Week 25 - Life in Cottbus Episode 8: Do you want ads with that?

I just want to immediately clear up the title, McDonalds is doing some weird ad campaigning stuff.

(Kidney beans are the kidneys of tiny animals.)

(Kissing makes you pregnant.)

And they only get stranger from there. Germans aren't nearly as shy as Americans, I guess. The stuff at the bottom says "don't believe everything that people tell you." I can only imagine that somebody said some seriously negative stuff about McDonalds to spur an ad campaign in this direction.

Anyway, now that that is out of the way, this week has been really good, and really busy. On Tuesday we went down to Freiberg for interviews with Präsident, and those went really well. I received some great advice, and I absolutely love president.

With Elder White at the Freiberg Temple

Interviews ended up running so long, however, that we overnighted in Dresden with Elder Searle and Elder Keck. They are hilarious and we had a great time. Elder Searle surprised me with these pictures as I walked out of the bathroom, but it just goes to show how quickly I can go from normal to creepy when I need to. (These are for you Elder Watts, I love you son.)

I also got to find out what it is like to be a girl thanks to Elder Keck (these guys are both huge!)

On Wednesday we taught German class to "B" and because we do that in the church, we went ahead and gave him a tour of the building, ending on the baptismal font. We talked a lot about baptism and what the covenant means, and then asked him if he would like to be baptized. (Over the last few weeks we have been focusing a lot on personal revelation and he has gotten really excited for the "search for truth". He has been praying a lot about it.) He thought it over for a second, and then told us yes. Whoop! We are super excited for him! He is preparing to be baptized on the 22nd of April.

On Saturday we were finishing up our weekly planning, because we had a crazy Friday and didn't get to finish it, and right after we had dropped an investigator who we had done everything we could do to reach, he called us! Due to him being a refugee and some interesting legal circumstances, he was out of town working in another city for over a month. We met with him that night, and we ended up going through the baptismal interview questions to see where he is, and he is basically ready. We invited him to prepare for the 22nd as well, but we are hoping that we can move it up, because he is super ready and chomping at the bit. It just goes to show, never give up on anybody.

I love you guys so much, you guys are wonderful. Keep being great, and I'll talk to you next week!

Liebe Grüße,

Elder Austin Spaulding

Week 24 - Life in Cottbus Episode 7: Our District Just Got a Little More Posh

Hello one, and all, and probably nobody. But, instead of being negative, I'm going to tell a multilingual, multicultural joke that maybe someone will get.

What do Germans call a Mexican with no car? Carlos! #danglish

Speaking of multicultural, this week we said tschüß to our good friend Elder Sadowski in Forst, and our new chap, um... bloke... dang it... Missionary comes from the Land of Britain! We only speak German with each other because we can't understand his English. (I understand your struggles Elder Mayer. Has dich lieb!) But... we are all getting along right and dandy... dang it, I mean well.

Honestly, this week wasn't a very eventful week, other than that. We missionaried here, we missionaried there, we got yelled at by some nutters, dang it... angry old people, I mean. We ate some Döner... The usual. We didn't do too rubbish of a job, though. Dang it... I mean too bad of a job.

Really though, as we get more into spring, Germany just gets damper and damper. It's rained almost every day this week. I love the rain, I just wish it was a little warmer.

Have some Elder Spaulding zen.

We had a lesson with an investigator this morning, Elder White and I teach well together. We do everything we can to help our investigators, and it is really cool how differently we are led to teach them (we currently have six investigators). I really hope that today was a turning point for him, because the topic today was the gospel of Christ, and we spoke a lot about faith and bore testimony. It was a good lesson.

Anyway friends, it has been a weird P-Day, so I'm out of time to write, but I love you guys!

Elder Spaulding 

Week 23 - Life in Cottbus Episode 6: Return of the Transfer Calls

This has been a week. Not too, long, not too short, 7 days, 168 hours, 10,080 (or 10.080 as we say here in Europe) minutes, sechshundertundviertausendachthundert (more wonderful German numbers, I'd like to see you scrabble that) seconds, you get the gist.

It has been a great week, though. I'd like to start by telling you about last week. We had our district P-Day at the zoo here in Cottbus, and it was wonderful. First thing, there is an enclosure that you literally just walk into. We had to unlearn everything that we already had about zoos to walk into this enclosure where there was nothing between us and the kangaroos. They didn't really want much to do with us, but we still had a great time taunting... I mean looking at them.

We were then quickly retrained by some poorly marked electric fences. (We didn't actually touch them, but we almost did. Man, zoos are dangerous.)

We also saw some...

(Literally little earth men... I love it!)

And look how happy I am just to be in a picture with it! It didn't really care that much, though.

And a Jaguar that seemed pretty anxious... (Elder White actually spoke with it. It was pretty finding Nemo-y. He said that it was sad because it was in a zoo.)

And the animals within...

And then some actually happy stuff in the zoo! (If this isn't resume worthy I don't know what is!)

