Weihnachten was awesome!!

Hallo everybody! I sure had a great Christmas and I hope you did too! 

This past Monday following our emails we found success following up on a contact that we met a couple of weeks prior. We went by a Turkish family's home and explained our purpose as missionaries and asked if we could come by another time when the whole family is home in order for us to share the Book of Mormon with them. The wife said sure! The husband owns a shop in Köthen so he is gone a lot but we set up an appointment for this Tuesday night when he is supposed to be home.

 

Tuesday we had a really good lesson with Johanna. We brought Christian along. Christian is a super young man in our branch. He and his wife just had their first child. He went on his mission to the Hamburg mission but he learned American English from the missionaries. I literally thought he was American when I first met him. But anyways, we had a super lesson about the temple, family history work, and eternal marriage. Johanna said that as soon as she gets baptized, she wants to go to the temple and be baptized for her grandmother. Cool! Tuesday night we had English class again. It was a lot of fun. Marian and Galia said they have a friend who wants to meet us!

Wednesday morning was Christmas Eve, or Heilige Abend. In Germany, there is a bigger celebration on the 24th than there is on the 25th and 26th. Oh yeah, by the way, Germany has a second day of Christmas on the 26th. This week it was hard to get around or just do anything in general because the whole country basically shuts down. Bahn (trains) seldomly run, stores are all closed, and no one is on the streets. We had our usual district meeting that morning. Afterwards, we all went to H&M and bought each other sweaters and then we took district pics. That afternoon we took a train to Wulfen and were at the Staigers the rest of the night. We went to the Evangelische church's Christmas service that evening. Afterwards we had dinner, the normal bread, meats, and cheeses abendbrot. Potato casserole is traditional on the 24th. We also had raw fish wrapped around a pickle. Apparently that is traditional as well. It was actually pretty good. We read the Christmas story out of the Luther Bible and then the Weihnachts Mann came (Santa). In Germany, all the presents are opened on the 24th. The Staigers really took care of us. We were literally a part of their gift unwrapping circle and they had presents for us every round! We each got the traditional pyramides and nutcrackers. It was so awesome!

 

After our study on the 25th we went over to the Wlokas for the rest of the day. They fed us a huge, delicious lunch and then we played board games for the rest of the day. Who knew the German version of SORRY! could last three hours. I got to talk to my family for about and hour, too! That was so nice. I love them so much.  Here I am talking to the family:

 

Friday, the four of us went to the Gehrkes. It was Schwester Gehrke and her daughter. They made us so much food it was ridiculous. Rabbit, roast, green beans, potatoes, rotkhol. I ate so much I was sick afterwards. Friday night we conducted our weekly planning. On the way home Friday night, a little boy and his grandma came up to us at Hasselbachplatz and asked us about or church. They are from Serbia. The little boy is the most out-going 10 year-old I have ever met. He told me all about the fight he got in at school last week. We were able to make an appointment with them after only missing our train stop by 10 minutes.

 

Saturday we had an appointment with Shuei fall through in the morning. He slept through it. Then we met with Marian and Rafael and Galia. They brought their friend. Her name is Flor and she has a four year old daughter named Elisabeth. Flor is from Spain. She speaks absolutely no German or English. I need a translator just to say hi to her.  But we had a really good lesson. We taught about the temple, eternal marriage, and we even got to family history. Marian and Galia want to get married but we found out that Galia is still married to her first husband, even though they have been separated for three years. So we have another hurdle before baptism but we are going to work on it. Marian said he read Alma 32 this week and loved it. He said that's exactly how he thinks! He is really making progress. They said they ultimately want to get sealed in the temple. I think it was a great first lesson for Flor to hear too. She got a Spanish Book of Mormon and Galia explained it to her. Marian and Galia want to get into family history as well. 

We also had a lesson with Johanna Saturday night--kind of bad news.  There was a miscommunication and for some reason her dad didn't understand that the 3rd of January was a set date, even though he was there when we set it a month ago. He scheduled work.  I just told Johanna, no problem, we will move it to the 10th and it will all be okay. She was visibly frustrated and I felt so bad for her becuase when we set these dates with people for baptism, its a goal. She set the goal for herself, prepared, and is now ready. And now she has to wait an extra week. Sucks but we are just staying positive and pumping her up. She is nervous but she is so excited to be baptized. We can't wait for the 10th!

 

Yesterday in church we had Marian, Rafael, Galia, Flor, Elisabeth, and Johanna. It was a great turn out. I played all of the songs for sacrament meeting so that was a bit nerve-wracking. We had lunch at the Weners, a family in the branch. All four of us gave a sweet combined lesson and tied the temple, family history, the plan of salvation and member missionary work all together in 20 minutes.

 

This week will be exciting because we are going to try to put together a branch mission plan, something that we can get members to rally around. We also want to put together a family history night and more activities. Busy, busy, busy but we can always be doing more! Bernburg is having a baptism this coming Sunday so we get to go to that. Elder Morton and I have been asked to prepare a musical number. I just think its funny because all of the sudden I am now considered a pianist!

 

Have a good New Year's everyone! 'Til next year! ;)

 

Elder Germann

Pictures from Christmas at the Staiger's!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!  I and the other missionaries here in Magdeburg were invited over to the Staiger family's home for Christmas eve--we had dinner and they gave us a number of presents including fancy new Christmas sweaters!!

Here are the Staiger's:

This was our feast:

Here are Romneys, the senior missionary couple also assigned here in Magdeburg--we love them!!

We got a number of amazing presents:

 And here are all of the missionaries in our new Christmas sweaters:

My dad has posted the rest of the pictures on my Facebook page.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Elder Germann

Frohliche Weihnachten!

Ich wünsche Alle eine frohliches Weihnachten!  I hope everyone is prepared for the big day on Thursday.  Here in Germany, the 26th is Christmas Part II so I get two days of it!

 

We had a really solid week this past week.  On Tuesday we had an companion exchange with the District Leader so Elder Oldroyd went to Köthen with Elder Short and Elder Glissmeyer came here to Magdeburg with me.  On Tuesday, after a meeting with our branch mission leader, we really had an awesome English class at the church.  In all my time here in Magdeburg, the missionaries have had an advertisement for an English class every week but we have never done it.  On Tuesday we had four people there!  Galia, Marian, Rafael, and an investigator from the other companionship's teaching pool was there.  We had a lot of fun and it was actually really good that Elder Glissmeyer was there because they actually have an English class in Köthen every week so he knows what he is doing.  We printed off worksheets and stories and worked with them on simple sentence structure.  It is definitely hard to try to explain your mother language.  We are supposed to have the same turnout this week as well.

