Zu Christus zu kommen

Hallo everyone!

This week was so successful! Let me tell you about it!

Thursday we went to the Teaching Resource Center again teaching lessons to members with the goal to uplift and bring them closer to Christ. Elder Morton and I were on the same page this time and it went really well. We spoke with this very nice older couple from Austria about how we can receive answers to prayers through the Holy Ghost. We shared Moroni 10:5 and 2 Nephi 32:2--two of my favorites. The Spirit was really strong. That afternoon we taught a lesson to a "less-active member" named Anita, played by one of our teachers, Sister Judd. At the beginning of the lesson she said a word that neither of us understood. I gave her a weird look then she laughed, then I laughed, and then it started to go downhill so I abruptly said, "Can we say a prayer?!" It was kind of awkward but it brought the Spirit back into the lesson. Turns out the word we didn't understand was "pet."

Friday was a great day. We FINALLY got to play our Berlin vs. Frankfurt soccer game during our gym time. The Berliners trounced Frankfurt! Elder Pilling and I both had hat tricks! During Friday morning's class we taught a lesson to our "investigator" Benjamin. He brought his wife (played by another teacher) who is a less-active member. Having her there helped a lot. Elder Morton and I were really teaching by the Spirit that morning. Benjamin asked the question, "We have the words of the prophets in the Bible and Book of Mormon--why do we need prophets today?" Immediately my mind went to a scripture that I had read the night before in personal study--2 Nephi 29:7-9. Read it! It answered his question perfectly. I had no idea he was going to ask a question like that. It was a total blessing that I had read that the night before and had the inspiration to share the scripture. That experience definitely strengthened my testimony of teaching by the Spirit. The coolest part of that lesson though was when we asked him to commit to be baptized. After a long ten second pause, HE SAID YES! I was really happy, Elder Morton was bawling--it was a good feeling.

Here's me and my companion, Elder Morton, on one of our walks to the Provo Temple:

The first line in my journal entry for Saturday says something like, "Can Saturdays feel any longer?" We played basketball during gym time Saturday morning--I think I made a grand total of three shots the entire time. Afterwards we went to our service assignment cleaning another dorm. There were so many people there that they were just making up jobs. They gave Elder Morton and I dust wands and told us to dust in the hallways. Our lesson Saturday with our other "investigator" Alex went well--he committed to reading and praying about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The highlight of the day was our lesson with Anita. She has been sick for some time, in and out of the hospital. That is why she hasn't been able to come to church. Side note--where have the home teachers been?? Anyways, we talked about the priesthood and offered to give her a priesthood blessing. She accepted. We got up and I mouthed to Elder Morton "I have no clue what I'm doing". But with the help of the the German missionary handbook we were able to give her a blessing in Deutsch. The Spirit was strong there. Sister Judd pulled us aside that night and told us we did a really good job in that lesson.

Here's our classroom:

In sacrament meeting Sunday our district sang Näher Meine Gott Zu Dir (Nearer My God To Thee). Everyone said we did a very nice job. Elder Pilling did a really nice job on the piano. He was able to look at the music in the hymnbook and improvise runs throughout the entire song. The devotional Sunday was very good. It was given by the director of missionary affairs who oversaw the writing of Preach My Gospel and the filming of The District. He spoke on repentance and recognizing the promptings of the Devil. Afterwards we went and watched the new movie on the life of Joseph Smith--really well done. I thought I had seen it before but maybe not.

Monday morning's class was really good. We discussed 3 Nephi 17 which is a great chapter. Jesus blesses the children. We also practiced how to help investigators realize the power of prayer. I talked to a sister in my zone who is from Greensboro. She knows the Bennett family in our stake. We also had a missionary show up on Monday who had been cycled back from a previous transfer after blowing out his knee. He is 25, special ops in the Marines, and has the physique of a 5'7" tank. I haven't talked to him yet, but sometime I'm sure we'll get to share war stories ;)

Meal time is always good here:

Yesterday was a really good day. We taught three lessons. First lesson was with Benjamin. We discussed the Atonement and repentance. Also, he asked me to baptize him! Of course I said yes! Afterwards we taught a lesson to Alex who committed to be baptized! Two in one week! In the afternoon class we taught a lesson to Anita about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the Holy Ghost. She committed to come to church this week. At the devotional last night we sang Jesus Once of Humble Birth in the choir. The devotional was given by Elder James B. Martino of the second quorum of the Seventy. He did an awesome job. He reminded me of Elder Giddens--worked the pulpit, commanding, and quoted scripture like it was no big deal. He talked about the story of Enoch--that is a good read.

