, just a minute, we'll come down. She said, I've gotta go take my dog back but klingel me, and I'll come down and we can go to the church together." So, 10 minutes later we were at her apartment. Just when we were about to go ring the doorbell (aka klingel) A car pulled up and a few people stepped out and klingeled someone else. But then they didn't answer, so those people stayed on the porch and called them and everything. I was like, Okey dokey, we'll just stand here and wait. But then it took forever. So we decided to walk around the block. But then they were still there. Then I felt like an idiot, because we'd just been there, but I walked up, said excuse me, and klingeled. And nobody answered. And then so the five of us were just sitting there waiting awkwardly. Finally, we walked away, tried again a few minutes later, then started heading home. Then we heard someone call out, "Elders!" so we went back. But there was noone there. We had been duped. The part I left out earlier was that we'd already heard stories about this girl playing dumb pranks, but she hadn't been up to them for a year or too. So we kinda suspected this whole time... It was amusing though.

  Yesterday, Fast and Testimony meeting was good. And then we had gemeindeessen, which was fantastic. And I learned some more Swahili. The church is true. Have a great week! Love ya!

Germany Week 61

Mhmmmmhhmmmm Well, that week was another week, that's for sure.

I totally gave into temptation and bought some purple jeans a couple hours ago. I have no idea when I'll be able to wear them on my mission, but I'm in love with them.

So now I would like to tell you the story of this one time when we were walking to the Ls on Thursday. It goes a little something like this: Once upon a time, Elder Pack and Elder Cloward were walking to the Ls, which is already an exciting thing, because the Lyimos are amazing. Then Elder Cloward felt a little buzz in his pocket. "Well now who could that be?" He asked himself in typical Elder Cloward Fashion. He then pulled out their Handy, discovered they had received a text from President Kosak, and read the following:"Missionaries, since rumors start fast- now officially: the highlight 2012, President Thomas S."-- As he had read this, Elder Cloward started waving his arms around and making peculiar shreeking noises, although he had not yet read the text in it's entirety. Elder Pack then grabbed the phone from his hands and started reading it to himself. The pitch of Elder Cloward's shreeking hiked from that of excitement to excitement with a tinge of distress. "HeY! I wasn't finished! At least read it out loud!" laughed the boy. The remainder of the text was then revealed : "Monson will visit Hamburg 13 Oct and Berlin 14 Oct where we will have special conferences. You will attend according to the stakes and districts you live in. Happiness - our prophet will be with and will teach us!!!" Then Elder Cloward resumed his happily freaking out. Elder Pack reminded him of the public nature of their surroundings, but to no avail. Elder Cloward was too excited. "I need to repent!" he concluded. (I mean, seriously, that guy could stare into my soul!)

So yeah, that was super exciting. One week General Conference, next week visit from President Monson! And the week before that, Gemeindeputztag! Jk, that one's not all that exciting. I don't know whether I'll be in Hamburg or Berlin though.... I hope I get to stay here, I love the people here, and I want to accomplish more here, but I've been here a while, and I feel like the Gemeinde and Elder Pack might need somebody new anyway. Not too much Else exciting from the Week, Except that yesterday was another great Sunday. The Stake President came, it was well attended, and the Ls had their first Gemeinderat. Well, I love you all, have a beautiful week. The Church is true. IHDLFIUE!

Pretty Colors!

Germany Week 60

Well, Well, Well, Let's see... what've I been up to this week?

Let me tell you with Pictures...