 

Wednesday was a really good day.  Following district meeting, we exchanged back and had a lesson with Marian and Rafael.  Marian really wanted us to hear his life story and it was actually such a good idea because we know exactly where he is coming from.  It is so long and eventful already that you could write a book about it and he is only 21.  Long story short, his mom and dad moved them to Spain when he was six because that were in debt over one million euros to several different individuals.  Then his mom and dad split and his mom got a restraining order on his dad after he tried to burn their house down.  After the restraining order, his dad became an alcoholic and died after falling down the stairs.  His mom found a lover and he moved in with their family.  He was abusive and she kicked him out several times but she always let him back in when he came crawling back.  Eventually Marian gave his mom an ultimatum, him or the lover.  She chose the lover and so he moved out.  When he was 15 he was riding on the back of a motorcycle with his friend and they got t-boned by a car.  It crushed his whole leg and foot.  They took him to a hospital that didn't accept his insurance so he sat there for three days without being treated before he was moved to another hospital that would treat him.  So he had several surgeries and years of physical therapy.  He can walk now but he still needs more surgeries.  So basically Marian has been through the ringer and he needs the peace the gospel can bring.  We offered to give him a priesthood blessing and he accepted.  He asked President Romney to give it.  It was a very nice blessing and we left there on a spiritual high after he agreed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray specifically about it.  He says he wants to be baptized and we set a new goal for Jan. 24th so we are shooting for that now.  As for Rafael, it is a little different for a nine year old.  He is already super spiritual and he is coming to church every week and I think he likes it but he is sooo shy to the point it is hard to get anything out of him.  Galia has been really helping though because she knows church is where she wants to be/needs to be and she wants him to be baptized, too.

 

We had two really good lessons with Johanna this week, one on Wednesday night and one on Saturday night.  She is progressing really well towards her baptism on the 3rd of January.  She is so excited about the gospel and loves to talk about it.  She is a really mature 14 year-old.  She even expressed interest in going on a mission some day.  She is a little concerned about being the only Mormon in her school.  There is a lot of peer pressure.  We talked about being an example of the believers.  I talked about how there weren't too many Mormons in my high school but everyone knew I was Mormon and everyone knew my standards.  My license plate said MORMON!  She is already doing a lot of missionary work and telling kids at school she is Mormon and why we have/live the standards we do.
  

Thursday we went by Dinh's place but she told us to come by after Christmas :/  We had a successful power visit to a member family that evening.  One of our companionship goals is to have one power visit a week to a member.  I talked to Elder Morton this morning and we decided together that we are really going to make a push to get members doing mission work here.  It's great that we have Magdeburg back on its feet after showing up and only having six people between the two teaching pools when we got here but that is not enough.  We need to take the next step to cranking it up a notch and that is getting the members more involved in their own missionary work.  The two companionships are going to sit down tomorrow and sketch out a plan of action.  We will get the Romneys on board too and Magdeburg will become a thriving city for the work.
 

Friday after weekly planning we had an appointment with a Chinese man who I had called last week.  His name was on a potential investigator list in our area book.  After playing a little bit of soccer at the church, we sat down and had a lesson.  He has absolutely no religious knowledge so we are really starting from square one but that's okay!  I think the hardest thing is the language barrier.  He refused to take a Chinese Book of Mormon.  He wanted an English copy.  We met again Saturday and after we read in it he understood absolutely nothing. He also refused to pray with us or even have us say a closing prayer because he doesn't know if he wants to join our religion yet. I think he was confusing prayer and baptism.  "This is going to take a lot of work..." *Anthony Hopkins voice*
 

Friday night Elder Morton and I went to Bernburg and Elders Oldroyd and Gibbs held down the fort in Magdeburg...pun intended.  (Magdeburg was a fortress)  They went to a couple of lessons together.  Trainee exchanges are the best.  My favorite day on the mission so far was a trainee exchange.  Elder Morton and I had the second of the Christmas choir concerts that night.  The concert went well.  Elder Morton did well in his solo O Heilige Nacht.  People told him, "Oh that was so good, much better than last week in Köthen!"  Backhanded compliment?  Saturday we had the second lesson with Shuei, the Chinese man, and then Johanna.

 

Church yesterday went very well.  I played the piano a bunch throughout the meetings including accompanying Elder Morton in Stille Nacht during sacrament meeting.  People really liked that musical number together.  It was cool becuase that was the first time I had ever accompanied someone solo before.  I'm like a real pianist now or something!  Not.  But we had the other two hours combined to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, taped in Salt Lake a couple of weeks ago.  Comparing that to watching General Conference in German back in December, I understood probably 90% as opposed to 5%.

 

I am so looking forward to Christmas this week and talking to my family!  We have dinner appointments the 24th, 25th, and the 26th so the members are taking care of us.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week at home spending time with their families!

 

Liebe,

 

Elder Tanner Germann

#EristdasGeschank = #HeistheGift

Hey y'all!  Is everyone prep'd and ready to go for Christmas already?  It is definitely Christmas time here in Germany.

We had another great week.  We had an awesome lesson on Tuesday!  We met with Johanna, Brother Titigue's daughter.  She gave that awesome testimony on Sunday about how she wanted to start coming to church every week because she knows that is where she should be.  We had a great lesson on the Restoration.  Br. Titigue was super excited that his daughter was finally meeting with the missionaries and he was more than willing to contribute to the lesson.  Johanna asked a lot of good questions but since she has been to church a couple of times throughout her life, she has a general understanding of things.  Elder Oldroyd asked her if she would be willing to prepare herself to be baptized on the 3rd of January and she said yes!  All of us are super excited for her!

Wednesday morning we had an appointment with Vinod.  He had been taught some of the commandments in Lesson 4 of Preach My Gospel in the past but we recapped those and taught him about the rest.  He happily committed to living the commandments.  He does have a small smoking addiction--he smokes about five cigarettes a day.  We are now working with him to stop that completely.  He knows it is bad and wants to stop.  He has become more comfortable with being baptized sooner rather than later.  He even set a new goal for himself--he knew he would not be prepared to be baptized this Saturday so he is now working toward Jan. 24th.  Vinod is an awesome guy and we are going to help him reach his goal of being baptized on the 24th.  Wednesday afternoon we went to Char-Ly's house and had a short lesson with him.  In the end we told him that we could not keep coming by because he is not willing to keep commitments and make progress toward finding out for himself if the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  It is sad but we need to focus all of our efforts on the people who truly want to progress.  We found two new investigators Wednesday night while street contacting!  We had an exciting conversation with one girl--she said she doesn't believe in God but she has always believed in a guardian angel of some sort.  That reminds me of King Lamoni in the Book of Mormon.  But she is willing to meet with us and give it a try!  Wednesday was Elder Morton's 19th birthday.  We decorated his apartment while he and his companion were out that day.  :)

 

Thursday morning we were up at 0430 to catch a 0600 train to Dresden for Zone Conference.  Here is a picture of a brand new train we rode on:

 

Zone Conference was really good.  The theme was Christmas and the new ad campaign the church is doing for this Christmas season--#HeistheGift.  If you haven't seen the video, go look it up on YouTube!  Elder Morton sang O, Holy Night as a special musical number and killed it.  At the end there was a little testimony meeting--you could feel the Spirit strongly.  We rode the train back and by the time we got home, it was bedtime.