As you can see, this week was eventful and full of learning! I'm still working on that German. One of our teachers said that he committed his trainer to only speaking German. In two months he had only said five English words and was basically fluent. That's what I want to do.

I love and miss you all!
Elder Tanner Germann

P.S.  If I had a dollar for every time someone made some reference to Germann and Germany, I would be a very very wealthy man.

Wie gehts?!?

Dear All:

Another week has flown by here in the MTC! Lots of learning, lots of teaching, lots of spiritual feeding.

This past Thursday had some ups and downs. We went to the Teaching Resource Center for the first time which is where you teach members lessons in German with the goal being to feel the Spirit and have them feel closer to Christ. We gave two 20 minute lessons. The first one was a disaster. Right before we went in, Elder Morton and I realized that we both thought we were teaching different things... So basically we stumbled through the first visit jumping around to random topics. Quickly following the train wreck, we regrouped and gave a great lesson on the importance of prophets to a nice old lady. We felt pretty good coming out of that one. Unfortunately for me in our lesson with our "investigator" that afternoon, I was super discouraged when I forgot a couple of words that I should have remembered. Bro Garlick spoke to me outside of class that day and told me that from his experience on his mission and working in the MTC, he can tell that Elder Morton and I can really be a powerful companionship. We're really working hard to get there. We worked pretty well together this week.  Here is a picture of my district--(L ro R:  Elders Pilling, Hunt, Whitaker, Brown, Morton, Me, Sisters Davis and Lohner)

Friday was a solid day. I think I had the best study sessions yet on Friday night. Having a teacher in the room might have had something to do with it. But really I developed a love for the beginning of 2 Nephi. It prophesies of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and details the Plan of Salvation. How cool!

I really don't look forward to Saturdays because they're so long but this past one was one to remember. We began with our usual Saturday morning service by cleaning one of the other dorms. I finally got out of cleaning bathrooms--the foaming gun is not as fun as it sounds... I vacuumed instead. Our lesson that morning went so well! The Spirit was so strong there. Elder Morton and I were in sync and were feeding off of each other. The "investigator" asked a question that deviated from our whole lesson plan but we were able to discuss it the whole time and commit him to reading and praying about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Killed it! The evening class was taught by Sister Judd and was on charity and love, Christ-like attributes. I paid close attention because I need all the help that I can get. It was a really good class and the Spirit was there in force.

Sunday morning we got up and went to the classroom to write our talks for sacrament meeting, just in case we were called. In the meeting, Elder Pilling played the piano while Elder Morton sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer put to the tune of Come Thou Fount. They did a really nice job. Since our district kind of sounds like we can sing, we were asked to sing in our zone sacrament meeting on Sunday. The Sunday night devotional was given by Jenny Oaks Baker, Elder Oaks' daughter. She is a world renowned violinist, graduate of Juilliard, etc. She talked about her experiences and how she's been blessed in her life. She really is masterful on the violin. Sunday night I watched a film by Elder Holland on how to become an effective teacher. He's my favorite apostle--such a powerful orator.

Monday's class was lots of role-playing which was great. You really can't practice enough.  Here's a picture of us studying in our classroom:

Yesterday was a great day because on Tuesdays we have devotionals. I've been singing in the choir every week now and I especially liked the song we sung yesterday--Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer. Check it out: https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/precious-savior-dear-redeemer?lang=eng    It's the story of Mark 4, when Christ calms the storm. The disciples said, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" Pretty powerful message. Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson was the speaker last night, Young Women General President. She shared lots of missionary stories from her family--solid talk. Also, yesterday was my 21st day on the mission--DOUBLE DOWN! (Shoutout to my friends grinding at USAFA)

I guess I haven't given much detail on the zone. Our branch president is President Petersen. He is a very strict, deliberate old man. He was a doctor in the Air Force for a time. I think he was happy to hear I was from the Academy but he was sure to remind me that this is the MTC, not the Academy. He's been married to his wife for a couple of years now. Both of their first spouses passed away. She is a super nice lady. He says he served in Trier (where the Germanns come from) for a time on his mission. The first counselor is Brother Woffinden. I'm sure they're related to the ones that are in our stake. His wife said there are only two branches of Woffindens in America but she doesn't know the ones in NC. Everyone thinks he's intimidating but I don't think so. I think he's just a funny old man. The second counselor just got called a week or so ago, Brother Clark. He just got back from being the mission president in St. Petersburg, Russia. They remembered a cadet who is in Squad 23. He lived right around the corner from me this past year. Zone Leaders (ZLs) and District Leaders (DLs) switched over last night since we are officially halfway through our time at the MTC. Elder Pilling is our new DL. He's not crazy about having responsibility. LOL he's so funny.