1,2&3.You see, Elder Pack and I have been training in the Jedi Arts....

fig 1

fig 2

fig 3

But before we did that we had to clean out the Cave of Wonders.(See Fig. 4, 5&6)

fig 4

fig 5

fig 6

That was actually a suuuper fun Pday last week. After doing Emails in Hannover, We and the Hildesheim Elders ran like the wind to catch our train, and make it back to Nienburg. Then we spent a couple hours cleaning out the cave - So much junk! We had fun with it though. Then Bruder H came with a trailer to pick it up. He was super excited, because it turned out a couple of the huge boards that we brought out were the sides of an old LKW - Big truck thing. He was like, "I just knew I would get something good from you guys!" How that and many other surprises made their way into the cave of Wonders, I suppose I'll never know. Then I went with Bruder H to take the stuff to the dump and we got back and had a barbeque. Well, sort of a barbeque. They couldn't really get the grill going, because instead of lighter fluid there was this dry stuff which loved to burn, but wasn't quite able to share that love with the briquettes (sp?)... and there wasn't that much charcoal anyway. So we used the stove. It was super duper yummy. And quite the party.

Hmmm.... Anything else happen this week?

Not really, but I'll tell you about it anyway.

I have this terrible addiction to sour apple rings. They're so good. I had the quiz at District Meeting and included a bag of them as a prize. But then Elder Pack won the quiz and gave them to me anyway! Bwahahahaha! I'm so eeeevil.... ;)

But after District meeting Elder Price came with me to Nienburg on Tausch. The most exciting thing that happened there was talking to a guy, M (oder was ähnliches) on the street - we just walked with him, sat on a street bench with him, then went up to his apartment. He was super cool, but didn't want a return appointment. I think he definitely started thinking though. 

Then Yesterday was absolutely Marvy. Church was great. Bruder B gave a talk on the Parable of the Talents, which I felt applied to me really well - just how I can't compare myself to others or judge myself to be inadequate, I need to just make the most out of the assignments I've been given. Plus the Ls got callings as the Young Mens and Young Womens Presidents (Well, technically A is the 1st Counselor in the Relief Society, but she'll be working with the Young Women) They are so faithful and so incredible. We'll also be able to work closely with C and the Young Men, about which I'm waaay excited. And after the meetings M played with my face... (see Fig. 7)  

fig 7

Then we had a wonderful lunch with the Hs and did some doors in Neustadt. Awesome! 

Germany Week 59

Let's see if I can remember this week. I'mma assume we did nothing last Pday, cuz I don't remember it. O, jk, we played sports, and I mostly sat and chatted with Elder Zondler while everyone else played sports. It was nice.

 Then, Monday night I got to prepare a Workshop for the Zone Training Meeting the next day. It was on the Importance of Extending Commitments. I don't know how good it was, but it featured a clip from the John Tanner Story, which automatically bumps it up like 12 points. So it was pretty awesome. People at least said they liked the workshop. I had fun with it too.

 The rest of Zone Training Meeting was also nice - oh, did I even tell you about that? So my first Zone Conference ever, President Pimentel announced that we'd be having Zone Conference every Transfer instead of Every Other. President Kosak has returned Zone Conferences to Every other transfer, but has added monthly Zone Training meetings, put together by the Zone Leaders, which the Mission President or Assistants may visit, but not take an active part in. Anyway, it was nice. I like Zone Conferences a little bit better, but the move totally makes sense. So that was my Tuesday....

 Wednesday nothing happened... nah, I just don't remember. We went to the Ls. That was nice. That's always nice. A. had a little spiritual thought thing of her own prepared. That was cool.

 On thursday, we were in a lesson with a man, Herr E. We have been trying by every once in a while since Elder Welker and I found him through doors, and he would occasionally let us in. He lives alone and has been having a hard time with the recent death of his daughter. We've taught him about the Book of Mormon and born testimony that this life is not the end, but our visits were mainly just giving him someone to talk to. I think he needs that, but he needs the gospel more.