 

On Friday, we had a really good lesson with Marian, Galia, and Rafael.  Marian has been a little skeptical about prayer since it is such a new concept for him.  We talked to him about praying with real intent and we bore testimony that we know that when you combine reading the scriptures, praying for specific things, and going to church, it's like a catalyst in a reaction--the reaction is faster and stronger, or in other words, you receive a stronger answer in less time.  He committed to reading and praying often.  With the help of Galia, we are helping Rafael to gain his own testimony.  Marian wants to meet more often so that he can tell us more of his background in order for us to know how to better help him.  We are going to hold an English-German class on Tuesday night for both of them and then we have another lesson on Wednesday.  Making progress there!  The Romneys took us to dinner to celebrate Elder Morton's birthday that night.  :)

 

Saturday morning we had another really great lesson with Johanna.  Her dad was there again and the Romneys came along, too.  We taught the Plan of Salvation.  We were able to answer all of the questions she had.  It's nice though that she has somewhat of a church background.  She is making good progress.  She is reading in the Book of Mormon, praying for specific things, and she is coming to church.  We are meeting with her again on Wednesday this week.  Saturday afternoon we had an appointment fall through with a woman who called us back last week.  She gave us a bad address. Saturday night we visited with the Le Roys--a less-active couple.  They are super nice and are always willing to invite us over and hear a spiritual thought.  Saturday night we found two more investigators!  Here is a neighborhood in Schönebeck which is almost completely preserved from the days of the Cold War:

We had a good day at church yesterday.  Johanna, Galia, and Rafael came.  Marian has the flu.  Elder Morton and I taught the Church's code of health, the Word of Wisdom, in our Sunday School class.  We went to the Staigers for lunch after church and then rushed to the Köthen choir concert which Elder Morton and I sang in; Elder Pilling accompanied on the piano.  Elder Pilling was awesome as was Elder Morton who had a couple of solos.  A lot of people showed up and filled the chapel--I'd say over 200.  

 

We are looking forward to another great week here in Magdeburg!

 

Take care, everyone!

 

Elder Tanner Germann

Rolling right into training a new missionary

For some reason I feel like it has been an eternity since last Monday. But it's probably because this week was so busy!  I sent my trainer to Berlin on Tuesday and picked up my trainee on Thursday in Berlin.  So much happened this week!

Last Monday night, the Romneys took us out for a goodbye dinner since both Elder Sagmeister and Elder Stringham were leaving for Berlin the next morning.  I am already missing both of them.

Early Tuesday morning they got on a train and so I paired up with Elder Morton and we worked together until Thursday when we went together to Berlin to pick up our trainees (He was my companion at the Missionary Training Center).  The Romneys conducted an apartment inspection in Elder Morton's appartment late that morning...his apartment has obviously housed missionaries for a long time.... We did a little finding that afternoon before riding down to Schönebeck to an appointment with a new investigator in his teaching pool.  The man gave him a bad address. You know, that's actually pretty common.  Last week someone gave us an address to a government building. I am sure they thought that was pretty funny.  But we decided to do some street contacting in Schönebeck.  We talked to a woman who was very interested and she invited us to come over later on in the week.  Unfortunately, Elder Morton managed to lose his planner that had the address in. We came back and met Maria and the Romneys at the church.  Maria is an investigator in Elder Morton's teaching pool.  She has been meeting with the missionaries for the past four years.  Since Elder Morton came, she has finally been making some progress and is set to be baptized on the 20th.  We had an interesting lesson about the nature of God.  We read from Genesis in the Bible about the creation and how we are created in God's image.

Wednesday we did a bit of street contacting following our study that morning.  In the afternoon, we went to Dinh's house with the Romneys.  I had made an appointment with her for that time but it was like she totally forgot.  She was surprised to see us and the house was a bit of a mess.  We taught the plan of salvation.  The girls were pretty unruly.  Dinh told us that she really likes us and what we do.  She says she has started the Book of Mormon and wants to learn more.  But she kept telling us over and over that she cannot switch her religion from Buddhism.  She said it's tradition in her family and it goes back generations.  At the activity last week she was asking me if she could have two religions--it was like she was implying Buddhism and Mormonism.  I am pretty disappointed with the situation right now.  She says she is too busy taking her kids to Vietnamese school Sunday mornings to come to church.  I have talked with our District Leader, Elder Short, about the situation.  He said that before he was converted, he was deciding between becoming Buddhist or becoming a Mormon.  Basically Buddhism has many of the same aspects of the gospel, so we need to help her see that there is more and that the LDS church has the fullness of the gospel.  We left feeling disappointed but we are not giving up on her.

Thursday morning our train to Berlin left at 0600.  We had a couple of connections, especially in Berlin to get to the right station.  Thursday morning we had a Trainers Conference with President Kosak and the Assistants to the Mission President.  That was very helpful.  Then they filed the new missionaries in.  The individual trainers got up, gave a two minute overview of their areas, and then President Kosak announced the companionships.  Elder Morton and I were the last two companionships to be announced. 

