Obedience is paramount!

Guten Tag jeden!

 

I hope that all is well back in the States and that everyone is preparing for an exciting Thanksgiving week.  Here I am in the middle of some fall foliage in Magdeburg!

 

Monday we had an abbreviated preparation day because we had a district preparation day on Wednesday following district meeting.  We got our grocery shopping and emails done and then proceeded to do missionary work.  We traded companions with other missionaries in the city an went finding.  We were able to find a new investigator that afternoon--a really nice Indian girl studying at the University.  As we move about the city, I see lots of contrasts like in the pictures here--a building that is half DDR (East German) era with graffiti on one side and modern on the other.  And nearby, a church where it is said that Martin Luther preached.  He did attend school here in Magdeburg in 1497:

Tuesday morning following study we updated the area book--that was much needed.  The area book is so important--without a record of the work you do, there is no continuity to the work when missionaries are transferred.  The next elders need to know the teaching pool and much success can be found through contacting old or potential investigators in the area book.  We had an appointment with the Greek man, Margaritis, that we found last week.  We couldn't find him in his building. His name is on one of the mailboxes so we know he lives there, but none of his neighbors knew him.  It turned out though that one of our other referrals lived in that same building so we went there.  She was super nice but wasn't really interested at first.  Then she softened and agreed to meet with us this coming week.  We are actually going over there tomorrow.  Elder Sagmeister then had to go on a chocolate run.  That is becoming a usual thing since he is practically addicted to chocolate.  It hit me this week how ridiculous it is that one of the five aisles in every German grocery store is for exclusively chocolate.  Afterwards, we went to an appointment with Dinh, the Vietnamese woman.  The Romneys, the senior missionary couple, came along, too.  It was a bit difficult at first to get the lesson going because Dinh wanted to show us the painting that she did all over her apartment.  She was also a bit flustered because she forgot she told us that she would feed us.  Finally we got the lesson going and it actually turned out well.  She said she has been looking for a religion that could promise her eternity with her family.  We extended an invitation to be baptized.  Her little girls immediately said yes!  She said that she needs to read the BoM.  Cool!  We are going back over there on Wednesday and she said she would feed us this time...for sure.  After the lesson, the Romneys took us to dinner with the other two elders.  We ride the bahns (trains) every day, they are very busy and full.  I took this picture because it is so rare to be on one of these without any other riders:

 

Wednesday we had district meeting and then district preparation day.  We went to the Magdeburg Zoo together.  We basically had the place to ourselves.  It was a pretty standard zoo except we got to feed the elephants and go in the lemur exhibit and run around with them.  I traded companions that evening and worked with Elder Haas into Thursday.

 

We had branch missionary council Thursday morning.  That afternoon we helped a woman from the branch move.  She is having a baby and so she and her husband want more space.  They moved just five minutes away from their old apartment into a really nice two story apartment.  That night we traded companions back and Elder Sagmeister and I ran to our appointment with Galia, the Peruvian woman Elder Stringham and I met last week.  We met the Romneys there.  I led the lesson and it went really well.  We found out that she is actually a member.  She was baptized 12 years ago in Spain.  Two months after her baptism, her first husband forbade her from going to church.  She said she loved church though and all the ward activities they had in Spain.  She said she's been looking for a Mormon church here in Germany.  Her boyfriend is a German and brought her here with her son and they live together.  The son is 9 years old and he is super prepared for the gospel.  He refused to eat a meal or go to bed unless a prayer was said.  The boyfriend is also super open to the gospel as well.  We taught the first lesson and they loved it.  They said that would come to church on Sunday. (They actually didn't so we'll have to figure out what happened there.)  They invited us back over on Thursday for the second lesson and a Spanish meal!  

 

Friday we had study as usual in the morning and then weekly planning.  We have high goals for this coming week!  Friday night we went to Br. Titigue's house for dinner.  He fed us so much food and told us his life story.  His dream is to go to one day go to the Salt Lake City temple.  We shared a message about Thanksgiving.  We have visited several times that family who bought the old train station to fix up and live in--here's a picture of that:

 

Saturday we went to get a quote for our bikes since they both need a tune up but apparently every bike shop in Germany is closed on Saturdays.  We went on splits (exchanged companions) again.  Elder Stringham and I had some really good conversations on the street but everyone declined our offer to learn more about the Book of Mormon.  We went into a cafe for some hot chocolate and the girl that served us started to talk to us about the Church.  She said she was an exchange student in high school in Las Vegas.  Her host family was Mormon and took her to church and youth night every week.  Every exchange student they hosted ended up joining the Church...except her.  She was super nice and said maybe we'll see her at church sometime.  She said she has been in church here a couple of times.  Saturday night we had an appointment with the Aleksandroves.  We had a member family show up too but the Aleksandroves weren't home.  We called and they had totally forgoten about the appointment--they went to Bremen for the weekend.  We need to confirm appointments.  We also had our appointment with the Indian girl we found.  She took a Book of Mormon and said she would read it but that she didn't want to meet with us again.  We will be stopping by there again for sure to follow up.  We found another new investigator, also a student, that night on the way home.

 

Yesterday in church we did not have any investigators which was a big disappointment.  Our Gospel Principles class went well though.  We had a less-active family there and a new convert.  After church the Staigers had us over for dinner.  They are such a nice family!  They have us over every week practically since no one else from the branch signs up to feed us.  They took us to choir afterwards.  Choir is interesting.  I can fake singing parts in English but its just embarrassing in German.  Also, the choir is supposed to sing 21 different songs.  We haven't practiced any song more than once yet in the three practices I have been to.

 

This week we have transfer calls and then transfers next week.  I am really hoping I stay here!  I love it here in Magdeburg.  This is my last week of being a trainee too!  How exciting!