 On thursday, I was feeling especially like I wasn't fulfilling my purpose in being there. We started with a prayer, but he quickly steered the conversation elsewhere. Now I know that I should be more assertive in that sort of situation, but I didn't really know what to say, so I just continued to listen, looking for opportunities to teach, but not taking any. Finally he said, that it was nice that there are people like us, who go around and are just there for people, but that in the end, it doesn't really help all that much. At that point, I'm not sure what it was, but I felt like I was able to become a lot bolder and felt myself being guided by the spirit. "There's more that we can do." I said, "If you read, and if you pray, you will be able to receive a strength and a happiness as your faith grows." Then we gave him Alma 32 to read and made out a specific appointment for next week. It was good to feel that I could be guided to help him make progress.

 After that, we went and did doors, and a couple people said we could come back later, which I hadn't heard in a while... One of them was a super cool Pilot who's been to southern Utah and was just super friendly. That was a very good day. Friday... we Weekly Planned.... Saturday... we tried some contacts and did doors....

 Sunday we had church and had a marvelous Lunch with the Hs and Ls and a Bruder La. It was a lot of fun. In other news, I'm super excited, as always, for General Conference. Right now I'm reading oneish talk per day from the April Conference, so I'll've read them all again by Oktober Conference, which is also the last weekend of the Transfer. It's like a party, but it's better than a party!

 Ok kids, I love ya! Have a fantastic week and go out and do some good for me, will ya? - Elder Cloward

Germany Week 58

Well it was a week. It seems the influx of missionaries has blessed the lives of our Internetladen owners to the extent that they have not room enough to receive it - So Elder Pack and I are here in the Smoking section. It's almost as though we have a teaching appointment again... I remember the good ol' days of second hand smoke... The Baptism on Friday was great. I was up a little later than is recommended (whoops....) making cupcakes, then got up at 6:00 to make a second batch. Hmm... I wanna make cinnamon rolls all of a sudden... anyway, back to something that matters... Then we carried our cupcakes in our suits on a super toasty super crowded train to Hannover. I've rarely been happier to declare, "Land!" when we finally arrived at the church. When we got there, there was a member from Hannover who was there to fill up the font. He was quite unimpressed with our branch's level of organization - he'd been called just that day, because the Hannover Elders (Who we'd asked) weren't able to be there, and their GML (who they'd asked) wasn't able to be there either. And we didn't bring any baptismal clothing because our branch doesn't have any, but every branch is apparently supposed to have our own, and the water just has this nasty habit of stopping before it gets full - so that was stressful, but thanks to the Ws and patience we were able to get everything sorted out. The Hs were running late to the baptism, so we decided to wait for them - we ended up singing Hymns for a while - we started over an hour late, but it was actually really nice. There was just a handful of us there and it was really relaxed and peaceful, and the spirit was there, and it was wonderful. The baptism went very smoothly, and it was in Swahili, which was awesome. C, E's Dad baptized him, and his mom gave an excellent talk on the Holy Ghost. I got to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost, and yes, that was my first time doing that. That was cool - I felt really good to be able to be a part of that. Afterward, we had a really fun time talking and playing together and eating cupcakes and brownies. That definitely was the highlight of my week. Otherwise it was pretty rough. I'm just feeling like I'm running out of time on my mission and I still just can't do any of it right. I'm struggling to find people, and when I get the chance to teach, I don't feel like I'm doing a good job of that either. Well, I guess I do a decent job of "Keeping." I've got some pretty good relationships with members. I really love the members here and the Gemeinde. I really what to help them grow and in any other way I can. Ok kids, well, I think that's everything I have for today. I know Heavenly Father knows us, loves us and is there for us. Have a great week!