 

My trainee is Elder Oldroyd!  He is from Utah.  His family lives in a little industrial town near the Colorado border.  He just graduated from high school in May so he is 18 years old and he wants to get certified and be a welder after he finishes his mission.  He is super nice and super quiet.  I'm sure though that as he gets more comfortable with the schedule, the area, and running around all day he will open up more.  Thursday night when we got back to Magdeburg, we literally dumped his bags in the apartment and went to see an investigator.  We went and invited Galia, her son Rafael, and her boyfriend Marian, to the branch Christmas party that we were going to have on Friday night.  Here is a picture of me and my new companion, Elder Oldroyd:

Friday was a busy day.  We had study in the morning but then we had district meeting at 1000.  Everyone got to meet Elder Oldroyd, Elder Gibbs (Elder Morton's trainee), and Elder Grieves (Elder Pilling's new companion).  District meeting went well. Following district meeting, Elder Oldroyd ate his first döner.  It is a missionary tradition here in our mission.  He liked it!  Our apartment got inspected that afternoon by the Romneys.  They both showed up with white gloves on, specially bought for my apartment--just like at the Air Force Academy!  Sister Romney was pretty impressed--she didn't find any dust.  (Disclaimer: She wasn't as aggressive as they are at the Academy during inspections).  That afternoon we had about an hour to do some street contacting.  We found a new investigator--a young man that lives in a village outside of Schönebeck.  Ya gotta love finding a new investigator on your first day!  The branch Christmas party was Friday evening.  Galia, Marian, and Rafael came!  President Romney and I talked to them all night.  I think they had a really good experience.  We, the four elders, sang Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  I think they loved hearing an American Christmas song.  They read the Christmas story out of the Bible and then there were a couple of more songs performed and poems read.  I have never been to a party where they read poetry so that was interesting. Then they served a super good dinner.  Overall I would say that the activity was a success.  Brüder Titigue's daughter Honig came.  She is 14 years old but she was never baptized.  I talked to Brüder Titigue afterwards and told him that I wanted to teach his daughter.  He said "Yes, please!"  More info on that to come later.

Saturday we basically went contacting all day after weekly study.  When you have all day to contact, you're going to see some success.  We got a pair of contacts, a referral for elders in Berlin, and we found some Syrian guys that are going to meet us so that we can give them a Book of Mormon.  It was the funniest thing.  They literally spoke no German and little to no English.  One of them took out his phone and we tried to go back and forth on Google Translate but that was a fail because what he typed in Arabic literally made no sense in English.  So then he phoned a friend and we passed the phone back and forth.  She translated from German to Arabic for us.  We are supposed to meet them tonight.  I hope it actually works out and that they show up but I am afraid there is too much of a language barrier.  We shall see!  But that exchange was pretty cool!

Yesterday was crazy at church!  Marian, Galia, and Rafael came to church as well as Vinod!  Honig came too!  I had the opportunity to teach our Sunday School class and we had Galia, Marian, and Honig in there as well as an investigator of the other two elders.  The lesson was on gospel of Jesus Christ and I think it went pretty well.  It was my first time actually leading a lesson in church (in German) so it was a bit nerve-wracking.  Sacrament meeting yesterday was one for the books.  As soon as the branch presidency member said that people could come up and bear their testimony, this random guy that I sat next to jumped up and talked at the pulpit for 20 minutes.  I had sat next to him because I didn't recognize him and I wanted to figure out if he was trying to learn more about the church.  It turns out that this guy has come once before but he is obviously a bit disturbed.  He literally talked about nothing and you couldn't understand a word of it.  Brüder Titigue started to yell at him in French to sit down.  Brüder Vloka had to escort him back to his seat.  I thought the place was about to erupt.  Everyone looked so uncomfortable.  Then, with about 15 minutes left, that crazy man stood up and yelled, "I'm going to another church!" And then stormed out.  Besides all of these happenings, sacrament meeting went really well and there were some really good testimonies.  Honig got up and talked about how she had such a good experience at church and she wants to keep coming back and she thinks this is where she needs to be.  Yes!  After sacrament meeting I ran around and made appointments with everyone.  I was on a roll.  We have at least one appointment every day this week.  I talked to Marian a bit after sacrament meeting.  He was wide-eyed.  He was so shocked by the crazy guy.  I told him that wasn't normal.  I think he had a good experience overall and I think he will continue to progress to his baptism on the 27th.  We have an appointment over there on Friday and we might try to get together with Galia to help her with her German since she really struggles.  I talked to Honig after and she wants us to come teach her.  We are really looking forward to our lesson with her and her Father Tuesday night.  That was the first time Vinod has come to church since I have been here.  We are meeting on Wednesday and are planning to teach some commandments as well as talk about how he is feeling about his baptism on the 20th.  After church we went to choir with the Staigers in Köthen and then we ate dinner with them.  Next Sunday is their last Sunday in the Magdeburg branch.  

Just this morning on the way to do emails, we had a Syrian couple come up to us at the bahnstop and start asking us about our church.  We are going to try to meet with them tomorrow!  Miracles!  I have realized several blessings this week.  I was pretty nervous to begin being the leader--the senior companion--and be the person that the other is relying on to communicate because I was literally just got here.  But seriously, I have been able to communicate just fine.  Like I loved finding on Saturday.  We talked to everyone we saw and I had to do 95% of the talking but it was a lot of fun and I realized that I can hold a conversation with someone.  I did not know I could do that.  But I think it's a huge blessing.  I don't really know what I am doing but I figure as long as am a good example of an obedient missionary then everything will be fine.

I hope all is well at home.  Have a good week!  Until next Monday!

 

Elder Germann

My last week as a trainee!!

Guten Tag! Can you believe that December has arrived?! I hope that everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner in the States and are now preparing for Weihnachten! We had another exciting week here in Magdeburg and I received big news this week!

Elder Sagmeister and I had a lesson with Frau Flemke this past Tuesday. She was referred to us by her husband. We took the Romneys along that morning. I thought that we taught a really powerful lesson about the Restoration. Unfortunately, she didn't take it as well as we had hoped. Much of the lesson she spent trying to convince us that the Bible is the only word of God, that God would not bring forth another record, etc. In the end she said that she will pray to know if the Book of Mormon is the word of God but she refused to take a Book of Mormon and read from it. She said she doesn't want it in her house until she knows that it really comes from God. How are you supposed to know that if you don't read it and then pray about it? Heavenly Father and his prophets have promised us that if we read the Book of Mormon and pray about it with real intent, having faith in Christ, we will receive an answer through the Holy Ghost. After the lesson the Romneys took us to lunch and then dropped us off at the other two elders' apartment. We went with the other two elders with all four of our bikes to a bike shop to get a quote on them. The mission office wanted to take an inventory of all the bikes in the mission to see how much it would cost to get them all fixed and in working condition. The second bike shop took them and said he would have the quote by the next day. Our appointment with the Aleksandroves fell through again Tuesday night. They have not been home everytime we have stopped by and their phone doesn't have any minutes left so they can't use it. They have been in Bremen a lot because she can find work there. They said they will probably be moving to Bremen. It is sad that they are probably leaving but I know that they need money for food so that they can live. We are going to keep in touch with them as much as possible and when/if they move, we will transfer their records.