I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

 

Love,

Elder Tanner Germann

Meine Gute Eine Tute

Wow, this week flew by, didn't it?  That always happens in the fall during football season.  Wait, I haven't watched any football this year. But that's okay because this past week was a good one--we had a zone training meeting that got us fired up about finding and teaching:

 

Tuesday was a really good day.  We went to the Aleksandroves that morning and took the Romneys.  The Aleksandrove family is the Bulgarian family we found about a week ago.  It was quite the lesson.  We had about four languages going on--we were teaching the Restoration in German to the older son, who was then translating the lesson into Bulgarian for the mother, then we were translating what was going on into English for Sis. Romney, all while President Romney was trying to speak Spanish to them though every other word was in German or English...lol.  (They spent eight of the last ten years in Spain).  Despite the craziness, it went really well.  The mother said she believes that there are prophets today and she believed that everything that we taught was true.  She said she has been praying for people like us to show up for the past year.  They literally have nothing.  Their appartment is empty.  She and her husband split in Bremen three months ago and she had to run with nothing but her kids.  She is still looking for a job here but she cannot speak German so that really limits things.  They hadn't had food in two weeks so the Romneys offered to buy a little food out of their pocket.  I was super uncomfortable with this because their testmonies must develop organically.  The Romneys made it clear it was a one-time deal.  The important thing is, she said she believed what we were teaching first, and then she saw the blessing of the Romneys' graciousness.  After the lesson, the Romneys went to the grocery store across the street.  President Romney was about to buy out the store but I stopped him and said they should get what missionaries live off of--noodles and Maggi Packs.  It was super cheap but that food will last them awhile.  We brought the food back to them and the mother was so grateful.  We found two new investigators that afternoon--a Greek man and a German, who when we told him about the Book of Mormon said, "Yeah! Yeah, of course I'd love to read that.  Come over on Saturday!"  That evening we had an appointment with the Vietnamese woman, Dinh, that we met on the bahn the other night.  The Romneys came to that, too.  They were a little late but we caught her perfectly.  She was so excited to show us her appartment and all her pictures.  She was painting the walls with poster paint.  She was so nice and she invited us back with the Romneys to dinner tomorrow--looking forward to that.  That evening, the Romneys took four of us, the elders, out to dinner.  I am in love with schnitzel!

Wednesday morning we had district meeting.  Following that, we did district finding.  I went out with Elder Stringham since we were going to be working together later that day.  President asked us to trade with Elder Stringham and Morton to show them what has helped us in our finding.  Elder Stringham is a year and a half out on his mission so I wasn't sure what I could teach him but I think I was able to give good pointers.  The first thing I highlighted was persistence.  When people respond neutrally or hesitantly, we can't immediately give them a pass-along card and wish them a good day.  Street contacting must also be quick.  I think it is important to realize that people are generally going somewhere and you don't want to keep them too long.  Elder Sagmeister and I have generally been talking to people for about five minutes.  We usually say something like, "Schön guten Tag!  Wir würden gern mit Ihnen sprechen über etwas zu uns ganz besonderes ist.  Es heißt das Buch Mormon.  Haben Sie je davon gehört? *insert short explanation and testimony here* Wir schenken dies Buch an die Menschen.  Wir würden gern mit Ihnen eine von ihnen teilen.  Gibt es eine andere besser Zeit wann wir wieder treffen können und mehr darüber sprechen können?"  There's a couple of cool things about this approach.  First, we say that we would love to speak to THEM.  Then we give a little testimony about the Book of Mormon.  Then we say it is free (some religions collect money for their handouts).  Then we ask them if there's a more convienient time to meet with them, ASSUMING THAT THEY WANT TO LEARN MORE.  That is key.  Then we get their info and set up an appointment.  So basically that is what I tried to show on our exchange--a very logical approach.  But I am only ten weeks in-country so I tried to be very humble and I would say, "This is what I've seen work for us..."  We try to avoid questions like, "Is this something that would interest you?" because that is an easy "NO" for people on the street.  We also make appointments to GIVE copies of the Book of Mormon, rather than giving them out on the street.  That avoids the response, "Then what is the point of us meeting again if I have all that I need to know right here?"  We went to an appointment that night at the university to visit with a Chinese girl.  We asked a new convert, also a Chinese guy, to come with us.  It would have been really cool for him to participate in a lesson from the other side but unfortunately it fell through.  It was about quittin' time so we headed back to the church to grab his bag.  Right around the corner from the church we stopped a Peruvian woman and her son.  She said she sees us all the time in Peru and she has lots of Mormon friends.  She invited us to come over on this Wednesday night!  I hope she has a big family and that they are all home!  Back at the appartment that night Elder Stringham gave me a haircut.

Thursday for lunch I made some bomb speghetti.  No lie, that stuff was wicked good.  That afternoon we went finding until Branch Mission Leader Meeting that evening where we were going to trade back our companions.  We found two potential investigators.  These two guys told us to meet them outside of the resaurant where they worked tomorrow but I have learned when people tell you to meet somewhere, they usually don't show up.  Some protest march went down the main street that day.  I didn't really understand the chants or signs but it was something about capitalism and schools.

 

Friday morning the Romneys picked us up to go to the Egarters', the family that is trying to fix up the old bahnhof (train station).  It was another adventure in the Romney car.  The nav system originally said we would get there by 1025.  We didn't arrive at the Egarters' until 1105.  They showed us around the bahnhof again even though not much has changed since the last time I was there.  They fed us a nice lunch and then we did some service work for them, filling in the ditch that was dug for their water line.  We had an appointment with Vinod that evening.  Our plan for the lesson was to set a baptismal date.  We had to really work to set one.  I promised him that Heavenly Father will provide a way for him to graduate, find a job, and marry the right girl.  We talked about how faith should not be a burden;  it should free you!  He agreed to prepare for baptism on the 20th of December!  We are really hoping and praying that he makes time for the Lord because that will relieve his stress.  He is praying for that too!  He said a great prayer to end the lesson asking Heavenly Father to let him know if it is the right this to be baptized sooner rather than later.  He is an awesome guy and has a testimony of the gospel.

