Behind the curtain

That's right, folks. I'm off to Schwerin tomorrow. The area borders
Lübeck to the east and is just over the border in what was east Germany
in the poorest state in the country--Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. I'm
on a train bright and early tomorrow.

My time in Lübeck felt like it flew. I really did enjoy it. We saw a
lot of success and progress in the work and I had some wonderful
experiences with great people.  Here is a picture of our great ward mission
leader and David, a member from Mexico studying here in Germany.

One of the people that I will miss most is our old man that was held
back from being baptized by his kids. I always looked forward to our
visits on Tuesdays. This last week we watched Elder Holland's talk
entitled Lord, I Believe with him and he loved it. That one gives me
chills. It really brought the Spirit into the lesson. I will also miss
our old friend Imanuel and his Apfelkompott. I will miss Br Goltz. It
was always a pleasure to visit with him. I hope he continues to
progress and I'm excited for him to be baptized. I will miss the ward.
The bishop got up on Sunday and thanked Sister Hammer and me both over
the pulpit since we both were leaving. He got a little teary up there.
I was able to bear my testimony on Sunday as well.

I will also miss our apartment here--not much to look at but home!

Also this last week I was asked to give a lesson at district meeting
on finding. I decided to focus mainly on street contacting because
that's my favorite and I feel like the art will die off if no one
passes it along. I think it's really easy for missionaries to shrug it
off because they're nervous or uncomfortable. For me, some of my
favorite experiences on the mission have come from talking to
everybody on the street. It's such a good feeling when you finally
meet someone who has interest and wants to learn more. I was fired
up talking about it!

Here is David again with his friend, Nanditha, whom we taught several times.

Elder Peatross is now training which means there will be three
trainees in that district. I told them one of my tricks to
training--something that I did with Elder Oldroyd, when we went street
contacting I would tell him, "Okay Elder, I'm not saying a word for
the next 45 minutes. You're on. Ready, set, go." Haha the trainers in
the district liked that idea.

I traded companions with the DL after district meeting in
the suburbs of Hamburg. I was still super pumped to go finding and
they didn't have any appointments so we talked to everyone we saw on
the street that day and the next. We found them a handful of new
people to work with.

I'm excited to see something new. Back to the east it is. Maybe
Schwerin is where I'll end my mission?

Elder Tanner Germann