First Week in Solingen

Hey Mom!

It sounds like everyone had a lot of fun for Thanksgiving. I was on trains for most of the day on Thursday. It is really hard to remember a lot of American holidays here since we are just working away and also they don't celebrate a lot of those holidays here. I am glad that you all had an awesome holiday though and can now start preparing for Christmas.

Well, this last week was nothing short of hectic. There were a lot of missionaries in my last zone getting transferred or training, so there was a huge confusion on how everyone was going to make all of the connections on trains, and that made transfers really stressful. In the end though, I finally made it to Solingen. The area is much, much bigger than Idar-Oberstein, and I still feel pretty disoriented, especially without a car. I am really loving being a district leader so far. Our district is really awesome and really hard workers. We got to go to zone training on Saturday and I got to see Elder Hutchings finally, and it was pretty much just like old times. I get to see him again today because some of the companionships in the zone are going to Köln to check out the huge cathedral there. I also got to see some of the elders from my MTC district on transfer day and in zone training, which was really fun.

We have had some pretty good appointments since I got here in Solingen. First we met with Nicolai Hansen and his family, who are active members. Then the next day we met with Bruder Köster. He is a really interesting guy, and we have really atypical appointments with him. We ate first, and then we taught him lessons as if he is an investigator, while he corrected our German and helped us find better ways to say things. After that, he gave us haircuts while the other read from the Book of Mormon in German.

 

Yesterday in church, we had a full 3 hour block. It was strange coming back to a ward with the regular schedule instead of just a branch with 2 hours. The ward is probably about 50 members strong of active members, and there are a lot of less-actives. During sacrament meeting, I was invited to bear my testimony and then it was the Primary program. After church we met with the Helzer family and shared a message about being examples of the believers like it talks about in 1 Timothy 4:12.

I have the responsibility of doing call-ins now for all of the companionships in my district. It is really fun and I like talking to all of the missionaries. The sisters in Düsseldorf are really funny and are also really hard workers. The zone leaders in Düsseldorf are spiritual studs and are really nice guys. The Wuppertal elders are quiet guys and don't talk much at all, but they are good missionaries. My new companion, Elder Fowler, is really cool. He looks really young, and is a little shorter than I am, so I am pretty sure we are the shortest companionship in the zone, maybe the whole mission. Hopefully we can pick up this area because right now we don't have any investigators and there are not a ton of appointments filling up the days. It is a lot like Idar-Oberstein in that way, and hopefully we can pick it up and get some investigators and maybe a baptism or two.

Well, there were other small things that happened this week, but it was all so much at once that I can't really remember anything else big that happened. I will keep you all updated weekly, like usual, and I hope your week is awesome!! Love you!

Liebe, Daniel