Ups and downs

Hello all!!

We experienced the ups and downs this past week that are expected in
mission work.

Monday night we had an appointment with our young friend trying to get
rid of old addictions. We had the elders quorum president with us who
has now been to several appointments with this friend. Our friend
showed up an hour and a half late though he kept telling us only a
couple of more minutes. The appointment was honestly really weird. He
was not acting normal, obviously on something. But he still had the
desire to change and be baptized. Two days later he called us and said
he was leaving Lübeck to run away from nagging debts. Another two
days past and he said he had completely lost his faith and God and he
has given up trying to stop his addictions. All that we can do is pray
for him at this point. We're going to go by next week to see if we can
save the situation but prayer is what we have for now.

Tuesday was district meeting followed by a district pic at the
Holstentor. We had our usual lesson with our old English teacher
friend that wants to be baptized but his children are against it.
We've been studying the Family Proclamation together. He has a hard
time grasping the concept that God has a body/that God is literally
the father of our spirits. We also went by Imanuel's that evening who
had been sick. We hadn't seen him for a week and a half and were
beginning to worry that he had passed on.

Wednesday we had a great day planned with ward missionary council and
three lessons and then everything fell through and no one was home! I
haven't had a day like that since my days in Magdeburg when everyone
decided to just give us false addresses.  Here is a picture of the Ward Mission
Leader and our district after the meeting:

We bounced back though on Thursday with a great day. The regular
appointment with Br Goltz went great as usual. We rushed back to
Lübeck and took our Ward Mission Leader to an appointment with the
other family we had found a couple of weeks ago. It went really great. They
loved each other. The man's daughter joined in and we were able to teach a
powerful lesson on the restoration. The daughter said she could read
fast and that she would be through the Book of Mormon in two weeks.
They're really excited to have us back and Br Nowak is really excited
to go back. He told the bishop all about it. Afterwards we had an
dinner appointment with a less active member that just moved into the
ward. I really enjoyed getting to know him. He said he wants to start
coming back to church. I had so much compassion for the man. You could
tell he's had a rough life.

We stayed busy Friday as well visiting several less active members.
One just had his appendix removed so we took a young adult his age
with and visited him. We've been working hard with the bishop to
reactivate him. The bishop called me an hour after our visit wanting to
know when we were going to visit him again. I said an hour ago.... He said
Wow, great but you know we want you to take a young adult from the
ward with you. I said yeah we took one with us! The bishop said oh
wow! You're way ahead of the curve. That's always a good feeling.

Saturday morning we did our weekly planning and got döner for lunch.
It was the first one I had in a while cause for me they kind of got
old. But this döner was actually wicked good because I had the guy put
fries in it and curry sauce. That afternoon there was a ward
activity where everyone brought their favorite board game and then we
played them. We had a couple of the less-active members that we had
visited come as well as a bunch of the Farsi speakers. It was a good
time. Following that we had a lesson with the Farsi speakers and we
taught the Ten Commandments.

We had five Farsi-speaking people at church again but no translation... This is
very frustrating. We had a nice dinner appointment with the bishop
and his family that afternoon. This coming week is the last week of
the transfer. We'll find out Saturday if I stay or if I go.

Take care!

Elder Tanner Germann

It's still winter in Lübeck

Moin moin! Coming to y'all live from Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein,
Germany. This past week was a standard missionary week full of little
miracles.

Monday for preparation day we went up to Travemünde, the north part of Lübeck,
and went and walked on the beach and the pier. It's actually a
vacation destination with a couple of big hotels but we had the place
to ourselves.

Tuesday morning we went to zone conference in Kiel. I was pretty happy
with the lessons that we heard there. There was a solid one on the
role of the Holy Ghost in conversion. President gave a solid lesson on
repentance. And the Neumünster stake president came and gave a really
good lesson on working with members. It was super nice to hear it from
his perspective as a member here but also as the leader of the stake.
I remember listening to him speak at stake conference a couple of
months ago and I really enjoyed his words. Super intelligent guy, a
lawyer.

