Going Behind the Iron Curtain

Hey Mom! 

Well, I am sure that the news you will want to hear first is in regard to transfers, and I have some pretty big news this time. I have been called to train again, but not in Solingen. I am opening a new area in the city of Gera, which is very far in the East, behind the Iron Curtain. There are already two missionaries there, but they will now have four, me and my golden being the new Elders. We will be in an apartment that I think only the Senior couple who are in Gera have seen. So it is going to be a very interesting transfer. From what I have heard so far, the branch there is about 20 or 25 active members and the church building is a rented-out space above what is the German equivalent of a Home Depot. I am really excited for it, but I am also really nervous. The East is pretty much completely different from the West, and for a long time there has not been much success in that area of the country. Hopefully things start to change soon. 

Anyways, I don´t have a ton of time (like always) because today we are going to a Chinese buffet with some of the YSAs in the ward as a kind of going-away party, and that is in about 30 minutes. 

We had a pretty good week though. I went on a split with Elder Hall on Tuesday, and we ate with Bru. Phong at his bakery, and then we had an appointment with some investigators. Wednesday was also good. We did some contacting and met with Domingo, like we normally do every week. On Thursday, we met with Stan the Man, and later had a really good lesson with Fabian. He has started to make quite a bit of progress and really wants to stop smoking We gave him a blessing to help him give it up, too. We also had dinner with the Helzer Family in Remscheid. By the way, one of the girls in the ward told us that Remscheid is the second rainiest city in Europe.. You should look it up and let me know if it is. We had an appointment with Bru. Olbert on Friday, and also it was our dedicated finding day throughout the mission. We found a handful of potential investigators, which was really cool. On Saturday, we had another appointment with Fabian, and it was really cool. Elder Colson promised Fabian that if he were to give up smoking, come to church, and read the Book of Mormon, that he would receive an answer to his prayers that the Book of Mormon was true. The Spirit was really strong. For Sunday, we met with the Wüstehube family, and then did some work on our member book, which is something going through the whole mission right now where we get the information from the members in our ward so we can get to know them faster when we get transferred and also find people to bring to lessons who match the personality and age of our investigators. 

Well, that was the week. It was pretty crazy, and I am pretty pumped to go East. Elder Hall said that Präsident Schwartz and the APs said some really intense prayers for this new transfer and that Präsident Schwartz had a pretty strong feeling that the East has to change. There are several new areas being opened there, and I think it is awesome that I get to take part in what is about to happen there.

Anyway, that is everything in a nutshell. I hope everyone has a good week, and you are in my prayers!

Liebe Grüße, Daniel