Hey y'all! Hope everyone is on a spiritual high from watching General
Conference. Gotta love six hours of listening to the prophets and apostles
on your birthday!
We had a pretty good week. Monday night we sat down with the sisters
and planned out how we were going to tackle the English class that we
want to get up and running. I plotted out twenty specific groceries
stores that I knew would allow us to post fliers on their bulletin
boards and gave ten to the sisters and ten to us. We turned it into a
finding competition. Whoever found the most new investigators while
hitting their stores would get ice cream from the other companionship.
Elder Nearon and I could get anyone until the eleventh hour when we
were on our way home that night. We were walking out of the train
station when some guys made some joke about us. Couldn't really hear
it but I went back to talk to them and we ended up making an
appointment with them. They're one big Serbian family, the one guy
says he goes to a gypsie church, the other said he was Catholic. Super
cool how the Lord allows you to reach your goals. We ended up tying
the sisters. Dangit!
I got super reviews on district meeting this week. I did a combination
of Preach My Gospel chapter 7, challenging the district to improve
their languages skills and chapter 5, using the Book of Mormon. We
each took a common question or objection we hear and had to use a
passage in the Book of Mormon to answer it or respond. We did this
three times and each time you had to explain it differently so it
really forced you to expand your normal vocabulary and way of
thinking/teaching. I have really found it helpful to practice saying
something three different ways to improve my language skills.
I went on a companion exchange with Elder Schmaltz to
Frankfurt Oder afterwards. We knocked doors all night in a student dorm
and found a new investigator and a bunch of super contacts. On the way
home that night we found another woman who invited us to boxing and soccer.
She was totally taken aback--she couldn't believe people actually did
missionary work. She's from Eisenhüttenstadt which was supposed to be
the model DDR town so it's no wonder she had never heard of anything
like that.
Elder Nearon visited the blind lady during the exchange and she said she has
felt the Spirit so strongly when we come by and she wants to come to
church. We're going to try to pick her up next Sunday. They also had a
lesson with the German girl who said she knows we're doing the work of
the Lord and helping her. She came to the first session of conference
Saturday night. I am confident that she'll get there. I'm praying that
it's sooner rather than later.
Yesterday went really well. I had a nice 21st birthday with love from
the ward here. I had happy birthday sung to me three times! Thanks to
everyone who wished me a happy birthday!
Elder Hales', Elder Holland's, President Nelson's, and President
Monson's priesthood talks were my favorite. Which ones did you like?
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions?cid=HP14GC&lang=eng
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Keeping busy
Guten Tag family and friends!
We stayed busy this week despite having two of our main investigators
out of town; we saw some progress on other fronts. Tuesday morning we
had mini interviews with president via Skype. This is something new he is
instituting in order to be in contact more often with the mission and
to get to know everyone better. We thought since we we were going to
go to the church for wifi that we would go by on this old investigator
who the sisters had run into on the street last week and said he
wanted to meet with the missionaries again. We had gone by two other
times last week, once in the afternoon, once in the evening but to no
avail. The early morning worked! We finally got in contact and will
hopefully meet with him this week. We were headed to the church then
for the interview but I swear the bus driver took a detour and missed
our stop so we ended up going to a Burger King. No sweat, everything
worked out. We also did some sightseeing on Preparation Day.
We ended up teaching the restoration to the old blind lady that we
found last week on the park bench right outside of her apartment. I
think it went well and she seemed pretty responsive to everything. We
promised to bring her the Book of Mormon on cd which we did on Friday
and she was super excited. She promised to listen to it before she
went to bed every night. We are going to have a lesson with her
tomorrow.
We had a really good lesson with the German girl on Wednesday. We took
along our elders quorum president who is a stud and they really got
along well. We taught the back half of the plan of salvation and then
we just talked about her progress thus far. She really opened up and
talked more about her rough childhood. She does a lot of research on
her own on the church website and has fallen in love with the videos
the church comes out with, especially the new addiction recovery
website and videos. She even whipped out her phone and showed us one
that really touched her--she said she bawled the first time she saw
it. She's doing really well, we're just fighting to get her to come to
church!
We have been working with a man lately that has a bit of schizophrenia
as well. He is super receptive to the spirit and has come to church
regularly, we're just working hard to get him ready to make covenants with
the Lord. He knows the church is the best thing in his life right now
and he loves reading the Book of Mormon.
We had zone training meeting on Wednesday that went well and inspired
us to have a crazy good weekly planning session. We now have a couple
of projects going on--setting up an English class, organizing members
who would be willing to drive us and an investigator to the Freiberg
temple once a month, and organizing the ward list which has 350ish
names but most of the addresses are wrong.
