2/16/2015- He must be getting better at German because his English is getting worse :)

This week was a tough one but it went by really fast. Everything is going by really fast. I can't believe that its already the last week of the transfer and I'm almost done training. Its scary to think that i could be training next week. I think i could do it but it is an intimidating thought to think that someone would be relying on my German and my knowledge because i remember how clueless i was when i first got here. (and still am 2 transfers later.)

Monday we had a normal p day. We went and did our Emails and all that fun stuff. Then we went to go get haircuts we went to the Iraqis because they only charge $7 for a hair cut and not $25 like all the German ones charge. Then when p day ended we went looking for a guy that we had made an appointment with the week before. We went looking for walther rethnau straße 9 turns out that is a park and therefore room 209 doesn't exist. So then we went home before the demonstrations started.

Tuesday we had a lesson with Patrick. He is a student at the university and his religious background is Christmas\Easter catholic. We had the 3^rd lesson with him and he had a lot of questions for us. We really like it when they have questions because it means they read and cared. We did all that we could to answer his questions and he said that it all made sense. He told us that he wasn't really searching for religion before but he thinks what we are telling him is really cool and says he really wants to find out if it is all true.

Then we went looking for train times so that we could go to Schönebeck. We bought the tickets and went and got some lunch before our train left. Then we took the train to meet a member who is the son we are teaching. When we arrived she wast there we called and there was no answer its 20 minutes by car to get to their house and we had no transport except by foot so there was no possible way to do this. We had to get on the next train back to Magdeburg and go teach our English and German classes.

The classes were a lot of fun. We had a couple of Asian guys come to them. And one had a question about the difference between a warrant and a warranty. (I sent a picture of our explanation. I don't really have a warrant out for my arrest(but that also could change because the i still have to wait a little to register in the city. Its taking a while))

Wednesday we went looking for less active members. Our ward list is extremely out of date and we figured it time to update it. We went by a lot and most have moved away. Some have died and some there is no trace of. It made for quite the day. Then after a full day of that we had a lesson with Fadi. Fadi is a man that we actually kinda stole from the other two elders that are in Magdeburg. They had found him before i got here and he liked them and wanted to meet with them but moved and lost contact with them. We found him and asked him if he wanted a book of Mormon and told him of the joy it has brought us. He said that's what the last two said and he really wanted to have this joy. He spoke of a really happy guy that talked about it and that he was a missionary like us. We knew immediately it was elder Morton that he was talking about.

But any was we had a sweet lesson with him he had a couple friends with him and they were really interested to. It was an awesome lesson.

Thursday we had a fun time looking for more less actives trying to do some more updating. Same story very few were there. And a lot of times the ones that were there weren't home. Then we had a lesson with a Russian guy. We went to his address and he doesn't exist. No one had heard of him. Then we went and had a lesson with Johanna. She is doing awesome. We taught the commandments again and she really taught us. Then we went home and went to bed because we had an early day the next day.

Friday we got up early and went to the train station because we had zone training meeting in Leipzig. We got to leipzig. Witch I'm told has the biggest train station in the world. Leipzig its a lot bigger than Magdeburg is. We have 9 bahn lines that run here they have 20. we went to ZTM and president was there it was a really good meeting and we had interviews and stuff and it all went really well. After it ended we were already an hour late for our train. And they wouldn't lit us just switch to the laer train that was the same kind. So we had to take the slower RE back to Magdeburg. We got home a few hours later than we planned but we went to see Marian and Galia because there were ok with meeting later. We had a really good lesson with them but it went a little long. We rant to the tram stop to possibly get home on time ( we are in the north north part of the city and the apartment is in the south part of the city) the next Bahn didn't come for twenty minutes so we told that we would be late. When the bahn finally came we got on and two stops later William got on. William is a crazy man that preaches the end of the world. He tells us he is the ''Covenant adviser'' for the city. This man belongs in a home but they don't have those here. Anyway after harassing us for 20 minute we finally got to where we could change to a bus that would take us home because the trams had stopped running past our house. The bus two stops later was filled with a bunch of Germans that were drunk but thats better than william because they don't tell us Christ is coming Sunday to destroy all the people who go to the dom church.

Saturday was a really frustrating day. The good news is i don't think i can ever be stood up more on valentines day again. First we went to the northern most part of the city looking for a building #40 the street numbers skipped everything in between 37 and 42 so that made for a fantastic appointment. We then had a few less actives in the area so afret quite the walk(because bahns don't run out in this part of town) we were looking for a building #8 this street went 1-7 and then 9-12 it was fantastic. Then after an incredibly long bus ride home we went to another appointment and she just decided not to be home. The only good thing was that afterwards the Romneys took us to dinner 

Sunday we had church. that is always fun. the member are fun ( a little weird but fun) then Familie Wloka had us over for dinner. after dinner we played some games with them and shared a spiritual thought. then we went home and did our studies. it all made fur a fast but hard week.