Here's a picture of me with Elder Pilling:

My studies are going well. I restarted das Buch Mormon with the goal to finish it by the time I leave the MTC. I've already picked up a lot of things I've never caught. Like I said, the beginning of 2 Nephi is really great. Then you hit the second half of 2 Nephi and you think, "Seriously Nephi?? I don't know what you're saying." But its been good. Preach My Gospel is a great tool. I've become really familiar with the first lesson since that's about all we've gotten through with our investigators... But the other chapters like Christ-like attributes and teaching effectively are great.

I got pictures from both Andy Germann and Russell Galati. They both look great. Russell is a Zone Leader in the West Indies mission.

Overall things have been going really well. I'm just working hard to become a better student and teacher of the scriptures.  We stop every once in a while for fun (see below) but we are mostly focused on getting ready to be productive missionaries.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Die Kirche ist Wahr!

Elder Germann

Hallo World!!

Guten tag alles menchen!

I hope that this letter finds everyone well. I can't believe that two weeks has already gone by. I feel like this past week was a blurr.

Our lesson on Thursday was our last lesson with our "investigator," Jenni. We have definitely learned a lot from our experiences with her. Jenni is actually Sister Judd and since we are done teaching her, Sister Judd now teaches our afternoon classes. She is a strict teacher but she is very good. She went to the Alpine Mission.

On Friday we switched things up during gym time and decided to play basketball. It was my first time shooting the J in a while so I was a bit rusty. I don't know if I liked it as much as soccer. We're going back to soccer from now on. Today we're going to have an epic Berlin vs Frankfurt game. Berliners will be victorious. Friday we began learning conversational past and by now I've pretty much got the hang of it.

I have learned to not look forward to Saturdays. Saturdays are literally the longest days. The classroom periods are both in the afternoon, the second going from 1830 to 2130. We had a really good lesson from Sister Judd that evening though. We talked about how the Restoration is more than just Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon and restoring the church. It begins with the knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves us and then goes to Christ's earthly ministry followed by the apostacy. Then comes Joseph Smith and the restoration of the church. Thats why lesson one in Preach My Gospel chapter three includes all of those topics!

Sundays are always good days though. Lots of study time. I prepared a short talk in Deutsch that morning just in case they asked me to speak in sacrament meeting. I had the opportunity to bless the sacrament with Elder Morton. I think we nailed the pronounciation. Temple walks on Saturday are always nice. We took a district pic. I'll try to include it. I really like the Sunday night devotional. It came from a verse in Alma 6 (I think?) which talks about ministering to those who have no faith in God. He called up two random missionaries from the audience who said before they were converted two years ago, neither had faith in God. Their stories were amazing. It's funny how Heavenly Father prepares people for the missionaries.

The newest Mormon Message is on point! Check it out:
https://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#the-will-of-god

Monday was a good day. Bro. Garlick came back from vacation so we were all excited about that. I think we all learn best from him. Elder Morton and I have two new "investigators" this week. Bro. Garlick role played as the one on Monday. It went so well. I understood everything he said. We responded well to his questions. The Spirit was there. Our lesson on Tuesday was a bit different. It was played by our other teacher Bro. Mower. He acted very distant and was hard to get responses from. We just have to be able to adapt to different personalities. It was a good learning experience and we will be ready for the next lesson on Friday.

Yesterday we had a devotional by a member of the Seventy who is the executive director of the missionary board. He gave a nice talk about repentance. He just had a day's worth of material. He went 20 minutes over. But hey, maybe some people needed to hear it. I really appreciated him quoting Enoch. The other day I had the impression to read Enoch and so the fact that he talked about it really made me happy.

German is coming slowly. At this point I really need to hit the vocab hard. I understand most things and I know what I want to say back, I just have a hard time doing it because I don't have the words. It will come.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Love,
Elder Tanner Germann

Guten tag!

Dear Fam,

Can you believe that one week has already gone by?! I feel as though I've been here at the Missionary Training Center for a month!

This letter should be packed full of news and thoughts to give you an idea of what's gone on in the past week. Hopefully I can paint a picture for you so you can put yourselves here with me.

Wednesday when Dad and Hana dropped me off I was whisked away by a missionary going to Korea who had been at the MTC for a month. He got me to all of the places I needed to go. I got my name tag, bag full of literature including a German set of scriptures, dropped my bags in my room, and went directly to my classroom. Classrooms are small, just big enough for the eight of us which make up District F.

My companion is Elder Morton. He is the third child of eleven. He is from Sandy, UT and is an all-world runner. He won cross country nationals in high school and will be running at BYU when he finishes his mission. He is a super happy and motivated elder.