Doing my best to stay healthy while most of the mission is sick right
now. Take care this week.
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
We stayed busy this week despite having two of our main investigators
out of town; we saw some progress on other fronts. Tuesday morning we
had mini interviews with president via Skype. This is something new he is
instituting in order to be in contact more often with the mission and
to get to know everyone better. We thought since we we were going to
go to the church for wifi that we would go by on this old investigator
who the sisters had run into on the street last week and said he
wanted to meet with the missionaries again. We had gone by two other
times last week, once in the afternoon, once in the evening but to no
avail. The early morning worked! We finally got in contact and will
hopefully meet with him this week. We were headed to the church then
for the interview but I swear the bus driver took a detour and missed
our stop so we ended up going to a Burger King. No sweat, everything
worked out. We also did some sightseeing on Preparation Day.
We ended up teaching the restoration to the old blind lady that we
found last week on the park bench right outside of her apartment. I
think it went well and she seemed pretty responsive to everything. We
promised to bring her the Book of Mormon on cd which we did on Friday
and she was super excited. She promised to listen to it before she
went to bed every night. We are going to have a lesson with her
tomorrow.
We had a really good lesson with the German girl on Wednesday. We took
along our elders quorum president who is a stud and they really got
along well. We taught the back half of the plan of salvation and then
we just talked about her progress thus far. She really opened up and
talked more about her rough childhood. She does a lot of research on
her own on the church website and has fallen in love with the videos
the church comes out with, especially the new addiction recovery
website and videos. She even whipped out her phone and showed us one
that really touched her--she said she bawled the first time she saw
it. She's doing really well, we're just fighting to get her to come to
church!
We have been working with a man lately that has a bit of schizophrenia
as well. He is super receptive to the spirit and has come to church
regularly, we're just working hard to get him ready to make covenants with
the Lord. He knows the church is the best thing in his life right now
and he loves reading the Book of Mormon.
We had zone training meeting on Wednesday that went well and inspired
us to have a crazy good weekly planning session. We now have a couple
of projects going on--setting up an English class, organizing members
who would be willing to drive us and an investigator to the Freiberg
temple once a month, and organizing the ward list which has 350ish
names but most of the addresses are wrong.
Doing my best to stay healthy while most of the mission is sick right
now. Take care this week.
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
Monday, October 12, 2015
Listening to the promptings of the Spirit
Morgen, y'all! How's everyone doing? This week Elder Williams took off
for Schwarzenberg and now Elder Nearon is my companion. He is from San
Francisco and played baseball so we hit it off right away. He actually
had scholarships to a couple of schools but decided to take a
preferred walk on spot at BYU. Unfortunately he got cut. Here we are in the
city:
We spent the week trying to introduce him to the teaching pool. The
German man and the man from Guinea Bissau are going out of town for a
month which stinks but it means we need to find more!
On Wednesday we were walking down the street talking to people as we
went and as we walked by a woman sitting looking out of her window,
I had the feeling that I should talk to her. I did and I just asked
her if she had ever seen us around town before. Turns out she's blind
and just likes to sit and listen to what goes on outside. She ended up
inviting us in and we had a good little get to know you session and
then asked if we could come by again to share with her our message.
She said yes! Super cool how the Spirit can prompt you to do something
as weird as talking to someone sitting at their window. Nowadays we
call that DDR TV. Back in communist times, people would just sit for
hours at a time looking out their windows. The old timers still do it
today.
Also, another time I received a specific prompting to talk to someone
earlier on my mission keeps paying off more and more. I heard
yesterday that Marion from Magdeburg is getting baptized soon and he
and Galia have given so many referrals to the missionaries that they
are going to set up a Spanish FHE program in that branch. So
cool!! I found a harp during one of our visits--thought Emma would like it:
We had stake conference this weekend. I really liked the adult session
that focused on ward council and family home evening. Family home
evening is the ward council for the family. President Fingerle did a
good job promoting more member missionary work. Here's a picture
from our ride to conference:
Best wishes to everyone this week!
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
for Schwarzenberg and now Elder Nearon is my companion. He is from San
Francisco and played baseball so we hit it off right away. He actually
had scholarships to a couple of schools but decided to take a
preferred walk on spot at BYU. Unfortunately he got cut. Here we are in the
city:
We spent the week trying to introduce him to the teaching pool. The
German man and the man from Guinea Bissau are going out of town for a
month which stinks but it means we need to find more!