2/9/2015

We had a fun week this week

Monday we had p day as normal didn't do a whole lot. We went shopping and did normal p day stuff. Nothing too exciting. Then we went to the Wlokas for family home evening. Had some food and played a few games.

Tuesday we went finding in the crazy weather. It snowed and then was sunny then it rained then it snowed and then it was sunny(kinda like Utah weather) then we had a lesson with an older couple in the branch here, The Winklers, it was a fun short little visit and they finally learned my name. I am no longer referred too as elder Colorado. After the lesson with them we went to teach German and English class. Its weird that we are teaching a language that we don't know but its actually easier to explain than English is.

Wednesday we had district meeting then we went to districts lunch. There are not a ton of places to eat here in magdeburg that missionaries can eat at (most are too expensive or they are a bar and not a good place for us) then we went and did some contacting. Not a whole lot to do other than search for people. Then we had an appointment with Johanna we started a family search profile for her and there's not much genealogy done for camaroon. She has a lot of work ahead of her but she is excited.

Thursday we had planned to go finding for almost a whole day. But president Romney asked if we wanted to go to Barby and teach a few lessons. So we did and that was most of our day then i got sick so i we went home and i went to bed.

Friday we did our weekly planning and then we had a lesson with Marian. He is progressing so well we just need Galia to get divorced so they can get married. We did a Q&A with him about the book of Mormon. He is really reading and liking it so its so awesome. We helped him find his answers and the he needed a little help with his apartment so we helped him. Then we went looking for some new people but no one was out in the cold.

Saturday we went looking for an appointment we had made with a guy. But we got to the address and his name wasn't on the klingle. We searched and couldn't find it. So we went up and down the street looking and we found the rudest lady i have met from Germany so far. As we looked at the klingle for the house she grabbed the name tag of my companion and saw Kirche Jesu Christi on it. She then told us that no one here wanted us and to continue onward. It was quite the word selection she used. Then Marc Schulzs came to visit us. He lives in leipzig and loves missionaries. He keeps track of how many he meets in his travels and i am number 500. it was a special day so he took us out to eat. Then afterwards we went looking for more people to teach because our soccer game fell out. We were able to find a few so that's always awesome.

Sunday we went to church because that's what we do on Sunday. Then we had an eating appointment with Marian and Galia. We had food and played a little game of uno. I got killed the first hand but got my revenge by winning every hand for the rest of the game. (all three) then we went home and did our studies overall it was a good week

2/2/2015

This week was a fun one

 

Monday we had p day and we went shopping for most of the day then afterwards we had Galia's b day party. it was the 6 Magdeburg missionaries Galia Marian Rafeal and their friend Flor and her daughter Elisabeth. we had the party at the church and played pingpong fußball and air hockey. we all had a really good time.

Tuesday we had a really cool lesson with a new kid we found the week before. his name is Patrick. his parents are polish and he was born in Germany he is a student here at the university. the lesson went really well and he asked us to come back. then later we had English and German class. now we teach a German class i don't know how but we do. then afterwards we did English. One of the guys in the class wanted to know the rules. we didn't really know rules we just know don't argue with us that it is fun funnier and funniest  when all four american native speakers say its fun more fun  most fun.

Wednesday we had district meeting. I had to give a ten minute lesson in German so that was fun I'm getting better at German so its nice, I'm nowhere close to good but I'm a lot better. Then we had some lessons and a lot of street contacting.

Thursday was a hard day. we talked to a ton of people. and the ones that weren't complete jerks to us can be counted on one hand. That went for almost the whole day. Finally we found some really cool Brazilian guys, there gonna come to English class and want to learn about the church.

Friday we helped Marian get ready for his move we spent an hour there then went to Johanna. we watched a video with her and then her dad wanted to find church houses in camaroon so we got on the computer and helped him. Then we had a lesson with a member and we'll just say he is German. It was not a fun lesson at all. He argued everything I had a spiritual though consisting of two scriptures. It took 55 minutes to share because of how wrong i was. 

Saturday was all moving. marion and galia got sick of their neighbor so they complained and when the Hausmeister did nothing they moved. moving out was easy. they lived on the first floor. moving in was a completely different story. they now live in a fifth story Wohnung and the building has no elevator. we did a chain gang up one flight each but then it came to the fun stuff like the washing machine the kitchen counter-top with the sink in it all the cabinets because that's how you move in Europe. its everything in the apartment down to the light fixtures. so we fought all this up stairs. and that consumed our entire day.