Saturday was interesting.  We had four appointments scheduled but two fell through.  While at the University that morning, a Hungarian student came up to us and in broken English said, "It must be nice having all those wives."  His knowledge of the church essentially comes from South Park.  He said he was Christian and loved to learn more about all the Christian faiths.  We ended up teaching the first lesson as we walked with him to a bus stop.  He said he believes that the Holy Ghost is a compass for our lives yet he laughed when we said that we prayed to God and the Holy Ghost witnessed to us that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I thought that was a bit hypocritical of him.  We are going to meet with him again.  He invited us to come to a church service with him.  That afternoon we went to the Norwegian doctor's house.  He was super nice.  He offered us drinks and chocolates.  He had his four year old and two year old there as well as his fourteen year old son.  The fourteen year old son wasn't wearing pants when we walked in. We taught the Restoration but it was really hard.  The kids were crazy, the dad kept changing the subject, and he kept speaking to me in English even though we were trying to have the lesson in German.  I just left that place feeling bad because he wasn't keen on meeting with us again.  He was satisfied with what he heard and he simply wanted to educate himself.  The son asked really good questions though and was interested.  We are going to go back and try to get them to chuch.  They live across the street from the church!  That evening we rode the train to Schönebeck to visit a part member family, the Jaffkes.  The husband is not a member and has no desire to become one.  He picked us up and drove us to their house fifteen minutes away from the train station in Barby.  The house is really old but they just remodeled it and it looks great.  We taught the Restoration.  The mom is the only member.  There is an older son that is baptized but he does not come to church.  We had a teaching record of the younger son who is 12 years old.  He is ready to be baptized tomorrow but he has wanted his brother to baptize him.  We extended the invitation to be baptized on the 20th of December as well but they have holiday plans already.  The mom wasn't much of a help.  She thinks that her son must know the gospel perfectly before he's baptized or else he will end up like her older son.  Daniel agreed to be baptized at the beginning of the new year.  That is really exciting!

 

The Aleksandroves came to church yesterday and liked it!  The mom became friends with Sis. Egarter.  We taught a gospel doctrine class during Sunday School which went okay.  We had the Alexandroves and a few members in there.  The Steigers had us all over for dinner.  They served klopfels and a type of roast.  Elder Morton and I went to choir in Köthen last night since we are assuming we will be here for Christmas.  

It was a good week and we are hoping to set a baptismal date with the Aleksandroves this week!  I hope everyone is well and excited for Thanksgiving this week.  Eat lots of turkey and watch a lot of football for me, please!

Mit Liebe,

 

Elder Germann

Another solid week in Magdeburg

Guten Tag!  It is really starting to feel like winter is coming here to Germany.  Its been 10° Celsius (50f) everyday.  Nevertheless, Elder Sagmeister and I found four solid new investigators this week!

 

On Tuesday, we got up and had study as usual and then after we ate lunch, we made some calls to some contacts.  Elder Sagmeister began calling contacts we had in our phone.  It actually proved to be pretty successful--two people said, "Oh yeah, I would love to meet with you guys!"  Too bad they live in Berlin.... Half the people had never even heard of Magdeburg.  We came to find out that our phone had been used by the missionaries in Berlin.  We found two new people for one of the Berlin companionships!  Then we went out finding on the way to an appointment.  Everybody kept saying no to us and Elder Sagmeister said, "Why was it so easy last week?!"  Literally the next man we talked to was excited to see us and said he met with missionaries a year ago.  We went to our appointment with the man we found last week.  He said he really wanted to meet with us but his dad just went into the hospital so he wasn't available.  He looked pretty shaken up.  We told him we would pray for him and would call him soon.  Tuesday night we had an awesome lesson with Claudius, a less-active member.  I asked Claudius how praying has been going.  He said he hadn't been praying and then he recited the email he had sent to an missionaries a few months ago that contained all of his problems with the church.  Elder Sagmeister began trying to respond to each individual point.  I stopped him and said to Claudius, "These problems you just listed sound exactly like what you sent in an email to an elder a little while back.  I have read this email and as I was reading it, it hit me--you don't have a testimony of the Restoration.  And when you gain a testimony of the Restoration, all of these problems you say you have with the church will go away.  The only way to gain this testimony is through, prayer, scripture study, and coming to church."  It was pretty crazy 'cause I had never spoken so powerfully like that, especially in German.  The Spirit definitely helped.  It took asking him tree times to finally agree to do these things.  He committed again to do these things--reading, studying, church--because that is how we come to find out the truthfullness of Christ's restored Gospel.  That lesson taught me a lot.  I truly know now how important it is to pray during a lesson for your companion and for the person you are teaching. 

Afterwards, we headed to the University for a lesson with a girl we found last week listed in our area book.  Marcel, a member, came along but the girl was not home.  I called her and as it turned out she had gone to Frankfurt. So we set up a new time for this coming week.  Since we were there with Marcel, we decided to visit some other contacts.  That was inspired because we finally met someone in our area book that I have been trying to see since I got to Magdeburg.  And also we saw Vinod!  He hadn't replied to any of my messages in the past week.  He doesn't put minutes on his phone so you can't call him and he can't text back.  So we communicate by texting his phone, he reads it, then he replies on a friend's phone...iffy at best.  But we set up a new appointment with him for this week and we are hoping to commit him to a baptismal date.

