Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, and I hope everyone is
ready to take on the New Year that's coming up. Can't believe how fast
it has come! It's so weird thinking that in just a few days it will
be 2016! But, this year has helped me grow a lot. I'm so glad I got to
spend the entire year of 2015 as a missionary for the Lord.

Christmas was fantastic, and in Germany they celebrate Christmas for 3
days!! Christmas Eve we had a fun Christmas service at the church and
then we went and had a wonderful time at the Ziegner family's house.
We laughed, talked, had some really good food, and then I watched the
family play Mario kart. It was super fun because they are the type of
family that makes you feel like their own. Also I got told by the 9
year old that she thinks I'm very handsome haha. How funny!

Christmas Day we just took it easy. We slept in a bit, which was
heavenly, we opened presents, and we went over to a member’s house
where we played skipbo! We even got to watch big hero 6, which was
pretty fun. The weird thing was that it wasn't weird watching a movie.
I loved it! Not to mention we Skyped our parents, which was needless
to say my highlight. That, the movie, and chasing the cats with a toy
helicopter.

Second Christmas we were invited over to two families houses, and both
of them stuffed us to the brim. I won't lie; I am sick and tired of
getting chocolate!! One member gave us a half kilogram Santa! There's
no way I can eat that! So I have probably put on a few pounds
unfortunately, but it's not like you can escape the holidays
unscathed.

It was almost like we had a week off, it was heavenly! But, gotta kick
things back into gear and finish off strong. This week we have one
more holiday where we get to go in early, so...New Years. Because we
live on the 7th floor I will actually get to see a decent firework
show this year, and the other elders are overnighting. Right before
that we are going to a catholic mass, so it will be a really fun
night.

Thanks for all of the Christmas cards and love you sent my way, I hope
you all have a fun and safe New Years! Well, I'll see hopefully all of
you next year!

Baptism!

Wednesday Dagmar was baptized in Herne and the service was great! None of us really took any photos because it really wasn’t very big. I didn’t
know her either, so don’t be mad!  It was really small but nice, and
a member brought her friend and we might start teaching him the
lessons after Christmas! How cool would that be?

Being new here, I wanted to get on the wards good side, so I asked the
bishop if there was anybody he wanted us to call or go by on. He
immediately gave us a name and I called her a few days later and she
was really glad that I called. She talked to me for like 30 minutes,
but she was more just frustrated that nobody else had called before
me. Well, sorry! Anyways we went by and the spirit was there, but I
think she just feels too hurt by a bunch of random stuff, so I think
we are going to turn her over to the ward to work with.

One really cool thing that happened last week, was that as we were
going to her house we had to take the bus and the bus driver contacted
us because we were speaking English and he lived in England for 12
years. We ended up just staying on the bus so we could talk with him,
and he was super impressed and really liked us. We gave him our card
and said he would check it out.

As we were doing our studies, the other elders ran into him and he
said that he knew me! How cool is that that he ran into the other
elders and remembered my name!

That’s pretty much it, I'm sorry this is a short letter..Koln was my
favorite part of the week, and I think I wrote about that last week.
Anyways, take care, and have a very Merry Christmas!

Kevin

First week in Gelsenkirchen

Currently I'm on the train going back from Köln! What a fun PDay! We
were only there for a few hours, but I got to see so many things that
I have fond memories of. As you can imagine, the city hasn't really
changed in one year, but a construction project on the Dom was
finished that looked pretty neat. I can't tell you all how happy I was
to be back! It was like coming home! I had quite the fun
time leading around my friends knowing exactly where everything was.

Well, being in a new city has been quite the adventure, and I'm
already making new friends and memories. Gelsenkirchen isn't anything
beautiful, but it's a nice suburban city that has a little bit of a
homey feel to it. What got me excitedis that they have a few
streetcars that run through the city. Right from the start we have
been busy meeting with people which has been really nice.
Most of the people are members, but that's ok, we are going to find
some new people to teach.

Tomorrow we even have a baptism in Herne, the neighboring city,
because we rent a building and don't have a font. I've only met the
lady twice, but she is super nice and she is really ready to be
baptized. It will be exciting, and hopefully a lot of people will
come.

Our apartment is pretty cool, and we live on the seventh floor, which
is the top. And, there is a ladder to get up to the roof, so there's
no way I'm missing this year’s firework show on New Years.

Nothing too big has happened this week, although just yesterday we had
a real big conference with the Düsseldorf zone in Dortmund. What I
realized was that I was there exactly a year ago for last years
Christmas conference. I saw a bunch of my old mission buddies, but I'm
at that point where I don't know anyone anymore, but it was still
pretty fun.