Germany Week 57

Well, It wasn't the best week of my life, but there were some good parts ;P Tuesday was quite the party. I went to Neustadt with Bruder H, who was totally not excited about it, but we ended up having a good time, and Elder Pack stayed in Nienburg with President K. We did our Pamphlet Door to door thing. It was.... a nice exercise. It was not at all successful(at least visably), the people who were there very quickly said no.... But hey, at least they learned a little bit about us, even if it's just that we have pictures of Jesus on the front of our pamphlets. Afterward, as we walked around a little, a guy who was working on the roof of a garage asked us what we were doing, Bruder H said we were doing missionary work, and then we ended up climbing up on the roof with them and Bruder H gave them a lot of pointers, because he worked as a roof repairman guy back in the day. He turns out to be the L's Housemaster.... ummm... landlord? I guess? And we saw him again on Saturday after visiting the Ls to celebrate E's 8th birthday, which was also a lot of fun. The roofman said we could probably meet with him, so I just need to keep my eye out for him and see what we can do. Another exciting thing is that E's getting baptized on Friday. We're super excited about that. His dad is going to baptize him, and I'm going to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. I'm actually kind of nervous about it, but I'm sure I'll manage. Ummm... I feel like that wasn't really very much, but I can't think of anything else worth reporting... Except that we had our transfer call - we had a distrikt breakfast again, it was really nice. And we're all staying! It's crazy and awesome! Well, I love you! The church is true! have a great week!

Germany Week 56 -- Greetings from Africa!

It has been soo hot the last couple days! Yesterday it was around 40 degrees, aka over 100 ... we were totally dead. This morning when we woke up it was still/already 30ish/80ish degrees.... bwah. But luckily at like 7:10 it started thundering and raining like crazy - it only lasted a few minutes, but it helped to cool it down a lot. But it also made it an even moister heat - it felt really weird, but I was grateful for it. And if that's not enough like Africa, we went to a "Serengeti Safari Park" for Pday today. It was suuper fun. Way better than I expected. I was kinda like... "uh huh... a Safari Park.... in Germany... in the middle of nowhere.... and it costs 25 euro per person.... " but the Hannover Elders really wanted to go, and it did sound like it could be fun, and most of our distrikt was going, so we went. It didn't help my confidence when we had to walk through a half hour of farm land to get to the place, and there was no convenient way to walk into it - we just walked in and paid at a place where cars pull up. But then it turned out to be super awesome - first there were monkeys - haven't you always wanted a monkey? Then we went on this Safari Ride - first there were a bunch of real animals like rhinos and wildebeasts and Zebras, and then there were a bunch of angry, more "dangerous" animatronic animals, but the driver was hilarious and it was really entertaining. Then there were a whole bunch of rides - and the best part, no lines! Our favorite was one a lot like the cliffhanger - we rode it once, walked in a circle and got right back on - then the guy operating it gave us an extra long extra good spin. Then we had some more adventures including a log ride and the best slushy of my life (It wasn't actually anything special, I was just parched....) Then to finish it off, we went on the Cliffhangerlike ride one more time. And to put a capstone on that experience, Elder Pack threw up upon landing. The Arme... He was a really good sport about it though. Then, time was a little tight to walk back and catch our train, but this guy was sitting by the entrance with his van. Elder Henderson talked to him and he offered us a ride. He was a super cool guy - His family was still inside the park, and he'd just gotten back from fishing, and had a while to wait. He's a social worker for youth, and was super friendly - He and the zone leaders exchanged cards. All in all an excellent Pday - the only problem is that our train in the morning never came, so we had to catch a later one and didn't have time to do emails until now. This week has been absolutely crazy too - I guess it had to make up for the last couple. The first exciting event was on Tuesday night. We'd just finished doing doors on one street, and I heard from behind some bushes from the corner house, "Jehovah's Witnesses..." And