 

Wednesday morning we got up and jumped in the car with the Romneys to go to Leipzig for Zone Training Meeting.  I was asked to give the opening prayer.  The theme of the meeting was obedience and how that brings results.  After the meeting everyone went to the döner shop on the corner by the chapel for lunch--good business for those guys.  We met with the branch mission leader that evening.  We are going to start holding an investigator class during Sunday School.  Here are some of the missionaries in my district:

 

Thursday was the 100th day of my mission!  Woah, can't believe I went into the Missionary Training Center that long ago.  We did a lot of travel Thursday, too.  I really know the bahn (train) system here.  Here's a picture of our trains here in Magdeburg:

That morning we went to Herr Ostermann's house.  The visit was pleasant.  He had cakes and drinks for us.  Germans love their tea.  We tell them we can only have fruit tea.  It's gross.  He said he read the Checkpoints magazine from the Air Force Academy that I gave him last time and loved it.  He also read a lot of the Book of Mormon. We gave the first lesson on the Restoration and Joseph Smith.  Basically, he thinks that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon while hallucinating.  Herr Ostermann is so smart and so intelligent and he reads so much philosophy that I think he has totally blinded himself from anything spiritual.  I don't think he has any friends as intellectual as he is so that why he likes talking to us.  I saw more of his amazing house.  He took us down to his wine cellar where he had broken through the foundation wall down there and is digging himself a rotunda down there.... We probably won't go back often if he doesn't want to progress in the gospel.  We went to Burger King for lunch and then we went to an appointment with the man we met on Tuesday.  He didn't show.  We went to see another investigator Char-Ly that evening.  He might come to church on Sunday.  If not, we will probably not go back there as often since he doesn't show any other signs of wanting to progress either.  Afterwards, we went and visited the Alexandroves, the Bulgarian family we met last week.  We couldn't go in because only the mom was home and the older son is not 15 yet but we just stood at the door and checked up on them.  The mom said she had started reading the Book of Mormon.  The sons were super excited for soccer.  We invited them to come to church on Sunday morning and they accepted!

 

Friday basically consisted of weekly planning and study.  We set lofty goals for next week so we can continually improve.  We tried to make a pasta dish and it didn't turn out too well.  I think I will stick to ramen.  That evening I practiced the organ at the church while Elder Sagmeister filmed a video that he is sending home for his congregation.  They are going to play it as a talk during stake conference--a cool idea. 

 

Saturday morning we took a bit of time during our study to practice Elder Sagmeister's English.  Thanks to years of Latin, I am able to teach basic grammar and parts of a sentence.  I am not, however, able to answer as many "why" questions as I thought I would be able to.  We went street contacting that afternoon.  Nobody was really interested and not many people were out since it was chilly.  Here are some of the places we pass as we walk through Magdeburg--a church and a building they claim has the fewest right angles of any building!

We decided to go by the church and see if we could talk to anyone around there.  We met a super nice Norwegian guy out on a walk with two of his kids.  He says he lives right across the street from the chruch.  He is a doctor studying Alzheimers.  He is fluent in five languages.  He said he sees missionaries all over Europe but none of them have ever spoken to him.  He was so nice and was happy to set up an appointment with us for next Saturday!  Yay!  That night we ran home, changed, and picked up the Alexandrove boys for soccer.  It took 20 minutes to walk to the field from their wohnung (apt.) Apparently, I only know the long way there.  They told us they lived in Spain for eight years and they speak Spanish, German, Bulgarian, and a little Turkish.  They want to learn English.  We are going to start teaching them.  The only words they know are curse words.  Soccer was fun although we couldn't figure out how to turn on the field lights.  We played near the road where there was some light from the street lamps.  We had 7 kids there!  They all asked us what we were doing in Germany so we got to talk a lot about the church.  Everyone was asking for English lessons.  The Alexandroves said they couldn't come to church this week now...bummer.  But they promised to be there next week.  We have an appointment over there tomorrow.  

 

Yesterday was disappointing.  We had five people from our teaching pool tell us they were going to be a church and none showed.  I got a text from Kolja right when church started that said, "Hey man. I was thinking about the church and I think I am not ready to join at this point in my life.  I thank you for all the nice lessons we had and wish you huge luck and success in your further efforts as a missionary.  So...goodbye, I guess..."  I was so shocked.  He has been our stud investigator.  He is an awesome person.  I felt like I was back in high school being dumped over text by a girl though this is eternally more important.  We're talking about his salvation!  I tried to call him back yesterday but he didn't pick up.  We really need to meet with him this week and find out what happened.  We can't just give up on him!  So during church I was bummed but I thought Fast and Testimony meeting went really well.  I translated for Qui during Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting.  Sunday School was hard.  I didn't understand much more than the general ideas so I just took that and then put my own spin on it.  Sacrament was much easier to translate.  But I realized that translating is an awesome opportunity to teach.  That afternoon we we went to a new investigator's wohnung--a Vietnamese woman we met on the straße bahn.  She had invited us over to eat but we couldn't find a member to come so we had to stay at the door and apologize for not being able to come in.  We gave her a Vietnamese Book of Mormon.  All of the sudden a very large German woman came from inside the wohnung and started interrogating us asking us who we are and what we are doing.  She tried to take the Book of Mormon and give it back to us.  She sent the Vietnamese woman back inside with her children.  We were very nice to her and explained to her who we were and what we do.  We were firm though and told her that Dinh invited us there and that she cannot keep us sharing the gospel with her.  It was so awkward and I feel so bad.  I know that after we left, she was probably berating Dinh for talking to us.  We set up a time to go back tomorrow.  We went to the Steigers for dinner last night.  We had sausage stuffed in whole bell peppers and chocolate for dessert.

One thing that gave me a good feeling the other day is the thought that there are other good people trying to do the Lord's work.  See here a marquis on a theater rented by another church--it's true!!

 

 

Overall, it was a solid week and I am loving it here.  Trying to be better each week!  Hope all is well on the home front!