The Zone leaders stayed the night at our appartment because they were coming to District Meeting on Wednesday morning. Elder Thorley and I did push ups together while reciting quotes from basic training/freshman year at the Air Force Academy. It was Elder Sagmeister's first time as District Leader here. He did a solid job running the meeting. The Romneys came as well to the meeting this week. We took district photos afterwards. Elder Sagmeister traded companions after lunch with Elder Glissmeyer so he went to Köthen and Elder Glissmeyer was here with me.  Here are a couple of pictures of our district, including the senior couple, Bro. and Sis. Romney:

 We went to our lesson with Dinh that evening. The Romneys came along. She fed us so many homemade spring rolls and they were the most delicious spring rolls I have ever eaten. We gave a lesson afterwards on the importance of prayer. The original plan was to teach the second lesson but the Spirit led the lesson to prayer and at the end, Frau Dinh said the closing prayer. I think it went pretty well.  Here is a picture of the Dinh family, Elder Sagmeister, and the Romneys: 

Elder Glissmeyer came in this last transfer so he is pretty new. He has a crazy story. Spring break 2012 he almost died when he fell off a 60 foot cliff at Lake Powell on the Utah/Arizona border. He cracked his skull, broke his tailbone and pelvis, and broke his left humorus. He is totally fine now but what an experience.

On Thursday afternoon we went to Galia Franco's home with the Romneys. She is the less-active member we found from Peru and she has a son and they live with her German boyfriend. She fed us a delicious Peruvian dish with this special Puruvian chili sauce. Afterwards we taught the plan of salvation. The lesson went really well and at the end we committed the boyfriend and son to be baptized on the 27th of December. Very exciting. The boyfriend did a really nice job saying the closing prayer. Thursday night the Romneys took the whole district out to a 'Thanksgiving' dinner. We ate schnitzel and went around the table saying everything that we are thankful for. Thursday night we had six elders in our apartment.

Friday morning Elder Sagmeister and Elder Haas went to Bernburg and Elder Pilling and I stayed here. We spent the day finding and contacting but had no luck. It was wicked cold and windy--bad combination to be street contacting. Friday we exchanged back our companions.

Saturday afternoon we had an activity at the church for members and investigators. The only members that came were the Egarters, the less-active family trying to fix up an old bahnhof (train station). We had Familie Dinh come and the other two Magdeburg elders brought two investigators. It turned out to be a huge success. We had ping pong and füßball. We had little games for the kids. I was able to reteach the first lesson to Frau Dinh. They had a really good experience. We are looking forward to having a similar activity very soon.  Here is a picture of me with Elder Sagmeister, the Romneys, and the Egarters:

Transfer calls were Saturday night. Elder Sagmeister is leaving to go be a Zone leader in North Berlin. He will be living in Tiergarten, the nicest part of Berlin. Elder Stringham, Elder Morton's trainer, is going to East Berlin after being in Magdeburg for seven months. The big news for me is that I will be TRAINING A NEW MISSIONARY!! Holy cow, this just was my last week of being trained myself and now I will see things from the other side. I am excited for the opportunity and I know the area well, I just don't feel adequate to be a leader, especially since the mission president says that trainers are the most important leaders. I go to Berlin Thursday morning with Elder Morton, who is also training, to pick up our new trainees. Magdeburg will be the youngest area in mission. Wow!  Here is my last picture with Sagmeister:

I will let you know who my trainee is next week! Our picture together will also be on the mission blog.

Love you all!

Elder Tanner Germann

Obedience is paramount!

Guten Tag jeden!

 

I hope that all is well back in the States and that everyone is preparing for an exciting Thanksgiving week.  Here I am in the middle of some fall foliage in Magdeburg!

 

Monday we had an abbreviated preparation day because we had a district preparation day on Wednesday following district meeting.  We got our grocery shopping and emails done and then proceeded to do missionary work.  We traded companions with other missionaries in the city an went finding.  We were able to find a new investigator that afternoon--a really nice Indian girl studying at the University.  As we move about the city, I see lots of contrasts like in the pictures here--a building that is half DDR (East German) era with graffiti on one side and modern on the other.  And nearby, a church where it is said that Martin Luther preached.  He did attend school here in Magdeburg in 1497:

Tuesday morning following study we updated the area book--that was much needed.  The area book is so important--without a record of the work you do, there is no continuity to the work when missionaries are transferred.  The next elders need to know the teaching pool and much success can be found through contacting old or potential investigators in the area book.  We had an appointment with the Greek man, Margaritis, that we found last week.  We couldn't find him in his building. His name is on one of the mailboxes so we know he lives there, but none of his neighbors knew him.  It turned out though that one of our other referrals lived in that same building so we went there.  She was super nice but wasn't really interested at first.  Then she softened and agreed to meet with us this coming week.  We are actually going over there tomorrow.  Elder Sagmeister then had to go on a chocolate run.  That is becoming a usual thing since he is practically addicted to chocolate.  It hit me this week how ridiculous it is that one of the five aisles in every German grocery store is for exclusively chocolate.  Afterwards, we went to an appointment with Dinh, the Vietnamese woman.  The Romneys, the senior missionary couple, came along, too.  It was a bit difficult at first to get the lesson going because Dinh wanted to show us the painting that she did all over her apartment.  She was also a bit flustered because she forgot she told us that she would feed us.  Finally we got the lesson going and it actually turned out well.  She said she has been looking for a religion that could promise her eternity with her family.  We extended an invitation to be baptized.  Her little girls immediately said yes!  She said that she needs to read the BoM.  Cool!  We are going back over there on Wednesday and she said she would feed us this time...for sure.  After the lesson, the Romneys took us to dinner with the other two elders.  We ride the bahns (trains) every day, they are very busy and full.  I took this picture because it is so rare to be on one of these without any other riders:

 

Wednesday we had district meeting and then district preparation day.  We went to the Magdeburg Zoo together.  We basically had the place to ourselves.  It was a pretty standard zoo except we got to feed the elephants and go in the lemur exhibit and run around with them.  I traded companions that evening and worked with Elder Haas into Thursday.

 

We had branch missionary council Thursday morning.  That afternoon we helped a woman from the branch move.  She is having a baby and so she and her husband want more space.  They moved just five minutes away from their old apartment into a really nice two story apartment.  That night we traded companions back and Elder Sagmeister and I ran to our appointment with Galia, the Peruvian woman Elder Stringham and I met last week.  We met the Romneys there.  I led the lesson and it went really well.  We found out that she is actually a member.  She was baptized 12 years ago in Spain.  Two months after her baptism, her first husband forbade her from going to church.  She said she loved church though and all the ward activities they had in Spain.  She said she's been looking for a Mormon church here in Germany.  Her boyfriend is a German and brought her here with her son and they live together.  The son is 9 years old and he is super prepared for the gospel.  He refused to eat a meal or go to bed unless a prayer was said.  The boyfriend is also super open to the gospel as well.  We taught the first lesson and they loved it.  They said that would come to church on Sunday. (They actually didn't so we'll have to figure out what happened there.)  They invited us back over on Thursday for the second lesson and a Spanish meal!  