On Wednesday we were walking down the street talking to people as we
went and as we walked by a woman sitting looking out of her window,
I had the feeling that I should talk to her. I did and I just asked
her if she had ever seen us around town before. Turns out she's blind
and just likes to sit and listen to what goes on outside. She ended up
inviting us in and we had a good little get to know you session and
then asked if we could come by again to share with her our message.
She said yes! Super cool how the Spirit can prompt you to do something
as weird as talking to someone sitting at their window. Nowadays we
call that DDR TV. Back in communist times, people would just sit for
hours at a time looking out their windows. The old timers still do it
today.
Also, another time I received a specific prompting to talk to someone
earlier on my mission keeps paying off more and more. I heard
yesterday that Marion from Magdeburg is getting baptized soon and he
and Galia have given so many referrals to the missionaries that they
are going to set up a Spanish FHE program in that branch. So
cool!! I found a harp during one of our visits--thought Emma would like it:
We had stake conference this weekend. I really liked the adult session
that focused on ward council and family home evening. Family home
evening is the ward council for the family. President Fingerle did a
good job promoting more member missionary work. Here's a picture
from our ride to conference:
Best wishes to everyone this week!
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
Getting a new companion
Hey gang!
I'm sending my love from East Berlin! How cool does that sound? We
had a really cool week in which many good things happened. Here are
some images from the old East Berlin:
Tuesday was just a good day. For one reason or another our plans got
switched around so we ended up finding in a different area than what
we had planned the night before. It was no coincidence. We ended up
talking to a woman from South Africa who's best friend is a Mormon.
She stood and talked to us for 40 minutes about faith. It was such a
good conversation and I really felt like we were speaking with the
Spirit but unfortunately she turned down and invitation to learn more.
She said she was very thankful for the discussion, that it was no coincidence,
but that she had vowed that she would not get involved in organized religion again.
She did, though, accept a Book of Mormon so I hope she'll read that
and accept the Spirit then. We went to a lesson with the man we took
to the temple after that. It was a super lesson--worlds different than
any other lesson we've had with him. Not once did he talk about his
objections. We simply exchanged our feelings and experiences about and
with the temple. The temple trip really was good for him. He says he
understands so much more and sees things from a different perspective.
He also watch this news report a Munich TV station did on a Mormon
family (not the best thing in the world but not totally bad) and was
amazed by how supported the family is in the church--temples,
genealogy, activities, seminary, etc. We also met with him again on
Friday and felt like we should ask him if he had any fear about being
baptized. That actually brought up a concern about not making it every
Sunday because of bike races. We touched on sacrifice, obedience, and
blessing.
Knowing about that news report really came in handy on Wednesday
afternoon. I was on a companion exchange with Elder Allen after district meeting
on Wednesday and when we went finding someone asked us about it. She
said she found the baptisms for the dead thing interesting. She said
she wasn't sure if she was religious so we offered to her that we help
people develop faith, "would that be something you'd like to do?" Her
response, "actually yes." And we also found a family that
afternoon who was in our area book. Our ward mission leader said
missionaries in the past just lost contact with her but that she had
super potential--sweet!
Thursday night we went out with members. I visited a less-active
member and Elder Williams went to see the German girl. He took the elders
quorum president who is an awesome guy with a crazy good conversion
story. It was really powerful for her--she really felt the Spirit.
We had a couple lessons Saturday--one with a man from Cameroon,
another with a new convert. Sunday we got a man to come to church that
hasn't been there for a year. We picked him up which was kind of crazy
because we were out the door for a 0650 train and we got to church
right on time at 0900.
Elder Williams is being transferred to Schwarzenberg tomorrow and I am
getting a new comp who has been here 4-5 months I think. I've heard
good things about him.
Best wishes,
Elder Tanner Germann
I'm sending my love from East Berlin! How cool does that sound? We
had a really cool week in which many good things happened. Here are
some images from the old East Berlin:
Tuesday was just a good day. For one reason or another our plans got
switched around so we ended up finding in a different area than what
we had planned the night before. It was no coincidence. We ended up
talking to a woman from South Africa who's best friend is a Mormon.
She stood and talked to us for 40 minutes about faith. It was such a
good conversation and I really felt like we were speaking with the
Spirit but unfortunately she turned down and invitation to learn more.
She said she was very thankful for the discussion, that it was no coincidence,
She did, though, accept a Book of Mormon so I hope she'll read that
and accept the Spirit then. We went to a lesson with the man we took
to the temple after that. It was a super lesson--worlds different than
any other lesson we've had with him. Not once did he talk about his
objections. We simply exchanged our feelings and experiences about and
with the temple. The temple trip really was good for him. He says he
understands so much more and sees things from a different perspective.
