Dear Mum,
I figured that even though we talked a few days ago you'd appreciate an
email, even if it's short, so here it is.
Christmas is great and I love it here in Germany. It really does give
us a great time to focus on the Savior and what we can do for him. I
think it's no coincidence that directly after that we have the time
between the years (as they say in this area) where we have the
opportunity to think about the new year and what we can do better and
what not. It's a great time.
Love ya!
Isaac
Monday, December 28, 2015
Monday, December 21, 2015
Germany Week 79
Dear Mom,
It's almost Christmas!!! Anyway, I'll hopefully be able to log onto Skype and talk to you then.
As for snow, it appears that Germany doesn't believe in snow. I'm pretty sure the entire time I've been here it's only snowed three or four times, and that was while I was in Bamberg. Right now it's actually pretty warm. It's currently 11C and the low is supposed to be 8C, and it's been almost this warm the entire week. Almost the entire month.
Anyway, my week was pretty good. The last bit of it a lot of the time was spent helping the Ward move the Fugals' to their new house. That was a party. But we got it all done and they now live in a nice little house instead of an apartment. We also had Zone Conference this week. Elder Johnson, who's in the Area Presidency came and that was way cool. We talked about a lot of things, but probably what I found the most important was just about how we need to be more like Christ, and how we can do that.
Well, see you Friday!
Love you more!
Isaac
It's almost Christmas!!! Anyway, I'll hopefully be able to log onto Skype and talk to you then.
As for snow, it appears that Germany doesn't believe in snow. I'm pretty sure the entire time I've been here it's only snowed three or four times, and that was while I was in Bamberg. Right now it's actually pretty warm. It's currently 11C and the low is supposed to be 8C, and it's been almost this warm the entire week. Almost the entire month.
Anyway, my week was pretty good. The last bit of it a lot of the time was spent helping the Ward move the Fugals' to their new house. That was a party. But we got it all done and they now live in a nice little house instead of an apartment. We also had Zone Conference this week. Elder Johnson, who's in the Area Presidency came and that was way cool. We talked about a lot of things, but probably what I found the most important was just about how we need to be more like Christ, and how we can do that.
Well, see you Friday!
Love you more!
Isaac
Monday, December 14, 2015
Germany week 78
Dear Mummzy,
Anyway, my week was pretty good. Like always I have no idea what happened at the beginning of the week. Oh wait, Sister Alves, the new Sister here showed up. But anyway, the best part of the week was certainly the end of it sowieso. On Saturday, we went to Wiesbaden to help out with the Baptism of an excommunicated member, who after years of waiting finally got rebaptized. That was super great and his testimony on Sunday was amazing.
Later on Saturday we were going out to talk to people and we had A little less time than we had planned. Therefore, we decided to do that last half of our plan and just skip the first part. Well, we had wanted to take a train to a Stadtteil of Mainz, but we just missed the train, so instead we took a bus. We weren't sure were the bus went in comparison with the train, so we just decided to take it to the end. As it turns out, no one was on the streets there, so we just walked in the direction of home for a bit, not seeing many people. Then as we were passing a bus stop Elder Frickey started talking to someone, who turned out to be Bruder W, a less active we've been trying to get a hold of for a month or two with no luck. So right there we made out a Termin and invited him to come to church, which he did! Yay!
Well, love you more!!!
Isaac
Anyway, my week was pretty good. Like always I have no idea what happened at the beginning of the week. Oh wait, Sister Alves, the new Sister here showed up. But anyway, the best part of the week was certainly the end of it sowieso. On Saturday, we went to Wiesbaden to help out with the Baptism of an excommunicated member, who after years of waiting finally got rebaptized. That was super great and his testimony on Sunday was amazing.
Later on Saturday we were going out to talk to people and we had A little less time than we had planned. Therefore, we decided to do that last half of our plan and just skip the first part. Well, we had wanted to take a train to a Stadtteil of Mainz, but we just missed the train, so instead we took a bus. We weren't sure were the bus went in comparison with the train, so we just decided to take it to the end. As it turns out, no one was on the streets there, so we just walked in the direction of home for a bit, not seeing many people. Then as we were passing a bus stop Elder Frickey started talking to someone, who turned out to be Bruder W, a less active we've been trying to get a hold of for a month or two with no luck. So right there we made out a Termin and invited him to come to church, which he did! Yay!
Well, love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, December 7, 2015
Germany Week 77
Dear Mom,
You're only setting up Christmas decorations now? I mean I know that it's the first Monday in December, but the first Advent was last Sunday! Weihnachtsmarkts have been open for over a week! Which as we all know, obviously means that Christmas is upon us.
We also know that Christmas is upon us because we had our Gemeinde Weihnachtsfeier on Saturday. That was great. They asked us missionaries to sing a few traditional English Christmas songs. Everyone loved it and we had Aaron film it for us, but I'm pretty sure the video is way too big to send over email, so you'll just have to wait five or so months to see it. I'm flat anyway, but it was still way fun. Bishop also did the story of Christmas from the Bible, but he randomly asked people to come up and act it out. It was beautiful.
Saturday was also transfer calls, but they did it a little differently this time, so instead of having one conference call and getting it over with they decided to call everyone individually. That made life very stressful because we were expecting me to get transferred because Elder Frickey and I have been together for three transfers now, but we had no idea when they were going to call. Well as it turns out, they never called, so we're probably staying together, but we still feel uncertain about it because we've had nothing to confirm that. So much stress.
Anyway, that's my life. Hope you have a great one this week.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
We also know that Christmas is upon us because we had our Gemeinde Weihnachtsfeier on Saturday. That was great. They asked us missionaries to sing a few traditional English Christmas songs. Everyone loved it and we had Aaron film it for us, but I'm pretty sure the video is way too big to send over email, so you'll just have to wait five or so months to see it. I'm flat anyway, but it was still way fun. Bishop also did the story of Christmas from the Bible, but he randomly asked people to come up and act it out. It was beautiful.
Saturday was also transfer calls, but they did it a little differently this time, so instead of having one conference call and getting it over with they decided to call everyone individually. That made life very stressful because we were expecting me to get transferred because Elder Frickey and I have been together for three transfers now, but we had no idea when they were going to call. Well as it turns out, they never called, so we're probably staying together, but we still feel uncertain about it because we've had nothing to confirm that. So much stress.
Anyway, that's my life. Hope you have a great one this week.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, November 30, 2015
Germany Week 76
Dear Mummzy,
This week was pretty normal, though it's starting to pick up. The Jarrard's Thanksgiving feast was delicious, though the pies and the stuffing, and pretty much everything wasn't as good as at home, but it was still delicious, so that's good.
On Saturday we had a special Musikalische Darbietung, "Music and the Spoken Word" where a bunch of the members sang some songs and the Bishop said some stuff in between. That was fun and we even got to sing a song with the Fugal Family, which Sister Fugal wrote herself, so that was awesome. Anyway, it was great to see how many people got invited to that and that led perfectly into Sunday where the new Christmas Initiative was presented. I hope you've seen the new video because it's awesome. You should share it with everyone.
Love you more!
Me
This week was pretty normal, though it's starting to pick up. The Jarrard's Thanksgiving feast was delicious, though the pies and the stuffing, and pretty much everything wasn't as good as at home, but it was still delicious, so that's good.
On Saturday we had a special Musikalische Darbietung, "Music and the Spoken Word" where a bunch of the members sang some songs and the Bishop said some stuff in between. That was fun and we even got to sing a song with the Fugal Family, which Sister Fugal wrote herself, so that was awesome. Anyway, it was great to see how many people got invited to that and that led perfectly into Sunday where the new Christmas Initiative was presented. I hope you've seen the new video because it's awesome. You should share it with everyone.
Love you more!
Me
Monday, November 23, 2015
Germany Week 75
This week was pretty good. Thanksgiving is not actually a holiday in Germany, but the GML and his family are American, so they do a giant Thanksgiving party every year. However, seeing as it's not a holiday here, so no one has it off and as next weekend is first Advent, they decided to do it last Saturday. They asked us to come help bake pies and set up and what not, and then we had Thanksgiving with them. There were so many people there. All together there some 60-70 people there. It was crazy. Also, the Jarrards are having Thanksgiving on Thursday for institute and we should have a guy there that we're working with, so we'll probably go to that.
Sunday was the primary program and that was super adorable. It was nice to have one of those since last year I didn't. We then had a Geminde Essen after that, so that was two days in a row that we had way too much food. 'Twas great.
