Last Mission Email

Hey Mom!

Well, here we go, the last email on the mission! It is ridiculous how
fast the time has gone, and I am really excited to see you guys in a
few days!

I had a really great last week of the mission. Most of our
appointments worked out, and even though I was feeling kind of trunky
the first few days, it got better by the end of the week. I haven't
been thinking about it too terribly much, but I definitely have been a
little anxious the last few days and it's harder to fall asleep since
my brain just bounces everywhere and won't turn off.

Monday was a good P-day. The Unna Elders came and chilled with us at
the apartment, and when we were done chilling, Elder Moore left for
Unna with Elder Pratt and I stayed on a split with Elder Haskell in
Hagen. We went to our ward mission leader's apartment for dinner, and
his wife hemmed the pants I got for the week you will be here. After
we ate dinner, we drove to an old lady's house named Frau Altmeyer,
who is a former investigator. She had randomly read in the Book of
Mormon about physical and spiritual death, so we talked about that
with her.

On Tuesday, we had the final district meeting of the transfer, which
was really good. I split back with Elder Moore afterwards. We then had
to take a big chunk of time and go to Düsseldorf to get a new train
card for Elder Moore. The chip in his old one broke, and we took a 45
minute train ride to go across the street of the station in
Düsseldorf, have the guy program a new card for about fifteen seconds,
and then take another train back to Hagen. It was kind of
inconvenient, but it was necessary. We ended the night with our
English class and writing thank you notes for the members.

Wednesday was probably the slowest day of the week. We continued
working on thank you notes, deep-cleaned the apartment (cleaning
checks were the next morning), and went by on an investigator who was
not home.

Thursday was a little more eventful. It was the 1st of May, which is a
holiday in Germany, so there were not a lot of people on the streets.
We had a lunch appointment with a younger couple in the ward and then
headed to the church to make the invitation for Moritz's baptism. In
the evening, we drove out to Breckerfeld (a small town south of Hagen)
to go by on a couple old referrals, but neither of them were at home.

Friday was when the week started to speed up. We had our studies and
weekly planning (my last weekly plan ever haha) and then had a lesson
with a newer investigator, Monica. She is having struggles with giving
up smoking, and she also suffers depression. We gave her a blessing
and told her that at the next lesson, we wanted to begin teaching the
lessons since that will help her more than anything else in giving up
smoking. After the appointment, we made a few batches of brownies for
members who had birthdays. When we were finished with that, we headed
to the west side of town for a short appointment with the Gens family.
That was the last big thing we were able to accomplish that day.

We had a very busy Saturday. We cut studies short to go help a member
couple move from one side of town to another for a couple hours, then
went straight home to shower and go to Iserlohn to have lunch with the
Gusts. We then headed over together to Manuella's apartment and had a
lesson with her about life after death. A partner at work had asked
her about it, so she wanted to know more so she could tell her how it
is. She herself also was a little spotty with her knowledge of the
next life, so we helped her understand that as well. After that
appointment, we rushed home and then took a bus to Bruder Kramer's
house. We had a good time there and showed him the new "Because of
Him" video on the church's website.

Sunday was awesome. We had a really great sacrament meeting, and we
had three investigators at church. Moritz, Manuella, and, for the
first time, Monica came. It was a really good fast and testimony
meeting, and I hope it helped our investigators a lot. After the
meetings and some goodbyes to members, we met in a classroom with
Moritz to discuss the Law of Chastity, the Word of Wisdom, and
tithing. He accepted all of them and is way excited for his baptism.
The cool thing was that we usually try and have members present for
the teaching of lessons to investigators, and our stake president,
Präsident Zarse, was able to assist us. Afterwards, he took us to his
house in Lüdenscheid and we had lunch with him and his family. Upon
arriving home, we used the rest of the night to finish our studies.

Well, that was the last week. We will be relatively busy for the next
few days, which is of course really good. Tonight we go to our
bishop's house for his less-active son's birthday. Tomorrow, we have
district meeting, a member appointment in the afternoon, and then our
English class. On Wednesday we have planned to have a lesson with
Monica, and then we have ward council. It will be a quick bit of time,
and then we will meet up in Frankfurt on Thursday!

I hope you have a good few days, I will see you in Frankfurt!!!

LG, Daniel