He also watch this news report a Munich TV station did on a Mormon
family (not the best thing in the world but not totally bad) and was
amazed by how supported the family is in the church--temples,
genealogy, activities, seminary, etc. We also met with him again on
Friday and felt like we should ask him if he had any fear about being
baptized. That actually brought up a concern about not making it every
Sunday because of bike races. We touched on sacrifice, obedience, and
blessing.
afternoon. I was on a companion exchange with Elder Allen after district meeting
on Wednesday and when we went finding someone asked us about it. She
said she found the baptisms for the dead thing interesting. She said
she wasn't sure if she was religious so we offered to her that we help
people develop faith, "would that be something you'd like to do?" Her
response, "actually yes." And we also found a family that
afternoon who was in our area book. Our ward mission leader said
missionaries in the past just lost contact with her but that she had
super potential--sweet!
Thursday night we went out with members. I visited a less-active
member and Elder Williams went to see the German girl. He took the elders
quorum president who is an awesome guy with a crazy good conversion
story. It was really powerful for her--she really felt the Spirit.
We had a couple lessons Saturday--one with a man from Cameroon,
another with a new convert. Sunday we got a man to come to church that
hasn't been there for a year. We picked him up which was kind of crazy
because we were out the door for a 0650 train and we got to church
right on time at 0900.
Elder Williams is being transferred to Schwarzenberg tomorrow and I am
getting a new comp who has been here 4-5 months I think. I've heard
good things about him.
Best wishes,
Elder Tanner Germann
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Two-for-one temple trip
Guten Tag jeder, der diese Nachricht liest!
We drove two and a half hours to visit the Freiberg temple which is closed right now for renovations. It is amazing that an investigator and member were willing to take the time to drive down there to see a construction site.
They turned the chapel next door into a quasi visitors center so the sisters took us in there and gave a lesson. Our investigator bore his testimony yesterday in church and said that he was grateful for the opportunity and that it brought him closer to the church. The bishopric has been complimentary because this is the most progress that he has made towards accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the ten years of coming to church.
We got a two for one as well--we were able to go to the place where President Monson dedicated Germany for missionary work in 1975! Super cool part of German church history. See me at the plaque:
We had a really good lesson with the German girl this week. We talked about the creation and pre-earth life. I've really been able to notice a difference between the first time we met with her and now. She is so comfortable and open. And her attitude towards the gospel is very good. She has lots of questions and when we answer them, she says, "Oh yeah! That totally makes sense." Its a slow growth but I am always happy to meet with her.
We also met with the guy from Gineau Bissau whose family is living in Lisbon. He finished 1 Nephi this week and is still loving it. He watched that Freetown movie this week, the one about Mormon missionaries in Sierre Leone and was so excited. He was like, "Yeah they were baptizing people just like Jesus was baptized!" We invited him to baptism. He said he wanted to but that he wants to pray about it more to before he commits to anything.
Three really solid investigators. You gotta love a week with highlights like those.
Take care this week, everyone.
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
Temple here we come!
Hey y'all! Hope everyone is doing well this week.
I feel like this week blew by. We had interviews with President Fingerle on Tuesday night but that felt like forever ago. The interview went well--we had a good discussion getting to know each other and talking about the mission.
Wednesday at district meeting I led a discussion about Christ-like attributes and why there is a whole chapter dedicated to them in Preach My Gospel. Obviously they are important so we should develop them on our missions! President Kosak once said, "If you don't learn it in the mission field, where else are you going to learn it?" Following district meeting we had a lesson with our long-time investigator. We had the feeling that we should hit the refresh button, define the ground rules, and state our purpose. We used an example of a basketball player to help us. We talked about all of the things that the basketball player must do to become a professional. A question that really struck him was, "Do you see us as coaches or fellow players?" I think the lesson was a real success. We asked him if he wanted to go see the temple with us this next week and he said yes immediately. The member who came with us who is a good friend of his is going to drive us down to Freiberg Thursday morning. We are going to walk around the temple grounds and get a tour from the temple sisters. This could be a deciding factor for him. Think about all of five hours of travel time! Lots of time to feel the Spirit :) I exchanged companions with Elder Greaves on Wednesday night. We went to a lesson with the German girl. It went really well. She had read the talk we had given her twice and took notes. We went through in detail the organization of the church. She wants to learn more about the creation next time.
