Das Ende

The last two weeks have just blown by as my time on the mission winds
down. This is my last full week of missionary work ahead and I'm not
sure if I'm ready to go back to regular life.  Here's a bit of regular life as
a missionary:

Two weeks ago on Tuesday we helped Elder Adams' grandmother throw out
a bunch of furniture to make way for new furniture that she was having
delivered later that week. We then rushed home and changed into
regular missionary clothes and visited a couple of families to give
them invitations to the stake primary activity and temple open house.
One of the families that we visited was the one we took President
Fingerle to my first week in Hamburg. They said they were planning on
coming to the stake activity that weekend which they did and the kids
even participated in the presentations. That evening we also met with
our friend, Thorsten. We had a really good time studying Alma 40
today. It was a cool experience at first because we prayed and I asked
in the prayer that we could be calm and think clearly and he said
right afterwards that that's exactly what he needed and it turned out
great. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted. We didn't nail
down a date at that time though.

The next day we went over to Altona and visited their district
meeting. Kinda weird thing--apparently the image other missionaries
have of Elder Adams and me is that I'm this military general and he is 
the loving motherly figure... Good cop bad cop? That image seemed to 
originate from the Altona district. Just lots of young missionaries. That 
night we had a lesson with Jafar before institute. That was the first time 
a member was there to teach with us since going to the US for three or 
so weeks.

That Thursday we went to our own district meeting and then celebrated
our district leader's birthday by taking him out to lunch. That
evening we had a lesson with the woman and daughter combo who took us
to that messianic Jewish service several weeks ago. Basically she told
us that she read this brochure written by three PhDs that said
crazy things about Mormons and she decided that she got her answer
about the church. The big lesson from this my friends, is that a person
needs to go to the source for their answers!  Study the Book of Mormon
and pray about it in order to get an answer! There's no other way!

The next day we had an appointment with a Jewish man from Jerusalem.
He's here in Hamburg playing in a symphony. Elder Adams had met him
knocking doors last month and then we finally were able to meet with
him weeks later. We taught the restoration and introduced the Book of
Mormon--it went well but trying to draw connections to Judaism
was harder than I thought. The number of Muslims I've taught far
outweighs the number of Jews I've taught on my mission. That evening
we were asked to come to a piano concert at the church. Every year one
of the members of the bishopric organizes a concert with a
professional pianist. It was crazy good! I thought the beautiful Steinway
was about to fall apart as this Ukrainian tickled the ivory. He played
concertos for two straight hours, no notes. I've never seen fingers
move that fast.

The next day we had the stake activity and then we had our district
leader council. With this council, we discussed the zone goals, how we
did last transfer, and set new ones. I felt like it was super
productive. I wish I would have had those meetings when I was a
district leader. Right afterwards we taught an English class. Thorsten
came as well as a woman named Christina. This woman was referred by a
missionary in Romania that Elder Adams had met in the MTC. She had
gone to his English class there. The world is soooo small!

Last preparation day we went to the HSV stadium, Volksparkstadion. 
That was wicked cool although I was a bit bummed that they coved the 
grass. It's the off season now so they just have concert after concert there.
That evening we met with Jafar. We broke it to him that he needs to
have at least 3 years of residency before he can be baptized and he took
it like a champ. He's a super dude. We decided that we're going to help him
focus on deepening his knowledge of the scriptures. He agreed to going 
chapter by chapter in the Book of Mormon. We got through one verse that day... 
Hahaha. It's good though. We led the ping pong activity at Family Home
Evening activity that night.

Tuesday we got registered in Hamburg. I was even able to navigate my way
into unregistering at the same time! It was such a weird request that
they took me to the from of the line and the woman got it done for me
in about 15 minutes. That's the deal in Germany. You register in the
city you live in, giving them your address and showing that you have
permission to live there. When you move out of the country, you have
to unregister. I'm making sure I get it right, just in case I have to
apply for another visa in Germany at some point in my life. That
evening we planned our lessons at zone training meeting.