Oh also, so much happened in the last three days that I almost forgot, on Tuesday, Elder Ballard came to talk to all of the Geminderats in the Europe Area, and we got to go! That was way awesome. It included such goodies as "Lucifer is the father of all lies. We all know that and none of us like him." He also talked about how Satan is the master of complexity and how The Lord is the master of simplicity. Now that should give you something to think about, gel?
Well, Love you more!
Isaac
Sunday was the primary program and that was super adorable. It was nice to have one of those since last year I didn't. We then had a Geminde Essen after that, so that was two days in a row that we had way too much food. 'Twas great.
Oh also, so much happened in the last three days that I almost forgot, on Tuesday, Elder Ballard came to talk to all of the Geminderats in the Europe Area, and we got to go! That was way awesome. It included such goodies as "Lucifer is the father of all lies. We all know that and none of us like him." He also talked about how Satan is the master of complexity and how The Lord is the master of simplicity. Now that should give you something to think about, gel?
Well, Love you more!
Isaac
 |
| Me making pies for Thanksgivin' |
Monday, November 16, 2015
Germany week 74
Dear Mum,
Well, this week had seven days.... Um... We helped a lady in the ward pick apples and she gave us most of them, so we have way too many apples that we have no idea what to do with. The only thing Elder Frickey and I know how to make is apple crisp and that only takes about five apples and considering we probably have a good hundred of so, that doesn't really do anything. So if you have any good ideas with what do do with too many apples, we'd love to hear them.
We also had district meeting this week, as we do every week and we did some role plays. We did them with the Jarrards (the Ehepaar in Mainz) and when Elder Frickey did it with Sister Jarrard she was so shocked that we could be serious because we're always joking in District Meeting, but it turns out we can be serious when we're talking about the gospel, so that was amusing.
Am Sonntag in church D, the newest member of Mainz Ward, gave her first talk in Sacrament Meeting. It was awesome. She talked about her conversion story and it was super spiritual. She's a great member.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Well, this week had seven days.... Um... We helped a lady in the ward pick apples and she gave us most of them, so we have way too many apples that we have no idea what to do with. The only thing Elder Frickey and I know how to make is apple crisp and that only takes about five apples and considering we probably have a good hundred of so, that doesn't really do anything. So if you have any good ideas with what do do with too many apples, we'd love to hear them.
We also had district meeting this week, as we do every week and we did some role plays. We did them with the Jarrards (the Ehepaar in Mainz) and when Elder Frickey did it with Sister Jarrard she was so shocked that we could be serious because we're always joking in District Meeting, but it turns out we can be serious when we're talking about the gospel, so that was amusing.
Am Sonntag in church D, the newest member of Mainz Ward, gave her first talk in Sacrament Meeting. It was awesome. She talked about her conversion story and it was super spiritual. She's a great member.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, November 9, 2015
Germany Week 73
Dear Mum,
My week was pretty good. We had Stake Conference, which was awesome. On Saturday evening for the adult session they had a missionary choir for basically a prelude. We sang that one EFY medley thingy with Will Bring The World His Truth and As Sisters in Zion. I have to say, I think it was a good way to start the meeting. The rest of the meeting was also wonderful as was the next day.
Also this week we had one of them weird blessing thingys. We were talking to people on the streets near our house and fairly soon before we had to go home we talked to a random guy. It was interesting talking to Elder Frickey afterwards because as it turns out we both felt like it was very led by the spirit because I was blanking hard core, but Elder Frickey was talking, and then he started blanking and suddenly I knew exactly what I was supposed to say. But here's where the weird part comes in, while he did talk to us, he said he'd rather not meet with us, gave us no way to contact him, and wouldn't even take The Book of Mormon we offered. I guess we just have to assume there was a reason that inspired conversation happened that we couldn't see, but The Lord knoweth all things, so that's fine by me.
Love you more!
Isaac
My week was pretty good. We had Stake Conference, which was awesome. On Saturday evening for the adult session they had a missionary choir for basically a prelude. We sang that one EFY medley thingy with Will Bring The World His Truth and As Sisters in Zion. I have to say, I think it was a good way to start the meeting. The rest of the meeting was also wonderful as was the next day.
Also this week we had one of them weird blessing thingys. We were talking to people on the streets near our house and fairly soon before we had to go home we talked to a random guy. It was interesting talking to Elder Frickey afterwards because as it turns out we both felt like it was very led by the spirit because I was blanking hard core, but Elder Frickey was talking, and then he started blanking and suddenly I knew exactly what I was supposed to say. But here's where the weird part comes in, while he did talk to us, he said he'd rather not meet with us, gave us no way to contact him, and wouldn't even take The Book of Mormon we offered. I guess we just have to assume there was a reason that inspired conversation happened that we couldn't see, but The Lord knoweth all things, so that's fine by me.
Love you more!
Isaac
Monday, November 2, 2015
Germany Week 72
My dearest Mummzy,
Well, most of Germany doesn't really celebrate Halloween, though it is getting bigger. Here in Mainz however, one of the three pillars of Karneval, the people here realize that it's just Karneval with a spookier twist, so it's a richtig party. We stopped by a store real quick on Saturday and two parts of it were full, the cash registers and the alcohol aisle. Oh Mainz. Also the appointment we had fell through because the guy remembered he needed to take his kids trick or treating. But, he said we can meet this week, so hopefully that works out. Schauen wir mal.
The rest of the week I feel was a testament to my saying that the harder I try, the more people say no. And then a random person walks up to me and asks me for a Book of Mormon. We did a lot of talking to people this week, and then on Saturday our appointment fell through so suddenly we had nothing to do. So we decided to go to Bad Kreuznach and work a bit in every stop along the way. We talked to a lot of people, some nice, some not, but no one actually interested enough to let us in or invite us back. It was a long day, but at the end, when we were already home the Elders in Wiesbaden called us and said they had a number for us for someone who actually lives in our area. Then on Sunday the Darmstadt elders did the same thing. Crazy crazy. We haven't gotten a hold of those people yet, so we'll see what happens, but still crazy.
Loves,
Son
Well, most of Germany doesn't really celebrate Halloween, though it is getting bigger. Here in Mainz however, one of the three pillars of Karneval, the people here realize that it's just Karneval with a spookier twist, so it's a richtig party. We stopped by a store real quick on Saturday and two parts of it were full, the cash registers and the alcohol aisle. Oh Mainz. Also the appointment we had fell through because the guy remembered he needed to take his kids trick or treating. But, he said we can meet this week, so hopefully that works out. Schauen wir mal.
The rest of the week I feel was a testament to my saying that the harder I try, the more people say no. And then a random person walks up to me and asks me for a Book of Mormon. We did a lot of talking to people this week, and then on Saturday our appointment fell through so suddenly we had nothing to do. So we decided to go to Bad Kreuznach and work a bit in every stop along the way. We talked to a lot of people, some nice, some not, but no one actually interested enough to let us in or invite us back. It was a long day, but at the end, when we were already home the Elders in Wiesbaden called us and said they had a number for us for someone who actually lives in our area. Then on Sunday the Darmstadt elders did the same thing. Crazy crazy. We haven't gotten a hold of those people yet, so we'll see what happens, but still crazy.
Loves,
Son
Monday, October 26, 2015
Germany Week 71
Dear Mom,
This week is the end of October. That's so weird. That also means that Saturday was transfer calls. Nothing too interesting there though. Elder Frickey and I are staying together here in Mainz. The closest thing to affecting me was that Sister Godwin is leaving Mainz, which meant that after the bishopric got several notes about it they asked her to come bear her testimony and she bawled through the whole thing.
,
Other things this week... Let's see... On Thursday we decided to go dooring in Oppenheim with a bit of time we had and we got to Bahnhof right before a train left so we hopped right on that. Some ten minutes into the train ride I realized it was not the correct train and were going completely the wrong direction. So we went to Saulheim instead. We started dooring and in the end only one person opened the door (and it's because she thought we were someone else), but she ended up promising that she would come to church sometime because we had such a nice conversation with her. It's a little hard for her to get around, so we'll have to wait and see when exactly that happens, but I have faith in her.
,
Well, that's probably the most exciting stuff of the week. Have a great week!
Love you more!!!