I was all like "Nay, nay, wir sind die Mormonen..." (That's a favorite line of mine nowadays) And they were like, "Don't you have anything better to do?" And I was like, "Nope, nuthin' at all." So then they invited us over and we had a nice chat for about an hour. They were 6 really cool people, I'd guess each around 30, and a couple of them remembered us from when Elder Welker and I had knocked on their door - But the Europa Meisterschaft soccer game had been about to start. They asked really good questions, through which we taught several principles out of each of the lessons. They also accepted a Book of Mormon. They didn't want a specific return appointment, but they said if we ever see them hanging around outside again, we're welcome to join them... we may just slip through that area pretty frequently.... Then Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was great. We had some great Themas on living life in Cresendo - gradually improving and growing in power. It was really cool - also about how we can best do that as we make little changes in the things we do often. I learned a lot and have a lot that I can improve on. We also had a testimony meeting at the end of it - I gave one of those quick explode into tears testimonies... I'm crazy. It was kind of embarassing, but also nice.... Right afterward, Elder Henderson came up to Nienburg with me on Tausch - we had an appointment with the L's, which is always marvelous. Then in the morning we ran around talking to people. There were several times after he'd talked to someone and just did such a great job I just had to look at him and say, "Wow! You're a real live missionary!" I think it actually kind of bugged him - he was like, "So are You! What do you mean with that?!" He just did a lot of things right.. better than I've ever managed to do them, and better than I'm used to seeing them done - just little things. I don't know how to explain it, I guess. It reminded me once again of how we can make the best progress by making small changes in the things we do often. Just in talking to him I also got a lot of ideas of how we can work more wisely in Nienburg. One idea he gave me was to pass out pamphlets in mailboxes - So, that's one thing that we do quite a bit - we put little cards with the church website and our number in peoples mailboxes - but he said that he'd heard of other missionaries doing that with Pamphlets, with a note attached saying, "We'll be coming around again on this day at this time to answer questions" So we totally did it - most of our Saturday ended up being devoted to preparing and distributing those - we'll actually be doing splits with our branch presidency tomorrow morning to go back on all of those houses. I'm super excited for it, but also nervous - we put a lot of hope and effort into it, so I don't want to be let down. Another thing I've been thinking about a lot is that instant at which we learn something new - something that invites us to repent, improve, change. It's a wonderful experience to learn it, but after learning, there comes that time of application - then our knowledge can either raise us up, or it can condemn us, depending on how we apply it. I hate that point. I'm just gonna say it. Because that changing usually means something uncomfortable and painful, but in the end leads to much better feelings, comfort, and a new power. So know that I've seen some more specific improvements I can make, I have to step up and make them. Wish me luck. ;P The great thing is that whenever we strive for that change, even if it seems impossible, God will help us to make it. That's what we teach investigators, and that's what we have to learn ourselves. Church was good yesterday, except that I had to give a talk ;P. Just joshing, well, not joshing, because I did give one, but that didn't really ruin church. I'm actually super lucky - it doesn't really make any sense that I didn't have to give one earlier - Elder Welker had given 3 by this point. I think it was a pretty crummy talk. But hey, they gave me pretty crummy missiles. Well, I did my best with the time I had... but I think I'm going to go back to writing my talks out. Ok kids, well I believe I've touched on all the most important points, Hopefully You'll enjoy this email a bit more than the last couple. I'm so grateful to be able to serve a mission, and for the growth I'm able to see in those around me, and I kind of assume there must be some of that going on in me too. Sure hope so. I know this church is true, and I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father watching over us. Have a wonderful week!