Wednesday we had interviews with president and zone training meeting.
Our first lesson was solid. We talked about our zone goals, living up
to our potential, and 1st Corinthians 13. The second went alright--we
just presented a new idea to get referrals from members. The third
lesson was not very satisfying. It was about accountability but I
don't know...I don't think it flowed well. Afterwards we traded companions
with the Lauenburg Elders. I was with Elder Winkel. He's a great guy
and also long on the mission--he goes home next transfer. We had
another lesson with Jafar that night discussing the second chapter of
the Book of Mormon. That went swimmingly!  Here's our Hamburg zone:

Thursday morning Elder Winkel and I went street contacting and met a
new guy that was super nice and sounded like he had moderate interest
in what we had to share. He had the week off so he invited us to come
over the next night. Before we exchanged back, we met with Thorsten
and taught the plan of salvation. It went really well, especially that
it clicked for him how important agency is and that commandments don't
take away our agency. That evening Elder Adams and I met with
Henrietta and talked about using the scriptures to raise children. We
attended ward council at the end of the day.  Street contacting:

That man Elder Winkel and I met stood us up. First of all he gave
us the wrong address but we found him on that street and then he hung
up on us when we buzzed him. That's always super disappointing. That
evening we met with Bismarck, a member from Ghana who cooked tilapia
for us.

                                     

Saturday we played soccer and had our English class again. Thorsten
and Christina came and Christina brought a friend! That's exactly what
the classes are for. I really like it because they all can speak pretty well
so what we do is pick out an article from the Ensign, read it, discuss
it, and ask reading comprehension questions. Two for one--English
class and a gospel lesson.

I'm excited for my last full week in the field. I want to thank all my
family and friends for reading my letters and keeping up with me.
Hopefully you have seen growth and development. I can say that it
has been a wonderful, uplifting experience and the best two years for
a lifetime. I will always remember the experiences and lessons. I'm
excited to come home and begin a new chapter.

Much love,
Elder Tanner Germann

Mission Leader Conference

Heyyo, big shout out to my sister Hana and new brother-in-law Mitch! 
Congratulations and best wishes to them and their marriage.

I need to try and sum up the last two weeks in this email. The last
week of the transfer flew by. We had a service project, we had zone
conference, and we had transfer calls. The service project was helping
a family in the ward move. It was extremely well organized, probably
the best I've been to on my mission. Zone conference was an uplifting
experience with Elder Adler of the Seventy. The topic of discussion
was sacrifice and offering what we can do to be more obedient to
the Lord's commandments. Elder Adler gave a super pump-up talk at the
end promising lots of blessings, even leaps and bounds of success in
the next month if we commit ourselves to improving. We did take some time
to see some sights in Hamburg:

Saturday morning we received transfer calls--Elder Adams and I are staying 
together until I leave. On the 27th I will jump on a train to Berlin at about
noontime and Elder Adams will spend the last ten days or so of the
transfer in a dritt (triple) with the Langenhorn elders. He has no problem with
that because many friends and his grandmother are in that ward. Not
too many changes in the zone except that Elder Pilling is spending his
last transfer in the neighboring area, Altona, so I'll get to work
with him one more time! Everything comes full circle. My first comp in
Luebeck, Elder Jensen, is now in Langenhorn. He broke both arms in a
bike accident last transfer and is now referred to as Elder C3PO....  Every 
once in a while, I get to cook for me and my companion:

Last Sunday I spoke in church about 3 Nephi 27:27 and connected making
covenants with becoming like Him. It went well. As I was preparing my
talk, I realized that Elder Bednar's talk from this past general
conference was basically the talk I wanted to give.
Last preparation day we went to the Miniature Wonderland which was super 
cool and to Globetrotter, which is a German version of REI. Super cool. I was
in charge of Family Home Evening last week and was asked to talk about
the Academy and how I decided to go on a mission. I showed a bunch of pics
from basic training, throughout the year, soloing in the glider, and opening my
mission call. I think it was a pretty foreign for the Germans but very
cool to see that you can be a member of the Church and still come from
all walks of life.

