It's warm in Germany!!

It is unusually warm here! As of right now it is in the low fifties,
and the rest of the week should be around the higher forties. No
complaints here! Some bushes and trees have long since bloomed, and I
haven't really had to wear my heavy winter coat this winter.

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to two of our members in our
district this last week, one of them went home, and the other got sent
down to Bamberg. So, the one getting transferred was in our district
so to celebrate a good time together we went to a chinese buffet and
mongolian grill that was amazing! I tried croc meat and kangaroo as
well. Kangaroo was weird, it didn't taste very good. But, it was a lot
of fun, and a good way to say goodbye.

Tuesday we picked up Elder Thaxton about an hour and a half later than
we were supposed to...oops! But, what had happened was that he wasn't
able to get off his train and overshot our station by only a few
minutes, so after he finally found someone nice enough to lend him
their phone, we went and picked him up.

Later that night we had a fantastic lesson with Frau Lange, and she
asked all of the right questions and told us she had read 17 chapters
in the Book of Mormon. Wow! She came to church a second time this week
and loved it. I pulled her aside since she had been really quiet and I
asked if everything was ok. She smiled and she started telling me how
great and welcome she felt, and the more she interacts with the church
the more she feels that it is right. Its such a wonderful thing to
see, I just hope she doesn't leave like so many others have. She's so
great, and we have a great bond too. She heard I was on the hunt for
an old luther bible and so she found one and gave it to me. Its really
not that old, but what is so cool and so special about it, is that in
the front pages it said it was made just around the corner from where
I live.

One night when everything fell out, we went finding and I contacted
the coolest guy ever! He is a total American hidden in a German shell,
and he buys classic muscle cars in the states and fixes them and sells
them over here. We stopped him while he was closing his gate to his
shop, and he talked to us for a good 20 or so minutes all the while
his chevy truck was idling, but he wanted to talk to us. It really
made our nights, and before we could even ask, he invited us to come
back! So I cant wait to see his firebird or whatever he has hidden
away.

Gotta go though, thanks for the love and prayers, I miss you guys!

Fun ride!

Yesterday I got to do the coolest thing ever! I contacted this kid
after church and he had this Segway kind of thing! I'm sure many of
you have seen one, but it's like a Segway without the pole or handles,
so it's kind of like riding a snowboard facing forward...and you have
to balance like you are on skis. Well the kid let me ride it, and it
was the coolest thing ever, but really just shows me how lazy we are
to invent something so we don't have to walk!! I'll try to get a photo
from one of the other elders, but it was super fun and kind of scary
at the same time. Although, in the states it would probably be pretty
useless compared to here.

Yesterday we had an investigator at church, which was really exciting!
She's the one that found us in the store right before Christmas, and
she told us afterwards of the peace she felt at church, and how
welcome she felt into the ward family. Everyone loved and welcomed her
as well, which was super fun to see. If there's anything I like about
this ward, it's how good they are at being welcoming and doing
missionary work! I got to teach the investor class last minute, but
the spirit worked through me and the participating members and
everyone was able to have a great time.

I wish I could say I've gotten a lot better about procrastinating
things, but I've only gotten a little better! We did back to back
splits this week which was a fun experience to have, but I never want
to do that again. It was really weird being away from elder Rogers for
40 something hours and then just going back to normal. But, the splits
were fun and I always enjoy them because I get to be in a new area and
grow closer with the members of my district.

Lately elder Rogers and I have been working on our contacting since
neither of us have done the greatest job of it until now. We have
found a few really neat people and we feel so much better at the end
of the day. On Friday we went to go to the strip, or "Fußgängerzone",
where all the stores are to do some finding. It stressed me out like
it had in all of my other areas because there were so many people, and
I just didn't know where to start. So, we started pointing out
people for each other to contact and it worked like a dream! It
reminded of me when I would have a homework overload, and my mom would
tell me to single out one assignment or problem at a time. I guess
that's applicable for pretty much everything!

Another transfer has gone by and I will be elder Rogers last
companion. There have been a few changes in the district, but nothing
too major. Although, elder Sommer is coming up and serving in Dortmund
as a district leader, so I'll see him every now and then! So proud of
that guy!

Well that's all my news. I also just got a few postcards from December
so I wanted to thank those of you who sent them! Have a good week!

Kevin

I love public speaking!

Another week gone by! Hard to believe, but it is true. Crazier thing
is that I have almost been in Gelsenkirchen for a whole transfer.
Pretty nuts to think about.

So, another week gone by means another week of stories....here we go.

This last week I got to go on two splits, and one of those was with my
zone leader, Elder Awerkamp. Honestly, it was one of the most
unorganized and most hectic splits I have ever had just because
everything fell out, but it was probably the most impactful split I
have had. We talked to everyone! Everyone. It was tough, but we did
it, and when I got back together with Elder Rogers we just kept on
going. It was way fun.

As Elder Rogers and I were going, we found a guy and he just seemed so
gloomy, and down. We kept talking with him and he told us that it
wasn’t worth our time because he was addicted to drugs and has a court
date soon and he thinks he’s going to jail. We kept telling him there
was hope, and that if he would be sent to jail, that we would visit
him. Wow, he really lit up when we said that! He got super excited and
is going to let us know how it goes. Hopefully we will be hearing from
him soon.

Zone training was this week, and I got to speak there which was pretty
fun. I got a few compliments, which also made me feel real good. I don’t
know why, but I really love public speaking! I even got to give a talk
in church this week. The topic was God is our loving Heavenly Father.
What I learned recently is how when we teach someone, it is the first
thing we teach them. So, why is it so important that that is the first
thing they know? It was a good topic for me, and I had a lot of fun
with it.

This week I will be going on two more splits, so Ill be pretty busy,
but busy is always good. On Saturday Ill be getting the information on
who goes where and who comes in, so it will be fun to see my district
transform. We know at least one new person is coming since a sister is
going home next week. Crazy!

Well have a great week guys, lots of love from Germany!

A New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everyone was able to have a fun and safe New Years! As for me,
I enjoyed over an hour of fireworks on the roof of my apartment! It
was heaven for me, and I was so happy that I didn’t miss a second year in a row. There were a few of the fireworks that were just exploding 10 or 15 feet away, and so at one point we had to move to the other side of the building.  The other elders were able to overnight for that, and then the following day we were able to meet up for a catholic mass, which was quite different from what I’m used to, but quite cool as well.

I went on a mini split this week with Elder Jensen again because on
our split a few weeks ago we met a super cool woman on the bus! As I
got on the bus with my Christmas tree that I got for free, she was
laughing about it and we struck up a great conversation. She told us
how she was alone for the holidays with her boys, and so we asked if
she wanted a visit. Well, this week we visited her on the 31st and we
had dinner and kind of had a base lesson. So, she may be working with
the other elders, but she is officially a new investigator! Neat
right?

On the mini split a few days ago, we went by on a member that hasn’t
come to church for a while, and I had the feeling to talk to a guy
that was walking our way. I was a little nervous since he seemed busy
and his kids were running around, so I contacted him asking him about
the family. He then called his little boys back, and told us how happy
he was that we contacted him! He had seen missionaries all the time,
but was never sure if we spoke German, and he always wanted to know
what it is that we do. I asked if we could talk for a few minutes, and
so we walked to a park and told him about the restoration and
explained why it does matter which church you join. One of the most
prepared Germans I think I have ever met!

I’ve gotta go, but I hope everyone has a great week!