Hamburg, here I come

Hey family and friends! I'm going to keep it short today because we're
super busy.

We had a fun week and stayed busy with appointments. At the end of the
week, we helped some of Tina's friends (Uwe and Albine) move. They
live auf dem Dreesch which is the south side of Schwerin and is
literally a communist ghetto nowadays. We basically coordinated and
did the work. Halfway through, this one woman shows up trying to win
back her Russian ex that is now dating another woman... When he rebuffed
her and told her to get lost she fell to the ground and played dead.
Then they called an ambulance and carted her off....  Life in the old DDR
I guess....  Here's what the neighborhood looks like:

Oh, also our Afghani friend wants to be baptized! He called and said
that he felt the spirit during general conference and said that it was
so nice to hear prophets and apostles speak.

Herr Daugs continues to pray and came to church this week. Speaking
of Sunday, we had a great turn out at church! Five investigators came!
Two of them were guys that we met Saturday. We had gotten a referral from a
member in Austria for the one guy. We met with him on Saturday and
while we were there, also got to know his roommate. They're both
doctors from Syria. They've been here for several months now and can
already speak some German.

Big news this week, though, is that I'm being transferred to Hamburg
on Wednesday! Elder Garner is also being transferred. So Schwerin is
getting all new missionaries which is super sad because we just got this
area up and running and we made a ton of great friendships. I'm
looking forward to working in Hamburg, though, for the final stretch
of the mission.  Here are the missionaries that we've been working with
here in Schwerin--auf Wiedersehen!!

Take care,
Elder Tanner Germann

I speak the celestial language

Greetings, dear family and friends. How did you like the Church's general
conference? The sessions that I was able to see were great. The only
one I missed was Sunday afternoon. I'm going to have to watch that
soon.

We had an appointment with our Afghani orthopedist. We taught the
restoration. I think it went pretty well. He was happy about the new
Farsi translation of the Book of Mormon. Apparently it's a lot better.
We invited him to come to general conference to hear the prophet and
apostles speak. He came Sunday and really liked it.

We met with our old German friend this past Thursday. Last week we had
taught revelation through prayer and he said he would try to pray. We
asked him if he had prayed and he said, "Yeah I prayed and you know what
happened?" He said, "I said amen and I immediately got
goosebumps! I didn't believe what happened so I tried it again and the
same thing happened again!" We took this perfect opportunity to teach
him that he felt the Holy Ghost and what the Holy Ghost does for you.
We transitioned that into how we want to feel the Holy Ghost at all
times and receive revelation through church attendance. It went really well
and he said he would come to watch general conference. A member picked him
up and he came to the priesthood session. Probably really good for him
because they talked a lot about families.

I really liked Elder Hallstrom's talk on remembering that you are a
child of God. Elder Bednar did really well, too. I gotta be honest
though, President Uchtdorf killed it. German references aside, that
was a great pump-up talk.

Zone Training meeting this week in Neubrandenburg. Transfer calls come
Sunday night. We will see what the fate is for my last full transfer!
Bis nächste Woche!

Elder Tanner Germann

Happy Easter!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday! Did you know that
in Germany they have two days to celebrate Easter--Sunday and Monday?!
Because one holiday isn't enough....  I enjoyed being here and working hard
with my companion, Elder Gardner:

We spent the week trying our hardest to share the Church's new Hallelujah video: https://www.lds.org/church/news/watch-and-share-2016-easter-video-hallelujah?lang=eng
We didn't see a crazy amount of success on the street sharing it with
people but we did have some luck going by less active members' homes in
the ward. We went by this one man that hasn't been to church in
several years. He's not physically well. Not necessarily connected but
may have something to do with it--he is a hoarder. My goodness
I have never see an apartment like it. Anyways, oddly enough,
when we stopped by, a woman from the ward was there visiting him.
Apparently she's made it a point to be his home teacher. We we able to
share the Easter message with them. We also went by a
new member and I got to meet her for the first time. She was actually
baptized a year ago by a fellow USAFA cadet. She was super nice and
said that message was exactly what she needed.