Elder Hunt and Elder Pilling are in our district. Elder Hunt is from Snowflake, AZ and is tall and lanky. He is extremely quiet but has a strong testimony. Elder Pilling is an absolute stud. He is from Burley, ID. He is super out-going and has an infinite number of crazy stories from growing up.

Elder Brown and Elder Whitaker are also in our district. Elder Brown, from Olympus, WA, was ranked fifth in the nation for pole vault, however, after tearing his rotator cuff for a second time, he lost his scholarship to Oregon. Elder Whitaker is from Orem, UT. He played lacrosse and ran cross country in high school. He has a girlfriend a BYU who sends him pies in the mail here.

Sister Davis and Sister Lohner are the sister missionaries in our district. Sister Davis is the relative of the Pulsiphers. She is super fun and I think we would get along well off of the mission. She's from Syracuse, UT. Sister Lohner is from Provo and she went to a year at the University of Utah. She has the most German experience out of everyone.

Four of the eight of our district are fresh out of high school. Four of the eight of our district have German experience. Of course, Elder Morton and I are two of the four who have had no experience in German....

Our teacher's name is Brother Garlick. He is such an awesome guy and I want to be just like him. I like the way classes are taught here. It is not like a classical academic setting. The main focus is learning our purpose as missionaries and learning the gospel. Language always comes second. It isn't until the last hour of the three-hour class periods that we learn grammar. Brother Garlick pulled me aside yesterday and told me that I had a big influence on the class. He encouraged me to continue to set a good example. He said I had a good head on my shoulders and asked if I had a military background. He served in Frankfurt on a military base for six months so he understands the military life a bit. I love his accent--to me at least it sounds very native.

As you know, the MTC is very role play intensive. We have already taught our first "investigator" three times. The first time was on Saturday and it was a complete disaster. Neither Elder Morton nor I had the slightest idea what she was saying to us. We were trying to show her how to pray but we didn't know the word for "to close" so I just closed my eyes with my fingers and that's how she sat through the prayer--with her fingers holding her eyes closed... I lost it. She and I were crying laughing. After that lesson though, we were so discouraged.

Both Elder Morton and I were frustrated and we took it out on each other. As you suspected, I already had some trouble getting along with my companion.... Saturday night though when we went to bed we had the best heart to heart. For an hour we cried together and talked about our experiences and came to understanding. It strengthened our relationship so much and we work so well together now. After that our second lesson went SO well. With our new found love for each other and a new approach to teaching, Elder Morton and I killed it! Instead of trying to memorize sentences and spit them out like we did in the first lesson, we learned the vocabulary we needed and did our best to form our own sentences. Lesson three yesterday went just as well. Our investigator is now praying and reading das Buch Mormon.

As a district we really get along. All of us sit together at meals. At night, we as elders do a spiritual thought and prayer together. We are all trying very hard to break the habit of saying "dude" "guys" and "man." Therefore we have instituted a push-up rule. In the past week, I have done well over 1000 push- ups. That total is climbing slower and slower, especially as the reps increase by five every day. Today every slip costs you 25 reps.

Sunday was very cool. There was no class, just studying and lots of devotionals. The president of BYU spoke--he was very fiery and reminded me of dad working the pulpit. Tuesday nights are also huge devotional nights. Last night Elder Bruce C. Hafen of the First Quorum and his wife spoke on the importance of going through the temple before your mission. Good talk--he referenced Doctrine and Covenants 102. Sunday nights they show films. We went to the one on attributes of Christ because we heard it was the best. It sure was good. It was the MTC address Elder Bednar gave this past Christmas day. I loved it! It was the most candid I had ever seen Elder Bednar. He did a cookie monster impression and he said several times in several variations, "GET OVER YOURSELF!" He referenced Alma 32 and the difference between having a testimony and being truly converted.

I got Patton's letter yesterday and responded. I've been getting Hana's letters and will shoot her a note today.

I'm so grateful for this experience. I've felt the spirit a lot. I've realized a lot of things I need to work on. One of those things is focus. I realized that I was too comfortable when I first got here. Like all the kids fresh out of high school have been freaking out and for me it’s just another day. I've been too casual, like I'm back at the Academy. I miss the Academy and all but I've realized I need to treat this experience differently so that is what I am working on this week. Elder Morton and I have been reading the chapter in PMG about Christ-like attributes and we are picking one each week to work on. This week's flavor is patience!

I'm happy to be a missionary.

The church is true.

Love,

Elder Tanner Germann

Ps. I know I probably forgot some things. Hopefully I'll be able to provide additional info and experiences to individuals. And I'm sure you're wondering how my German is coming. In a week I have learned to pray, bear my testimony, and form simple sentences. At this point the hardest thing is remembering vocab. Now we are beginning to learn to speak of the past....

I love everyone!