Germany week 87--Horseplay and Hoodlumry‏

This week our adventure begins with the new District! Now instead of being with just the Magdeburg Elders, we've also got the Köthen and Bernburg Elders. Before we felt more like a club than a district. It was really cool before, but now with twice the size it feels a little more businessy, which in some ways is a good thing. It's fun too though. Our District leader is Elder Jex, who has Elder Beck standing at his side, and Elders Kreitzer and Tolman from Bernburg. I think I'm going to like it a lot. So we had our first district meeting in Bernburg, which is a little bit more of a drive than walking down the stairs from our apartment was. We're actually going to be switching back and forth between Magdeburg and Bernburg for district meetings. Quite the party. There's this Italian Pizza guy that we all got lunch from afterward. Nom nom nom. Another fun fact: they also have bears next to a castle in their city.

 Coldness. Darkness. A Blizzard moves in. Enter Elder Cloward, his hands clutching the steering wheel of his trusty Opel Corsa for dear life. Ok, so maybe Blizzard is a little bit übertrieben, but it was quite the storm, and considering Elder Cloward's limited driving in snow experience, he was quite literally clutching the steering wheel for dear life. I was going pretty slowly... So we had intended to go to Wernigerode to do some doors before Gemiko in Veckenstedt, and by the time we got there, it looked like we'd only have about 15 to 20 minutes to do it, but decided to do that anyway, but then it took that whole time to just drive through Wernigerode due to the snow traffic. Then we were out on a road on the way to Veckenstedt, where traffic was just crawling, and once we got close enough we discovered that there were a couple of Semis that had slipped their way into each other, and a police officer was stnading there giving us the opportunity to either wait for an unknown amount of time, or turn back and take an alternitive route. We took the latter, and then took another half hour to get to Gemiko. We were going to cut it short anyway because our GML has shingles on his head. The poor man. He still wanted to meet, but have it be shorter. He hasn't been to happy with all of the travelling we've been needing to do since Halberstadt switched from the Hannover Zone to the Leipzig, and so I said, "You're going to love this. Next thursday we're going to be in Dresden." He responded, "It just keeps getting better!" Dresden is certainly going to be quite the trip - I'm really excited for it though, even though we'll spend the time there inside of a church instead of sightseeing. ;P Anyhoodles, after that, we had Institut with the 3 JAEs, which was nice.

 Thursday R had a doctors appointment so we weren't able to meet with them, but we did have our regular appointments with a couple of less aktive members, which were nice.

 Friday morning we somehow found ourselves in Bernburg again, passing out flyers for an Organ concert their going to have on Easter. This Icelandic guy who's studying Organ in Leipzig is coming to them. Hopefully the little electric Organ he'll be playing on will do him Justice. We all split off to distribute the invitations, and I went with Elder Williams. We had a great time. Then we of course all reconvened at the Italian guy's Pizza place. Nom nom nom.

 I got to give a talk on Sunday, it was quite the party. I also got to conduct the music and pass the sacrament. Also parties. H gave a talk as well. After church we got to go to R and H's for Lunch. Not only was it delicious, but it was really cool to see how well they're being integrated into the ward and how willing they are to step up and do the things that members do to help carry the branch. I feel a little silly counting feeding me as an item in that column, but they definitely are definitely progressing and it's wonderful to see.

 Well, that's about it that I've got for this week. I love you! Have a great Spring!

Fig 1 : Mark 10:25:
"It is easier for a[n Opel Corsa] to go through the
[door of the Bernburg Church], than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God."

Germany Week 86

Well, I don't know about you, but we had another one of those week things this week. As far as I can remember nothing at all happened on Monday or Tuesday... They were just sucked into the vacuum of time passage... oh, and there may've been some people closing their doors in there... it's all kind of a blur. 

Wednesday there was.... also nothing. Jk. There was... District Meeting... and then we ate McDonald's, and then my stomach turned into a rock, but it was ok. I'm pretty sure I've eaten at McDonald's more this transfer than the rest of my life combined. We've had it every week after District Meeting plus several times while stuck in random Bahnhofs. The real miracle is that I haven't thrown up yet. So in short, also nothing Wednesday....

 But the real adventure - the real adventure starts on Thursday. So we had our lesson with H and R, and are teaching them the new member lessons. We showed them a little video about the organization of the church, and then we talked a lot about that. It was nice. Then we went home, and hopped on a train to Köthen. Quite the party, yes? There we spent the night with Elders Beck and Jex. In the morning Elder Olson and Jex took off for Leadership training in Berlin and Elder Beck and I stayed in Köthen, reminisced  About the good ol' days in the Lauenburg/Bergedorf district, found some exotic mustard, passed out cards, added Star Wars stickers to the back of our name tags, and Visited a bunch of members with the branch President. That night, Elder Olson and Jex got back really late - we'd been planning on heading straight home even though we'd get back at midnight, but the Assistants told us to stay in Köthen another night instead. So we did that, and headed back to Halberstadt Saturday Morning.