 

Friday we had study as usual in the morning and then weekly planning.  We have high goals for this coming week!  Friday night we went to Br. Titigue's house for dinner.  He fed us so much food and told us his life story.  His dream is to go to one day go to the Salt Lake City temple.  We shared a message about Thanksgiving.  We have visited several times that family who bought the old train station to fix up and live in--here's a picture of that:

 

Saturday we went to get a quote for our bikes since they both need a tune up but apparently every bike shop in Germany is closed on Saturdays.  We went on splits (exchanged companions) again.  Elder Stringham and I had some really good conversations on the street but everyone declined our offer to learn more about the Book of Mormon.  We went into a cafe for some hot chocolate and the girl that served us started to talk to us about the Church.  She said she was an exchange student in high school in Las Vegas.  Her host family was Mormon and took her to church and youth night every week.  Every exchange student they hosted ended up joining the Church...except her.  She was super nice and said maybe we'll see her at church sometime.  She said she has been in church here a couple of times.  Saturday night we had an appointment with the Aleksandroves.  We had a member family show up too but the Aleksandroves weren't home.  We called and they had totally forgoten about the appointment--they went to Bremen for the weekend.  We need to confirm appointments.  We also had our appointment with the Indian girl we found.  She took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it but that she didn't want to meet with us again.  We will be stopping by there again for sure to follow up.  We found another new investigator, also a student, that night on the way home.

 

Yesterday in church we did not have any investigators which was a big disappointment.  Our Gospel Principles class went well though.  We had a less-active family there and a new convert.  After church the Staigers had us over for dinner.  They are such a nice family!  They have us over every week practically since no one else from the branch signs up to feed us.  They took us to choir afterwards.  Choir is interesting.  I can fake singing parts in English but its just embarrassing in German.  Also, the choir is supposed to sing 21 different songs.  We haven't practiced any song more than once yet in the three practices I have been to.

 

This week we have transfer calls and then transfers next week.  I am really hoping I stay here!  I love it here in Magdeburg.  This is my last week of being a trainee too!  How exciting!

I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

 

Love,

Elder Tanner Germann

Meine Gute Eine Tute

Wow, this week flew by, didn't it?  That always happens in the fall during football season.  Wait, I haven't watched any football this year. But that's okay because this past week was a good one--we had a zone training meeting that got us fired up about finding and teaching:

 

Tuesday was a really good day.  We went to the Aleksandroves that morning and took the Romneys.  The Aleksandrove family is the Bulgarian family we found about a week ago.  It was quite the lesson.  We had about four languages going on--we were teaching the Restoration in German to the older son, who was then translating the lesson into Bulgarian for the mother, then we were translating what was going on into English for Sis. Romney, all while President Romney was trying to speak Spanish to them though every other word was in German or English...lol.  (They spent eight of the last ten years in Spain).  Despite the craziness, it went really well.  The mother said she believes that there are prophets today and she believed that everything that we taught was true.  She said she has been praying for people like us to show up for the past year.  They literally have nothing.  Their appartment is empty.  She and her husband split in Bremen three months ago and she had to run with nothing but her kids.  She is still looking for a job here but she cannot speak German so that really limits things.  They hadn't had food in two weeks so the Romneys offered to buy a little food out of their pocket.  I was super uncomfortable with this because their testmonies must develop organically.  The Romneys made it clear it was a one-time deal.  The important thing is, she said she believed what we were teaching first, and then she saw the blessing of the Romneys' graciousness.  After the lesson, the Romneys went to the grocery store across the street.  President Romney was about to buy out the store but I stopped him and said they should get what missionaries live off of--noodles and Maggi Packs.  It was super cheap but that food will last them awhile.  We brought the food back to them and the mother was so grateful.  We found two new investigators that afternoon--a Greek man and a German, who when we told him about the Book of Mormon said, "Yeah! Yeah, of course I'd love to read that.  Come over on Saturday!"  That evening we had an appointment with the Vietnamese woman, Dinh, that we met on the bahn the other night.  The Romneys came to that, too.  They were a little late but we caught her perfectly.  She was so excited to show us her appartment and all her pictures.  She was painting the walls with poster paint.  She was so nice and she invited us back with the Romneys to dinner tomorrow--looking forward to that.  That evening, the Romneys took four of us, the elders, out to dinner.  I am in love with schnitzel!

Wednesday morning we had district meeting.  Following that, we did district finding.  I went out with Elder Stringham since we were going to be working together later that day.  President asked us to trade with Elder Stringham and Morton to show them what has helped us in our finding.  Elder Stringham is a year and a half out on his mission so I wasn't sure what I could teach him but I think I was able to give good pointers.  The first thing I highlighted was persistence.  When people respond neutrally or hesitantly, we can't immediately give them a pass-along card and wish them a good day.  Street contacting must also be quick.  I think it is important to realize that people are generally going somewhere and you don't want to keep them too long.  Elder Sagmeister and I have generally been talking to people for about five minutes.  We usually say something like, "Schön guten Tag!  Wir würden gern mit Ihnen sprechen über etwas zu uns ganz besonderes ist.  Es heißt das Buch Mormon.  Haben Sie je davon gehört? *insert short explanation and testimony here* Wir schenken dies Buch an die Menschen.  Wir würden gern mit Ihnen eine von ihnen teilen.  Gibt es eine andere besser Zeit wann wir wieder treffen können und mehr darüber sprechen können?"  There's a couple of cool things about this approach.  First, we say that we would love to speak to THEM.  Then we give a little testimony about the Book of Mormon.  Then we say it is free (some religions collect money for their handouts).  Then we ask them if there's a more convienient time to meet with them, ASSUMING THAT THEY WANT TO LEARN MORE.  That is key.  Then we get their info and set up an appointment.  So basically that is what I tried to show on our exchange--a very logical approach.  But I am only ten weeks in-country so I tried to be very humble and I would say, "This is what I've seen work for us..."  We try to avoid questions like, "Is this something that would interest you?" because that is an easy "NO" for people on the street.  We also make appointments to GIVE copies of the Book of Mormon, rather than giving them out on the street.  That avoids the response, "Then what is the point of us meeting again if I have all that I need to know right here?"  We went to an appointment that night at the university to visit with a Chinese girl.  We asked a new convert, also a Chinese guy, to come with us.  It would have been really cool for him to participate in a lesson from the other side but unfortunately it fell through.  It was about quittin' time so we headed back to the church to grab his bag.  Right around the corner from the church we stopped a Peruvian woman and her son.  She said she sees us all the time in Peru and she has lots of Mormon friends.  She invited us to come over on this Wednesday night!  I hope she has a big family and that they are all home!  Back at the appartment that night Elder Stringham gave me a haircut.

