The Search Begins

This week consisted of going on a split, and a lot of less active finding.

The split was in an area called Unna, and I was with a "Golden" or new missionary.  We attempted to do some finding in the evening, but there was a big soccer game during that time so it was pretty fruitless.  The following day we did service by helping a less active member clean up his backyard from a lot of trash.  It was nice to help out and to get out and do something out of the normal activities you do as a missionary.  Following that experience, some assistants came to the missionary apartment in Unna, and we "renovated" the apartment, which lasted the rest of the day.  Did a lot of painting and cleaning, along with some new furnishings.  

Back in my area we spent most of our time going through the member list and attempting to find less active members.  Most of the time, these people didn´t live in the address provided and their telephone number didn´t work.  This is something the branch has asked us to do however, and it is good to find out who actually is in our area.  Side note, found Elvis while looking for a member.

In the end of the week, we visited a member on Sunday, and on our train ride back to Paderborn, we missed the stop we needed and traveled farther than we intended too.  Let´s just say we might have ended up in the Berlin Mission for a little bit.  I thought it was pretty funny.

As far as member list finding, we still have a lot of work to do, and that will probably be the main focus for us for a while.  This week we do have a mission tour to look forward to, so I will let you know how that was next week!

 Aaron 

 I found Elvis!!

I wonder how we missed our train stop...

Crazy Week

Hello Everyone!

This past week has been hard, but not without small success.  Early in the week we did go bys  [Mom note:  Go bys are when they just visit someone without letting them know before hand]  less active members, and we actually got let in by one member.  We will be working with him, and hopefully reactivate his testimony, which is cool.  We also were doing go bys another time, and no one seemed to actually live where they said they lived (the branch list we had was very outdated).  Things were not looking too hopeful, and the last one we wanted to visit lived kind of far away.  We were not sure it would work out, but we tried, and thankfully this person was actually there and we were able to briefly talk to her (plus the town this member lived in was really pretty).  Later in the week, we got a call from someone we didn't  know, and we were able to find this guy, he has met with missionaries before and seems to have not too much interest and just wanted a visitor, but hey, we got to visit with the guy.  I also was able to meet with the one investigator we have, and long story short, after a journey through the forest and autobahn and arriving to a lake, it was too late to teach her.  We didn't  have a joint teach, so we though we could find a place to sit down outside, but ended up not finding a place.  So we didn't  get to teach her, but we did get to know her better. Hopefully next time things work out better!

Past those adventures, we went through the entire former investigator list and tried to contact all of them through phone, but we had no success.  It was interesting to dig through the area book though, and learn the history of this area, there were some pretty interesting things learned about this place I am at right now.

I was able to get to a computer that can upload pictures this week, so here is a picture of me on a Pday in Paderborn from last week.  Hopefully I can get more pictures of my new area as time progresses in future emails.

Aaron on a Pday

Welcome To Paderborn

Well, I have finally made it to my second area!  The day before transfers, I got to go help out with the new missionaries in Frankfurt, which was fun, and during then, I said goodbye to my trainer, because he was going to be training again.  The next day I took a bus Dortmund, and met my new companion, and then traveled by train to my new area.  It was a bit of a struggle with all the luggage to get around, but I made it.

My new companion, Elder Black, is my first companion from Utah.  He has been in the area for one transfer now, and in a few ways is a little like me.  We are both quiet and have similar interests in TV and movies, so that´s cool, but we have a lot of work to do in my new area.

Paderborn is a beautiful area, and there are a lot of college students here, but the church itself does not have too much of a presence.  There were only about ten people in church, and there are no youth in the branch. As of right now, we only have one investigator, who I still have yet to meet.  We got our work cut out for us in Paderborn, that is for sure!

The bad news of the week is that I currently have no way to send pictures through email, hopefully in the coming weeks, something can be figured out, but until then, no pictures.

Hope you all have a good week, and I will report again next week!

My Final Week In Offenbach

Well, I have finally reached the end of my time in my first area.  I had a split, ate authentic chinese food from an investigator, and had other Elders move into our apartment.

So, I had another good split this past week with another elder from Offenbach, only thing was that it didn´t feel like too much of a split because we spent the entire time together with the other Offenbach elders.  We had two member appointments, one which was saying a goodbye because they were about to move.  It was still a fun time though.

The following day the other Offenbach elders decided to move into our apartment to get ready for when they move into their new apartment (it is in the same complex as us).  So, it has been fun to have a bunch of elders in the same place, but it can get kind of distracting. 

We have an investigator who is from China, who will be heading back soon, so he invited us over to his place and made real Chinese food for us.  We had some weird stuff to eat, like stomach, but most of it tasted pretty good actually.  This investigator is the same age as me and is studying in Germany for school but now his time in Germany is over, sad to say goodbye.