Right after we arrived in our city and were driving from Bahnhof to the apartment, we received a telephone call from dem edlen Elder Seth Pallo Bangerter informing us that we will be staying together another transfer (Woohoo!). It's kind of an interesting situation - since we've both got two tranfers left, one of us will either get an awkward single transfer somewhere else, or we'll kill each other and leave our area to be whitewashed of our blood. Mal gucken. The other members of our district stayed the same too, but our district was swallowed by the Köthen district, so it looks like we haven't seen the last of Beck and Jex.

 Saturday evening we went up to Magdeburg for some district Finding. I did doors with Elder Sullivan and Elder Olson did some Skoyming with Elder Williams. Both of those guys are really cool - I'm glad we get to keep 'em. What I wasn't quite so glad about is that the train that we thought left at 8:10 actually left at 8:04, which meant we got to hang out in the Magdeburg Bahnhof for an extra hour and a half... It was quite the party.

 Then yesterday we had a nice Sunday - Church, a Member appointment, Weekly Planning, some wandering around, and strenuous negotiations regarding District Meeting locations. I'm just joking your Johnson, they weren't all that strenuous. And I'm just joshin' ya, I don't actually say stuff like "Jokin' my Johnson."

 Well, well, well, It's about that point where I say Tschüssles!

 Love ya! Have a McClowardtastic week!

Germany Week 85--Who in the world would buy bunyun flavoured ketchup?

While you're pondering that I would just like to invite you to travel with me back into the week of Elders Olson and Cloward in the quaint City of Halberstadt.

In the Harz by Blankenburg

 Let us begin our journey with Tuesday, whose only item of note is of no interest to you anyway. I finally remembered to anmeld(register with the city that I'm living here)! Technically you're supposed to do that with in two weeks of moving in, but they didn't seem to mind... But they did give me a bunch of vouchers to visit museums and churches and plays and stuff. We'll see if I'm actually able to go to any of those. I saw that one of the plays they've got going on is "Der Physiker," which we read in my high school german class. That would be really cool to see, but I somehow feel like the odds of getting that one approved are approximately 3720 to 1. See? I told you you didn't care about Tuesday.

One o' those fake doors pictures

 Let us move on to Wednesday, a day in which after District meeting, Elder Cloward broke away from both Elder Olson and the city of Halberstadt, instead joining Elder Williams in Magdeburg. That was a lot of fun. Elder Williams is a really cool guy. One thing that was cool for me there - we were passing out cards in people's mailboxes and had stamped the exact right amount. We were like, "whoa! It's a sign." I don't know, but it was really cool.... And then we went to the fabled Magdeburg Volleyball night, which I had heard oh so much about from Elder Ririe. It was an interesting experience, and quite a bit of fun.

Elder Olson walking up a snowy
 alleyway in Blankenburg

On Thursday Elder Cloward once again befound (I know, right?) himself in Halberstadt with Elder Olson. There they taught R and her husband about the temple and Eternal Marriage. That is a goal they have set and are really looking forward to. Hopefully we were able to make that clearer for them. Our GML has asked us to "teach lessons more like the sisters would teach them," meaning that we use more visuals and handouts, and things that help the lessons to really stick. This time we incorporated a couple of short videos, which I think did make the lesson more enjoyable and interesting for them. It made it more fun for us too.

Wernigerode

 On Friday we find our heroes once again in the Ausländerheim on the outskirts of Halberstadt. We went to visit the same guys we talked to last week, but as we went up to their door, another guy came out and asked us what we were doing there. We said we were there to visit - apparently the one who speaks english wasn't there, and about the other one he said, "You know he is speaking French, right?" Then he told us to come with him and explain our message to him. He struggled with his english - he actually spoke quite well, but he had trouble understanding us and formulating the questions he wanted to ask. He gathered around several others, none of whose english was as good as his to help him communicate with us. From the conversation we came to the understand that 1. It's a problem that we only speak English and German and they only speak French and a tribal language. And that we are Christians who like to share our message and they would like to hear our message. So hopefully when we go back this week we'll be able to use a French DVD or something.

Lord Puppington - He accompanies
us on our many journeys

 Saturday we finished distributing brochures that our GML made. They have our pictures on them (so now I'm famous!), as well as a picture of the Church, and some information. It's quite the party. So this week we're gonna do doors where we gave those out.

