Week 99 - Life в Ноймунстере week 10: Trains and Trainers

Hey, everybody! It's been a crazy week. But on a mission, crazy usually means crazy good. So it was this week.

Tuesday was where things started kicking. We started off with an appointment with an investigator named Thorsten. He lives far away from Neumünster and is in a wheelchair due to a recent surgery on his foot, so it is currently very difficult for him to make it to church. We love him to death, though, and are having fun working with him.

After that, we went to a member named Wolfgang and had a good appointment with him. We read part of Jacob 5 and invited him to study that further. We also discussed having him help us as a translator for a (hopefully) coming appointment, because he speaks Russian. We found a Russian contact and are excited to be able to help him with Wolfgang's help.

We also had an eating appointment that evening with Fabian, a member who may like us a little too much, and as such brought more cake than could be eaten.

On Wednesday we had district meeting. District meeting never happens withought shenanigans, though. Our ticket was delayed, so we were already in the train when we got our ticket. That was stressful!

On Thursday we ate with the Nwadilims, a super cute member family and worked in the Tafel.

Friday we did weekly planning, then we ate with a part member family. We had a good time with them and are looking forward to their progress. After that we went and visited a sick member in the hospital and had a wonderful appointment with her.

On Saturday we had a meeting with our bishop and we started working out a plan so that we can work closer with another.

On Sunday we had an amazing first appointment with a new investigator family and then Elder Simone's last eating appointment. We then packed furiously.

Hey Fam, today has been crazy, I'm actually a pinneberg Elder for a few days. Elder Simone left today, and I don't get my new companion until Wednesday.... Because I'm training!

I'm super excited to train my last transfer. I'll give you some details once I know next week.

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Austin Spaulding

Week 98 - Life в Ноймунстере Week 9: I'm beat!

Hey, fam.

I've got a pretty nasty headache today, so please excuse the lack of email. I love you guys!

Here is the rundown that I'm managing to give you:

This is the last week of the transfer, cool stuff.

We had an awesome meeting in Hamburg with the stake president. He prepared us for a meeting this coming week we will have with him and the bishops, where we will school them on helping us with the work.

I ate a lot. Didn't get sick this time, though!

I love you all, have a good one!

--

Liebe Grüße,

Elder Austin Spaulding

P.S.

There were random zoo exhibits in the mall here today. We saw this cool gecko fam. German included for the adventurous.

Week 97 - Life в Ноймунстере Week 8: Die Woche der Wespen

Hey fam, time is short, life is good, my Grammar is bad, my ability to write today is worse... We'll make it happen.

This week was interesting, we had two visits with some mentally ill people in the hospital, but God knew that we would need some cheering up, so he showed us a lot of cute dogs on the way there XD I'd say the highlight of that was seeing a dog help carry home groceries. We were leaving and just saw a dog carrying a massive package of paper towels and I just couldn't stop laughing XD

There were also wasps EVERYWHERE this week. Never before have I feared so mochi for my flesh. Three people got stung while we were at the food bank on Thursday, and we have killed several at home, at the church, and just about everywhere else.

Other than that, this week was mostly travel time and appointments. We quite literally were going from appointment to appointment most days. This week it was mostly with members, which is nice, but didn't leave me with any extraordinary stories to tell. 

Another highlight (albeit an exhausting one) was that I semi-succesfully taught the first lesson in Russian yesterday. It was to a member as practice, and I had help from a native, but still, it was mostly me (and mostly terrible XD).

Anyway, I wish you all a wonderful and miracle filled week. Love life, and it will love you back. :) Bis nächste Woche! 

Liebe Grüße,
Elder Austin Spaulding

Week 96 - Life в Ноймунстере Week 7: Holy Flim Flam, Fatman!

First an announcement: I am officially extended, so I'll be rocking missionary life for one more transfer after this one. Don't worry Fam, good things come to those who wait. 😜

Last week on Tuesday I had the most filling eating appointment of my entire mission. We made something called Frikandeln(?) It's a dutch dish. We made it with our main man Fabian from the Netherlands. It's primarily ground beef, you add some púreed chicken eggs, a bunch of seasonings, and mix it all together. You then form this into rolls, put those in plastic wrap, boil them, and then bake them in the oven. We had that alongside french fries and brocolli with sheep cheese melted on top. I then proceded to eat until I couldn't anymore. I hurt after that one. XD 

The next day, we started things out right and went and gave an emergency blessing to an investigator who got really sick. We couldn't visit her alone, as per the mission rules, so we searched far and wide for someone to come with (Everyone was working!) until we made that work. We then got invited by a part member family to an all you can eat Asian Buffet, where I again ate until I couldn't anymore (it wasn't very much this time). Then off to Kiel for Tausch with Elder Seamons!

With Elder Seamons. We were in the MTC together.

Thursday was, klar, Tausch, so Elder Seamons and I went ham. We started by eating at the Mensa (Essentially a University cafeteria), and then we headed to Rendsburg (a very beautiful city, I'll send pictures. I've only gotten a few looks over cities like this in my mission, mountains don't exist here!) and had two appointments, by one of which I saw a rug from my childhood (pics also included). Ah, memories. We then tausched back, kind of. We overnighted in Lübeck before ZoKo and Interviews the next day, as we all needed to be there very early and there is an empty apartment there that the church hasn't closed yet (it used to belong to the Elders, now there are only sisters there).

Friday was ZoKo, it was super cool and spiritual. One of my big takeaways was the concept of letting the Lord handle our goal setting. When we focus on being his tools and allow his goals to be our only purpose it can actually be quite relaxing. When you are on the Lord's errand and something doesn't work as planned, it doesn't matter! The Lord's will will be done, that was obviously part of it!

Saturday we had a street display in Lübeck and we gave out 15 books of mormon! It was incredibly fun and effective. I also spoke with three different Russians that day, they exist! Actually, funny story, We were on our way to an appointment with our bikes after the street display, and we saw a man crash his bike about 50 feet in front of us. We went and helped him up and asked, "Wie heißt du?" (What is your name) and he shook his head and said under his breath, " Откуда ты? нет..." (Where are you from? no...) and then I got to pop in with "ты говоришь по-русски?!" (You speak Russian?) and then had a quick conversation with him and switched contact info. We'll try to meet with him this week! 

That was most of the happenings this week. It was pretty crazy, but I enjoyed it. I love you all and wish you a good one. =) Stay beautiful!

Liebe Grüße,

Elder Austin Spaulding