 

Love, 

Elder Germann

NINE new people to teach this week!!

Greetings all!  This week we were finally able to meet with a less-active member, Mandy, who kept cancelling our appointments with her.  We met her in a park by the church.  She was so nice!  She was baptized a couple years ago but then right after, she was diagnosed with a siezure disorder and would go into the hospital for months at a time.  She still has lots of siezures but she is able to work as part of the handicapped workforce here in Magdeburg.  She says she still reads the Book of Mormon everyday but she can't come to church because she lives way up on the north side of the city and the bahns (trains) hardly come on Sundays.  I was thinking, "WHAT?! SHE'S NOT ABLE TO COME TO CHURCH BECAUSE SHE DOESNT HAVE A RIDE?!"  We can certainly help with that.  So we are working out a carpool so she can come to church. 

 

Saturday afternoon we had a lesson with Claudius, a less-active member.  We shared the First Presidency message out of the Liahona magazine with him about praying with real intent.  We committed him to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is the word of God and he actually agreed to say the closing prayer!  Progress! 

 

Saturday were transfer calls--that's where missionaries get transferred to other areas.  It happens every six to eight weeks but there isn't always a change.  It's unusual if a missionary and his trainer are separated during the first transfer so you can imagine I was really shocked to hear that Elder Meeks would not be finishing my training and was being transferred to Flensburg on the Denmark border. 

 

My new companion is Elder Sagmeister, a native German from Passau in Bavaria.  He is the fourth of seven children so basically his family makes up a good portion of their congregation down there.  He has only one sister and she is the youngest.  His older brothers have either gone on or are still on their missions.  He is now 13 months into his mission.  He knew no English when he got here.  He's had to learn since I am his fourth American trainee.  He really knows what he is doing and he is the best finder in the mission.  We found nine new investigators this week!  We get along very well.  He has a lot of drive like me.  We speak German a lot!  He doesn't know grammar rules since it's his mother tongue but he is always willing to teach me how to put a sentence together and pronouce words.  That's one thing I have been working on so I don't sound too American.  He says that my German is already very good but I don't know about that.  I have been helping him with English, too.  He can get his thoughts across but it's kinda rough at times.  I am starting to see progress in my language ability. I can understand everything in lessons and when we talk to people on the street.  I don't know every word but I at least know what they're talking about so that is super exciting!  Now I just need to work on being able to put sentences together faster.  I am kind of OCD about my grammar so it's like nails on a chalkboard when I hear myself make a mistake but I am able to correct it for the most part.

I picked him up in Leipzig on Tuesday.  Last Sunday I played the prelude music for sacrament meeting.  Elder Romney said I am the priesthood pianist and the backup ward organist.  A sister has began to play in sacrament meeting.  She does well but she is super nervous so I told her that I can play a couple songs so she is not as stressed.  She was so happy to hear that.  President Kosak gave me permission to practice during the week now.  I came down with a cold last weekend.  We went to an dinner appointment Monday night and after about 45 minutes of hearing me blow my nose they sent us home.  But I got a priesthood blessing by Brüder Wloka and Elder Meeks.  Brüder Wloka gave the blessing.  It was pretty cool to get a blessing in German.  I am feeling much better now.

Tuesday morning I put Elder Meeks on a train to Flensburg and them I got on one to Leipzig.  The Zone Leaders met me there.  My new ZL is an Air Force Academy cadet! He is a 2016er from Squadron 5, The Wolf Pack.  We are best friends now!  He is a lefty too and wants to fly C-17s like me!  Elder Sagmeister and I got on a train to Magdeburg and then we went right to Branch Mission Council when we got there. 

Wednesday made me realize how a day could really go in the mission field--we found five new people!  We went finding for six hours and talked to everyone we saw.  Then we went up to the university to visit some contacts.  We made an appointment for tomorrow with someone we found listed in our area book.  Then around campus three Indian men asked us what we do so we told them and they agreed to meet with us!  We are going to bring them copies of the Book of Mormon in Hindi.  We went to an appointment that evening but it fell through so we continued to do some contacting and found a Lithuanian kid who was really nice.  He spoke hardly any German and no English but he was excited to hear that we had a book about Jesus Christ in Lithuanian.  He told us to come over the next day. 

Thursday morning our appointment with two of the Indian guys from the day before fell through which is unfortunate but we are going to go by their apartment again this week.  We left a note in their mailbox--we figured it was theirs since it was the only non-German last name in their building....  Our appointment also fell through with the Lithuanian kid.  I think the language barrier might have had something to do with it.  He said 13 Leipziger Str. but that was abandoned so we went to 30 thinking he meant that but that was also abandoned and halfway torn down.  So he is kind of lost at this point which is also super disappointing.  I stopped and talked to an old woman on the street an she talked to me for like 30 minutes.  She told me all about how she prays every night for her husband who is not religious and is in the hospital.  She cried to me right there on the street.  It was so sad.  I told her we would be willing to help her in anyway that we can.  I gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and testified that I know that families can be together forever. 

 

Later on that evening we talked to a Bulgarian family.  The mother speaks no German so the son translated.  There's a 16 year-old and an 8 year-old.  They were really excited to hear about our message so we set up an appointment with them for the next day!  Thursday night we went to Brüder Titigue's house for a power visit, one of those 15 minute visits with members where we share a spiritual thought and ask how we can help with their missionary work.  I guess I didn't explain the concept too well because when we showed up he was disappointed to not see the other two elders with us and he also made us all dinner. So it turned into a dinner appointment!  He is a super nice guy.  He loaded our plates.  Elder Sagmeister could not finish so when Brüder Titigue left the room, I ate the rest of his food.  Afterwards we stopped a guy on the street and he was also excited to hear about the Book of Mormon so we made an appointment with him for this week.  We had fun talking to another man on the bahn home.  He tried to speak English with us.  We told him we could help him learn more and invited him to church. 