We traded companions following zone conference. I hosted Elder Jensen, a brand
new trainee, in Lübeck. I gave him a few nuggets of my wisdom and we
actually did solid work together. We went to see an old investigator and
ended up having a long conversation with him at the door. He has MS
which has set in pretty strongly and he's only in his late forties. He
still hasn't come to grips with why this has happened to him. We bore
testimony of God's plan for us that asked him if we could come by next
week to share that with him. He accepted! For some reason, everyone
decided to call on Wednesday saying that they wanted to meet. An old
investigator called and a less active member saying he wanted to come
back to the church.

Thursday we had our usual appointment with Br Goltz. It's really cool
to see his understanding of the gospel develop. He's been of the
opinion that the only commandants are to love God and to love your
neighbor which is true but then he thought that other commandments
like paying tithing and keeping the Sabbath day holy were not
necessary at all anymore. After studying and us teaching about it,
he's come to an understanding of why we have these commandments and
what it means to follow them.

Friday was a fire hose of appointments. We met with that less active
member wanting to come back to church. We had a good conversation
getting to know each other. He still has a testimony of everything,
but he had been offended at church in the past. How often do we see that. It
really hurts to see these people who stop coming because of something
someone else said or did. By doing that, you deny yourself blessings.
But it's good that he's reaching out and of course we want to have him
back. Following that we met with the old investigator that called. He
brought a friend who was super cool. We taught the restoration and it
was awesome to see the spirit come in as we spoke. You could tell he
was feeling it because the way he listened and responded changed.
Right after that our young friend came and we talked about the
atonement. He had a question about why God forsook Christ on the
cross. We explain that God was with him but that he had to withdraw
his spirit in order to allow Christ to experience our trials. After
that we went to the Fachhochschule and met with our member friend
there and his Hindu roommate. It had been awhile so we went back over
where Christianity came from, Old and New Testaments, etc. I used
pictures from our Middle East trip to give a better image of what we
talked about. That went really well.

Saturday morning we had a service project at a member's house felling
trees. There's a row of trees splitting two farms--that's what we were
cutting down. According to German law, these types of trees can be cut
down every seven years but it all has to be done by March 15. After
March 15 it's illegal because then birds start nesting, etc. This will
be their fire wood when it dries out. In 2018. Hah. Afterwards we
went to the church and had our normal Farsi speaker lesson. The new
friend that came last time brought her husband and kids so now we're
teaching a family! We also met with our young friend again and
discussed scripture study. We decided to do a mock-scripture study as
a lesson. We just read Alma 5:40-46 and pulled so much out of it.

No one who could translate into Farsi came to church. Super awkward
when all of the investigators come and they don't understand anything.
But yeah we need to do better this week.

I wish everyone a good week!

Elder Tanner Germann

Have no fear; Jesus Christ died for you

Hi y'all. Just a quick update from this past week.

We're making progress with our 23 year old friend who was supposed to
be baptized back at the end of last month. We actually got together a
couple of times this past week and were able to have some good
lessons. Monday night we studied 1 Nephi 8 together, discussing it and
drawing Lehi's Dream on the board. On Wednesday night we were then
able to teach tithing and fasting/fast offerings. He came to church on
Sunday as well!

Tuesday afternoon we went to see the man who had referred himself
after we dropped a card in his mailbox. Finally he was home and so we
were able to share a lesson with him. It was really cool to notice the
Spirit work with him. We knew that he needed to hear the restoration
so we taught that and afterwards he asked us if we could come back
next week. He said he really likes hearing us talk about the gospel.
Tuesday night we had Apfelkompott with Imanuel again!! Super yummy. We
brought him a present--a white shirt and tie that he can wear now on
Sunday to church. He wore it Sunday and looked great. He was so
thankful.

Thursday we met with Br Goltz. He's still doing super well. He had
read Heleman 5 for homework and then for the lesson we just had him
teach us, which he did really well. Thursday night we had that
appointment with the family in Travemünde. It wasn't the miracle
lesson that we were hoping and praying for but it did turn out
alright. It was weird though--the room cleared as soon as we came and
and so we only talked to the dad. Not sure why his wife didn't even
stay. But he was super nice. Had a good impression from the
missionaries in the past. We took the time getting to know each other
and talking about our purpose. He is a teacher at a Berufsschule
downtown. He said he was going to tell his class that he met with two
Americans who could speak great German! Haha, the problem is, he
tried to convey to us that the Mormons are too "hardcore" or something
like that. Which to me sounds like a lack of understanding of the
commandments of God. But he agreed to have us come back and
teach him about the gospel. He had no idea that the church was so
into genealogy and that's something that interests him so he's going
to come to the church to do that some time.