This week is the end of October. That's so weird. That also means that Saturday was transfer calls. Nothing too interesting there though. Elder Frickey and I are staying together here in Mainz. The closest thing to affecting me was that Sister Godwin is leaving Mainz, which meant that after the bishopric got several notes about it they asked her to come bear her testimony and she bawled through the whole thing.
,
Other things this week... Let's see... On Thursday we decided to go dooring in Oppenheim with a bit of time we had and we got to Bahnhof right before a train left so we hopped right on that. Some ten minutes into the train ride I realized it was not the correct train and were going completely the wrong direction. So we went to Saulheim instead. We started dooring and in the end only one person opened the door (and it's because she thought we were someone else), but she ended up promising that she would come to church sometime because we had such a nice conversation with her. It's a little hard for her to get around, so we'll have to wait and see when exactly that happens, but I have faith in her.
,
Well, that's probably the most exciting stuff of the week. Have a great week!
Love you more!!!
Monday, October 19, 2015
Germany Week 70
 |
| The District at a cool abandoned castle in Oppenheim last week. |
Well, I feel like a lot happened this week, but nothing really that noteworthy. We did end up doing service in a lot of people's gardens. Well, just two, and today was more of a party than real service. Oh, by the way, that's why this is coming later than usual. In order to pick apples with everyone we had to switch it with the time we usually do emails, so I'm writing this a bit late later than usual. Also the internet isn't being very nice so I'll probably send it and then it will actually send when my iPad connects with the Internet again. Hopefully that's soon and not on Thursday.
Anyway, it's way exciting because we went and helped the H family today at their farm and her son, S, just moved in with them from Duisburg, so I already know him. It's great. Let's see. What else happened... We met with the Baakes and Aaron showed me pictures from his mission, aka pictures of Jacob. Aaron's brother Thorston gave us a referral. Hopefully we'll actually be able to meet with him sometime this week. We talked to lots of people on the streets and stuff. Zone Training happened. That was fun. Um... Yep. There was some other stuff, but I'm pretty sure it was boring, so I think that will reich me for the week.
Liebe!
 |
| The Apple Picking Crew. |
Monday, October 12, 2015
Germany Week 69
My dear mum,
This week was, well, a week. Stuff happened. Yup, well Tschüß!
Okay, what actually happened this week... We did end up being able to watch the last session of conference. That was awesome. We watched it for Sunday School bzw Priesthood bzw Relief Society, which was great. It was funny because we did it right after Testimony meeting, in which a lot of people bore testimony about the prophets and General Conference. In fact one of the members of the bishopric bore his testimony about it twice. The second time he got up he acknowledged that it was weird, but he needed to correct something because in his first testimony he told a story about one of the apostles who had passed away and said it was Elder Hales, but it was actually Elder Scott.
After church we went and talked to some random people on the streets and then we went home to study. That's when one of the families in the ward called us and asked if we could come over, so we did. You see, they have a son with Down syndrome and he was very insistent that we come visit him Sunday so his parents said they would call us when they figured out when we could come this week and it ended up being yesterday. Woot.
Have a nice life!
Love you more!
Elder Cloward
This week was, well, a week. Stuff happened. Yup, well Tschüß!
Okay, what actually happened this week... We did end up being able to watch the last session of conference. That was awesome. We watched it for Sunday School bzw Priesthood bzw Relief Society, which was great. It was funny because we did it right after Testimony meeting, in which a lot of people bore testimony about the prophets and General Conference. In fact one of the members of the bishopric bore his testimony about it twice. The second time he got up he acknowledged that it was weird, but he needed to correct something because in his first testimony he told a story about one of the apostles who had passed away and said it was Elder Hales, but it was actually Elder Scott.
After church we went and talked to some random people on the streets and then we went home to study. That's when one of the families in the ward called us and asked if we could come over, so we did. You see, they have a son with Down syndrome and he was very insistent that we come visit him Sunday so his parents said they would call us when they figured out when we could come this week and it ended up being yesterday. Woot.
Have a nice life!
Love you more!
Elder Cloward
Monday, October 5, 2015
Germany Week 68
Dear mummzy,
Um, no. That put quite the damper on the week. D2 emailed us on Tuesday and said that he didn't want to meet anymore. We were able to get him to agree to come to the sisters's English Class and talk to us one more time, but he said that was it, though he wants to come to the English Class every week, so we'll at least have some contact with him.
Then there was General Conference, which was, of course, epic. I have no idea what you're talking about with this ponderizing thing, presumably because it was in the Sunday Afternoon Session, which I still haven't seen. But as we were watching the Sunday Morning Session last night at our GML's house our GML was on the verge of tears because he got a shout out in it. You see Elder Rasband was his mission president, so he was a little emotional about the whole experience and then when Elder Rasband talked about all of the missionaries that served under him it was crazy. Good stuff.
Love you more!!!
Me
Um, no. That put quite the damper on the week. D2 emailed us on Tuesday and said that he didn't want to meet anymore. We were able to get him to agree to come to the sisters's English Class and talk to us one more time, but he said that was it, though he wants to come to the English Class every week, so we'll at least have some contact with him.
Then there was General Conference, which was, of course, epic. I have no idea what you're talking about with this ponderizing thing, presumably because it was in the Sunday Afternoon Session, which I still haven't seen. But as we were watching the Sunday Morning Session last night at our GML's house our GML was on the verge of tears because he got a shout out in it. You see Elder Rasband was his mission president, so he was a little emotional about the whole experience and then when Elder Rasband talked about all of the missionaries that served under him it was crazy. Good stuff.
Love you more!!!
Me
Monday, September 28, 2015
Germany Week 67
Dear Mum,
This week was pretty good. I'm trying to remember what actually happened. It was one of those crazy weeks with so much that it's hard to remember any of it... Let's see... Well, I went on a split with Elder Robinett. That was great. Meanwhile Elder Frickey had a good Termin (meeting) with D2. He also came to church, so that's going well. After that Split Elder Frickey and I went to visit the Baake family. That was a party. Then we had to go back to Frankfurt so we could go to Zone Conference the next day and get there on time. (We also had to go that night because I realized I had accidentally stolen Elder White's BahnCard from the split. Whoops...)
The best part of the week was definitely Sunday. R, a guy who got baptized some 20 years ago and just started coming back to church about when I got here, came to church in a suit. It was super exciting because normally he comes to church in a T-shirt and jeans, but last week bishop told him that if he comes to church in a white shirt he can go with the ward on their temple trip in a couple of weeks so this week he came in a suit. It was great.
Well I can't think of anything else to say... You're great! Church is true! General Conference is this week and it will be epic!
Love you more!
Isaac
This week was pretty good. I'm trying to remember what actually happened. It was one of those crazy weeks with so much that it's hard to remember any of it... Let's see... Well, I went on a split with Elder Robinett. That was great. Meanwhile Elder Frickey had a good Termin (meeting) with D2. He also came to church, so that's going well. After that Split Elder Frickey and I went to visit the Baake family. That was a party. Then we had to go back to Frankfurt so we could go to Zone Conference the next day and get there on time. (We also had to go that night because I realized I had accidentally stolen Elder White's BahnCard from the split. Whoops...)
The best part of the week was definitely Sunday. R, a guy who got baptized some 20 years ago and just started coming back to church about when I got here, came to church in a suit. It was super exciting because normally he comes to church in a T-shirt and jeans, but last week bishop told him that if he comes to church in a white shirt he can go with the ward on their temple trip in a couple of weeks so this week he came in a suit. It was great.
Well I can't think of anything else to say... You're great! Church is true! General Conference is this week and it will be epic!
Love you more!
Isaac
Monday, September 21, 2015
Germany Week 66
Dear Mom,
This week was pretty good. We were able to meet with D2 on Friday and teach him about the restoration. It went pretty well. He seemed to enjoy it and to be able to understand most of the stuff. He also took a copy of The Book of Mormon and said he would read it and pray about it, so that's good. We should have another appointment with him tomorrow, though I won't be there because we'll be on a split with the Zone Leaders and I'll be in Frankfurt. We're hopefully also going to meet with a guy named S on that day too. Schauen wir mal (we'll see).