...Moral of the story, why go look at stuff and be sad when you can be happy by yourself?!

Anyway, onto this week. I can't really share all of the details because of the nature of the subject and what happened, but Elder White and I had some very wonderful, spiritually charged lessons this week. (Don't worry mom, it didn't quite come to calling down pillars of fire.) I was really grateful to be there XD. We don't do much, it is all the spirit. It is really cool to see how the Lord sends us where we can do the most good. Elder White and I have both had some very interesting personal problems, and it is really cool to see that we are put in the places where these stories do the most good.

This week especially, my testimony has grown that the Lord can turn every hardship into a blessing. Our problems in life can cause great sorrow. But when we look at them, we will find so many blessings. And, through sharing them, they can become blessings for others as well.

My friends and family, be always a good example, always a rock.

I had a few words come into my head a few months ago, and I want to share them now with you.

"Even though the stumbling blocks of yesterday now seem as pebbles to the cliffs in front of you, look down at yourself. See how you've grown. There is no mountain that you cannot conquer. You can do this." - Elder Austin Spaulding.

(So cool to quote myself. Somebody put that on a plaque and send that to me or something.)

So, this week Elder White and I were teaching a wonderful lesson. We knew that transfer calls were that day, but not exactly when. You can trust Satan to throw a wrench in the plans though. We were showing the restoration video to a family, and we literally got our transfer call during the first vision. Just more proof that Satan will do literally everything he can to mess with stuff. Don't worry, though, we made it work out.

But, like I said, we got transfer calls! I'm sad to say that Elder White and I will be separated as I go to look down over the mission as a Zone Lord... Zone Lord Spaulding... nice ring to it. Just kidding, I get to stay in Cottbus with Elder White!

I'm so excited because I know that there is still a work for us to do here. Our investigators are doing so well, and I am excited to continue to work with them!

One final thing before I go. So, apparently here in Germany there is a thing called spaghetti Eis. Yes, this is ice cream, don't worry about it.

Have a great week friends!

Elder Austin Spaulding

P.S.

Hopefully some of you will get and love this.

Week 22 - Life in Cottbus Week 5: Mission Tour

This week was good. Yes. Good. We liked this week, didn't we? Yes.

We did many good things since we talked to us last. Yes we did. On Thursday we went to a mission conference with Elder Sabin. He spoke to us. We felt the spirit. He told us many great things. One of our favorites was, "The best time to apologize is probably when you have
done absolutely nothing wrong! It makes the other person feel horrible!" He also told us more spiritual things. Yes he did. Things like "Forget about who is right. Just do what is right." And that we can "Expect miracles." We know that he has changed our mission for the better. Yes.

We also saw most of our group at this conference! We got to take a picture with most of us here. Enjoy it.

Sister Kohlert and I were in the MTC together!

We also saw our father! We were so happy! We had a wonderful time with him. Yes. We did.

With my mission "father" Elder Mayer.

Elder Mayer - first companion in Germany.

Other than that, we just had fun being missionaries. And Elder White was there with us too. We had a good time. Yes.

Being weird with Elder White.

I hope that your week is as good as ours.

Elders Spaulding

Week 21 - Life in Cottbus Week 4: Let the Quatching (Nonsense) Begin

This week has been... interesting. I had a whole bunch of funny little things happen to me in the last couple days, so I'll try to sum them up pretty quickly.

On Wednesday we had a wonderful district meeting. Elder White and I gave a bomb Thema on finding, and then we went to cafe America again. Elder White and I then shared a tender moment over a milkshake. It was glorious.

On Friday into Saturday we had a marvelous Austausch. Right beforehand we had a freak snowstorm from Russia as well. It had been raining for a couple hours and the ground was covered in water, but that didn't stop the Russian snow from sticking to the ground in less than five minutes.

Anyway, I ended up in Forst with Elder Sadowski, and we had a great time. We did a lot of finding, and didn't have a lot of success, but we found this cat. So that makes everything alright.

Elder Sadowski taught me some good lessons, and I hope that I helped him as well. Finding is something that is really hard for me. I don't know why I am so scared of people on the street, they can't do anything to me. Their words do nothing, and I have the Lord on my side, right? But regardless, it is really difficult. But almost all that I did for 24 hours was find, and I gained some newfound respect for the Lord and his ability to help us despite our weaknesses. Have some beautiful pictures of Elder Sadowski and me.

On Monday we moved. We spend the whole day taking loads from one Wohnung (flat) to another in the city. It was exhausting, but I am grateful for the Forst Elders and the other members who helped us. Afterwards, we had a meeting to have family home evening with a family in our ward. We gave a short spiritual thought, and then the parents gave one as well. As you might be able to tell, it was on wearing the armor of God. This naturally escalated into slay the elders, though. Don't worry, we didn't go down easy.

Anyway, sorry for the messy form of this letter. My fingers and my mind are both doing weird things, so I just kind of typed and this is what you get. =)

Have a good week, my people.

Elder Austin Spaulding