Friday we had district meeting.  There is a new missionary in Köthen who actually went to Elder Morton's high school.  Saturday we did weekly planning in the morning and then jumped in the car with Brüder Wloka to Leipzig--stake conference.  The adult session was good saturday night.  I didn't understand all of it.  It is hard to sit for two hours and try to understand all that is said.  They spoke so fast.  Saturday night we stayed in Leipzig and then Sunday morning went to Stake Conference in a concert hall they rented.  Good talks from what I understood.  President Kosak spoke on hastening the work.  We had a nice tour of the German countryside with the Romneys on the way home. Literally, they turned a two hour drive into three. But they are awesome!  Last night we had a really good lesson with Kolja on prophets and the Restoration.  We extended the invitation to be baptized.  After going back and forth for 15 minutes, he couldn't bring himself to agree on a date but he did say that if he received an answer to his prayers, he would be baptized.  I am confident that he will be baptized by the end of the year.

Han, the girl who had a baptismal date, all of the sudden took a job in Bremen and moved there this week.  I am sad but the Elders there will take care of her. 

It was a fun week!  Lots of excitement.  Elder Sagmeister is teaching me how to be persistant but personable and loving!  Looking forward to another great week!  Take care all!

 

Elder Germann

Zone and district meetings

Another week has literally flown by here in Germany and not without some craziness!  First off, we had a zone training meeting with the mission president--it was really good, very motivating.  Here's a picture of our zone--I am sitting front, right:

Tuesday morning we had a lesson with Charlie.  He's the interesting man with the white beard and long ponytail.  We planned to talk about Jesus Christ and read 3 Nephi 11:1-11.  As soon as we began to have a discussion he changed the subject.  He does that every time!  I would ask him about Jesus Christ or the Atonement and he would brush it off and then he'd change the subject to the philosophies of man or the Nazis.  I don't think we're going to be going back there very often because he doesn't keep commitments and it's super hard to give a lesson. 

 

Our bahn (train) home was late but I think it was Heavenly Father's will.  We were walking home from the Buckau station and a man stopped us on the pathway and asked us if we had a Bible.  That led to talking about the Book of Mormon and he was really interested.  We asked him if there was another time that we could meet and he said, "Well, there is a bench right here--tell me more."  He liked it all and took a Book of Mormon, a Restoration pamphlet, and our card.  He said he was religious and that it was a shame that so many Germans have hard hearts.  We really wanted to get his contact info so we could visit him but he said he would come by church on Sunday and that we could meet there.  He also said he'd bring his four kids.  He sounded super genuine.  He hugged us at the end and said, "See ya later."  I got this really good feeling afterwards.  Unfortunately, he didn't come to church yesterday.  But he was in every one of our prayers this week.  We were praying that he would feel the Spirit and bring his family to church.  Hopefully we can see him again.  He made me realize how much people notice us though.  He said he sees us all the time walking around.  You never think how many people are actually watching you. 

 

We had a lesson with Vinod that evening.  We began by asking if he could fill us in on his arranged marriage and other "personal issues" he referred to last time.  He said that being Mormon would make it a lot more difficult (but not impossible) to find a good wife.  He said that he also worries that his Catholic family would treat him like an alien.  He is also stressed over work but he looks forward to our visits because they take his mind off of everything else.  We read with him Alma 20:7-27.  Afterward, I checked for understanding.  I realized that was important because his little English does not allow him to understand a lot of the scriptures.  Therefore I explained the story to him in simpler terms and then I quoted 1 Nephi 19:23 and said we hope you can apply this story to your life and be an example of the believers. Elder Meeks read Moroni 3:7.  After that I told him, look, I don't know what missionaries have told you in the past and I don't want to pressure you.  He said, "Oh no you can say anything you want to me."  So I explained that we know that baptism is a commandment from our Heavenly Father.  Heavenly Father wants to bless you but there are certain blessings that he cannot give you until you are baptized.  I said I know we talked about baptism last time and this is a decision you need to make with your agency, but if you can take this leap of faith, we testify that Heavenly Father will provide a way like it says in the scriptures.  Have the faith that the hearts of your family members will be softened.  Have the faith that you will marry the right woman.  Elder Meeks followed that by letting him know that we wanted him to pray and with the help of his Heavenly Father, he could pick a baptismal date that he could work toward and we would help him prepare for that.  I think he took it really well.  I think he appreciated it.  I also don't think we could have been more blunt.  

 

Wednesday was a pretty solid day.  We bounced up, had a bit of study, and then went to district meeting.  The Zone Leaders stayed at our wohnung (apartment) Tuesday night so they came with us.  District meeting was solid.  We practiced street contacting and also took district pics since transfers are this week:

 

We also got some pics with Elder Slinker as well since he goes home tomorrow:

 

Afterward we went out district finding.  Elder Pilling and I went out together.  We had a lot of fun talking to people.  It was funny, we really stumbled through trying to talk to one girl--I think she thought we were idiots.  But we got a contact!  Her name is Lena.  She grew up just outside the city and now she is studying here.  She is religious and she is interested in finding out how families can be eternal.  I called her that night to set up something but she is going out of town for the next week so she said to call her then. 

 

We went to lunch afterwards.  I got food from Curry 54 since I didn't feel like a döner.  I tried a drop of their hottest curry that they don't even have on their menu and I almost choked.  I couldn't even speak to give my order.  I got the Beyond Insanity curry which was just right for me--almost sweet.  Elder Yarborough got the hottest.  He was sweating profusely and then he got acid reflux and it came back up.  We went by an old investigator's home from our area book that night.  We caught one man at home and he agreed to meet with us!  We are going over there on Wednesday.  I think I told you we toured the Catholic Cathedral here in Magdeburg last week--here are a couple of my pictures.  The second is purported to be a whale bone...from the whale that ate Jonah.  Not sure about that but the cathedral is beautiful!

