Pictures at the coal mine

WOW what a week!

Lots to write this week! Lots of fun and miracles happening in Gelsenkirchen.

Elder Rogers and I have been really trying to do a better job of
finding underway, and when we hear stories from others, a lot of the
stories take place underway. So to make an effort, I contacted two guys
from Africa on the train. It didn't really lead to much, but a woman
waiting for her stop came over and approached me in English which took
me completely by surprise. She didn't stay long because she got off,
but I got to tell her what I do and why. Blessings!

We began teaching a woman whose husband just died, and its very hard
because she can have a really hard time in a moments notice. Poor
thing, I hope I never have to lose a spouse at that young of an age.
Anyways, we taught her the restoration and we watched the 20 minute
video which she really liked. We now have a standing appointment with
her every week, and her mom is a member and is there every week.

On a split with Elder Heiner from Herne, we got a new investigator!
Elder Rogers and I had gone by on him and his family, but they couldn't
meet, so we made out an appointment but it ended up falling out. So
this time we met, and he and his wife want to meet and learn more
again after taking a 3 or 4 year break.

Later on our split, we met with a super member in our ward. This woman
helps us with everything! We had a lesson scheduled out, but the guy
that was supposed to come with bailed. So, last minute we asked if her
son could be there. He accepted, on the terms that we could talk and
eat but not have a lesson. So we went, and we got there and just
clicked with him really well! I was told that not long ago he didn't
even want to be in the same room as Elders, so he has been making
major improvement. I was a little worried about how the appointment
went, so I talked to the woman on sunday, and she assured me that she
was happy that it went as well as it did.

Saturday was payday! We had wanted to have a street display every week
this transfer, but neither us or the Herne Elders or sisters had put
one together, so we decided to go apply for one for saturday. There
was actually a good chance we wouldn't get the permission in the mail
with such short notice only a few days before, but the woman said she
would email it to us, but she didn't. So as we were going over to steal
a members wifi and check, we saw the postman throw the letter in our
box right as we opened our door! After a major struggle of carrying
all the books and a super heavy table across town, we finally made it
to our street location.

We ended up getting a few new potential investigators, and we are
going to go by on all of this week. One girl just came up, and after
hearing what we were doing went and got her sister! We are going to
try and meet on Thursday. Another woman I talked to for 15 minutes,
and referred her to meet with the Dortmund Elders. I was so happy with
all the books we gave out, not only because of how many, but because
how much lighter the trip back was going to be! Good thing the other
elders showed up!

Upon closing up, we were approached by a Ukrainian woman who thought
she heard us speaking english. She was just curious about what we were
doing; the whole stand was already gone. A member and I talked to her
and she was very interested, although we weren't able to get any
contact information.

Last story, I promise! On our way home in the train, Elder Rogers and
I were so burnt out but so excited. A little boy about 3 or 4 years
old sat next to me and his parents stood behind us. I asked how old he
was and they just told me they were from Poland, so they didn't
understand what I was saying. A station or two later the husband took
the open spot next to Elder Rogers, and I kept getting the thought to
give him a polish book. I had this kind of inner fight because I knew
just handing him a book might be kind of weird, and I didn't even know
where in our little trolly our polish book would be. I finally made a
deal in my mind that if it was on top I would do it. Well, it was the
second book! He looked at it and smiled, and then showed his little
boy and said, "Look, Jesus Christ!" It got me so excited even though I
couldn't further communicate with him, but I motioned that it was for
him.

This work is true! This work is awesome! Last week was so rewarding to
be out here, and I know that there isn't anything better that I could
be doing with my time. Thanks to everyone for the love and prayers,
you are awesome and I miss you all. Love you guys!

I'd rather be a missionary than a coal miner!

Are things as warm over in America as it is here? There are plants
with matured leaves and some trees are starting to bud! It's quite
strange, but I like not needing to wear a heavy coat.

This ones going to be relatively short, but I hope it is still good.

Today we had our PDay because we wanted to go to a German coal mine!
It was super cool and I got to use a drill, or rather I got to hold it
and activate it, but not drill anything out of the tunnel wall. Pretty
tiring stuff! Our tour guide was pretty funny, but I had the hardest
time understanding half of that tour. Boy, I felt like I was a brand
new missionary again. The vocabulary is nothing like what I hear in
every day spoken German, so it was kind of a bummer. But, after our
tour we ran into a cool college group from Delaware, and that was one
of the best parts of the day. It's so funny how when you're in a
different country you just click with other people from your own
country. They thought what we were doing was pretty interesting. We
just had to laugh because they asked us question after question when
normally Germans keep to themselves...it's pretty different over here
I guess. I guess I've just forgotten how it is back home!

We had the opportunity to go to a German funeral and burial this week,
and it was so sad even though I didn't know the guy. A woman that left
the church had invited us to her husbands funeral, and she is so
determined to rejoin and do everything she can to get active again.
She has already planned to go to the temple and do all of his work so
they can be together in the next life. It's just such a beautiful
thing that the gospel offers! And, it's just so refreshing seeing
someone who has such a desire to join the church.

On our way there, our bus had problems going further because somebody
had a medical emergency, so we couldn't go any further with the bus.
Or any bus for that matter. We both looked at each other and decided
to take a taxi, and once we set foot outside the bus we saw an elderly
woman trying to get to the funeral as well. So that was a fun little
miracle of the week, and we got to take our first taxi ride on our
missions!

Well that's all time allows me today. Love you all! Pictures of the
museum hopefully next week!

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!