That's one thing I've thought about this week--I think in people's
minds they imagine church as this massive cathedral. I really like the
modern design of our churches. There's a more homey, warm feeling. And
there's more to do than just church! We have activities regularly as
well!

The man that we gave the Book of Mormon to last week has been hard to
get in touch with. Well actually, we've caught him at home two
different times now but he just hasn't had time. We've gone by a
number of other people/met a few new people who have invited us back
so we will be stopping by throughout the next days.

There was drama in the Farsi class this week. It was a great lesson
and one of them even brought a new friend with, but the problem is
they don't quite understand why they have to wait until they have
permanent residency to be baptized. And because of that the
conversation got interesting. They said we should have said that up
front because now they feel like they're not wanted but it's not about
that at all. It's about their safety and their families' safety.
If they have a testimony they should want to be baptized
anyway. I think they realize that, for some reason though, they took
offense for feeling like outsiders.

Saturday night we got in contact with another family and we are
meeting next week. A bunch of people came to church again and I
translated all three hours. We're allowed to do an hour of family
history work on Sunday's now so I got to do some indexing this week.

I hope everyone a good week!

Elder Tanner Germann

Area book success

Hello again everyone!

Sorry I'm a bit late again this week but still
wanted to make sure that I updated you on the happenings here in
Lübeck.

We had a solid lesson on Tuesday with Rex, the man that wants to be
baptized but his children are against it. We had given him Mosiah 4 to
read in the Book of Mormon and to consider how he could strengthen his
family relationships. We also gave him The Proclamation: The Family for
a reading assignment.

Here is Brother Imanuel and Apfelkompott (apple sauce so thick the spoon
stands up!!

Here is a random WWII truck parked outside the church:

This is a the Kücknitz neighborhood we work in often:

This past week we took a lot of time to visit people that had met with
the missionaries in the past or old contacts that missionaries had
written down. We saw a lot of success from it! Well, we got in contact
with a lot of the people and had some really good conversations. Some
even let us in and we were able to have a good gospel discussion. On
Wednesday we got in touch with a family that was super nice and told
us that we could come back whenever we wanted. Having these people to
go by is nice because it gives you direction but I've found on the
mission that the most success comes from the people you talk to on the
street in between the old contacts. For example, that's how we met
Angelica in Marzahn. We met a guy on the street on Wednesday that was
super nice and invited us over to share with him the Book of Mormon.
We're going by again at the end of this week to teach him about the
Restoration. Wednesday we taught a German class again to the two
Afghans that normally come.

Sunrise on Sunday:

 Here's the resort Travemünde and the Baltic Sea:

Thursday we had our usual lesson with Br Goltz. We set a baptismal
date with him for the 26th of March! He is super excited and of course
we are too. He had studied 3 Nephi 11 this past week and basically
gave us a lesson on it. It was beautiful. We went to Oldenburg
afterwards to visit a guy that Elder Hein and I had found about a
transfer ago. Long story short, the guy told us that he is the second
coming of Jesus Christ. We will not be going back there. On the train
ride back, I finally got ahold of a man that Elder Jensen had met with
a couple of times but ever since I've been here, we've never met with
him. Elder Jensen told me that the guy wanted to be baptized and that
we would invite him the next time we met but that next time never
came. So I talked to him on the phone for awhile and it was weird. He
was talking about reincarnation and what a philosopher has said and
has written. I was really confused. I asked him if he had
read in the Book of Mormon and prayed about and he said no
so I invited him to do that and bore testimony.  So hopefully we will be
able to meet again.

 

Friday we met with Amir, who was baptized in September, and we
recapped the law of chastity. Afterwards we went to Travemünde which
is the northernmost part of Lübeck. It's actually a resort area so
it's super nice. We visited a family that had met with the
missionaries once in the past and they were super! They invited us
back so we are ready to go there Thursday evening.

