Final Interview with Pres. Schwartz

Hey Mom!

Well, we had a pretty good week. On Tuesday, I had my interview with
Pres. Schwartz. It was really good but kind of awkward at the same
time, mostly when he got to the marriage portion. He did the classic
"it's not good to be alone" line, and at one point he leaned back in
his chair and said, "OK, I'm now prospective Sister Squires, we are on
our first date, ask me questions." Haha it was kind of funny. He told me I have to do 
power-datingwhen I go home, which is basically just laying everything on the table
in the first date and setting expectations, almost like in a lesson
with a new investigator. Yeah, we'll see how that goes. Other than
that, I learned a lot of good things from the interview and Pres.
Schwartz gave me a lot of good instruction. We spent the rest
of the day in Dortmund since it was our P-day.

Wednesday consisted of going on a split to Unna with Elder Pratt. We
did service all day, helping some members transport a piano to a
member's physical therapy practice. It was a good day, but we didn't
get to do much of anything else since the places were so far away we
had to travel to. Meanwhile, Elder Moore and Elder Haskell met with an
investigator, Monica, to help her stop smoking. Apparently they
discussed the Atonement a lot with her.

On Thursday, Elder Pratt and I took a train back to Hagen and there we
had district meeting. We did some roleplays trying to meet the
concerns of our investigators. Afterwards, Elder Moore and I went to
Iserlohn for an appointment with Bruder Kraft and his friend who plays
guitar and bass. The friend had questions about why we are called
'Elder' and what similarities there are between us and the elders
spoken of in the old testament. We pretty much just read the
explanation in the bible dictionary, and that was really helpful. We
also got to jam a little bit on guitar. I am super excited to play
more guitar when I get home!

We did not get a lot accomplished on Friday because I got sick. One of
the kids in Unna, whose family was moving the piano, was sick, and I
am pretty sure that is the source of my sickness. I wrote my mission
history (a roughly 5 page document required from Pres. Schwartz) just
giving an outline of my mission, my areas, my companions, and the
people I have taught.

There was a couple from the Siegen branch who got baptized on Saturday
in our ward building since they don't have a baptismal font in Siegen.
It took a long time, and we had to clean everything up afterward. The
guy who got baptized was a pretty big dude and it took him 4 times to
get baptized because he wouldn't go all the way under the water. The
fourth time, he just kind of fell backwards. It was kind of an awkward
baptism, but it's all good haha. After that was all said and done, we
took a trip to Iserlohn and had a lesson with Manuella. It went well.
She was not doing too well, so we gave her a Priesthood blessing.

I started feeling more sick on Sunday. I was coughing a lot and my
nose was very plugged, but I still was able to get through all of the
meetings, give a talk about the Atonement, have a lesson with Moritz
about some of the commandments and his baptismal program, and have an
eating appointment with an older couple in the ward. After that, I was
pretty much done for the day and just rested.

I was not doing too well on Monday, so it was another day of mostly
resting and getting some easy things done, like preparing the
baptismal program for Moritz. Other than that, I just kind of laid
around and took it easy. I am feeling better today, I still just have
a little bit of a stuffy nose and a little cough.

Well, that was our week. It really is starting to hit me that I go
home in a couple weeks. I started packing so that I would not have a
last-minute scramble in a couple weeks right before I have to go. I
also sent home a big package today, mostly filled with books, letters,
and other random things.

Anyway, I hope you have a great week! Love you!

LG, Daniel

PS For Moritz's baptism, we will be singing "A Child's Prayer" and "I
am a Child of God."  I don't know yet if we have someone to play the
piano for the service, so could you practice those a little just in
case we would need a back up pianist? That would be awesome!