Rough Week

Hey mom,

Sorry about the pictures, some things happened last week that stopped me from uploading them, but don´t worry, there coming this week. 

Well, I´m not going to lie, this week was awful. We had an apartment inspection, but our apartment was really gross. So we spent 9 hours cleaning it. Also, it didn´t have a bunch of stuff it needed to have, so we spent 80 € buying all the stuff we needed. Yea, it was rough. Fortunately, our apartment was so nice and clean the office is going to give us new bikes! Woo hoo! 

That was one good part, but after that we had like 10 appointments fall out this week, a couple other investigators tchüssed us (said they don´t want to learn anymore) and we don´t know if K**** and frau K**** are going to be able to make their baptismal dates :( We just haven´t been able to meet with them this week. It´s really sad.

Some other bad things, my bike broke, again, No one who said they were coming to church came, and we had a member get really mad at us.

All in all, this week was really bad, but fortunately, the Lord always shows his tender mercies, we just need to look for them. One of them for us is N***. We met with him twice this last week, and we taught him all the commandments. He does have problems with some of them, but he really, sincerely wants to change his life. He has been the greatest blessing in my life. I´m so glad I´ve had the opportunity to teach him and his family. 

Ok, just to answer some questions, don´t worry about tortillas, we have a ton of taco mix, the ZLs and DL are the same.

We should get packages next week at our Zone Training Meeting.

No, we can´t watch the superbowl

Love you :)

Also, we have a new diet plan. We eat whatever we want, and then we don´t eat anything after 6 PM. Elder Timmerman´s lost 8 pound. I´ve lost 6

MTC Reunion Pic

from Sister Brim's Blog

Man, what a week!

Hey Momma! 

So, Elder Timmerman is great! He is just a ball of energy. I swear, president Kosak was just trying to be as funny as possible with this transfer. He took the tallest biggest guy, and shortest biggest guy, and smashed us together. But it´s ok, because he´s great ;) Haha, he´s really cool. We get along just fine :)

SO, something else amazing happened this week. We gave out 3 baptismal dates, and everyone accepted them! Ni***, K****, And F. K**** will all be baptized on the 7th of February! Elder Timmerman and I are doing great work here. K**** has been an investigator for the past 3 years, and has such strong faith in Christ. I´ve learned a lot from teaching her, and my testimony has been strengthened from her. N***, we found on the street, and he came here from Syria because the people there wanted to kill him and his family because they aren´t Muslim, so they decided to move to Germany and then we found them! We´re also going to start teaching his wife, but that´s going to be really hard, because she only speaks arabic and spanish. It´s hard, but through the Lord all things are possible! Man, his family is super cute too. He has 2 little daughters, 3 and 1. They have been such a blessing to us. This week we are planning to teach them the commandments, which can be pretty difficult, so I would appreciate your prayers for us. 

The package from Brother Bateman will get there. It should´ve already come, but he had to go on an emergency trip to Latvia for his work. When he´s finished there he said he´s planning to go back to America, and then you should get it. 

Also, the Tan pants isn´t a mission rule, it´s a rule for all of Europe. A new mission president isn´t going to change that. Oh, and speaking of new pants, my gray pants ripped :( I sent you a picture, so you can take it to missionary mall and get a new pair for free, right? They have that 2 year warranty.

We haven´t heard from Blessing in Weeks, I don´t think she want´s to meet with us :/ sad :/

Well, gotta go.

Love you mom, peace be with you. 

LOTS of pictures, a transfer, more thoughts on food

Hey mom! 

Ok, The camera works just fine, so I probably won´t need a new one, but how long will it take to get fixed? Because brother Bateman is going to America this week (With another package from me :)) and he might be able to bring it back. We´re going to lunch with them today so I´ll ask him about it. 