Saturday we had the normal Farsi speakers lesson. It went really well.
Now two of them bring notebooks in which they have taken notes about
what they have studied in the Book of Mormon. They want to be
baptized! Unfortunately, they need to wait until they have permanent
residency here.

I've been racing through the New Testament and I find it so
interesting how much the apostles prophesied about the Apostasy. Paul
wrote all about it in First and Second Thessalonians, as well as about
the second coming of Christ, which we all should be preparing for! And
what's wonderful is, the priesthood will never leave the earth again.

Have a great week!

Elder Tanner Germann

February is upon us!

Hi all,

This week was a better week because we did a lot of finding. We also went through the area book and plotted everyone there in our iPads. We found a lot of success including a super nice family that we are meeting with on Thursday. We also found one man on the street who we should be meeting with tonight. One investigator who is struggling with drugs showed up to church.  He starts a job today and has been clean for a couple of days.  We committed Goltz to baptism Easter weekend. This area book is well organized now.  I really think that that shows a lot about a missionary--how clean it is, up to date, etc.

Currently in my study I'm racing through the new testament.  I'm in Thessalonians. On the 9th, I'll stop where ever I am and begin Doctrine and Covenants. I did the math and that will mean that I will get through it reading one section a day until I fly home in June. At the same time, the goal is to start and finish the book of Mormon again.

Shorter letter today but lots of pics!  Here's a furniture store owned by some of our relatives no doubt!

 We had district meeting this week--everyone is happy and working hard!

 Still have an eye for the ladies...nice cars that is!  Saw this GT-R this week:

 This ice rink popped up during the holidays here in Lubeck:

 These are like funnel cakes but little balls--they keep us going!

 At the rink--no skating for the missionaries though!

Love you!

Elder Germann

Third round in Lübeck

Hello family and friends! How's everyone doing? Just wanted to report
on the events of the last week! I'm staying in Lübeck here for another
transfer!

Monday I did the fitness test for my reapplication to the Air Force Academy.
Of course I didn't do so great on it but I think I've kept myself in
good enough shape to do satisfactorily. It was below freezing
temperatures all week so doing the test in that was not so much fun.

Here's a picture of my former companion and a recent baptism in my last
area.  So happy for him!

I had reported to you that we had invited a man to live like a Mormon
for four weeks and if he saw good fruits from it, we invited him to be
baptized at the end of it. We went and saw him last week and he was
waiting for us outside. I knew that meant bad news. His children
forbade him from joining the church. He had told his family that he
wanted to be baptized and they reacted negatively. Thats not the
normal situation we're used to--old man being forbade by his children.
Problem is the family knows nothing about religion let alone about the
church. He wants us to speak to his family but they aren't willing to.
We had a good lesson with him this week. We invited him to live like a
Mormon anyway. His family is bound to notice a change for the better
if he lives like that.

Friday we had district meeting. Elder Stott and Sister Hammer came
with their trainees. Gosh it's been awhile since I've heard trainee
German! I gave a short lesson out of the white handbook on how we
should conduct ourselves during meetings, etc. we had a dinner
appointment that afternoon and then two lessons that evening, one with
our friend that was supposed to be baptized this past week. He's been
going AWOL and has taken a few steps backwards. Kinda doubting things
but he knows he can't deny the spirit that he's already felt. We're
praying hard for him.

Here's my favorite chocolate..with kittens?

Class with the Persian speakers went super well. One of them took
lots of notes on the chapters we gave them to read. We really have to
move slow with them. But the translating during sacrament meeting is
really helping. They're starting to tie things together that they hear
during church.

I was asked short notice to speak during sacrament meeting. I gave a
talk on our attitude during the sacrament and how we should conduct
ourselves. I used the example of Joseph Smith when he prayed to find
out his standing before the Lord. The Apostle Paul taught that the
sacrament is to be a self examination. I thought it went well. Didn't
use any notes, just spoke to the few scriptures that I picked out.

I wish everyone a great week!

Love,

Elder Tanner Germann