Elder Rogers is my new companion, and he is from Utah, like most of my
companions! So far things are going great, and we have had quite a few
good laughs lately, so things are really looking up.

That's all I've got for this week, everyone is doing well and getting
into the Christmas spirit. Love you all!

Off to Gelsenkirchen

Well I’ve got some bittersweet news, being that I have been transferred
out of Offenbach and into a city called Gelsenkirchen up around
Dortmund and Essen. I don’t really know anything about my new companion
or area, but it should be pretty good! I am just excited to see if
there are some Christmas markets, because those are one of my favorite
things over here. The one in Frankfurt is pretty cool, but I’m excited
to go back up north. I actually leave tomorrow, and I will have to
change trains in Cologne, so I’m super excited to just be in the city
and be in the train station again, it is like a small dream come true.
I have missed that city ever since I left.

It was a good last week though, and we were pretty busy as well. I got
to see some pretty cool things as well as do some fun things. It wasn’t
as hard to say goodbye as I thought, but that doesn’t mean I liked it.

On Tuesday I got to see Andy, and I got to go see his twin baby boys
that were only one day old! They were so cute, and it helped remind me
again of why we are here, and how pure and innocent little children
are. It’s always a humbling experience. The next day we went back and
taught his stepson, who is going to be baptized early next year, and
then his mother. We just began teaching them a week or two ago, but
since Andy is a member, they talk a lot about the church and want to
become members. We just need to take it slow and make sure they
understand everything.

I got to see Greg this week and said goodbye. It was sad because
something just felt different, and it made me sad for him and Ajda. I
just think they need time, but I just want them to choose the right
path and be baptized right now! I think they will come to it again in
the future.

On Saturday we spent a good chunk of time helping Sister Young paint
her house with Aaron our ward mission leader, and we had a fun time
and also had some really good discussions as well. I am so excited for
her to come back to church, I was just bummed I never got to see her
come while I was here. We just talked about very deep things, and I
think the Lord put words in my mouth. I shared a video and by the end
she was teary eyed, and I think it got across to her a lot better than
I did. The spirit is awesome.

Excited to see what this new area brings. It may be a challenge, maybe
not, but the Lord wants me to be there because he knows it is the best
opportunity for me to learn, so hopefully I will figure it out! Thanks
for all of your love, emails, and prayers. Love you all!

Gearing up for Christmas

Tuesday really set the week up to be a good one with a solid zone
training all about Christmas and the new Christmas initiative. It got
us all very excited and motivated to get out there and work and find
some people. I got a fun post card from the Nowaks as well, so if
you’re reading this, Vielen dank, ich vermisse euch!

That night we did a lot of finding near the Christmas market here in
Offenbach, and we had a lot of really positive and uplifting contacts
that got us all excited for the Christmas season. Something cool was
that we contacted one of the people in a stand at the market and she
wanted a Romanian book of mormon, so we took it by the next day for
her and she was super happy.

Something really different happened this week. One of our
investigators grandmas died, and we had the funeral at the church. We
sang nearer my god to thee, and it was really nice. During the
service, it was just so obvious to me that there was a life before
this one as well as one after this one. This life is too short and too
meaningful to go to waste and have no point once we die. It was just a
nice realization.

I had a split this week in Frankfurt and we did some dooring, which is
my least favorite method of finding, BUT it went great. We ended up
talking to two people on the doorstep for about 20 minutes a piece.
Both of them knew us, and both said that we could meet another time. I
can’t tell you how refreshing that is to hear.

Because of the Christmas markets here in the area, there have been a
lot more Americans in the area, which has been a lot of fun. Its always
fun to just get a little taste from home. Americans are pretty cool
people I guess :)

Well, things have been really working up to Christmas, which has been
really fun. Im excited to see what comes from it. I hope to be able to
report to you all some awesome miracles soon! I wish you all a great
week, and to stay warm!

Winter is coming!

I can’t believe how fast this week rolled by! I guess it was since this
week was a lot fuller. On Tuesday we met with a guy that wants to meet
with us and work together in the community and do service, as well as
help his friends learn more about our church when they want to meet
and ask questions. He’s on a trip right now, so it should be fun when
he gets back! We have a transfer coming up soon, and everyone seems to
think I’m leaving, so we will see if I even get to be a part of this
cool teaching experience.

Later that day we got to hear and see President Ballard from the
twelve apostles! He was holding a conference here for all of the ward
councils on how they can help more people come into the church, and
all of us were invited. It was really neat to see him, and he had a
lot of cool insights and I really hope he inspired the wards here to
work more with us.

