July 11,2011

Hellows... 

Interviews with the new mission president went really well. He´s awesome. The whole interview was in German (cuz, you know, he´s German). I think he´s got a good impression on me. Well, I hope so. He has no reason not to. There are 13 newbs coming out, and my companion IS going home, and I have been out 10 months, and our area is doing really well (we had 13 lessons this week, short of 20) SO it is very likley I could get a golden. We´ll see in 2 weeks. I still think you should be fine to send the package to Solingen. And Im not licensed yet. I take my driving test on Aug. 8th, and if/when I pass, then Im licensed. SO CLOSE

        We were short of food because we were short of muny, and we were short of muny cuz of the tickets we had to pay off from accidentally riding "black", but its all past now and we have plenty of money and food for the rest of the month. And our members only feed us once a week (Sunday afternoon) so we usually have to fend for ourselves. But im sensing a change in the members, so we´ll see. We´ve been asked more frequently if we could do service and stuff, so hopefully that leads to referals. 

       No problem about the family history, it was fun to look at. You just need to do your side alittle more lol. As to the temple, Its too far away, so I havnt been able to since Wetzlar.

       I wont tell Elder Hansen about the letter Travis sent till it comes in. Im sure he´ll be excited for it. I hope all the health problems for Trav sort themselves out. SPEAKING of health problems, I gave a blessing to one of our investigators on Friday. In German. It was the first krankensegen (I dont know it in english, sick blessing is the literal translation) that Ive ever given,  But it went really well. This was Christian Kiehle, who should be baptised in like 2 weeks, we´ll see.

      Sounds like things at home are normal haha- jake almost blowing up, Gimenez´s and the Jungs watching long movies for long periods of time, a cat...

       Yeah, Zak got lucky- it was the new Mission Presidents seminar week, so ALL of the General Authorites were there. 

             BUT yeah, besides a blessing, interviews with Prez., some crazy guy getting arrested in front of us, the weather (its been on and off), not much else has happened this week. It was relativily normal. For PDAY we´re getting together with Elder Walker and his golden to play some füßball, and we still have to go shopping, So ich werde dich in rühe lassen. Hope you feel better and have a nice week! K, tscüß!
LETTER TO DAD:

Hey pinhead

Interviews went super. I really like Prez. Schwarz. NO, Im not in any trouble. I think he likes me haha. License is goin´ good. I have my theory test on Aug. 8th, and my CT license is at ADAC (its like the Geico of Germany) getting translated. But I have all my study materials, so when I have free time, im working on that. The language is going really well. I can basically understand everything, and I can say what I want. Its still a little tricky, but its getting there.

Well, we have plenty of food now. But we eat with a member family only on Sunday, the rest of the week we fend for ourselves. But like 2 weeks ago we really had almost nothing. BUT we´re good now. Teaching this week was good. My comp. told me that ive been opening up more in lessons and switching on and off between each other has been easier, and our Investigators are all doing really good. Yesterday, we were going to drop something off at an inv. house, but I thought we should see if he was home instead. And he was! And we had a 15 min lesson! And he placed the BOM next to his bible! Which he said he doesnt do for ANY book, so thats way sweet progress. There all doing really well.

Yeah, the genealogy was fun. And maybe travis should just drive at the church, but then how would he learn? Remember when I scrapped up against your truck? And that was just the driveway! And now Im gunna have a drivers license in 2 countries! Well, when I get my German one they´ll take my american one, but Ill be registered in both! Im still thinkin of getting a motorcycle when I get back, or at least a license for car and bike.

Well, thats basically it for this week. Hope you have a nice week! 

July 5th, 2011

Hallooo,

You guessed it- Germany is NOT celebrating the 4th... But its okay- they have plenty of holidays anyways. I swear theres a holiday once a week! 

    Yes, I have met the new mission president, Presidant Schwarz. I really like him. He looks like Arnold Swarchenegger, but with Pres. Uchtdorf´s hair. He´s like an awesome grandpa figure. I have my 1st interview with him on Friday morning. Hahaha, when I first met him, he told me how he had already heard of me...I dont know if thats good or bad haha. But so far he has nothing to worry about. I think Ill be fine. He really stressed working with the members this past Zone conference, which is funny cuz Pres. Ninow always stressed Finding. Apparantly Germany is supposed to have HUNDREDS of Stakes, and Temples are supposed to dot the Rhein. It´ll hit a point where it´ll be baptising like South America! And its already started. And I think the AP´s have something in for me, wth 13 Goldens coming in in 3 weeks...*gulp*. But thats what happens when your comp. goes home, you´ve been in the area for 2 cycles, and your served with both AP´s in your golden cycles. Elder Anderson (my MTC comp) is a Zone leader in Heidelberg, which is awesome. Im going on a split w/ Elder Prusse´s buddy tomorrow, and im really good friends w/ Elder Rapps buddy (who´s still in Köln)

         Wait, so did you mail the ipod or not? Im not sure if this is some sick joke or something hahaha. Yes, I have basically cleaned out the debit card to pay for my drivers license stuff today. I have to anmeld into a driving school, and then study and take the test. I should have my license by the end of this cycle (I actually saw my license- they already have it, I just need to pass the test!) Dont worry about memory card stuff- Im gunna by an external harddrive, which holds about 500 gb and is like way cheap, so I can just store everything from my camera on there. 

        Our lessons were kinda lackng this week, only 9. BUT, we noticed something: When we eat really well, we do really well, and when we have no food, we suck. We havnt had food the past 2 weeks, which was not very good, BUT today we bought ALOT. So, I think we´ll be able to reach our goal of 20 lessons. The only interesting person I can think of is Danial Schilling. He´s 21, studying to become a Priest in his church, he LOVES everything mediaval- he makes his own chainmail shirts and plays a knight at one of the castles I've visited, like actual sword fights and jousting. He´s way open too. He also plays guitar, so he´s basically awesome.He´s friends with a member (Br. Maaß) and they play in the same band (which will be playng at the Highland Games in Scotland this year).. (He plays percussion, so keep your eyes open if you watch them) so thats how he got introduced.  As for families, we have this one lady, Frau Lorenz, who usually comes to church and knows its true and wants to get baptised, but is worried of breaking old traditions with their own church (she has 8 kids, and ALL want to come to ours except their oldest son whose getting confirmed, but he´s only doing that cuz all his friends are) They´re way awesome, we just havnt even met with them yet!

        Thanks for sending me your conversion story! I knew the Osmonds played some part, but I didn't know the whole thing. Last PDAY, We did some Genealogy stuff at the church (which was sweet) and Ive sent you some names to do through the mail, so you should get those tomorrow (Tuesday). Did you know that "Madore" was someones middle name, and that its supposed to be "M´adore"? It means "one who loves themself", so when you say "Je m´adore", it means "I love myself". Pretty interesting stuff. Its too bad I cant go back very far on your family though. 

          Except for all that, nothing overly special this week. Its really cold here. And I had Thai food the other day- duck, sticky rice, onions and some mussel sauce. Its all hand food. It was pretty good! Didnt eat too much, it was waayy filling. But yeah, thats about it. If you want names to pray for to help us, here you go:

-Monique Klesper

-Christian Kiehle
-Daniel Stange

-Daniel Schilling

-the Lorenz family

-Herr Zühlke

         Thats our investigator pool at the moment. So yeah, Im gunna go bake bread and get ready to anmeld, so Ill talk to you later! Oh, by the way, my 10-month mark is next week. Just sayin. K tschüß!