Birthday week!

Hey all!

Just wanted to start out and thank everyone for the birthday wishes. I miss all of you and I got your Facebook messages through my mom. Send me an email sometime and let me know what's up back home, I miss it sometimes!

So this week I went on a split with another elder and it was almost like the blind leading the blind since we are both new. Ironically we actually visited a blind guy....haha. He is so cool though. Pretty sure I already wrote about him, but he is a recently joined member and his name is Wolfgang! This Elder and I got along ok, but that's probably because I was holding in my frustration with him haha. After a very hot day I just wanted to take a shower and he asked me why I would take a shower now when I would have to take another in the morning. Excuse me? Haha. He kept telling me how to do things and our teaching style was just really different. Plus I could tell the people he talked with on the street were WAY uncomfortable. Glad it's over though! Believe it or not I actually did learn from that experience too..in a good way! I think I am beginning to learn patience haha.

So on the 18th it was very very hot. We had set up a time to go to the Radison Blu hotel because a member from my church back home was going to be in Cologne on business. I asked my mission president if I could possibly meet up. He said it would probably not be a good idea, and could also make me homesick. I had no problem with this, so I just set up a time to pick up a birthday package at the hotel because he was bringing one from my parents. Well after an hour of being in the sun, we finally made it. We were so hot, and out of the corner of my eye I see our friend. I was like, well there's no getting this out of this president so I'm going to say hello! It was way nice to meet with him because it felt like home wasn't so far away anymore. It was also really nice to see someone that I knew before my mission because it helped me to feel like Elder Andrew and Kevin are also the same person. We also got a drink there, which was unbelievably refreshing!! We sat and talked and I got my package. He had slipped in some drinks and two pastries from a shop nearby. Let me just say those were the best pastries I have ever had, and that was just as good if not better than eating a cake!!

The next day on my birthday we went to zone training and I talked with the mission president to get to know him better and him me. We had a really good fun talk, and the best part was that it was about 95 outside and the room we were in was like a freezer since it actually had AC! So later in the training, a fireman came in and told us we either needed to stay or get out of the area because a bomb from WWII had been found while digging for a sight nearby. They needed to deactivate the bomb and nobody would be able to come in or go out of the area during that time. Elder Arts and I had an appointment at 6, and we just barely got out by just barely getting on the last train in hours. Luckily everyone was ok, but we also made it to our appointment. Oh and we were also only one of about 10 or so companionships that made it out of the area. This meeting was with a guy we had met on a train. He had so many little questions, and we were able to answer almost all of them with him saying "yeah that makes sense" after most of them. He is so cool and he drove 30 min just to meet with us. His name is Marius, and we just clicked so well. For once out here, I felt like I made a friend with the people here. Unfortunately we told him there were some other elders that could help him that lived closer. I say unfortunately because he is so awesome and we haven't met anyone like him in a very long time. On the bright side, right before that we had a guy from Ghana come up to us and immediately recognized us. We gave him a Book of Mormon and our number and he said he'd give us a call soon. I really hope he does!

So much lengthier letter this week. But also a much better week, and a birthday that was better than most, granted that my Spongebob party when I was little will probably always be up there. Way glad to be out here, and have been having way cool experiences!! Thanks for all the letters and birthday wishes. Have a good week everyone!!