Week 8 - Life in Bernburg Episode Three: The Great Assignment, and the Adventures Escalate Further

On Thursday we got to have a wonderful, very American Thanksgiving dinner. We got to invite our investigator Jagnesh as well.

Helga and Manfred Schütze are absolutely wonderful!

We started off our week with an appointment with a lady we had introduced ourselves to last week. She called us up and said that she "urgently needed our help". We showed up at her house and this is basically how it went down:

Frau Kühnel:

Elders, I really need you to go do something for me.

Us:

Happy to help! What can we do you for?

Frau Kühnel:

I need you boys to walk across the street...

Us:

Yes, and?

Frau Kühnel:

Go into the store...

Us:

Alright...?

Frau Kühnel:

and buy me a bottle of water, some cheese, some chocolate cakes, and some cat food. *hands us 10€*

Us:

....

We did her little shopping trip, but we don't have any plans to go back. She didn't really have that interest in the first place, and now we know that she really didn't understand our purpose.

We had a few more lessons with Jagnesh as well, he's so golden! We love him to death, he's super cool and super receptive. He came to church on Sunday and stayed for all three hours. Afterwards, he asked who gets to give talks. We explained to him that nobody gets paid for it, that the bishop assigns people and they get to share their thoughts and testimony on a topic. He then asked if he could give a talk next Sunday! He'll get to bear his testimony for fast Sunday. =D He is so cool.

We also got to meet with a convert, Emeka Nwese, who is preparing to receive (I hate this word. The e and the i are backwards for German pronunciation) the Melchizedek priesthood and go to the temple. We get to teach him about that, and we will also be working with him to help him learn to read and speak German. He is a super cool guy and I love him so much!

On Friday we had our first zone conference, HohoZoco, and it was pretty fun. I don't know all that many people yet, but I got to see Elder Huckabay, Sister Kohlert, and several of my comp’s old companions and friends.

Have some pretty Berlin Weinachtsmarkt pictures!

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Our big scary adventure took place this Sunday after church. We got invited to the Gäbler's house (they are all so cool, und Bruder Gäbler ist der Branch President). We had a wonderful meal but sometime during my second plate I started feeling a little funny. Apparently they had asked if there was anything that we couldn't eat (twice) and Elder Mayer forgot that I have a peanut allergy. There was so little in the food that I couldn't taste it or smell it, but by the time we were on our way home I wasn't feeling all that hot. I broke out in hives, my lips swelled up really big, and it started getting pretty difficult for me to breathe. I took some medicine (thanks for the Benadryl, Momma) and after conking out for an hour or so I woke up and was feeling a little better. I feel almost totally better today, but I don't plan on doing that again anytime soon.

Elder Mayer showed me a few interesting pictures (not for your eyes) that he took during this, and I'm sure a few more exist, but I'll let him do what he will with those and he can answer for that at the judgement day. XD

Today on P-day I got to try my first döner, and it was pretty good. I recommend it to all of you who get the opportunity.

First döner with Elder Mayer

 

Anyway, as is the norm enjoy a few random pictures, and here's Elder Spaulding, signing off.

Liebe Große,

Elder Spaulding

Week 7 - Life in Bernburg Episode Two: The Crime Scene in the Church

This week has been quite the party.

On Tuesday we had an appointment with a man we found in the area book, Jagnesh, and he seems super cool. He is a chemical engineer, although right now he isn't working while he learns German, and he was just all around prepared by the Lord. His primary language is Hindi, but he speaks several other Indian dialects as well. He speaks Portuguese as well, his girlfriend is from Brazil. She lives in Bavaria and is also receiving missionary lessons. We teach him in English, but all in all he speaks 13 languages.

He has already received several lessons, but he hasn't met with the missionaries in a while, so we started over at the beginning and we are working our way through with him. He actually set his own baptism date (currently the 17th of December) and we will have to see what happens. I'm super excited for him.

We've met with him twice so far, and we will continue to meet with him.

Outside of that we have had English class, play practice (that's right, I'm in a Christmas play), Elder Mayer was attacked by a cat, and a fun little event I alluded to in the subject field.

Saturday night at about 21:45 we were downstairs in the church. I was working on the Area Book, and Elder Mayer was practicing on the organ. We heard glass shatter.

"Elder Mayer, was that you?"

"No..."

(angry shouting in the background)

in unison "Shoot....."

The way the shouting was echoing we thought people were in the church basement. The door to the basement was missing a pane of glass, and we thought they had smashed it in to bypass the lock. (We found out later that that pane of glass had been missing all along.) We armed ourselves with the church's scissors (they look like they've already seen their fair share of combat and possibly committed a few murders.), called Brüder Schütze, the Ward mission leader, and Lebau, just a friend in the ward, and the Polizei. When they got here there were a bunch of people on the street and a very, very drunk guy.

Apparently he was an inactive member of the church and when he heard the organ playing he thought we were burglars inside. He then proceeded to throw his beer bottle into the chapel window. When the police arrived they found out he had a 2.2% blood alcohol content level and they took him off. The next day at church the chapel was a little cold, but everything turned out fine. It was still terrifying though.