So something happened to the Zone Leaders in Rostock. Not sure
what but they got sent out of the city this past week and are starting up a
second area in Neubrandenburg. Haven't heard from the office yet
but that means we're technically a lone companionship out in the
middle of nowhere. Not sure if I'm still district leader or what. More to
come on that.  Here we are at the Schwerin Schloss (palace) before they
left and some of the amazing sights from inside:

We had a really solid lesson with our old German friend on Thursday.
We've been studying the First Twelve Weeks program as a companionship,
the program you go through as a new missionary trainee and we've been
trying to stick to the basic fundamentals of teaching. I've found throughout the
mission that the fundamentals are truly inspired and if one can stick
to those, he'll be a great teacher. We taught revelation through
prayer--really simply explained and he committed to start praying.
Really good news is that he told us when he's fishing every afternoon,
he thinks about the things we talk about and he feels like they're
true. That evening we met with Matthias, who we're trying to prepare
for baptism. He has a sincere desire but the hard thing is, he has a
learning disability. Progress is a sloooww grind.

Tina, the new member who referred Matthias, had us over for dinner
Friday night. Matthias was supposed to come but he bailed so Tina
invited her childhood friend and her husband. They were some cool
people! Crazy thing, Tina and her friend started talking about the
clinic they grew up in. Back behind the curtain, it was rare that a
mentally handicapped person was in the general public. The communists
put them all in clinics. Tina and her friend spent years growing up in
one. You can imagine how awful that would have been. They said for
weeks at a time they would drug them. They would come in, administer
anesthesia, and do it again as soon as they'd wake up. That's inhuman!!
Here is Tina today--see Schwerin in the background.

Not too many people were in the church Sunday. That evening we went
and visited a man that is super cool and has loads of potential. He is an
orthopedist from Afghanistan and worked several years for the Red Cross.
He is a devout Christian and was nearly hanged for it before he and
his family escaped. He let us in and he had just been taking some
notes on the resurrected Savior. He was confused though because Luke
and Paul in 1 Corinthians say different things--Luke said the savior
appeared to Simon Peter and Paul says he appeared the Cephas. I was
able to use my New Testament knowledge and tell him that Cephas means
rock and is another name for Peter, so they're actually talking about
the same person and confirming witnesses. He just lost
contact with the missionaries in the past. He was really excited to
hear that we have a brand new translation of the Book of
Mormon in Farsi. The last one, from 1985, was apparently not very
good. We are going to meet with him on Wednesday and share with him
the restoration.

We got a referral last week. I called her and she said, "Let's
set up an appointment!"  Ja wohl! We're also going to see Tina and
Matthias a couple of times and I'm hoping we can get an appointment with
Tina and Olaf, another of Tina's friends who's super nice. He was born
and raised in Schwerin. I still have a hard time understanding his
accent. He definitely reminds me of Olaf from Frozen!  Speaking of which,
it's still cold here!!

This week I finished Second Nephi. Nephi does a great job just
teaching basic doctrine and bearing testimony. I think he even gets a
bit poetic when he says, "Ich frohlocke in Klarheit; ich frohlocke in
Wahrheit; ich frohlocke in meinem Jesus, denn er hat meine Seele von
der Hölle erlöst."

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Tanner Germann

Exchange in Rostock

I'm sitting on the street car right now waiting for the police to
come. A bunch of teenagers pulled the emergency brake.

I watched it happen; I don't think it was on purpose. But it doesn't help that they
were all drinking.... I'm afraid we'll be late to our next appointment.