Thursday morning we had a lesson with the German guy who is trying to quit smoking. He is having a really hard time right now because he is losing his apartment. Lots of distractions are not helping him quit. We talked about Christ-like attributes with the hope that focusing on those could help him overcome his addition. Elder Greaves and I went finding that afternoon and found a new person to teach. We also contended briefly with a man for trying to tell us we were Satanists. He was saying stuff like, "You should really read the internet. Those Mormons are all Satanists." I don't think I would be here for two years if it weren't true. Is there a nice way to say, "I prefer to ask God, not the internet?"
We did a lot of service on Friday and Saturday. One family is making their driveway and another bought a new apartment so they are redoing all of the walls. Saturday night was a busy night of appointments. We got in touch with a man from Cameroon. He has a Muslim background but very Christian views. We are inviting the African guy that came to church the other week to baptism. He said he'd like to but he's not ready yet. Hey, it can still happen!
I am really looking forward to Thursday--this has to potential to be a miracle week. Pray for us!
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
Change of plans
Hey family and friends, this week I experienced quite the change of
plans as I got a new companion in the middle of the transfer.
President Fingerle called me Monday afternoon to tell me that he would
be sending Elder Glissmeyer to Spandau and that Elder Williams would
be coming here to Marzahn to work with me. Elder Williams is 18 months
out on his mission and is from Utah. That night we had to be at the
mission office to make the transfer so Elder Glissmeyer only had less
than two hours to pack. I miss him a lot!
We had a jam packed day Tuesday with appointments everywhere. It was a
super productive day and we even found a new investigator in between
appointments--a single mom.
Wednesday we had a lesson with the German guy who is trying to stop
smoking. We watched a talk from Elder Bednar, "Converted to the Lord."
He really liked the example of the Lamanites burying their weapons of
war (we need to bury the weapons we have). We also had a lesson with
the man who has been coming to church for over ten years. Our member that came
bore really powerful testimony as we talked about the pre-earth
life. There are many scriptures that talk about the pre-earth life,
including Revelations, Alma 13, and Abraham 3. That night Elder
Pilling and Elder Horrocks and their companionss spend the night. It was
really good to see them again.
We had Mission Tour on Wednesday with Elder Paul V. Johnson. He did a
really nice job tying together 1 Corinthians 12 (members of the body)
and that His grace is sufficient means. At the end he brought
everything full circle by talking about how even though we all have
flaws, they don't have to distract us from fulfilling our purpose as
missionaries. We were supposed to go out with the bishopric that
night but both appointments fell through and one counselor was sick so we
ended up making some surprise visits with the bishop.
Friday we had a service project at a member's house and then that night
we attended the priesthood activity. It was a really good chance to
build a better relationship with the members and for Elder Williams to
get to know the ward.
We also had a ward activity on Saturday. One of the members we see
often brought a friend so hopefully we call meet with them together
this week. That would be really cool.
Hope everything is going well on y'all's end!
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
plans as I got a new companion in the middle of the transfer.
President Fingerle called me Monday afternoon to tell me that he would
be sending Elder Glissmeyer to Spandau and that Elder Williams would
be coming here to Marzahn to work with me. Elder Williams is 18 months
out on his mission and is from Utah. That night we had to be at the
mission office to make the transfer so Elder Glissmeyer only had less
than two hours to pack. I miss him a lot!
We had a jam packed day Tuesday with appointments everywhere. It was a
super productive day and we even found a new investigator in between
appointments--a single mom.
Wednesday we had a lesson with the German guy who is trying to stop
smoking. We watched a talk from Elder Bednar, "Converted to the Lord."
He really liked the example of the Lamanites burying their weapons of
war (we need to bury the weapons we have). We also had a lesson with
the man who has been coming to church for over ten years. Our member that came
bore really powerful testimony as we talked about the pre-earth
life. There are many scriptures that talk about the pre-earth life,
including Revelations, Alma 13, and Abraham 3. That night Elder
Pilling and Elder Horrocks and their companionss spend the night. It was
really good to see them again.
We had Mission Tour on Wednesday with Elder Paul V. Johnson. He did a
really nice job tying together 1 Corinthians 12 (members of the body)
and that His grace is sufficient means. At the end he brought
everything full circle by talking about how even though we all have
flaws, they don't have to distract us from fulfilling our purpose as
missionaries. We were supposed to go out with the bishopric that
night but both appointments fell through and one counselor was sick so we
ended up making some surprise visits with the bishop.
Friday we had a service project at a member's house and then that night
we attended the priesthood activity. It was a really good chance to
build a better relationship with the members and for Elder Williams to
get to know the ward.
We also had a ward activity on Saturday. One of the members we see
often brought a friend so hopefully we call meet with them together
this week. That would be really cool.
Hope everything is going well on y'all's end!
Love,
Elder Tanner Germann
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