A Good Start in Hagen

Hey Mom!

Well, things are going well here in Hagen. The city itself is really awesome, and I like the ward. I would say there are about 60-70 active members. We have a large concentration of YSAs here, and they are all really cool. We have a good apartment, a large church building, and lots and lots of people. It is definitely the busiest city that I have ever served in. I also like serving with Elder Norman. He is a really good missionary, a hard worker, and he is really charitable. By the way, did you know that Tyler Jaramillo served in Hagen? It used to be a part of the Hamburg Mission.

Elder Overall and I had a good few last days together. We went to the Wagners after P-day for family home evening, which is always awesome. After we ate and had a little lesson, we went upstairs and played Foosball on their new table they got for Christmas. I was a little rusty, but I did pretty well for myself. It was a really fun night.

On Tuesday, we got to do service at the Tafel again, and I got to say goodbye to all the people who work there. In the evening, we had one last short appointment with the Grassmans, who are a really great family. I spent most of the rest of the night packing my things.

Wednesday was our last district meeting in Darmstadt. We did a joint meeting with the Elders and Sisters in Darmstadt, and it was probably one of the best district meetings we have ever had. We talked a lot about having a Christlike relationship with our new companions in the new transfer, and it was great. When we returned, and after we finished our studies, we visited Bruder Jungheim, one of my homies in the ward, and then had a dinner appointment with the Mühlmanns. It was a really fun night, and a good last night in Langen.

Thursday was the big transfer. I finished my packing and then we headed off to Frankfurt around 11 a.m. We were there for quite a while, seeing as our train didn't leave until around 2 p.m. The train ride was about three-and-a-half hours to Dortmund, where I paired up with Elder Norman. We took a train to Hagen, and when we got there, it was already dark outside, so I didn't really get to see much of the city. We spent most of the night talking about the members and investigators there, as well as unpacking.

On Friday, we almost didn't leave the apartment before it got dark outside again in the evening. We spent a huge chunk of time talking about all of the members and the people we are working with, as well as making our plan for the next week. We did luckily get out while there was still a little light outside, and I really enjoyed seeing the city for the first time. It is big and has a ton of shops and people all over the place. As we were walking around contacting, we stopped a guy who was smoking and asked him if he would like to stop. He said yes, and we traded phone numbers. Hopefully we will be able to get in touch with him soon. We also had a sort of lesson with an investigator from Cuba, Abraham. I actually talked more to his friend who was there, teaching him about what the Book of Mormon is for. He was interested and said he wanted to read the book, but didn't want to meet right now. Oh well, maybe later then.

Saturday was an eventful day. We met with this guy Steffan after lunch for a little while. He had an accident in the past and now is a little handicapped, and he kind of just talked a lot. We didn't get to share much with him. He turned on this German gospel singer woman's music super loud and we could barely talk with him. It was a sort of strange appointment, and I don't know what the future holds for our appointments with him. After that, we headed off to Iserlohn, a city in our area, and had a lesson with one of the investigators here, Manuella. She is from Portugal, and she is really cool. She doesn't like meeting new people, so at first she was a little apprehensive towards me, but she started to warm up to me by the end. We talked to her about receiving revelation through the Book of Mormon, and she told us some of her concerns about being baptized. Hopefully in the next appointment we can help her resolve those concerns more. To end the night, we went to the Kramers. Bruder Kramer is a member that absolutely loves the missionaries. Apparently we have a weekly appointment with him every Saturday evening, and it was a lot of fun going over there. We ate dinner, talked a lot just about random stuff, and watched a Mormon Message with him. It was a lot of fun.

We went to church on Sunday, beginning with a quick correlation with our ward mission leader, Bru. Kleinert. He is an older man and seems pretty passionate about the gospel. Hopefully we can work with him to bring the work up to a quicker speed. After talking with him and meeting the bishop as well as a few other members, we went to Elder's Quorum. When that was over, we had the YSA Sunday school in the same room. The last hour was sacrament meeting, and it went well. Manuella was at church, and she seemed to enjoy it. I got to give my testimony at the end of the meeting, and it was good. After church, we had more time to just talk with the members and get to know them a little better. I talked a lot with some of the YSAs, and they are all really fun to be around. Elder Norman and I want to start working closely with them so we can help them get pumped for missionary work and going on missions. It should be awesome.

Well, that is about all for the week. There are a lot of differences I have to get used to being in Hagen (like the fact that there are people on the streets and that we have investigators), and I still need some time to learn my way around and also to learn the needs and concerns of my district. The district seems pretty cool so far, and there is some good work going on. Anyway, Elder Norman and I are going to hit up some shops for P-day, and I am planning on getting a BVB jersey if I can find one. It should be a good P-day. We have zone training this coming week as well as some more appointments with investigators, appointments with members, and institute on Thursday in Dortmund. It should be a sweet week!

I hope you have a good week as well! Love you!

LG, Daniel