We were in the train station almost all of Wednesday directing the
flow of missionaries transferring. In a perfect world, missionaries
would tell us when they're coming and when they're leaving and the
platform numbers but that never happens. In the middle of the day we
took a kid that showed up to church last week to a dinner
appointment. The young man is from Hawaii and his uncle sent him here to
Hamburg for a month to get to know the city. The brother who fed us is
from Ghana/Togo and made fufu, a classic African meal. It's
essentially a sticky mashed potato ball with a spicy soup and meat.
The meat that we ate was goat. Oh and you eat everything with your
hands. Pretty cool.

Wednesday night we had an appointment fall through but I was able to
interview the girl who got baptized in Langenhorn yesterday. She is
nineteen and has been living with her best friend's family, a member
family. She was super ready and was one of the best interviews I've
done. Baptismal interviews are one of my favorite things from the
mission. These people are so ready to be baptized and are glowing with
happiness. Unfortunately we weren't able to make the baptism because
we were coming back from Dresden.

Wednesday night I wrote a report for president on developing a culture
of finding in the mission. Last month at Mission Leader Conference (MLC) I 
raised the concern thatthe attitude towards contacting in the mission is 
not good. I have heard way too many missionaries say that they don't like 
contacting or their trainer told them they don't like contacting so they've never
did it/still don't do any contacting. That makes me sick. So with the
help of Elder Adams, I wrote this report (I'll send it in a second
email) and gave it to president. It addresses my concerns,
specifically towards my missionaries and the stories are stories from
my mission.

We left Thursday afternoon to go to MLC in Freiberg. We spent the
night in Dresden and then rode the train over to Freiberg in the
morning. The meeting went well. The topic of discussion was being the
leader you're called to be and helping your people. President asked me
to bear my testimony at the end, especially since this was my last
MLC. I talked a little about my conversion story and my experience on
the mission and then connected that to developing a culture of finding
in the mission. It was a wonderful moment for me and I was really
feeling the spirit. Elder Nearon, who has been absolutely killing it
and just became ZL in Berlin, stood up right after me and gave a
second testimony to what I said. He told the story of finding Angelica
in Marzahn on our first day together and said that our transfer
together changed his mission. That was really special for me.  Here is
the temple in Freiberg:

Since we couldn't get back to Hamburg that night, we stayed the
night again in Dresden and jumped on a train in the morning. We had a
wicked solid lesson with the guy from Ghana, Thomas, who came to
church a couple of weeks ago. He was asking really good questions that
lead perfectly into the restoration. We invited him to be baptized and
he said yes. We need to work more with him though in order to set a
date.

We had stake conference yesterday which was one of those broadcasted
ones. The speakers were Elder Christofferson, Bishop Causee, and Elder
Kearon. The talks were really good and focused on the family, the
blessings of the temple, and helping refugees.
We've finally have a normal week this week where we can get a bunch of
stuff in our area done. Take care everyone.

Elder Tanner Germann

Catch up

Hey family and friends, sorry that it's been so long since I've given
you a solid report. I've not been feeling well and it's been a rough
couple of weeks because of that. About two weeks ago I woke up in the
middle of the night to extreme stomach pain. They almost sent me to
the ER. Long story short, I've had a stomach/intestinal virus that is
still lingering.