Finally, transfer calls happened this week, I will be going to my second area, Paderborn, and serving with a new companion, Elder Black.  I hear that it is a beautiful area, but far away from other areas.  Should be a fun time though, and I get the opportunity to see more of Germany now.  I will be heading to Paderborn Thursday, which is crazy! Time seems to be flying by.

Hope you all have a great week!

Aaron with his investigator

Aaron in a beautiful country

Ultron has a new friend

This week was pretty eventful:  two splits, a sick companion, and the branch calling me Jesus.

So early in the week, my companion took a sick day where he slept a lot.  For most of that time, I studied, cleaned the apartment, and started to work on my 3D puzzle I got from my zone leaders.  I finished R2 a few days later, and he looks pretty good, he even talks when you press a button!  Ultron is not so lonely anymore.

I also went on two splits, one in Hanau, and the other in Offenbach with a zone leader.  They both went well, and in Hanau we went to a smaller German village that actually felt like Germany.  It was beautiful, with lots of trees, old buildings, and actual German people!  

With the Jesus situation, there was a member who has a mental handicap, but for whatever reason, didn´t take his medicine, and started telling me a bunch of crazy things.  He said I was a higher intelligence and that he saw me create the universe and that I was better than Jesus.  It was weird, and at one point he even sort of attacked another Elder when he was pulled outside of the church (the church was open that day for Basketball).  So, the entire branch found out about it, and on Sunday they started to call me Jesus.  Yeah, not sure what to think of all of it, but on the other side of things, we did get some new investigators to come to church, which was awesome!

Well, I hope you are all doing well, until next time!

 Ultron helps build R2

 Aaron with his R2 puzzle

Aaron in a small German village

Germany for the Win!

Crazy World Cup week for Germany, and I got to watch the final!

This week was interesting in its own special way.  We had some good appointments with members of our branch, including our branch president, and also appointments with some investigators.  I had a split with one of the other Offenbach Elders, which is always fun, and we got to talk a lot about our mission area and trying to figure it out.  We tried throughout the week to do some street displays, but everytime we tried, it would rain!  The weather here has been full of rain, thunder, and lightning, we actually got caught in the rain walking home from church, thankfully I brought my umbrella.  We were able to successfully go through one street display, where we tried things differently and brought a TV, a laptop, and American lemonade.  It was different from all of the other street displays before, which I think was good.  

World Cup wise, when Germany played against Brazil, it was right around when we were getting ready for bed.  We started to hear a lot of screaming out in the streets and wondered what was going on.  One of the members started to text us and tell us whenever Germany made a goal, that was an intense evening!  Then with the final, we got permission to watch it if we had an investigator with us, so we found one and went over to a member`s house and enjoyed watching the game.  I am happy I bought the national jersey now that Germany has won, and now I can say I was there in Germany when they won the World Cup.  Pretty cool.

So now that things have cooled down, hopefully mission wise we can find more success.  This transfer seems to be flying by, and my training days are almost over! Yikes!

Until next time!

 Aaron and his companion stuck in the rain

(I don't know how to rotate the picture.  Sorry. -Aaron's Mom)

 Street display

Germany wins the World Cup

The Fourth of July in Germany

This week flew by quickly.  I had a split and the fourth of July in another country, and met the new mission president.  

The new mission president, President Stoddard, is from Utah, and both he and his wife seem very friendly.  He talked about when he was being trained, he and all of the other new mission presidents went to the Thanksgiving Point Megaplex to watch the new church film with one of the apostles.  I thought that was cool, considering that I worked there for a year and a half.

The split I had was fun, the elder I was with, Elder Moore, loves to cook, so everyone likes to have him around because he always makes something good!  He also enjoys talking about movies, so he and I got along really well.  It was fun.

The Fourth of July was honestly kind of sad.  I missed all of the fireworks, but we did make cheeseburgers for dinner, that was fun.  We also did a street display that day but no one was out because there was a World Cup game going on at the time.  Oh well. . .

Everyone seems to be pretty excited about the World Cup, it is fun, but it will be kind of nice when it is all over.  

Sorry I don't have any pictures with me in them this week!

Aaron's 4th of July Dinner

excerpt form his letter to his mom:

I am doing well, and yes, I like my new apartment.  Apparently it is the nicest apartment in the whole mission, or so I have been told.  It has a balcony where you can see Frankfurt in the distance, some big speakers hooked up to the portable DVD player so we can listen to music, and it is pretty big.  The only down side of the apartment is that the bathroom has no door, and the bathroom is pretty tiny.  A door should be coming soon, but as of right now, we have to use a sheet as a makeshift door.  Germany is really excited about the world cup, after the games everyone is out in the streets partying, not the best time for missionaries to be out in the open.