 

I miss and love you all!!

 

Elder Germann

Celebrated my birthday!!

I hope all is good on the home front!  Thanks for all of the birthday care packages:

This week our struggles to find investigators continued. Tuesday during companionship study we dug into our second area book looking for potential investigators that we could contact. We pulled out at least twenty records and then plotted out where each individual lives on a map. The sad thing is that most of these people have moved but no one updated the record to show that. I guess we are still being productive by tying off loose ends in our record books. One of the teaching records was a family. We went by and the mother told us she was too busy and did not have time to meet with us... ever. That was really disappointing--it would have been great to teach a big family. After that we made the decision to change how we contact these potential investigators. We are going to skip the question, "Are you interested in meeting with us?" and just go right to "When is a good time for you to hear our message?" We street contacted into a less-active member that evening. He said he wanted to go to the temple. We told him we could help with that! Hopefully he'll start coming to church again.

On Wednesday we took time following our district meeting to celebrate Elder Haas' and my birthday. We went into a sporting goods store and looked at all of the soccer jerseys. I bet every team in the world was in there! I need to get a German jersey at some point, especially since now they are selling the 2014 World Cup Champion jerseys. We then went to the Dom and spent three hours there on a tour. The Dom is the huge Catholic cathedral in downtown Magdeburg. It really is a magnificent sight. It was bombed a bit during WWII but has since been repaired. People on the tour were curious as to who we were and what we were doing, the tour guide especially. I was super nice and the guide tried to speak English with us. We offered to help him learn English and gave him our number. Then we went to C&A and H&M. C&A is the German version of H&M but its 10x better. Elder Haas and I were supposed to buy birthday ties but nothing really excited us. Afterward we did some district finding. I took Elder Haas to Sudenburg (West Magdeburg) to hit some contacts. No one was home so we did street contacting. We handed out a bunch of pamphlets and a Book of Mormon to this really big guy that said he was interested in our message. He said he has lots of religious friends and he loves talking to them about their beliefs. He gave us his address and told us to come by in three weeks when his Masters program ends. We also talked to an Albanian who appeared to be on crack. And we talked to an African guy that barely spoke any German or English. He didn't believe that we were American. I even showed him my NC drivers license and he claimed it was fake. I felt really stupid because I had forgotten our contact cards and I couldn't remember our phone number so we were out of luck when he couldn't tell us his phone number or address either. We went to my favorite place for dinner that night--the Chinese-Deutsch shack.  A Chinese woman runs this little business and its super cheap, super yummy food. I didn't think Chinese and German food went together but I guess they do. Elder Haas had a training in Berlin the next day so he and his companion stayed at our wohnung. We played keep-away soccer all night.

They were up and gone early Thursday morning. Our appointment fell through again with a less-active member. She was sick. We asked if she wanted a priesthood blessing but she declined. We had our branch mission meeting with the Romneys that afternoon. They are still doing great. Sister Romney told a story about how her son's brain tumor somehow disappeared after doctors only gave him a short time to live. She said it was a miracle of prayer. She inspired me to pray more exactly for what I want/need. They then fed us dinner--little sandwiches, chips, and fruits. Then Maria, an investigator of the other two elders, came for a lesson. I talked to her for a little while. She was super nice. I asked her about work--she works for Lufthansa Customer Service. Elder Meeks and I took off towards the University. None of our contacts were home. We talked to a few people on the street but no one was really out because it was dark and rainy. It's been raining a lot lately. I talked to Elder Haas on the phone that night. He said that President Kosak emphasized that we need to be using the lesson pamphlets and be handing those out on the street. He also said I had three packages at the mission home which I got Friday night when Elder Pilling was visiting here with Elder Morton.

I have been reading the Book of Mormon in German every morning and it still requires a lot of attention and focus but I am getting better at it. Weekly planning followed study Friday morning. I'd say it was pretty productive. We have three lessons already scheduled for this week and we even scheduled time for me to practice the piano/organ a couple of times this week. We went to the church and made a baptismal calender for Han on the computer. Basically it has a scripture passage for her to study each day up until her baptismal date and we chose the scriptures according to what we felt her needs are. From what I have heard from other missionaries, investigators love these baptismal calenders. We had a lesson with Kolja that evening. We didn't meet with him last week; so between work and illness, he got a little distracted from seeking out the Spirit and from reading the Book of Mormon. We watched Elder Bednar's talk from a recent conference with him. Then we read Enos in the Book of Mormon with him again and emphasized the importance of prayer and how we can feel the Spirit. He says that he wants to know (he has a hope!) and he committed to reading everyday and praying earnestly. In addition, he said he'll be actively searching for the Spirit during the day. He's a really awesome guy--very intelligent, deep thinker. When we were leaving we got a call from Bernburg saying that someone forgot to give Elder Pilling and Morton a phone so Elder Haas and Stringham both had one in Bernburg. We tried to catch Elder Pilling and Morton at HauptBahnHof but somehow missed them.  Then they got lost going home. We found them an hour and a half later just then finding their way to their wohnung. Because they didn't have a phone, the Zone Leaders said that they had to stay with us. It was another night of keep-away soccer. Elder Pilling had my packages though! I got birthday packages from the fam, Hana, and Grandma/Grandpa Val! I am loaded with American snacks for the next couple of months! :)

