CRAZY NEW YEAR'S EXPERIENCE!

What a week! I would first like to start off by giving thanks! Thanks to all of you who helped me make this big change of my life and supporting me growing up. I also wanted to say thanks to my Aunt Mari for sending so many of my favorite sweets! Also, thank you McNerny family for sending the Christmas card - that was way fun! This year is going to be very special. This year is kind of a "Holy year" because for the entire year I will be working every day to serve my God. How cool is that! Not many people can say they have done that.

I hope everyone had an awesome New Years. I had a pretty lame experience but at least it makes a great story right? I’ll tell that later and tell the week in order of how it went.

Monday we went to Düsseldorf and had a zone pday with about 18 missionaries! We all went bowling and lets just say I need bumpers. I got the worst score both games scoring first a 30 and second a 45. If anyone has ever done worse please email me the story! It was still fun and Elder Dean "rolled" the ball by doing a penguin slide and then releasing it. It had to be one of the funniest things I had ever seen because I took two videos. We then started a small-scale snowball fight right before going back to the main train station.  

On New Years ever we were required to be indoors by 6 no exceptions. Being in a huge party city I was happy to comply. With so much time, Elder Dean showed me how to make cinnamon rolls, which I was very proud of! We then just cleaned up a bit and messed around waiting for the big moment of 12 to come. The whole night there were fireworks going off like crazy. It was better than home even before the new year had started. At 11:30 we decided we had better go up to the top floor with the elevator. Well, things didn’t look good from the start. The elevator would start and would start shaking every time it would get moving fast enough. Finally it just came to a dead halt and the doors would not open. We were stuck. The front desk called an emergency service, but our hopes of seeing the once in a lifetime firework show in one of the tallest buildings in Köln were shattered when they told us 20 minutes minimum. We just had to sit inside as we heard what sounded like WWIII. When we got out, we took another elevator up but got stopped by personnel because we didn’t know people on the top floor. They said "Oh that was you in the elevator!?". No, no that’s not what I said two times at all. Still a no go. Fortunately we were able to see a few cool fireworks at eye level on the 38th floor but by the time we got there it was 1:15. So...at least we saw some good ones before midnight!

The next day was scary. Trash and fireworks both exploded and unexploded were everywhere. Nobody was to be seen except in the train station and the taxis. We then met up with the sisters and went to a member’s house where we got absolutely crammed with food. We ended up staying much longer than I had anticipated and I got very nervous as the family brought out dessert since we had a family dinner with a member family just over an hour later. I don’t know how, but I ate so much that day, and downed everything at the next house. My stomach is a tank! I don’t know how, but we did it! The food was amazing. That’s all I can say. 

Because of the new year, everything was on sale. This week I bought the heaviest coat I think I have ever owned, as well as a super cool World Cup Jersey that normally go for 100€! Instead I got it for 30€. I would consider myself quite the smart shopper ;) The zone training we had was really awesome, and really sparked motivation within me again. Every now and then I slow down, but I really got pumped up this time.

This week has been quite the adventure, and John is advancing towards baptism! We are just waiting for his friend to return. I hope everyone has had an awesome 2014, and that we all have some good goals for this new year. Set yourself in a good direction and lets go and get 'em!

Kevin