Germany Week 55

It was another pretty discouraging/discouraged week. I feel like the responsibility I feel to Elder Pack is the only thing keeping me afloat at the moment. Well, and to the Gemeinde. And even that's not providing the bouyant force I ought to have. I just need to shut up and be better. Dang it, now I'm just being whiny. Well, there were a couple cool people that we got to talk to through doors this week. There was just a really friendly young couple - he answered and we said kind of an introductory statement, and he was like, "ok, You're the Jehovah's Witnesses, right?" And I was just like, "No, no, we're the Mormons!" I just had the feeling that they were people we could joke around with. We had a quick fun chat, they accepted a Book of Mormon and he promised he would read in it before we even tried to "invite" them to - they didn't want any future meetings, but they said they'd come to church if they want to learn more. We met another nice older lady, who started talking to us about the loss of her son and how she's been asking God why for the last 8 years, but feels she has never received an answer. I just bore testimony that God has a plan for us and that she can see her son again. She also gladly accepted the Book of Mormon and a pamphlet on the plan of salvation. She hasn't had time to meet with us yet, but she seems happy to see us, and seemed to take our invitation to church seriously, saying that her husband was a bit sick this week, but that they could maybe make it next week. Yesterday we went to the H's for lunch, which was really nice as always. And church was good - It was uplifting and once again impressed on my mind how wonderful the people in this Gemeinde are, and how much they go through, and how much they need our help to build them up. So that helped a little bit. We read, or, rather, discussed Alma 40 in Sundayschool, and A L rose the question of what will happen to her brother who died two weeks ago, but with whom she had already tried to share the gospel. So we were able to have a good discussion, and she learned and was able to receive more hope for him. Also, I really love Elder Pack. He's such a trooper. Even when he's tired or doesn't want to go, he's willing to follow me out into the cold, dark, miserable world. JK. It's not cold dark and miserable. They've been bright and hot and... yeah, they've been bright and hot. Well, some of them have been cool and rainy. Those ones are nice. I've heard that "America" is having a really hardcore drought and that they solve all of their problems with violence. Has any of that been affecting you? Mmmmkey dokey.... ummmm.... yeppers. Have a beautiful week!

Germany Week 54

Bleargh. I am soooooo slow. And I'm actually already out of time... Not sure how that happened... All I've done is responded to a couple of emails and written President Kosak - I think next week I'll Come with a list of things I want to say, because at the moment I can't think of anything. This week was pretty normalish I guess - nothing too exciting. Other than President Interviews. Those were really good. One other adventure is Elder Pack and I made ourselves a Weekly planning board, which I think will help us quite a bit. My Scatterbrainedness has really made planning ineffective at times, but that should help. That Jar-Jar is just in the Pizza Hut next to the Hannover Hauptbahnhof, so if I ever need to see it, It's not too far out of my way. Umm... Sorry that this is so pathetic. Have a great week!

Germany Week 53

Als ich so alt war wie du, damals hatten wir keine Schuhe! Wir hatten nur Stacheldraht womit wir unsere nackte Füße einwickeln würden, damit wir auf dem Eis nicht rutschen würden! Und wir waren Glücklich! Was denkste? Haben wir je geklagt? Nay! Das haben wir gar nicht! Wir haben nie gemeckert. Aber heutzutage nörgelt jeder, wenn er die teureste Schuhe nicht bekommt! 

I'm counting on most of my readership not speaking German, cuz I probably made several mistakes in there. Perhaps I'll learn German some day. So, for my higher level of humour, it's important to make allusions to inside jokes in public settings, but since you asked specifically, I can tell you that when ones brain is fried, one may have lost the mental capacity to report their condition properly, saying instead that their "Brian is Fired." The situation there described puts Brian into a state devoid of income (Or at least of a lower income, depending on the social system under which he is living), a position from which he might find it favourable to obtain new employment.

Now that I've wasted all of my email time, I guess I can give a brief report on my life. I am still alive.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words and I don't want to short change you, I'mma start by cheating and giving you a couple pictures.

Elder Pack is a Super Hero

He's also good at carrying all of the

 bottles the Gemeinde gives us to take

I actually saw this the day before
 I headed off to Berlin, but It was cool that I
got to see another Family member unexpectedly

So yeppers. This week was pretty intense.   We spent a lot of time looking for people, and were able to have some nice chats with people. I'm finding that I really need to step it up in a lot of ways, now that I'm the senior companion. I need to work on being better at making out appointments, and being less scatter brained and planning better. Overall, things are going well. Elder Pack and I are getting along really well, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be training, I hope I don't ruin him too bad! I'm trying to think of some good stories that happened this week, but I'm really coming up with nothin'.... We were actually able to have a couple of unexpected but really good appointments with some members. Yeah. 

I'm sure you've already got a very similar
bad boy from the other end, but here's mine

Well, love you all!