Two weeks ago we went to the concentration camp in Bergedorf called
Neuengamme. This one was a little different than Sachsenhausen, the
one I went to in Berlin. It actually was originally a satellite camp
of Sachsenhausen and turned into it's own massive complex. It was
mainly a work camp.  Still awful conditions and an absolutely weird
feeling to it as you walk around.  Here are some pics:

We've still done our best to get work done in the times when
I have felt well. Fortunately we continue to be blessed with opportunities
to find and teach. Our shining friend of the church is named Jafar. I
have to smile every time I say his name because it's so cool. He's
from Afghanistan and he's so awesome. He comes faithfully to every
family home evening, institute, and Sunday meeting. He loves the
activity of the church and loves being there. The members are great to
him, especially the Farsi speaking members who really fellowship him.
He wants to be baptized and will be baptized as soon as he gets
permanent residency. Church policy has changed and prospective members
must have permanent residency in Germany prior to being baptized.

Another friend of ours is an American living here with his wife and
daughter. He's an aspiring Christian rapper. He was found the week
before I got here when Elder Adams was visiting the man's parents who
are inactive members of the congregation. We really emphasize the
restoration when we meet with him. He's read a lot of unfavorable
material about the church and because of it, he finds it hard to
believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. My dear friends, all that one
most do is read the Book of Mormon, come to church, and sincerely pray
about it, and he will gain a testimony of it's truthfulness. Nothing
can replace that. If you really want to find out, you will do what it
takes to get the answer.

We have another friend from Syria. He was raised Christian and walked
into the church on his own about a month ago. He has a sincere desire to
find the truth. He's very busy though with German class so it's hard
to get him to church. We met with him today and he really enjoyed
Mosiah 18 and he's coming to institute tomorrow.

A Ghanaian walked into church two weeks ago and at first we didn't
know he was a member until he told us he was baptized here in 2014.
He's a super nice man who hasn't been to church in awhile since he
works in Wismar. We met with him twice since then--one of those times
he made us some African food for lunch. Unfortunately, I was not
feeling well so I didn't eat.  The next day we had a zone preparation
day and played some soccer.

Speaking of Ghananians, we've taught a Ghananian family a couple of
times now that I when visited on exchange with an elder from Bergedorf.
The mom is awesome and loves the church. Unfortunately she works as a
maid in a hotel and is always there so she can't come as often as she/we
would like. But her brother is fresh off the boat from Ghana and came with 
us to church last week. He said he likes the teachings. Another man walked 
into the church last Sunday saying he met with the missionaries a few years 
ago. We couldn't find a record of it but he says he'll probably join the church 
because he already follows commandments like the word of wisdom haha. 
He's super nice though he has pretty severe ADHD.  Here I am doing some
street contacting and getting a haircut:

I was bummed last week because while working with a trainee in the zone,
we found a super nice woman who was really interested in our
message. She invited us over but the address she gave was not good.
I'm hoping it has something to do with the fact that she said she was
in the middle of a move. Maybe that's the building she moved into but
her name's not on the doorbell and we couldn't find her in the
building/none of the neighbors had a clue.  Here we are talking to some
of our members:

We found a super nice lady the other day. She said that we talked to
the right person because she was going to church for the first time
ever this week and is trying to develop faith. She took a Book of
Mormon, said she wanted to get together, and that she'd also come to
church with us next week. High hopes there.

I gave a talk in church this past week. My topic was 3 Nephi 27:27. I
took it from the angle that we become like Christ as we make covenants
with God. I love this quote from Elder Bednar: "As we are yoked with
Him through sacred covenants and receive the enabling power of His
Atonement in our lives, we increasingly will seek to understand and
live according to His will." I realized that Elder Bednar's talk from
last month was basically the talk I wanted to give but it worked out.  We
also attended a fun party with the members:

The administrative work with the zone is going alright. Still trying
to do a lot of coaching with these younger missionaries. Many are
reeeally young and inexperienced. We have zone conference this Friday
with a seventy, Elder Adler. I really enjoy working with these missionaries:

My last transfer starts next week. I'm crossing 
my fingers that I stay here for my last four weeks. I think the only other 
option would be to send me to the office since I'm going mid transfer. I 
hope that's not the case. I'm excited to be healthy again so I can finish 
with the pedal to the metal. Hope everything is going well on the other side.

Love ya,
Elder Tanner Germann