Thursday for lunch I made some bomb speghetti.  No lie, that stuff was wicked good.  That afternoon we went finding until Branch Mission Leader Meeting that evening where we were going to trade back our companions.  We found two potential investigators.  These two guys told us to meet them outside of the resaurant where they worked tomorrow but I have learned when people tell you to meet somewhere, they usually don't show up.  Some protest march went down the main street that day.  I didn't really understand the chants or signs but it was something about capitalism and schools.

 

Friday morning the Romneys picked us up to go to the Egarters', the family that is trying to fix up the old bahnhof (train station).  It was another adventure in the Romney car.  The nav system originally said we would get there by 1025.  We didn't arrive at the Egarters' until 1105.  They showed us around the bahnhof again even though not much has changed since the last time I was there.  They fed us a nice lunch and then we did some service work for them, filling in the ditch that was dug for their water line.  We had an appointment with Vinod that evening.  Our plan for the lesson was to set a baptismal date.  We had to really work to set one.  I promised him that Heavenly Father will provide a way for him to graduate, find a job, and marry the right girl.  We talked about how faith should not be a burden;  it should free you!  He agreed to prepare for baptism on the 20th of December!  We are really hoping and praying that he makes time for the Lord because that will relieve his stress.  He is praying for that too!  He said a great prayer to end the lesson asking Heavenly Father to let him know if it is the right this to be baptized sooner rather than later.  He is an awesome guy and has a testimony of the gospel.

Saturday was interesting.  We had four appointments scheduled but two fell through.  While at the University that morning, a Hungarian student came up to us and in broken English said, "It must be nice having all those wives."  His knowledge of the church essentially comes from South Park.  He said he was Christian and loved to learn more about all the Christian faiths.  We ended up teaching the first lesson as we walked with him to a bus stop.  He said he believes that the Holy Ghost is a compass for our lives yet he laughed when we said that we prayed to God and the Holy Ghost witnessed to us that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I thought that was a bit hypocritical of him.  We are going to meet with him again.  He invited us to come to a church service with him.  That afternoon we went to the Norwegian doctor's house.  He was super nice.  He offered us drinks and chocolates.  He had his four year old and two year old there as well as his fourteen year old son.  The fourteen year old son wasn't wearing pants when we walked in. We taught the Restoration but it was really hard.  The kids were crazy, the dad kept changing the subject, and he kept speaking to me in English even though we were trying to have the lesson in German.  I just left that place feeling bad because he wasn't keen on meeting with us again.  He was satisfied with what he heard and he simply wanted to educate himself.  The son asked really good questions though and was interested.  We are going to go back and try to get them to chuch.  They live across the street from the church!  That evening we rode the train to Schönebeck to visit a part member family, the Jaffkes.  The husband is not a member and has no desire to become one.  He picked us up and drove us to their house fifteen minutes away from the train station in Barby.  The house is really old but they just remodeled it and it looks great.  We taught the Restoration.  The mom is the only member.  There is an older son that is baptized but he does not come to church.  We had a teaching record of the younger son who is 12 years old.  He is ready to be baptized tomorrow but he has wanted his brother to baptize him.  We extended the invitation to be baptized on the 20th of December as well but they have holiday plans already.  The mom wasn't much of a help.  She thinks that her son must know the gospel perfectly before he's baptized or else he will end up like her older son.  Daniel agreed to be baptized at the beginning of the new year.  That is really exciting!

 

The Aleksandroves came to church yesterday and liked it!  The mom became friends with Sis. Egarter.  We taught a gospel doctrine class during Sunday School which went okay.  We had the Alexandroves and a few members in there.  The Steigers had us all over for dinner.  They served klopfels and a type of roast.  Elder Morton and I went to choir in Köthen last night since we are assuming we will be here for Christmas.  

It was a good week and we are hoping to set a baptismal date with the Aleksandroves this week!  I hope everyone is well and excited for Thanksgiving this week.  Eat lots of turkey and watch a lot of football for me, please!

Mit Liebe,

 

Elder Germann

Another solid week in Magdeburg

Guten Tag!  It is really starting to feel like winter is coming here to Germany.  Its been 10° Celsius (50f) everyday.  Nevertheless, Elder Sagmeister and I found four solid new investigators this week!

 

On Tuesday, we got up and had study as usual and then after we ate lunch, we made some calls to some contacts.  Elder Sagmeister began calling contacts we had in our phone.  It actually proved to be pretty successful--two people said, "Oh yeah, I would love to meet with you guys!"  Too bad they live in Berlin.... Half the people had never even heard of Magdeburg.  We came to find out that our phone had been used by the missionaries in Berlin.  We found two new people for one of the Berlin companionships!  Then we went out finding on the way to an appointment.  Everybody kept saying no to us and Elder Sagmeister said, "Why was it so easy last week?!"  Literally the next man we talked to was excited to see us and said he met with missionaries a year ago.  We went to our appointment with the man we found last week.  He said he really wanted to meet with us but his dad just went into the hospital so he wasn't available.  He looked pretty shaken up.  We told him we would pray for him and would call him soon.  Tuesday night we had an awesome lesson with Claudius, a less-active member.  I asked Claudius how praying has been going.  He said he hadn't been praying and then he recited the email he had sent to an missionaries a few months ago that contained all of his problems with the church.  Elder Sagmeister began trying to respond to each individual point.  I stopped him and said to Claudius, "These problems you just listed sound exactly like what you sent in an email to an elder a little while back.  I have read this email and as I was reading it, it hit me--you don't have a testimony of the Restoration.  And when you gain a testimony of the Restoration, all of these problems you say you have with the church will go away.  The only way to gain this testimony is through, prayer, scripture study, and coming to church."  It was pretty crazy 'cause I had never spoken so powerfully like that, especially in German.  The Spirit definitely helped.  It took asking him tree times to finally agree to do these things.  He committed again to do these things--reading, studying, church--because that is how we come to find out the truthfullness of Christ's restored Gospel.  That lesson taught me a lot.  I truly know now how important it is to pray during a lesson for your companion and for the person you are teaching. 