Saturday morning we all went to the church to take the language assessment we're all required to take. It didn't work though because the link the Missionary Training Center sent out was bad. We went to visit some more contacts--all of which had moved--until our lesson with Claudius. The lesson went well I thought. We got in there and Elder Meeks just looked at me so I took the lead. We watched President Uchtdorf's recent conference talk in English since Claudius' English is really good but the lesson was in German. I said what I liked/learned from the talk and then I asked him what he thought about it. He gave a 15 minute response which I think I followed--something about the role of religion in society. He took my response well and went on to answer my follow-up question so I took that to mean that I had made sense of what he said and asked a related follow-up question--YES! He gives very thoughful, deep responses. He is super intelligent and his German is very advanced. I tried my best to follow. When speaking to me though, he is very understanding--he speaks slowly and clearly. I really want to get him to come back to church and also I want to ask him about why he agrees to meet with us. That lesson taught me how important the book Preach My Gospel is. It truly contains a simple answer to every question. If we stick to the doctrines, we'll be good. I testified of the Book of Mormon and how it is the keystone of our religion--without it, we have nothing. I promised him that if he earnestly reads and prays, he will feel the Spirit. I felt like that was a pretty safe promise since I have seen it in my life and Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and every prophet has promised the same thing.  We played soccer that night with two of the other elders' investigators. They even brought a friend--a really nice Pakistani kid. I talked to him a bit. He tried to speak English to me...not very good. Now I know what it is like for the Germans listening to me.

Yesterday was quite stressful. The other elders hadn't reunited with their companions yet because DeutscheBahn was striking again this weekend and every train was cancelled. Elder Pilling was about to stay the night again last night but the stake choir director was not about to have choir practice without his pianist so he drove all the way from Köthen to get Elder Pilling. That's an hour drive. Trying to figure out the logistics was crazy. We were going to try to get to choir but then we'd have no way home so we decided to stay home. Elder Morton was asked to speak in sacrament meeting for Elder Stringham who wasn't there. We set up a power visit with the Vlokas this week.  That's where we go to a member's home for 15 minutes, share a quick message, and ask them how we can help with their missionary work and if they have any referrals. Should be an exciting visit!

Looking forward to a great week of missionary service! I am praying to find more people to teach! I hope that everyone at home is doing well and getting ready for Halloween! Halloween is not really a big thing here which is sad.

Elder Germann

Finding and Teaching

This week we did a lot of both! We had some disappointments but we also had some really exciting things happen!

I would describe this past Tuesday though as productive, yet discouraging. I think I mentioned last we that we went through our area book and found 19 potential investigators in there. Our goal was to visit over half of those that day. Most were not home when we stopped by so we are continuing to drop by and catch them at home. We found that five have moved and are essentially lost which is sad but at least we were able to update our records of them. One we did catch at home and he said he didn't want to have any further contact with us. We also had an appointment with Frau Borstel, the women we met on the street who said she was taught by the missionaries two years ago. We klingled (rang the door bell) and she buzzed us in and then when we knock on her door she never answered. We could hear her inside quieting her little baby and dog. That was really frustrating to have happen. We're going to continue to drop by and see if she'll actually answer the door for us.

Wednesday we had Zone Training Meeting in Leipzig so we were up early to ride a train an hour and a half south down to there. DeutscheBahn workers were striking that morning and a bunch of trains were not running but fortunately ours was on time and we encountered no problems. When we got to Leigzig I was in awe at the train station. It is supposedly the largest train station, square footage-wise, in the world. It sure looked like it. It has also been recently renovated. Elder Morton and I met Marc there! Mark was one of the members we had Skyped in the Missionary Training Center. He is a super dude! He is a convert of 5 years and just loves the gospel and the missionaries, especially the ones he Skypes with in the MTC. He had a screen shot of Elder Morton and I. Marc is a fact machine. He also loves traveling around Europe and has been to every temple on the continent. He was so excited to meet the Romneys, too. He took a picture with them and he was wearing a Mitt Romney campaign tee shirt. Apparently he was campaigning for Romney here in Europe in 2012. He loves American politics. Zone Conference with the other missionaries was really good. Lots of good instruction on finding and how to teach by the Spirit.

Thursday was a great day! Han, our investigator, committed to prepare to be baptized on November 8th! We had the Romneys come to our lesson with her that morning and after we watched President Uchtdorf's GC talk, they really helped add the Spirit by sharing their testimonies. Han is continuing to read the Book of Mormon and to pray. It was a pretty exciting moment. Afterwards, the Romneys took the four elders to lunch at their favorite cafe. I had schnitzel. It was amazing and the potatoes and mushrooms served with it were the best I have ever had. We went back to their wohnung (apartment) and had ward mission leader council with them. It wont be like that for long since Bro. Romney got counselors on Sunday. They are committed to making the Magdeburg branch grow with us.

Thursday was a good day as well. I am able to read the Book of Mormon in German pretty well now. I only have to look up a couple of words a day. We went out finding that afternoon and taught the first lesson to a woman who was really interested. She lives out of our area but she said she wanted to come to our church here in the city. She had never heard of Mormons and was surprised to hear that there are 15 million members worldwide. We had an appointment with an investigator named Char-Ly. He is a 70-year old man with a Santa beard and long pony tail and says he's a "heathen." The things he was saying were really weird. Talking about horoscopes and what not. He likes talking to us about the gospel though. Not sure how fast he will progress though. We traded companions with the Bernburg Elders that night after church choir practice in Köthen. They need extra voices so the missionaries were invited.

I went to Bernburg with Elder Pilling. It was a great day. There is something really powerful about two brand new elders working together. We taught two really good lessons, all in German. We really worked well together. It was one of my favorite days so far on my mission.

Yesterday President Romney got counselors. I am now the organist in our congregation. I've never played the organ. I haven't played the piano in 4 years. Mom and Dad are saying, "I told you so...," right now. The Steigers had us over for dinner. We had delicious pancakes and sang hymns together.

I am looking forward to another great week! Busy busy busy! Love y'all!

Elder Germann