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
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