We also went to an international car show today. That was crazy. Elder Frickey and Elder Rowe were super duper excited and we all went with and saw some pretty cars. Unfortunately most of the pictures I took are on my camera, and my reader won't work anymore so you'll have to wait until I come home to see them, but here's one of a super fancy car I sat in.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
This week was pretty good. We were able to meet with D2 on Friday and teach him about the restoration. It went pretty well. He seemed to enjoy it and to be able to understand most of the stuff. He also took a copy of The Book of Mormon and said he would read it and pray about it, so that's good. We should have another appointment with him tomorrow, though I won't be there because we'll be on a split with the Zone Leaders and I'll be in Frankfurt. We're hopefully also going to meet with a guy named S on that day too. Schauen wir mal (we'll see).
We also went to an international car show today. That was crazy. Elder Frickey and Elder Rowe were super duper excited and we all went with and saw some pretty cars. Unfortunately most of the pictures I took are on my camera, and my reader won't work anymore so you'll have to wait until I come home to see them, but here's one of a super fancy car I sat in.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, September 14, 2015
Germany Week 65
Dear Mum,
This week was pretty great. Truthfully though, I can't remember very well what happened before Saturday, mostly because Saturday and Sunday felt like they could have been an entire week in and of themselves. D1 did in fact get baptised and that was way cool. A lot of the ward showed up as well as some of her friends, through whom she was actually introduced to the church years and years ago. It was a super spiritual experience and it was awesome to see how excited she was about it. It was also amazing to see how awesome Geminderat is. You see, she already has Home and Visiting teachers and will probably get a calling next week or so. Amazing.
Also, on the way to the baptism (we were coming from Transfer Calls btw, which was also Saturday, nothing happened, everyone in the District is staying, so that didn't end up being that exciting, though it did add to the craziness of the day.) we met D2, the man who talked to us last week, and he told us he would come to church on Sunday. After the Baptism we had a thingamajig at our GML's garden to celebrate his wife's birthday and on the way the Sisters saw him again, and because it's the Fugals he got invited to that too. I don't know if any of that made sense, but the point is the Fugals now know this guy who wants to learn about the gospel. He also came to church the next day and said that we could meet sometime this week and that he would come again next week.
So it was an epic week, even if I can't really remember most of it.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
This week was pretty great. Truthfully though, I can't remember very well what happened before Saturday, mostly because Saturday and Sunday felt like they could have been an entire week in and of themselves. D1 did in fact get baptised and that was way cool. A lot of the ward showed up as well as some of her friends, through whom she was actually introduced to the church years and years ago. It was a super spiritual experience and it was awesome to see how excited she was about it. It was also amazing to see how awesome Geminderat is. You see, she already has Home and Visiting teachers and will probably get a calling next week or so. Amazing.
Also, on the way to the baptism (we were coming from Transfer Calls btw, which was also Saturday, nothing happened, everyone in the District is staying, so that didn't end up being that exciting, though it did add to the craziness of the day.) we met D2, the man who talked to us last week, and he told us he would come to church on Sunday. After the Baptism we had a thingamajig at our GML's garden to celebrate his wife's birthday and on the way the Sisters saw him again, and because it's the Fugals he got invited to that too. I don't know if any of that made sense, but the point is the Fugals now know this guy who wants to learn about the gospel. He also came to church the next day and said that we could meet sometime this week and that he would come again next week.
So it was an epic week, even if I can't really remember most of it.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, September 7, 2015
Germany week 64
Dear Mom,
Well you seem to already know about the most exciting part of my week. Or at least part of the most exciting day. We had the street display on Saturday and everyone in the district came, including the Jarrards as well the Zone leaders. That ended up being pretty good. I didn't personally end up talking to anyone that was interested, but Elder White got a number from a guy that seems really interested that he gave to us, so we'll see how that goes. Towards the end we got rained out, and just as we were about to pack up it stopped so we could go for another half hour or so.
After that the Jarrards took us to a delicious Mexican Restaurant for dinner and then they all left and we went home to weekly plan. And then the sisters called and asked us if we could give their investigator a blessing so we went and did that. Turns out her foot was swelling like crazy so she can't walk on it, but it should be fine for her baptism this Saturday, so we're hoping for that.
When we were coming home from that a random guy walked up to us and asked us if we were Mormon, said he had met some of us in Holland and that he wanted to meet with us. So we told him where the church is and he took a card, so that should be awesome.
Well those were the highlights. Have a fantastical week! Love You more!!! Me
Well you seem to already know about the most exciting part of my week. Or at least part of the most exciting day. We had the street display on Saturday and everyone in the district came, including the Jarrards as well the Zone leaders. That ended up being pretty good. I didn't personally end up talking to anyone that was interested, but Elder White got a number from a guy that seems really interested that he gave to us, so we'll see how that goes. Towards the end we got rained out, and just as we were about to pack up it stopped so we could go for another half hour or so.
After that the Jarrards took us to a delicious Mexican Restaurant for dinner and then they all left and we went home to weekly plan. And then the sisters called and asked us if we could give their investigator a blessing so we went and did that. Turns out her foot was swelling like crazy so she can't walk on it, but it should be fine for her baptism this Saturday, so we're hoping for that.
When we were coming home from that a random guy walked up to us and asked us if we were Mormon, said he had met some of us in Holland and that he wanted to meet with us. So we told him where the church is and he took a card, so that should be awesome.
Well those were the highlights. Have a fantastical week! Love You more!!! Me
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Letter from a Senior missionary
Elders Cloward and Frickey spent Sat PM preaching in the rain in the Mainz walking district with the sisters, the DLs, ZLs and us, the old couple. They bring a lot of humor and enthusiasm to the work. At the end of the day, some 8 copies of the B of M were handed out. Thanks for sharing your son with us. He's doing a great job! Elder & Sister JARRARD
Monday, August 31, 2015
Germany Week 63
It's crazy that you've been learning so much about the sabbath because we have too! You'd almost think the Quorum of the Twelve specifically besought the area presidencies to get everyone in their areas to focus on that. (Hint: If you didn't already know, they totally did, you can expect to keep hearing about it for awhile longer, at least until next General Conference, which, fun fact is only about a month away.)
This week has been pretty normal for us. Talked with some people. A lot of people. It was actually rather interesting the other day as we were talking to people on the streets. There was a man who wasn't exactly nice to us. He wasn't mean, he just really didn't tolerate what we were doing. It was interesting in that moment because while I felt a bit attacked at the moment I also felt a greater surety that what I was saying was true. But I guess that's how it happens a lot, so nothing really too surprising there.
Love you more!
Isaac
This week has been pretty normal for us. Talked with some people. A lot of people. It was actually rather interesting the other day as we were talking to people on the streets. There was a man who wasn't exactly nice to us. He wasn't mean, he just really didn't tolerate what we were doing. It was interesting in that moment because while I felt a bit attacked at the moment I also felt a greater surety that what I was saying was true. But I guess that's how it happens a lot, so nothing really too surprising there.
Love you more!
Isaac
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Germany Week 62
My week was great. I did get your present and it was actually hilarious because we don't actually have a real freezer so we got it just before we went to Zone Training (we actually left a few minutes after we had planned so we could wait longer and right as we were leaving the doorbell rang), and we figured it would stay cooler in the box it came in than in our fridge. So we went to Zone Training, came back and it was still frozen! What's more, because it's a bunch of small things it actually fits in our freezer! And it's delicious. I took a nice picture of how crammed our freezer is now, but it was with my camera, which is hard to send you since I'm writing this on my iPad, so you'll just have to imagine.
The rest of my week was pretty good too. Actually I got another awesome birthday present later that day. We went to a member's house later and we got there a bit early, so we klingeled some people around where he lived. The last name we were going to klingel answered, asked if we were Zeugen Jehovah's and when we said we were Mormons they let us in. Turns out they were 14 year old girls, but they took a copy of The Book of Mormon and gave us they number, so that was cool.
Anyway, I don't know how the temple was yet because I'm currently typing this while waiting for the next session to start, but I'm sure it will be great. This is going to be the last time I get to go because it closes übernächster Samstag.
Well, hope you have an awesome week! Love you more! Isaac
The rest of my week was pretty good too. Actually I got another awesome birthday present later that day. We went to a member's house later and we got there a bit early, so we klingeled some people around where he lived. The last name we were going to klingel answered, asked if we were Zeugen Jehovah's and when we said we were Mormons they let us in. Turns out they were 14 year old girls, but they took a copy of The Book of Mormon and gave us they number, so that was cool.
Anyway, I don't know how the temple was yet because I'm currently typing this while waiting for the next session to start, but I'm sure it will be great. This is going to be the last time I get to go because it closes übernächster Samstag.