Sunday we had fast and testimony meeting. (i gave mine again so thats 5 months in a row that dad owes me for. i dont care if he says they dont count because 4 of them were in German so he has no room to talk and he has to give his in sacrament.) its awesome to see how we are blessing lives. Marian got up and gave his testimony it was so cool. he said before he met with the missionaries he would have said there is no god. there are no good people in the world. but now he knows god is there and loves him he prays every day and knows. that there are good people in the world. this is why I'm here this makes it all worth it. all the bad all the people who are rude. just to see people like this and the friendships we have made with these people and the love I feel for them.

Then we went to give the sacrament to the Leroy's they came to church but left before sacrament because a lot of people were sick and sister Leroy has ms and cant get sick. when we went they told us it was Superbowl Sunday. until this point none of us had realized it. so we had a little party just us four elders. we had a ''super bowl'' (it was leftovers put in a bowl because no one invited us over to eat this week and we don't plan meals for Sunday because we always are invited to eat somewhere)  it made for a fun time.

1/26/2015

Monday was almost a regular p day but we switched out some time so that we could go to the museum on elder Gibbs birthday. So we just did the normal p day things but we went to this really cool antiques store. The guy specializes in WWII stuff so that was cool. He had a lot of Nazi propaganda things. But i didn't have enough money to buy most of what he had.. Then after we were don't there we went to the Wlkoas and had family home evening.

Tuesday was elder Gibbs's birthday so we had a surprise for him and went to the museum it is a really cool little museum it has the normal natural history that you can find at every museum but what was really cool was the Magdeburg history part. It has the history of the city from about 500 ad until present day. There is a lot of cool things from Martin Luther and a ton of stuff from WWII. I got some really cool pictures. Some of the things it has is Nazi propaganda and the stars of David that they made Jews wear. Along with registration papers from Jews it was a really cool history. Then it had videos from after it was bombed. The whole city was destroyed it was so weird. I guess before the bombing the main street that we go finding on Breiter Weg was voted one of the prettiest streets in all of Europe.

After we were finished at the museum we had a lesson with Claudius. He is a less active that has been meeting with the missionaries for probably 6 years. He is really smart but wrapped in anti material. Anyways we had a good lesson with him and invited him to our activity on Friday.

Then we taught English class. It mostly consists of helping with little grammar and the stuff they don't teach you in school (like how to say times and stuff) we had a really good time with that

On Wednesday we had district meeting. And that was fun like always. We have a really fun district. After it was over i went on exchange with elder glyssmeyer to Köthen. We had some fun conversations and i found out that his dads works really close to my dads work. His dad is the owner of Second Nature in Duchesne. That night we taught English class in Köthen. Its not nearly as fun as ours is. We just did some translating and tried to help a lady with a second grade level comprehension test. Then we waited at the church for our nightly call in phone call because their cell phone is broken.

Thursday we did some finding in Köthen and when we had met our goal we went to Dilan Dönner and i had the ''Riesen Dönner'' this thing was bigger than my head and its been a challenge in our district to finish it. I joined the club of only 3 who have been able to do in so i felt accomplished.

Then we got on the train and went back to Magdeburg. We exchanged back and then me and elder Germann had a lesson with Johanna. She is doing awesome and basically taught us the lesson.

Friday was a little crazy it was all normal until about two hours before our activity. Marion, one of our baptismal dates called us in a panic and said he needed our council. we ran from finding too the church because it sounded urgent. when we got there he told us what had happened. apparently the electric company stopped taking money from his account and without warning his power was shut off. They still have the hot water and heat, just no electricity. for him this wasn't a big deal but Galia was traumatized because today is her birthday. Luckily we were able to save it by offering the church for her birthday party.  

Then we had an activity at the church. we showed the movie The Testaments. we didn't have as good as turn out as we wanted but it was good Marion and Galia came and so did Claudius. it was the first time he had been in a church in 15 years. the Romneys bought food for 30 people we didn't have near that many people so Marion and i had a eating contest. I won because that's what i do. 

Saturday we had Üntersucher Fußball Spiel. it was really fun the turf was covered in snow so it was more like ice skating. other than that not a whole lot happened. it snowed so not many people were on the street. 

Sunday we had church and then the Wlokas had us over for lunch. after lunch we did our studies and went to some appointments but no one was home.

I love you guys and all is good here in Germany ill be praying for you all.