Otherwise my week was okay. Monday night we had a dinner appointment
with the zone leaders at woman's house who was super nice. She's a
good friend of the branch president in Rostock and she's had a good
relationship with the missionaries for the past couple of years.
Afterward I had an exchange of companions with Elder Allen to Rostock.
It was a really good time. It was really cool to see how much he has matured
since the beginning of his mission. I walked away with a
couple of pointers. He showed me a new, very active and effective way
of doing member work which I've always been weak on. We had a member
appointment and he really controlled the time and conversation with
a step by step plan.  Here's our chapel in Schwerin:

District meeting on Wednesday went well. I led a reading and
discussion on John 20. We also had a family home evening with our new
convert Tina and her friend Olaf. Tina is doing well and it was a
really good time teaching the restoration to Olaf. He's the one that
came to the choir concert last week.  Here are a couple of landmarks here
in Schwerin--the Schloss (palace) as well as the oldest home here:

Thursday we met with our old German friend again. Well it was actually
kinda funny. We were a bit early so we got off the train a stop early and
ended up seeing him nearby just taking a walk. We decided to follow
him assuming he was headed back home for our appointment. After
awhile he got so far away and it was time for the appointment that we
flagged him down. It was kinda awkward though because there was no
good way to act like we casually ran into him. It had
slipped his mind but we walked back together and taught the plan of
salvation together with a member that we had invited. He takes
everything in very well, I just don't feel like he takes it seriously
enough. This week we're really going to try to get him to do
something. That evening we had a member appointment and I was able to
implement what I learned on my exchange to lead the lesson. It went
really well. The member's wife is not a member so it was good
for her and good for us to get to know her.  Here's the home they've built
on a reservoir...no motor boating/wake boarding unfortunately!

We went down to Perleberg on Friday to visit an Iranian family. A mix
up of train times kinda ruined the whole thing but we ended up in
Ludwigslust for awhile and went by a member's house who hadn't been
to church in awhile. This lady was so happy to see us she said, "Meine
Elders!" We walked in and she had Jehovahs Witnesses over trying to
convert her....  They left and we had a sweet little talk with her about Easter.

We finally had a lesson with the guy that's supposed to be getting
ready to be baptized. It went alright. We taught the plan of
salvation. He doesn't say much. But Tina said that he had a lot of
good thoughts about it and wanted to ask a few questions next time. We
have two appointments set up for Thursday and Friday this next week.  We
also visited our members again who are restoring the manor--they have sheep!

The family that I was talking about last week had to move the
appointment back a week. The husband's uncle died in Hamburg and he
had to go there.

I wish everyone a happy Easter! #Hallelujah

Elder Tanner Germann

www.mormon.org/Easter

Surprise trip to Berlin

Hey y'all! Hope everyone's having a great week. Things are warming up
here in Schwerin after this past week.

Thursday we had an appointment with the old German man we met last
week at the tram stop. This week we taught the restoration and it went
pretty well. You know, everyone's a little different with their
knowledge and with him we really had to keep it basic. I mean he was
born and raised in the DDR but he was so surprised when we told him
that Christ was crucified. But he participated well and
seemed to understand everything. He liked the restoration video and
when we invited him the be baptized if he found out if these things
were true, he said he would think about it. That something to work with.

Friday we had zone training meeting in Berlin. I love Berlin! Here's my attempt
at an artsy B&W:

I was able to have a quick lunch with Elder Nearon and then at the meeting I
gave a lesson on the baptism of Christ. It went pretty well. So at this
point I'm an old missionary and I had never seen any of the
missionaries there before except for my companion and one other guy that
was in my first group. A younger missionary came up to me after the
meeting and thanked me for my lesson and told me that I was a good
teacher. That was very nice given that I have been teaching every day
for more than a year now!  I really enjoyed being in Berlin again.