Well, hope you have an awesome week! Love you more! Isaac
Monday, August 17, 2015
Germany Week 61
This week was nice. Nothing too exciting, but it was still good. Partied with some less actives. Went and helped one of the sisters' investigators in her yard. Got to feel super manly because we were taking out a tree stump and all we had for tools were shovels and a pickaxe so we had to cut its giant roots with the pickaxe.
Wow, this week sounds kind of like it was boring and mundane. Pretty sure it wasn't, but oh well. Oh, also before I forget, we were supposed to be going to the temple tomorrow for my birthday, but then someone silly decided to put Zone Training on that day instead, so we should be going next week, so I will be emailing on Tuesday (hopefully).
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
Monday, August 10, 2015
Germany Week 60
Hey mom,
My week was pretty good. The first part of the week was pretty full with Abschieds Termine (farewell appointments) for Elder Blanchard. It was funny because they were all families that Elder Blanchard of course knew very well, but I hadn't ever had an appointment with any of them before so it was also nice for me to meet them. I guess that's what happens when one of you has been there for four transfers and the other for only one.
The last half of the week was a bit slower. We spent most of it getting Elder Frickey situated and accustomed to the area. We've only been together for about four days, so one cannot really know how everything will läuf (run) in our companionship, but it seems like it should be pretty good. Sure hope so anyway because it's pretty likely we'll be together for a while. Elder Frickey is pretty convinced this is going to be his last area, which really wouldn't be surprising. Schauen wir mal (We'll See).
Well, I can't think of anything else to say. I'm sure something else exciting happened, but it currently escapes me, so I guess I'll just end here.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
My week was pretty good. The first part of the week was pretty full with Abschieds Termine (farewell appointments) for Elder Blanchard. It was funny because they were all families that Elder Blanchard of course knew very well, but I hadn't ever had an appointment with any of them before so it was also nice for me to meet them. I guess that's what happens when one of you has been there for four transfers and the other for only one.
The last half of the week was a bit slower. We spent most of it getting Elder Frickey situated and accustomed to the area. We've only been together for about four days, so one cannot really know how everything will läuf (run) in our companionship, but it seems like it should be pretty good. Sure hope so anyway because it's pretty likely we'll be together for a while. Elder Frickey is pretty convinced this is going to be his last area, which really wouldn't be surprising. Schauen wir mal (We'll See).
Well, I can't think of anything else to say. I'm sure something else exciting happened, but it currently escapes me, so I guess I'll just end here.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, August 3, 2015
Germany week 59
Dear Mom,
Sounds like you had a nice exciting week. Probably more exciting than mine. At least until Saturday. On Saturday we had transfer calls and it turns out Elder Blanchard is leaving and being replaced by Elder Frickey, who was in the MTC with me. (Also, fun side note that you probably don't actually care about, we have a new AP too, and it's Elder Nilson, who was in Bamberg with me for four transfers.)
We also had an adventure on Tuesday. We were doing a split in Darmstadt and we all had to hop on a different train. Well, everyone made it. Except for me. What's more Elder Blanchard had the phone and my Bahn card, so I was stuck in Darmstadt all alone. Then that scripture popped into my head, namely, "be still, and know that I am God." So that's what I did. I sat there for a half an hour and waited for the other Elders to come back. But the rest of the split was great and we found a new investigator for Langen, so that was great.
At church on Sunday, after a directive for the Quorum of the twelve we switched to having Sacrament meeting first in the block. That was certainly different. At the beginning of church we were a bit smaller than usual, but more people came pretty quickly. It was interesting to see just how much of a difference it made in the reverence and spiritually of the meetings. I guess it's just one more evidence that the apostles know what they're talking about.
Well, Love you more!!!
Isaac
Sounds like you had a nice exciting week. Probably more exciting than mine. At least until Saturday. On Saturday we had transfer calls and it turns out Elder Blanchard is leaving and being replaced by Elder Frickey, who was in the MTC with me. (Also, fun side note that you probably don't actually care about, we have a new AP too, and it's Elder Nilson, who was in Bamberg with me for four transfers.)
We also had an adventure on Tuesday. We were doing a split in Darmstadt and we all had to hop on a different train. Well, everyone made it. Except for me. What's more Elder Blanchard had the phone and my Bahn card, so I was stuck in Darmstadt all alone. Then that scripture popped into my head, namely, "be still, and know that I am God." So that's what I did. I sat there for a half an hour and waited for the other Elders to come back. But the rest of the split was great and we found a new investigator for Langen, so that was great.
At church on Sunday, after a directive for the Quorum of the twelve we switched to having Sacrament meeting first in the block. That was certainly different. At the beginning of church we were a bit smaller than usual, but more people came pretty quickly. It was interesting to see just how much of a difference it made in the reverence and spiritually of the meetings. I guess it's just one more evidence that the apostles know what they're talking about.
Well, Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, July 27, 2015
Germany week 58
Dear Mum,
I was indeed at the temple, in fact for fun I even went into a sealing room so I could be in one of those on the same day as y'all. Also, I did indeed write the emails on Tuesday, but our internet wasn't working properly, so it wouldn't let me send it, so I had to wait until Thursday when we were at the church and then all of them actually sent. Anyway, turns out there are great perks to serving in a ward with your brother's former companion, namely, you get to see pictures of your brother's wedding before Monday! So yeah, Aaron showed me all of Jacob's wedding photos that people had posted on Facebook yesterday. 'Twas exciting.
Also, my week was pretty good. The best part was probably the temple, because that's always great. Also I was on a split in Langen when we met with our way cool investigator, so I don't know exactly how that's going. Church was also pretty exciting because two ladies just randomly came with their daughters. (So only one of them was random, the other was actually one of the sister's investors, but it was still cool that she came.) The Sisters are teaching both of them now, so that should be awesome because they both seemed to really like church. It was awesome to see once again just how way cool miracles are happening, even here in Germany.
Church is true!
Love you more!
Isaac
I was indeed at the temple, in fact for fun I even went into a sealing room so I could be in one of those on the same day as y'all. Also, I did indeed write the emails on Tuesday, but our internet wasn't working properly, so it wouldn't let me send it, so I had to wait until Thursday when we were at the church and then all of them actually sent. Anyway, turns out there are great perks to serving in a ward with your brother's former companion, namely, you get to see pictures of your brother's wedding before Monday! So yeah, Aaron showed me all of Jacob's wedding photos that people had posted on Facebook yesterday. 'Twas exciting.
Also, my week was pretty good. The best part was probably the temple, because that's always great. Also I was on a split in Langen when we met with our way cool investigator, so I don't know exactly how that's going. Church was also pretty exciting because two ladies just randomly came with their daughters. (So only one of them was random, the other was actually one of the sister's investors, but it was still cool that she came.) The Sisters are teaching both of them now, so that should be awesome because they both seemed to really like church. It was awesome to see once again just how way cool miracles are happening, even here in Germany.
Church is true!
Love you more!
Isaac
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Germany week 57
Dearest Mummzypoo,
First off, sorry I forgot to tell you last week, but I'm emailing today because I'm going to the temple and it's not open on Monday, so we have to have P-day today instead of yesterday. Sorry I didn't tell you last week; I hope you didn't think I was dead.
Along with that it's crazy that Jacob's getting married. That's today right? That means I'll be in the temple on the same day as y'all's!
Also, my week was pretty good. Had some nice lessons with some members and some investigators and what not. I think the real story of the week though was being "quick to observe." I started thinking about this at District Meeting when one of the sisters, Sister Riser, gave a Thema about the gift if discernment. It reminded me of a talk by Elder Bednar, wherein he says that a prerequisite to the gift of discernment is the gift of being quick to observe. That in turn led me to thinking about a event from a little earlier in the week.
Elder Blanchard and I were visiting the Baake brothers towards the end of the day and after giving them a short spiritual thought we left, but there was still a little bit of time in the day, so we decided to go by a nearby less active. Turns out the building he's supposed to live in doesn't exist anymore, so then we went home. About three stops before we normally get off the Straßenbahn Elder Blanchard turned to me and told me he felt like we needed to get off. So we did. At this point it was a little past nine, so we were having to walk rather briskly though the streets in order to not be home late, but I made sure to say at people and pay attention to whether or not I felt like I should talk to them. Well, Elder Blanchard ended up stopping a man, and giving him a copy of The Book of Mormon. Now I don't know if that's exactly why we were out there then, but I do know that there was a reason, and that by following that prompting, something good came out of that.