 Sunday Sunday Sunday! R was confirmed! And she bore her testimony afterward. She is a really great lady and she and her husband are so devoted to the covenants they've made. It's really inspiring to see that. 

Thale

Lunch today

Well, all in all, it was a good week. Here's looking forward to the next one. I hope you are doing well!

 Love You!

Germany Week 84

That's super exciting about Joseph Hallman and Chris Willis. Missions are good things. And yes, the Harz is pretty, and yes, I have pictures, but until I find a replacement cable or something I have no way of getting them to you.

Mmmm. Where to begin? Well, the first real exciting thing was our Tausch with the Zone Leaders on Wednesday. It was a pretty action packed day. First we had District Meeting with Magdeburg - The Zone Leaders were supposed to be there too, but they missed a couple trains and didn't arrive at Bahnhof until we were finished. Then we all ate Döner together, and the rest of the missionaries took off and Elder Hunziker and I were left to roam the streets of Halberstadt. After a little bit of that, we drove to our appointment with R for the Tauf(baptismal)interview. More specifically, I drove. And I didn't die. You would be so impressed. ;P Mostly Elder Olson Drives (And that day mostly Elder Hunziker drove) but I drive every once in a while. I still drive like an old lady, but Elder Olson says I'm getting better. Anyhoodles, The point was that we went to R's Taufinnterview (the main reason for the Tausch), which she passed with flying colors. Then we were able to door a street up above her and head off to Gemiko.

 Our GML, Bruder S, does so much for the missionary work here. He printed out a bunch of brochures for us to go pass out before we door streets and planned for the lessons we'd be teaching with him. It's a great help to have such an active ward mission leader (I haven't said that for GML in like forever...) He also told us we should be more like the sisters. (Halberstadt had sisters up until about December.) Just that we should use visuals and leave something behind to help the lesson stick. I actually love the idea - I really enjoy that sort of thing. The tricksy part is coming up with the ideas of what to make. And I'm pretty sure I won't be able to live up to the sisters, so I'll have to develop an Elder Cloward Style lesson visual and not just the Elder Cloward fraudulent Sister style visual.

 Mhmmm..... Then we arrived a little late to Institut because we took a wrong turn and then got really confused by the Navi... But we made it. It was really cool. It was just us and two other young members of the branch. And that was pretty much that day. Pretty Power packed, na?

 Thursday as we were Tausching back, we arrived in Halle where we met up, then Elder Olson and I had the marvelous train departure options of: Leave in -2 minutes or in 2 hours. And, because I'm not yet able to control my time travel abilities, we took the 2 hours of hanging out in Halle option. It was pretty intense. We actually ran into the missionaries there (Though one of them was Elder Beck, currently stationed in Köthen - they were also Tausching back) We went straight from there to another appointment with R, where we just made sure of everything for the baptism and filled out the rest of the Taufschein.

 Friday morning we visited some Men we had met on the street from Mali. They live in the Ausländer/Azulheim, sort of an apartment complex owned by the state for foreigners. I've been to one or two, (that's where a couple of the members in Bad Bentheim lived) but this one's a little more prison like than that one is. We have to go through this gate and give up our passports when we go in. I don't really understand why though - the people seem to be able to come and go freely. In any case, we had a really cool appointment with those three. They've only been here for about a month and really seemed to appreciate our visit and the Book of Mormon.

In the afternoon we went to the Old Folks' home to play chess with Herr Fischer. We actually do that every week as service. It's a lot of fun and that guy's really nice, and he kicks our trash at chess. But at home I played against Elder Hunziker and Elder Olson and won both times. But with Elder Olson it was sheer dumb luck. He totally had me beat and neither of us could really figure out how I turned it around. Because you know, chess is what really matters in life. Speaking of games lying around the apartment that none of you actually care about, I found this Nerdy Lord of the Rings Gandalf vs. the Balrog game the other night. It looks pretty intense, let me tell ya. Ummm... Moving on to things that matter, like...

 R's baptism! It was really nice. After church we all had a nice little luncheon, then drove off to Braunschweig, where we had the baptism. She was baptized by the Branch President. Elder Olson played guitar for and I and the GML's daughter sang "Komm du Quelle" ("Come thou font") as a musical number, and the primary kids sang a couple other songs. R also gave a talk, which was really cool. She understands so well, and is so ready to have the gospel as a part of her life. Her mom was also there. She is a very nice woman as well. She had originally not wanted to come, but at our appointment on Thursday, Hr, humourfully informed her over the phone that they'd be picking her up. I think she really enjoyed it. She seemed pretty comfortable. It was wonderful. I cannot think of a better way to end a week than with a baptism.

Well, I love you! Have a wonderful week!