Later on in the week we got to work with Andy and his family, so we
are going to begin the lessons this week and work towards baptism. I’m
really excited to see what happens with them, because Andy is a really
strong member and loves sharing his testimony while we are there. He’s
a great example for his family.

Sundays are always the busiest days at church! Everyone always wants
something from us or needs to talk to us at the very moment that
everyone else is trying to do the very same thing. It’s kind of funny.
Everybody says that Sunday is the most relaxing day of the week for
them, but I can’t even imagine that anymore. It was nice though,
because yesterday we were busy from the moment church ended, until the
time we had to go in for the night. It was nice being busy and needed,
and it felt good to serve the people that couldn’t come to church.

We had our fist snow last night, so winter really is coming! Hard to
believe that 2015 is almost over!! Its nuts, but that’s life for you I
suppose. Have a good week and stay safe everyone!

Drunk wants to date companion!

Hey everyone, Im going to make this quick because I dont have a lot of time.

Something funny that happened while we were finding, was that a drunk
polish guy contacted us and wouldnt let me talk. He would only talk to
Elder Sommer...and then asked him out to dinner and told him he would
pick him up. When both of us tried to explain that we cant separate,
nor want to, he was livid and I was just laughing because I couldnt
believe what was happening. When he finally drove off on his moped, he
was still driving on the sidewalk and almost swerved into a parked
car.

Something cool that happened really helped cheer me up, was that we
had a day almost free from rejection! I was having a really rough day,
and pretty much the only thing planned for 8 hours was finding. I just
wasnt having a good day, but as we began contacting, the first 2
people we contacted gave us their numbers, and we even had a small
lesson with one of them. At the end of the day, after a long trip that
at the time seemed for nothing, a 21 year old got on the bus and we
talked with him for 30 minutes! He gave us his number and invited us
to a religious group he goes to. Lastly, after he got off the train
(He got on our train after we got off the bus) I went to the bathroom
and as I was walking back I was contacted by a worker on the train and
asked me to translate for a guy. Turns out he was a refugee, and one
of the nicest guys ever. Anyways, that day was so full of miracles
that it was a sign for me that the Lord was watching out for me on one
of my worst days, and that he loved me.

Things have been really busy since I have become the district leader,
but I love it so much. Cant believe that it has already gone by so
fast!! Anyways, take care, and stay safe!

A week of firsts

I got to do a lot of "Firsts" last week with the new call and opportunity to be a district leader. It was a lot of fun, and I went on a zone leader split and got to kind of feel like I was seeing how the mission functioned. There was also a meeting for the leaders where we discussed the vision of our mission and the things that we want to see in our areas and districts. Normally I am not one to like meetings, but that one was pretty good.

Also got to hold my first district meeting, which was a fun new experience. It was neat getting to lead it all and to welcome the three new people into the district.

On our way home one night, we came across a super big leaf pile in the middle of a park, so I took off my coat and jumped in! I couldn’t pass that up! So the next morning we went back for morning exercise and got all dirty, but it was so much fun!

Another night on our way home we were trying to use our time rather than just go in. Well, I’m sure glad we didn’t go in because I had one of the funniest experiences with a drunk Bulgarian guy. He started holding our hands after he would shake them, and was yelling that he loved God. So, we gave him a card with Christ on it so he could call us later, but he just started kissing it. We realized that he was beyond reaching at the moment, so we told him we had to go. Funniest part is, is that he grabbed Elder Sommer and cupped his hand and patted his face, and did the same with me after I took a good number of steps back.

The work is still going a little slow, but the work is going better for the other elders. Fortunately, we did meet with a woman that we contacted last week and she wants to meet this week, so we were excited for that particular lesson.

We love a couple that we have been working with but they have been super busy lately.  We haven’t had any opportunities to teach them for a while now.  They each got 2 jobs and don’t have much extra time.  A member actually ran into them the other day and asked them where they had been and she said they have been so busy, which I know is true because we saw it, and she said they were still interested.  Nobody is giving up on them, so that makes me happy.  I love them as friends and hope I can help them.

Not a whole lot to report this week, but hopefully things will pick up. Thanks for everything everyone!

Another week gone by!

Hey Everyone - it's been another great week.

On Tuesday we had our Book of Mormon Circle again and that went really
well although nobody new showed up. Earlier that day though we met a
really special lady while we were out contacting. We asked her a few
questions and she was very bubbly, but it changed when we asked her
what faith she was from. She said catholic, but that she didn’t go
anymore. She told us she felt like God was trying to reach out to her
since we were the third people to talk to her about God. We got her
number, but as we were saying goodbye I felt like I needed to testify
to her, so I promised her that God was reaching out to her, and that
she was loved by Him and He was watching out for her. All at once she
burst into tears and just kept thanking us. She ended up calling us
and worked out an appointment, but she was sick and explained how she
wasn’t able to go to work, so she asked if this week would be ok. So,
hopefully things work out!