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
First off, sorry I forgot to tell you last week, but I'm emailing today because I'm going to the temple and it's not open on Monday, so we have to have P-day today instead of yesterday. Sorry I didn't tell you last week; I hope you didn't think I was dead.
Along with that it's crazy that Jacob's getting married. That's today right? That means I'll be in the temple on the same day as y'all's!
Also, my week was pretty good. Had some nice lessons with some members and some investigators and what not. I think the real story of the week though was being "quick to observe." I started thinking about this at District Meeting when one of the sisters, Sister Riser, gave a Thema about the gift if discernment. It reminded me of a talk by Elder Bednar, wherein he says that a prerequisite to the gift of discernment is the gift of being quick to observe. That in turn led me to thinking about a event from a little earlier in the week.
Elder Blanchard and I were visiting the Baake brothers towards the end of the day and after giving them a short spiritual thought we left, but there was still a little bit of time in the day, so we decided to go by a nearby less active. Turns out the building he's supposed to live in doesn't exist anymore, so then we went home. About three stops before we normally get off the Straßenbahn Elder Blanchard turned to me and told me he felt like we needed to get off. So we did. At this point it was a little past nine, so we were having to walk rather briskly though the streets in order to not be home late, but I made sure to say at people and pay attention to whether or not I felt like I should talk to them. Well, Elder Blanchard ended up stopping a man, and giving him a copy of The Book of Mormon. Now I don't know if that's exactly why we were out there then, but I do know that there was a reason, and that by following that prompting, something good came out of that.
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
Monday, July 13, 2015
Germany Week 56
Dear Mum,
Sounds like some fun stuff there. So many people I haven't seen in forever. Crazy crazy. And Joseph's back too, gel? Fun, fun.
We had a lot going on with this week. As you apparently saw, the ward had a nice Sommerfest on Saturday. That was a lot of fun. Got to interact with the members in a very different way than normal and got to meet some other people too.
We also had a great Zone Training the other day. We talked all about the Restoration and just how important it is. What's more, we then watched Joseph Smith- The Prophet of the Restoration. That movie is so awesome. It's a fairly simple topic, but it's always good to think more about it because it really is so important. Without it this church wouldn't exist at all, and it really is our message to the world. I know it's true and that's why I'm here.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Sounds like some fun stuff there. So many people I haven't seen in forever. Crazy crazy. And Joseph's back too, gel? Fun, fun.
We had a lot going on with this week. As you apparently saw, the ward had a nice Sommerfest on Saturday. That was a lot of fun. Got to interact with the members in a very different way than normal and got to meet some other people too.
We also had a great Zone Training the other day. We talked all about the Restoration and just how important it is. What's more, we then watched Joseph Smith- The Prophet of the Restoration. That movie is so awesome. It's a fairly simple topic, but it's always good to think more about it because it really is so important. Without it this church wouldn't exist at all, and it really is our message to the world. I know it's true and that's why I'm here.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, July 6, 2015
Germany Week 55
Dear Mummzy,
Crazy stuff. I don't know if I could say that I'm feeling comfortable here in Mainz, but that's mostly just because it's been about 40 Grad this whole week and no one has Air Conditioning (except for the GML, who's American). But anyway, beside losing probably twenty pounds just in Water weight Mainz is awesome. We've got a lot going on, and the members are all great. I have met the ehemalige Elder Baake, but I haven't really had the chance to talk to him yet.
Also, like I said we've had a lot to do this last bit and it's been way fun. There's this one guy we're teaching that is always interesting. He likes to talk a lot and he's had a very interesting life and therefore has a lot of great insights, but what's best is when he stops talking. Not because I'd rather he didn't talk, but because it's always because he feels the Spirit. There have been a few learning points I guess you could say because of that. You see, when he stops talking, it sometimes creates some sort of awkward pauses, but it's always better to let him think and start talking again than to interrupt his feeling the Spirit.
Well, we also had an awesome Independence Day celebration at the Fugal's (the GML and his family). Wasn't quite as much of a party as it sounds like yours was, but at least we had air conditioning right?
You're great!
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Crazy stuff. I don't know if I could say that I'm feeling comfortable here in Mainz, but that's mostly just because it's been about 40 Grad this whole week and no one has Air Conditioning (except for the GML, who's American). But anyway, beside losing probably twenty pounds just in Water weight Mainz is awesome. We've got a lot going on, and the members are all great. I have met the ehemalige Elder Baake, but I haven't really had the chance to talk to him yet.
Also, like I said we've had a lot to do this last bit and it's been way fun. There's this one guy we're teaching that is always interesting. He likes to talk a lot and he's had a very interesting life and therefore has a lot of great insights, but what's best is when he stops talking. Not because I'd rather he didn't talk, but because it's always because he feels the Spirit. There have been a few learning points I guess you could say because of that. You see, when he stops talking, it sometimes creates some sort of awkward pauses, but it's always better to let him think and start talking again than to interrupt his feeling the Spirit.
Well, we also had an awesome Independence Day celebration at the Fugal's (the GML and his family). Wasn't quite as much of a party as it sounds like yours was, but at least we had air conditioning right?
You're great!
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, June 29, 2015
Germany Week 54
Dear Mum,
Well, it sounds like you had a pretty exciting week. So much to do and it all sounds fun. What's more Joseph's back! Weird. What's weirder is that Sam is leaving. Don't know if I can handle that one. Also weird that people actually read that mission blog thing. Apparently Elder Bednar reads blogs too, so maybe he read mine too...
Well probably the most noteworthy thing of my week was the move to Mainz. Elder Bean did not go home, but is in fact going home at the end of this transfer. My new companion, Elder Blanchard is actually younger than me on the mission, which is weird for me. I'm actually his second companion so it's way different than all of my other experiences. Should be interesting.
My new address is:
Boppstraße 36
55118 Mainz
So my First day in Mainz we got a Text from one of the members here telling me that we needed to meet because apparently Elder Blanchard told everyone that I was coming. Well then I asked what this member's last name was and it was Baake. Turns out the ehemalige Elder Baake (one of Jacob's former companions) lives here. Crazy crazy.
Well, this place is hip happenin and you're great! Have a fantabulous week!
Love you more!
Isaac
Well, it sounds like you had a pretty exciting week. So much to do and it all sounds fun. What's more Joseph's back! Weird. What's weirder is that Sam is leaving. Don't know if I can handle that one. Also weird that people actually read that mission blog thing. Apparently Elder Bednar reads blogs too, so maybe he read mine too...
Well probably the most noteworthy thing of my week was the move to Mainz. Elder Bean did not go home, but is in fact going home at the end of this transfer. My new companion, Elder Blanchard is actually younger than me on the mission, which is weird for me. I'm actually his second companion so it's way different than all of my other experiences. Should be interesting.
My new address is:
Boppstraße 36
55118 Mainz
So my First day in Mainz we got a Text from one of the members here telling me that we needed to meet because apparently Elder Blanchard told everyone that I was coming. Well then I asked what this member's last name was and it was Baake. Turns out the ehemalige Elder Baake (one of Jacob's former companions) lives here. Crazy crazy.
Well, this place is hip happenin and you're great! Have a fantabulous week!
Love you more!
Isaac
Monday, June 22, 2015
Germany Week 53
'Ey Mums!
I'm glad you got the air conditioning fixed so you don't have to live the whole Summer like you were in Germany. Of course at this point I don't really mind not having AC right now considering I was tempted to wear a sweater today. T'is verrückt (crazy).
Anyway, this week was great. M. did indeed get taufed (baptized). That was great. Unfortunately I somehow didn't get any pictures and he's in Poland for a month now so I probably won't get a picture with him. I think the Sisters took one though, so maybe I can get it from them. Anyway, other than that the week wasn't too exciting. Most of it was taken up getting ready for the baptism. We did also have Transfer Calls on Saturday though. (That was a ridiculously busy day) Turns out I'm going to Mainz. I don't know too much about it, but it sounds like a nice place from what people say. What's more it's fairly close to Frankfurt, so hopefully I'll be able to go to the Temple before it shuts down.
Also, you're great, church is true and I hope you have a wonderful week! Oh, also you should tell Jacob and Kyri and Logan to have a happy belated birthday.
Love you more!