That pretty much sums up my week. I'm just a little worried because our adventures have been escalating... who knows what week 12 together will bring. You might want to prepare yourselves for the second coming 😜

Here you go, have some pictures too.

Beautiful German sunrise, like you do.

And some more pretty German countryside:

Our makeshift window covering:

Elder Mayer and I just being ourselves:

And last but not least some cookies we made that didn't absolutely suck.

Anyway, Liebe grüße,

Elder Spaulding

Week 6 - Life in Bernburg Episode One: My New Father

I have very little time to write, and it's been a long week, so here it goes. Also, German keyboards are annoying.

My new father is Elder Harrison Mayer. He is from Bountiful, UT and he dies in six months (goes home. I thought it was weird too). It's just the two of us here in Bernburg, the Stadt seems wonderful though. The members here are very kind and helpful. There are six in our district. Elder Bodtcher (he dies after this transfer), Elder Watts, Sister Hammer, and Sister Föger, my mother (oldest sister in a new mission).

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Here is my apartment with some Elder Mayer to boot.

And who could forget the best part, "sparkly" Jesus. We have no clue why he's here or where he came from, but we love him.

My second day here we got locked out of our apartment. We live above the church, so we can walk downstairs and have wifi. We wanted to watch the district while we were eating lunch, so we walked out and I closed the door because I didn't want the Wohnung to get cold. Apparently in Europe, most doors have handles that don't turn on the outside. We were locked out of our apartment, locked in the church, and all we had was an iPad. No phone, no shoes, no coats, and hot food inside on the table. We facetimed a bunch of people and finally got Bruder Lebeau here to let us back in. One more problem, most Europeans leave the keys in the lock on the inside, so we couldn't get the spare key all the way into the door. We ended having to shim the door open with a piece of paper that had been laminated. We were locked out for an hour and a half 😅 I'll never forget how doors work here now.

 Today on P day we saw a duck. But not just any duck, a German duck. His name is Hanz.

 We also saw a castle, because Germany.

 This castle had bears, because Germany.

Everyone says that I speak wonderful German, apparently my grammar is pretty good and they can understand me well. Understanding them is a different story though. Our GML (Gemeinde Mission Leiter or Ward Mission Leader) is Bruder Schütze and he was once a German teacher. He is a machine gun, but he enunciates very well so I am able to understand a lot of what he says if I really concentrate. So it goes for now, I can understand little snippets of conversation and occasionally figure out what the heck is going on, but not very often.

It's been a little weird, we actually haven't taught any lessons yet, we have a lot of work ahead of us. There are no investigators to speak of here #whitewashing, we are going to do great things though. I love my father, and I'm excited to be here.

Tschüss,

Elder Spaulding

Arrival in Germany!

This is me getting on an airplane right before Election Day, how wonderful. (Good luck at home, guys.)

We had a pretty short day for our first day in Germany, but we did do some cool stuff. We went from the airport to Radebeul, the place where Thomas S. Monson dedicated Germany in 1975. There is a little memorial there, and president Fingerle read us the dedication prayer.

In Radebeul Germany with travel group and President and Sister Fingerle

Elder Spaulding, President and Sister Fingerle

After that we went to the Freiberg temple and we got to do baptisms for the dead and confirmations. The Elders got to help do confirmations, so I got to do confirmation prayers auf Deutsch. It was pretty cool.

Freiberg LDS Temple

Week 5 - Leaving the MTC

It's been a pretty eventful week, but I have packing to do so I'll make this short.

Probably the hardest part of this week so far was saying goodbye to our teachers. It's amazing how attached you can get to people when they are just about all you see for six weeks.

 ​Goodbye Sister Robison, we miss you!

We also had in-field orientation this week. It was pretty interesting and it taught me a lot about being a missionary. One guy shared a story about his first contacting experience on a plane. He sat next to a guy and thought to himself "13 hours is enough time to convert anyone!" He didn't know enough Spanish to answer his questions though, so he decided he wouldn't let him say anything. He just started gospel vomiting at him and talked straight for 30 seconds. The guy said "slow down, I speak English too. Just talk to me in English." so he did the same thing in English. The man then stood up and said, "Sir, I don't think I can stand another 10 minutes with you, much less another 13 hours. I'm switching my ticket." He then walked away. Hopefully I don't have a similar experience.

I finally got some pictures with Jesse as well (they're fabulous).

Sorry Jesse, I didn't know the Flash was on.

We have no clue who the this guy is, he just decided to join us. Now he get's to be forever immortalized on my blog!

Two final pictures (no promises, we still have two days) with everybody, new Germans included (oh yeah, new Germans got here this week.)

Enjoy one final pic with my first companion, Elder Rosborough.

And this wonderful tie panorama with my beloved MTC buddy, Elder Fuller.

I miss you too, but I'm sure you're doing wonderful things.

Anyway, next time I write you guys I'll be in Germany!
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Tschüss,

Elder Spaulding