So far I´ve been taking out about 100€ every transfer, but I need to slow down. I really don´t need any more ties... Haha I left with 9 and now I have 20... yes! There just aren´t a lot of things you can switch up as a missionary, and I like my ties... Also that brings me to another point. In my mission we are not allowed to wear Khaki pants... I have 2 pairs. What should I do with them? I was thinking that I could send them to you, and you could take them to missionary mall and try to exchange them for gray/navy pants, but what are your thoughts on that? 

Ok, say Fin- (like Finland) ger-(like Germam) le (like led). Fingerle. (Pronunciation of the new mission president coming this summer)

Ok So now I know you´re dying to know about transfers so I´ll tell you. Elder Smith was transferred : (

He´s going to Kassel in Hessen! And his new companion is going to be Elder Warby, who was in my MTC group. Fun stuff! Yes, now that he´s leaving I will be taking the bottom bunk. 

My new companion is named Elder Timmerman. He is from North Carolina, he´s a football player, and I

Elder Timmerman is on the right

don´t really know him, but he sound´s like a great guy, and I think we´re going to have a lot of fun together :) And because Elder Smith is leaving, 3 members have invited us over to eat with them today. We are going to get SO FAT!!! 

Hamburg Zone

Elders Smith, Winkel and Oliphant

Elder Smith

So about this last week. We had a mission tour. That´s where a general authority comes through the mission and meets all the missionaries. The General authority was Elder Kopischke, and actually his brother is the Elder´s quorum president in our branch! How about that. It was pretty cool. We got to go to Hamburg, and we had a big zone conference with 4 zones and 120 missionaries! That´s almost half the mission! It was way fun, and the waking up at 4:30 and having 6 hours of travel wasn´t even that bad.

The other high point of my week was Saturday night. We bought Roulada, which is basically just flank steak rolled up. We unrolled it, stuffed them with peppers, onions, mushrooms, and cheese, and then put it in the oven with a curry-garlic sauce that we made. Oh it was glorious. It tasted like a philly without a bun. Oh I loved it so much. Sadly, we probably won´t be making that too often. Roulada is about 16€ for half a kilo. The only reason we could afford it was because it was on sale for 2€!! Sweet deal! 

All in all we had a great week, and I love being in Leer :)

Tschüss!! Bis nächstes mal!

Apartment in Leer

Elder Smith and some Pokemon stickers sent at Chase's request

Elders and members in Leer

Elder Goofball

Guten Rutsch!

Hey mom :) 

(Editor's note: I told him about the Youth theme this year, D & C 4:2)

That´s a really cool theme for this year. Tell all the beehives that they need to go on missions! Yea :)

So this week was a little crazy, with the new year and all that. On new years eve everyone buys a ridiculous amount of fireworks and alcohol, and then they have a party which starts at 6:00 pm, and ends when the sun comes back up. They drink, laugh, and make a ton of noise, until the clock strikes 12. Then, all at once everyone lights of their fireworks and oh my goodness, is it loud! It woke us up, and I thought the world was ending. Honestly, if you thought fireworks were big in America, go to Germany sometime. It´s crazy. After all the fireworks are used up, you´d think everyone would´ve had enough noise for one night. Sadly, no. After the fireworks people start throwing their empty bottles into the air. Why? I have no idea. But in the morning everything is covered in broken glass and leftover firework stuff.

Because of all this we had to stay in our apartment on new years eve, making it pretty much useless for proselyting. We were just hoping to be able to do something on new years day, but that was also a pretty big waste of time. because everyone sleeps all day. We tried to find people on the street, and there was no one there. We tried to go dooring, and everyone who answered got mad at us for waking them up... at 4:00 in the afternoon. Germany. I love it, but it´s strange sometimes.

But we did have one great thing this week. We did an exchange! And I got to go to Wilhemshaven with Elder Williams. Man, we get along great. He´s a football player, and when he gets back he has a scholarship to play at SUU. He also really likes basketball, and we both like the same music, food, and on top of that, we both love being a missionary! We had a great time together, I love Elder Williams.

Well here´s my letter for this week. It was crazy, but we loved it :)

Pic from the MTC

A fun picture from the MTC