Elder Whatever-my-name-is-these-days
I'm glad you got the air conditioning fixed so you don't have to live the whole Summer like you were in Germany. Of course at this point I don't really mind not having AC right now considering I was tempted to wear a sweater today. T'is verrückt (crazy).
Anyway, this week was great. M. did indeed get taufed (baptized). That was great. Unfortunately I somehow didn't get any pictures and he's in Poland for a month now so I probably won't get a picture with him. I think the Sisters took one though, so maybe I can get it from them. Anyway, other than that the week wasn't too exciting. Most of it was taken up getting ready for the baptism. We did also have Transfer Calls on Saturday though. (That was a ridiculously busy day) Turns out I'm going to Mainz. I don't know too much about it, but it sounds like a nice place from what people say. What's more it's fairly close to Frankfurt, so hopefully I'll be able to go to the Temple before it shuts down.
Also, you're great, church is true and I hope you have a wonderful week! Oh, also you should tell Jacob and Kyri and Logan to have a happy belated birthday.
Love you more!
Elder Whatever-my-name-is-these-days
Monday, June 15, 2015
Germany Week 52
Hey Mom,
Does that mean you have actual AC? I'm jealous. Too bad Germany doesn't believe in AC, though it hasn't been hot yet so I guess that's okay. In fact today I feel like I should be wearing a sweater.
Anyway, this week was pretty great. Probably the highlight was yesterday when we met with M. That was the last actual lesson we'll have with him before his baptism on Saturday. Other than that he just has his interview and then should be ready, so that's way cool.
We also had Zone Conference last Tuesday. That was way awesome! The last half of the Conference was taken up by discussing different aspects of the Atonement. It was one of those times when I basically just get out of it that I really need to understand that better. It was also cool because President instructed everyone giving Themas to try to be as much like Elder Bednar was as possible so that was awesome.
Well there was assuredly other things, but I can't think of them now.
You're great!!!
Love you more!!!
Elder
Does that mean you have actual AC? I'm jealous. Too bad Germany doesn't believe in AC, though it hasn't been hot yet so I guess that's okay. In fact today I feel like I should be wearing a sweater.
Anyway, this week was pretty great. Probably the highlight was yesterday when we met with M. That was the last actual lesson we'll have with him before his baptism on Saturday. Other than that he just has his interview and then should be ready, so that's way cool.
We also had Zone Conference last Tuesday. That was way awesome! The last half of the Conference was taken up by discussing different aspects of the Atonement. It was one of those times when I basically just get out of it that I really need to understand that better. It was also cool because President instructed everyone giving Themas to try to be as much like Elder Bednar was as possible so that was awesome.
Well there was assuredly other things, but I can't think of them now.
You're great!!!
Love you more!!!
Elder
Monday, June 8, 2015
Germany Week 51
Anyway, as for stuff going on around here, it's a real party. One of the members here (By) got set apart yesterday for his mission and that was awesome. That brings the grand total of missionaries from Duisburg up to three, and next month it will be four, and sometime a little later this year it should be up to five. This ward is on fire. Anyway, he's going to be an awesome missionary, and it also made church yesterday exciting because there were a bunch of random people there.
We also had our final lesson with J this week, this time over in Mühlheim. That was awesome as always. At the end of the lesson he basically ended up bearing his testimony to us about how the Church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that The Book of Mormon is true. That kid will go far, though sadly I won't be there to see most of it.
Interestingly enough however The Lord once again showed us His miracles in the way He wants and not the way we want. You see, we've been working to try and get better at finding, and while we're still not amazing we've been getting better. Now knowing that we were about to loose one of our best investigators I suppose you could say that we were getting even more desperate to find a new one, and nothing was happening, we weren't even getting potentials. Then, just before our last lesson with J a member in Essen gave us a referral. From what she told us about the man, we were worried our first appointment would end up being rather bashy, and would therefore probably be our last because there's really no point going any further with that. Very soon after we started the lesson though, we could tell that it wasn't going to be like that at all. This man really wants to know the truth, and he's willing to do a lot to try and find it.
It was so cool to see the Lord blessing us and fulfilling His promises. It was once again not how I expected it, nor was it exactly related to what I had been trying to do to receive a blessing, but I know it is from Him, and I know that He wants to bless all of us, and that he will, the moment we start even trying to better follow Him.
Have the most wonderful week of all time!
Love you more!
Isaac
We also had our final lesson with J this week, this time over in Mühlheim. That was awesome as always. At the end of the lesson he basically ended up bearing his testimony to us about how the Church is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that The Book of Mormon is true. That kid will go far, though sadly I won't be there to see most of it.
Interestingly enough however The Lord once again showed us His miracles in the way He wants and not the way we want. You see, we've been working to try and get better at finding, and while we're still not amazing we've been getting better. Now knowing that we were about to loose one of our best investigators I suppose you could say that we were getting even more desperate to find a new one, and nothing was happening, we weren't even getting potentials. Then, just before our last lesson with J a member in Essen gave us a referral. From what she told us about the man, we were worried our first appointment would end up being rather bashy, and would therefore probably be our last because there's really no point going any further with that. Very soon after we started the lesson though, we could tell that it wasn't going to be like that at all. This man really wants to know the truth, and he's willing to do a lot to try and find it.
It was so cool to see the Lord blessing us and fulfilling His promises. It was once again not how I expected it, nor was it exactly related to what I had been trying to do to receive a blessing, but I know it is from Him, and I know that He wants to bless all of us, and that he will, the moment we start even trying to better follow Him.
Have the most wonderful week of all time!
Love you more!
Isaac
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Germany week 50
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| Schloss Drachenburg |
Dear Sister Mom,
Sorry I'm writing this on Tuesday, it turns out between having to do non P-day things in the morning, crazy Verspätungen and Elder Bean's email not working that we weren't able to do it yesterday so we figured we'd make up a little of the lost P-day and quickly send emails today. Anyway.
So when you say that Christine is getting married, are you referring to my cousin? Because I had no idea about that. Well, whoever it is it sounds exciting and I hope you have fun. I guess Alexa really wasn't lying when she told me that everyone and their brother was getting married.
Also, life here's been pretty exciting, mostly with J. At that appointment on Tuesday one of the very first things he said was that he knows the church is true because he's prayed about it and received an answer. We haven't met with him in a month or so and he's still been reading and praying and receiving answers that whole time! The kid's amazing! It's been such a cool Bestätigung to meet with him and see how powerfully God answers prayers if we're really looking and willing to listen. Sadly for us he lives in Oberhausen, which is actually in a different Stake, so we're transitioning him over to the Oberhausen Elders so they can teach him and hopefully baptize him into that ward. We're still working with M here and he's great too. There haven't been as many crazy experiences with him, but that's mostly because he already knew that he wanted to get baptized before he started meeting with us, so we've mostly just been making sure that he knows all the things he needs to to get baptized. It's been great to watch him grow too though, and he really seems like he'll be ready for his baptism in two weeks, so that's great too.
Let's see...what else... Oh, on Saturday Düsseldorf also had some awesomeness going on. A bunch of the JAE's that are getting ready to go on missions came and did a street display with us, so we all got to go out with these native Germans who were fresher than Goldens. That was way fun and it was great to get some of their enthusiasm and optimism that they had for the work. I can't think of anything too specific that happened, but it was overall an awesome experience.
We also went spätzieren at a Schloss (bzw Burg, but at least I know it's not a Festung) in Bonn! Enjoy!
Love you more!
Elder Son
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| Bonn |
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Me calling the people of Bonn to repentance
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Monday, May 25, 2015
Germany Week 49
As for my week, it wasn't very interesting. Oh wait, it was, really just Sunday though. Our one awesome investigator, J, dropped off the face of the earth a while ago, but last Sunday one of our amazing members, M2, asked for his number and got a hold of him. He then invited him to these Mini-fireside things he does every once and a while and he came! What's more, yesterday, M2 brought him to church so we once again officially have contact with him and are going to meet with him on Tuesday! The JAE's in this ward are hammer.
Other than that things are pretty normal. M seems to be right on his way to getting baptized and everyone else seems to be doing pretty well too. I feel like this is a pretty lame email, but I really can't think of anything else to write so...
You're great!
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Other than that things are pretty normal. M seems to be right on his way to getting baptized and everyone else seems to be doing pretty well too. I feel like this is a pretty lame email, but I really can't think of anything else to write so...
You're great!
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, May 18, 2015
Germany Week 48
Sounds like you have all been having quite the life up there with all that rain. Over here the weather is still just trying to decide if it's winter or summer. Maybe it will figure it out soon.