On Thursday we had the opportunity to go to that religious group
again! It is super fun but I think we are going to skip this week, we
don’t want to come off like we are trying to crash or dominate their
group. But, there were some people there and they asked us some
questions concerning our faith, which was pretty neat. I mean, that’s
why we go!

On Friday we met with a less active and she made us dinner and we got
to sit down and talk with her boys. We shared a spiritual thought as
usual, but then we ended and tried to take down the barriers between
us and the kids, because lets be honest, missionaries are strange! We
are just different! So we broke things down real simple and got
talking about God and if he really exists. We ended up having a super
cool discussion and we left the boys with a commitment to experiment
and see if God is there by praying, just like you can experiment with
science and find out truth.

Not a real fast week but not really slow either. Its gotten pretty
cool here, and that has been nice going out with a jacket on.

Hope you all have a good week!

Kevin

40 Day fast brings miracles

Just began another transfer. Too bad it feels like I just started the
last one. Nuts how the time flies by! I’ve been noticing that a bunch
of my friends are going home whether they are in this mission or
people that I was in the MTC with.

A special shout out to Bill Everson who had a birthday this week!  Happy Birthday!

We had some pretty amazing things happen to us this week, and so I am
excited to share them with you!

On Tuesday I had one of the best splits ever! We had a Book of Mormon
Circle planned for that night since we are starting it up again, and
as were on our way there from another city, I contacted a guy on the
train and decided to go an extra station since it was going ok. He
didn't end up having interest, but I was glad I did it. As we were
walking to her place, I saw this guy a few times but never talked to
him. As we continued walking, he stopped us and asked us what church
we were from. Turns out he had met the missionaries in Croatia before
and had also gone to church twice! We told him we were on our way to
this woman’s house, and that she also spoke Croatian and when we
invited him to come he said yes!

Right now there is a 40 day fast going on with the ward, and this was
one of the miracles that we saw this week. Once we got in there they
kept going back and forth, and the woman’s niece was there and she
joined in and testified of the church even though she wasn't a member!
They pretty much taught the first lesson and we had him read Moroni 10
in Serbian. He told us how good he felt, and how he felt so happy! The
only word he could use to describe it, was to say that it made him
feel brave. Hopefully he will be attending this week on Tuesday. The
niece requested a blessing as well because she was feeling down, and
she had a miracle happen the last time elders gave her a blessing.
Once the blessing was over, she was crying and thanked us. We are
going to begin teaching both of them from now on!

We also tried a new experiment this week, which consists of visiting
the members, asking them to pray for us, and then contacting in the
area. It works super well! And we talked to so many friendly people
that didn't wave their hands at us like a magician and then walk away
like normal!

There were just a lot of things that went well this week. One last
thing. A while ago I wrote that we met with a religious group, and one
day this last week we met the leader on the street and he invited us
back! Well nobody showed up but his friend and a family member, so
they had us teach them about our church! The leader actually wants us
to come back and teach the lessons and see if we can work together in
the community to help people out! How cool would that be? This 40 day
fast is working miracles for us in the field!

Much juicier than what the past few weeks have been, so I hope you all
enjoyed it, and that yall got a glimpse of things over here. Thanks
for all you do!

Kevin

Scriptures are the best!

Hey Everyone!

  So first I would like to say that if you have any sort of apple device
and have an icloud and want to add me to check out photos, then send
me your ID and I’ll be happy to add you.



Something that I commonly ask missionaries is what drives them to be
the way they are and to do what they do. I was reading in the
scriptures this week and I came across Alma 29:10 where Alma just
straight up tells why he commits his everything to the work, so I
thought that was pretty cool and thought it would probably be the best
to have that be my driving force to be a missionary. So many things
you can learn from scriptures.



One morning we had the privilege of having breakfast with two
referrals. It went really well, and we had lots of fun. Then we got to share a spiritual thought, so we had the first lesson or restoration as our
main point. Afterwards we had a way fun Gemiko coordination meeting
with our ward mission leader and had a good dinner made by him and his
wife.



We got to do lots of gobys and contacting this week, and we met some
pretty cool people! One we are going to meet with on Thursday we
think. But it was really fun to see that people were put in our path
to brighten our day and to talk to.



Sorry to say that this is it for this last week, but I'll make up for
it in photos from PDay today. I'd like to wish you all the best, and
hope y'all have a great week. Take care!

Kevin