Germany Week 91--Leapin' Lizards‏

Wellsers, wellsers, wellsers...

 This week went pretty fast. But I don't feel like all that much happened. But.... I'm just in kind of a hazy mood... Butt... whoops. totally didn't mean for that second t to get in there. But... this is getting a little out of hand. But... this keyboard seems to require brute force. But... That's probably not very important to you. But... There are two noteworthy events I can come up with for this week.

 The first would be our Tausch with Köthen. Quite the party. I went to Elder Beck. We actually spent most of the time calling and making out appointments with members, so mostly I just sat there, studied and baked a cake. That was pretty intense. Then in the Evening we went and tried by a bunch of contacts. Meanwhile in Halberstadt, Elder Olson and Elder Jex passed out about a hundred million brochures. Pretty intense, na? Speaking of those brochures, we haven't had much success with them yet, but it's clear that people are at least noticing them. Most of the time they just look at us and say no, but I get the impression that they've been half expecting us, and they seem to know who we are. There are only a few sentences on the brochures, they require little more than a glance to take in. So in the worst case, people at least have a better idea of who we are. But... yeah, Tausch was fun, brochures are a party.

 Noteworthy event number 2: I engaged in a little something Elder Olson and I like to call peacocking. What we mean by that is that it's not a direct form of missionary work, like walking up and talking to people on the street, but something that draws attention to us and will hopefully raise their curiosity about who we are, what we're doing here, and what our message is. Then in the ideal situation in my head, people just flock to us and ask to get baptized. But even in a more realistic sphere, I hope that it will make people stop and think about us, recognize that we are people, that we are to some degree normal, and be a little more prone to take the time to talk with us when we do approach them.

What is that ridiculous man doing painting in a suit?

Our particular form of peacocking has been painting. It's an idea that I got after our Zone Conference, when the AP's talked about using more creative finding methods and "risking the awkward." I've debated a lot about it, and there have been lots of smaller obstacles, like what am I going to paint with? and what am I going to paint? And what am I going to wear? And Is that allowed? But most of those questions have slowly resolved themselves and I'm loving it. There were some acrylic paints already in the apartment (There are some benefits of being in an area where Sisters recently served) and Elder Olson has an old suit that he doesn't want anymore and fits me well - voila! Painting suit! Then there was the matter of deciding what to paint. I thought about just painting the plan of salvation or like a picture of a temple, or Jesus or something, and who knows I might still do that if I have the time, but I felt like if I'm going to be painting outside, it would make sense to paint something that I see. I was looking for good views for a few weeks as we wandered around the city. I wanted some sort of central location where people would actually see me (Otherwise I'd probably be painting in the middle of the Harz somewhere....). I kept coming back to painting the Dom, the big church in the middle of the city. It's so gorgeous, and is a symbol of Halberstadt to me, but, as a missionary, is it weird to be painting somebody elses church? I still ask myself that a little, but I decided to go for it. Besides, it could very easily lead into a conversation about the apostasy, reformation and *drum roll* the restoration! I've really enjoyed it a lot and I'm excited to keep up with it. I only feel bad for Elder Olson, cuz he seems to get a little bit bored. His job is to read and look approachable while I paint. We'll see if it will develop into something more.

 The last couple days I was in a pretty bad mood, having a pretty hard time, and Elder Olson asked me how I was doing and we had a really nice chat. It helped me a lot, and it made it a lot easier for me to get up and get back to knockin' on people's doors.He's so supportive and easy to work with. I'm really grateful that I get to have him as my companion. It would be super cool if we got to stay together for our last transfer. We'll find out on Saturday what's going down.

 Well, I love you! Have a great week! And remember, Jesus loves you!