Saturday we went to Wismar where we had made an appointment out last
week. We went to tell him that we needed to reschedule which was fine
because he was sick anyway. His wife answered the door and talked to
us for a few minutes. I don't know the exact story, hopefully I'll
figure it out this week, but this family is prepared for our message. So the
husband was found by missionaries about a year and a half ago. They had one
lesson and then lost contact. He and the wife, who has two sons, must
have gotten together recently because she said just a year ago she was
living in Cottbus and met several times with the sisters there. She
asked us how two specific sisters (sisters that we know) were doing
and we said, "Huuhh?" She said she read the Book of Mormon with
them and they brought the kids the picture version. So now we're
meeting with the whole crew on Saturday so fingers crossed that it
goes well. Saturday evening there was a chorus concert at the church.
The choir was made up of members mostly from the Hannover area. Our
new convert here brought a friend who we're now going to meet with
twice this coming week!  Here's an Easter display at the mall...with chics!

Sunday was branch conference which focused on keeping the Sabbath day
holy. There were some great talks by the stake president and his first
counselor.

I wish y'all a great week!

Love,
Elder Tanner Germann

First week in Schwerin

The first week is in the books in Schwerin and this is very
similar to the beginning of my mission in Magdeburg. Let me
tell you, the contrast between what was West Germany and East
Germany is a stark one. Many things here still embody the grayness
of times behind the curtain.

I arrived Tuesday and met my companion Elder Garner. He was in my
group at the Missionary Training Center. The outlook of the area
right now is finding, finding, finding. Two weeks ago the elders set a
baptismal goal with someone for about five weeks from now but otherwise
there's nothing going on.  Here is a pic of me and Elder Garner:

Wednesday we had district meeting which went smoothly. It's definitely
a different kind of dynamic than what I'm used to. It's just us, the Zone Leaders
and senior couple in Rostock. The senior couple are Germans
and come to district meeting every week which is cool. The youngest
missionary is Elder Allen who's now been out just under a year so
everyone here can speak solid German and knows what they're doing
which is nice.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were spent finding/contacting. We had
some success getting in contact with old investigators in both
Schwerin and Wismar up on the Baltic coast. I found Wismar especially
pretty. Here are the pigs at the end of the Schweinsbrücke--literally "the
pig bridge."

It was cool--Wednesday we went by a less active member that just
moved to help him work on the final details in his new apartment and
as we were leaving we said a prayer together and prayed that we would
be able to find a new investigator. He said that that always used to
happen when the missionaries came to visit--they would always find
someone new afterwards. We went out and that evening knocked doors
throughout an apartment building, about 130 apartments. No luck. Here's
what DDR-era apartments look like.  A non-stop maze of drab buildings.

We finished and headed back to the street car stop to head home for the
night. On the way there we stopped a man who we then engaged in a good
discussion about God and his plan for us. We told him about the Book
of Mormon and gave it to him then made an appointment for Saturday.

We met with him Saturday and it was a nice visit. We spent most of the
time getting to know each other but he seems really open for the Book
of Mormon. He's not religious but had Sunday school when he was young
and is really open to our message. We walked in and he had put the Book
of Mormon on display on the shelf right over his TV. We're meeting
this next week so that should be good. We also had another lesson with
a family that has been investigating the church for ten years now.
Actually it's an interesting situation--the mother is a Ukrainian Jew
who was baptized into the church several years ago but long inactive.
The father is Indian. The children have real interest but there's no
real encouragement coming from either parent. It turned out
that the dad doesn't believe in the divinity of Christ. Not sure
what's been going on the past ten years but that definitely helps to know
that when teaching.

Sunday went well. The second thing said to me was, "Can you play the
piano?" This piano karma is following me everywhere.... The members
were welcoming and I was able to immediately contribute by playing the
piano. We had a dinner appointment afterwards with a member family
who just moved into the branch last year. They bought a rundown 150
year-old manor and are getting paid by the government to restore it.
Man, that is a work in progress....  Here's another church in Schwerin:

One thing I noticed this week that I didn't really ever notice in
Magdeburg, perhaps because I didn't know any different, is the feeling
you get in when you're in those areas of DDR-era buildings, really at
this point, ghettos. You really feel a heaviness.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Elder Tanner Germann