Afterwards, we headed to the University for a lesson with a girl we found last week listed in our area book.  Marcel, a member, came along but the girl was not home.  I called her and as it turned out she had gone to Frankfurt. So we set up a new time for this coming week.  Since we were there with Marcel, we decided to visit some other contacts.  That was inspired because we finally met someone in our area book that I have been trying to see since I got to Magdeburg.  And also we saw Vinod!  He hadn't replied to any of my messages in the past week.  He doesn't put minutes on his phone so you can't call him and he can't text back.  So we communicate by texting his phone, he reads it, then he replies on a friend's phone...iffy at best.  But we set up a new appointment with him for this week and we are hoping to commit him to a baptismal date.

 

Wednesday morning we got up and jumped in the car with the Romneys to go to Leipzig for Zone Training Meeting.  I was asked to give the opening prayer.  The theme of the meeting was obedience and how that brings results.  After the meeting everyone went to the döner shop on the corner by the chapel for lunch--good business for those guys.  We met with the branch mission leader that evening.  We are going to start holding an investigator class during Sunday School.  Here are some of the missionaries in my district:

 

Thursday was the 100th day of my mission!  Woah, can't believe I went into the Missionary Training Center that long ago.  We did a lot of travel Thursday, too.  I really know the bahn (train) system here.  Here's a picture of our trains here in Magdeburg:

That morning we went to Herr Ostermann's house.  The visit was pleasant.  He had cakes and drinks for us.  Germans love their tea.  We tell them we can only have fruit tea.  It's gross.  He said he read the Checkpoints magazine from the Air Force Academy that I gave him last time and loved it.  He also read a lot of the Book of Mormon. We gave the first lesson on the Restoration and Joseph Smith.  Basically, he thinks that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon while hallucinating.  Herr Ostermann is so smart and so intelligent and he reads so much philosophy that I think he has totally blinded himself from anything spiritual.  I don't think he has any friends as intellectual as he is so that why he likes talking to us.  I saw more of his amazing house.  He took us down to his wine cellar where he had broken through the foundation wall down there and is digging himself a rotunda down there.... We probably won't go back often if he doesn't want to progress in the gospel.  We went to Burger King for lunch and then we went to an appointment with the man we met on Tuesday.  He didn't show.  We went to see another investigator Char-Ly that evening.  He might come to church on Sunday.  If not, we will probably not go back there as often since he doesn't show any other signs of wanting to progress either.  Afterwards, we went and visited the Alexandroves, the Bulgarian family we met last week.  We couldn't go in because only the mom was home and the older son is not 15 yet but we just stood at the door and checked up on them.  The mom said she had started reading the Book of Mormon.  The sons were super excited for soccer.  We invited them to come to church on Sunday morning and they accepted!

 

Friday basically consisted of weekly planning and study.  We set lofty goals for next week so we can continually improve.  We tried to make a pasta dish and it didn't turn out too well.  I think I will stick to ramen.  That evening I practiced the organ at the church while Elder Sagmeister filmed a video that he is sending home for his congregation.  They are going to play it as a talk during stake conference--a cool idea. 

 

Saturday morning we took a bit of time during our study to practice Elder Sagmeister's English.  Thanks to years of Latin, I am able to teach basic grammar and parts of a sentence.  I am not, however, able to answer as many "why" questions as I thought I would be able to.  We went street contacting that afternoon.  Nobody was really interested and not many people were out since it was chilly.  Here are some of the places we pass as we walk through Magdeburg--a church and a building they claim has the fewest right angles of any building!

We decided to go by the church and see if we could talk to anyone around there.  We met a super nice Norwegian guy out on a walk with two of his kids.  He says he lives right across the street from the chruch.  He is a doctor studying Alzheimers.  He is fluent in five languages.  He said he sees missionaries all over Europe but none of them have ever spoken to him.  He was so nice and was happy to set up an appointment with us for next Saturday!  Yay!  That night we ran home, changed, and picked up the Alexandrove boys for soccer.  It took 20 minutes to walk to the field from their wohnung (apt.) Apparently, I only know the long way there.  They told us they lived in Spain for eight years and they speak Spanish, German, Bulgarian, and a little Turkish.  They want to learn English.  We are going to start teaching them.  The only words they know are curse words.  Soccer was fun although we couldn't figure out how to turn on the field lights.  We played near the road where there was some light from the street lamps.  We had 7 kids there!  They all asked us what we were doing in Germany so we got to talk a lot about the church.  Everyone was asking for English lessons.  The Alexandroves said they couldn't come to church this week now...bummer.  But they promised to be there next week.  We have an appointment over there tomorrow.  

 

Yesterday was disappointing.  We had five people from our teaching pool tell us they were going to be a church and none showed.  I got a text from Kolja right when church started that said, "Hey man. I was thinking about the church and I think I am not ready to join at this point in my life.  I thank you for all the nice lessons we had and wish you huge luck and success in your further efforts as a missionary.  So...goodbye, I guess..."  I was so shocked.  He has been our stud investigator.  He is an awesome person.  I felt like I was back in high school being dumped over text by a girl though this is eternally more important.  We're talking about his salvation!  I tried to call him back yesterday but he didn't pick up.  We really need to meet with him this week and find out what happened.  We can't just give up on him!  So during church I was bummed but I thought Fast and Testimony meeting went really well.  I translated for Qui during Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting.  Sunday School was hard.  I didn't understand much more than the general ideas so I just took that and then put my own spin on it.  Sacrament was much easier to translate.  But I realized that translating is an awesome opportunity to teach.  That afternoon we we went to a new investigator's wohnung--a Vietnamese woman we met on the straße bahn.  She had invited us over to eat but we couldn't find a member to come so we had to stay at the door and apologize for not being able to come in.  We gave her a Vietnamese Book of Mormon.  All of the sudden a very large German woman came from inside the wohnung and started interrogating us asking us who we are and what we are doing.  She tried to take the Book of Mormon and give it back to us.  She sent the Vietnamese woman back inside with her children.  We were very nice to her and explained to her who we were and what we do.  We were firm though and told her that Dinh invited us there and that she cannot keep us sharing the gospel with her.  It was so awkward and I feel so bad.  I know that after we left, she was probably berating Dinh for talking to us.  We set up a time to go back tomorrow.  We went to the Steigers for dinner last night.  We had sausage stuffed in whole bell peppers and chocolate for dessert.

One thing that gave me a good feeling the other day is the thought that there are other good people trying to do the Lord's work.  See here a marquis on a theater rented by another church--it's true!!

 

 

Overall, it was a solid week and I am loving it here.  Trying to be better each week!  Hope all is well on the home front!

 

Love, 

Elder Germann