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!