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
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