Well, transfer calls were on Saturday. I'm staying in Duisburg with Elder Bean. In fact our entire district is staying the same, moreover the entire North half of the Zone außer one person is staying the same. It was kind of crazy. It was also crazy because we're getting a new AP, and he's in his seventh transfer. Poor guy, he hasn't even ever been Zone Leader, or been outside of Idar-Oberstein and now suddenly he has to help lead the mission. But from what I heard from his trainer, Elder Tolson, he should be awesome.
As for everything else this week, I'm not too in touch with everything that happened here because I was basically in Wesel the whole week. Because of some crazy circumstances earlier in the transfer we had to do both of our splits with them last week, and I went to Wesel for both of them so I didn't end up meeting with most of our investigators. However, from what Elder Bean says it sounds like they're doing well.
Well, have a dandy week!
Loves,
Elder Son
Well, transfer calls were on Saturday. I'm staying in Duisburg with Elder Bean. In fact our entire district is staying the same, moreover the entire North half of the Zone außer one person is staying the same. It was kind of crazy. It was also crazy because we're getting a new AP, and he's in his seventh transfer. Poor guy, he hasn't even ever been Zone Leader, or been outside of Idar-Oberstein and now suddenly he has to help lead the mission. But from what I heard from his trainer, Elder Tolson, he should be awesome.
As for everything else this week, I'm not too in touch with everything that happened here because I was basically in Wesel the whole week. Because of some crazy circumstances earlier in the transfer we had to do both of our splits with them last week, and I went to Wesel for both of them so I didn't end up meeting with most of our investigators. However, from what Elder Bean says it sounds like they're doing well.
Well, have a dandy week!
Loves,
Elder Son
Monday, May 11, 2015
Germany Week 47
Dear Sis. Mom
That was dandy. I don't really have much else to say either... I mean all I did after our Skype thingy was go home, eat dinner, and go to sleep, so... Anyway, it was great to see you all and to (sort of) meet Anna and just be all around our family and jabber about absolutely nothing. But that leaves me with nothing to say now because as we established yesterday, our entire family is great at communicating.
So... I feel like I should make this longer, but I have nothing else to say, so... Peace! Have a marvy week!
Love you more!!!
Isaac
That was dandy. I don't really have much else to say either... I mean all I did after our Skype thingy was go home, eat dinner, and go to sleep, so... Anyway, it was great to see you all and to (sort of) meet Anna and just be all around our family and jabber about absolutely nothing. But that leaves me with nothing to say now because as we established yesterday, our entire family is great at communicating.
So... I feel like I should make this longer, but I have nothing else to say, so... Peace! Have a marvy week!
Love you more!!!
Isaac
Monday, May 4, 2015
Germany Week 46
May the fourth be with you too.
We were actually going to celebrate that today by going to a giant Star Wars store in Mönchengladbach, but then we found out that it's closed on Mondays, and we were sad. Now we'll just have to figure something else out. Oh well, at least Jacob, Kyri and Logan can have a richtig gut Star Wars day.
Well, as for all the peeps, unfortunately none of them showed up to church yesterday, but we have gotten in contact with all of them and we have appointments for this week. Also, we had an amazing lesson with J, the kid we met at Bahnhof, this week. We taught him most of the restoration and when we talked about the First Vision the Spirit was super strong. At the end of the lesson we asked him to read and pray and specifically to pray to know if The Book of Mormon was true, and if Joseph Smith was a Prophet. To that he responded that he didn't need to pray about the last bit because he already knew it. Joseph Smith was a prophet. Needless to say Elder Bean and I had no idea what to say to that. Eventually we just ended up saying something about how God can also always reassure us once we already know something, and basically were just super happy about the whole thing.
Well, that was definitely the most exciting thing in my week. It sounds like your week was great, and you should make this next one great too!
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
Well, as for all the peeps, unfortunately none of them showed up to church yesterday, but we have gotten in contact with all of them and we have appointments for this week. Also, we had an amazing lesson with J, the kid we met at Bahnhof, this week. We taught him most of the restoration and when we talked about the First Vision the Spirit was super strong. At the end of the lesson we asked him to read and pray and specifically to pray to know if The Book of Mormon was true, and if Joseph Smith was a Prophet. To that he responded that he didn't need to pray about the last bit because he already knew it. Joseph Smith was a prophet. Needless to say Elder Bean and I had no idea what to say to that. Eventually we just ended up saying something about how God can also always reassure us once we already know something, and basically were just super happy about the whole thing.
Well, that was definitely the most exciting thing in my week. It sounds like your week was great, and you should make this next one great too!
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
Monday, April 27, 2015
Germany Week 45
This week was pretty crazy, mostly because Friday was spent going to, partying in and coming back from Frankfurt where we got to sit and listen to Elder Bednar for about six hours. It was amazing, but it was kind of a long day because in order to get there on time we had to catch an ICE at 5:12 in the morning, so we had to get up even earlier. The actual conference was amazing and super duper spiritual. Let's see if I can remember anything especially cool without looking at my notes, which I left at home. Hmm... He told us we were super weird because we were a bunch of 20 odd year old sitting there on a Friday for six hours talking about how to use technology to spiritually uplift people's lives instead of whatever a normal 20 year old would be doing at that time. It was also way cool to just see how he taught. You see, he didn't just talk to us, in fact he really didn't talk all that much. Mostly he would say one or two things about it and then just ask for comments and what we were thinking. It was especially interesting because before we really started he made a clarifying declaration that he wasn't going to play a game of "Guess what's in my head" but that he actually wanted to know what we were thinking, and not just get us to say the answer that he was already thinking. It was way great, but I'll just leave it at that because there was way too much to even scratch the surface of what he said.
As for the peeps, M and K still seem to be doing pretty well, they've still got things to figure out, just like everyone, but they still seem to want to know, and that's what matters. As for the random guy, I have no idea what happened to him, he lives in Wesel's area after all. But last week because of some crazy Verspätungen we were waiting for the Zone Leaders so we could split with them at Bahnhof when a 20 or so year old kid walked up and asked us if we were Jehovah's Witnesses, and we said no and then he asked us if we were Mormon. At that point we were pretty impressed and then he started asking us more questions, took a copy of The Book of Mormon and agreed to meet with us later that week. On the Scheduled day we waited for him at the Church, and he called us to say he couldn't come. I was just happy that he had called us. What's more, he actually came to church on Sunday, listened to a lesson afterwards and agreed to meet again this week. Should be epic.
Well, those are definitely the highlights of the week.
Have a great one!
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
As for the peeps, M and K still seem to be doing pretty well, they've still got things to figure out, just like everyone, but they still seem to want to know, and that's what matters. As for the random guy, I have no idea what happened to him, he lives in Wesel's area after all. But last week because of some crazy Verspätungen we were waiting for the Zone Leaders so we could split with them at Bahnhof when a 20 or so year old kid walked up and asked us if we were Jehovah's Witnesses, and we said no and then he asked us if we were Mormon. At that point we were pretty impressed and then he started asking us more questions, took a copy of The Book of Mormon and agreed to meet with us later that week. On the Scheduled day we waited for him at the Church, and he called us to say he couldn't come. I was just happy that he had called us. What's more, he actually came to church on Sunday, listened to a lesson afterwards and agreed to meet again this week. Should be epic.
Well, those are definitely the highlights of the week.
Have a great one!
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
Monday, April 20, 2015
Germany Week 44
Hey Mom!
Sounds like you still are having some pretty crazy weeks even though you're moved in now. (Ish) And what the snow? It's been getting pretty hot here lately. I was on split this week and we had to walk around the whole day in the blazing heat. It was about 25 degrees that day. Crazy. Speaking of that split, that made the rest of the week way more exciting because on it Elder Bean lost his wallet, so we spent a lot of our time the rest of the week trying to deal with that.
As for K, we haven't actually been able to meet with him because we had to move our appointment from last week to today. He did come to church again though, and he seemed to really enjoy it. We watched the last session of conference and he seemed pretty interested in all of it. There was also some random guy who showed up yesterday because he's interested in religion and specifically our church. He arrived a half hour early and talked to us the whole time, stayed for the whole meeting and then spent another hour and a half or so talking to the bishop about all the questions he had. It was pretty crazy and I hope he got a lot out of it and felt the spirit. As for other people I'm actually teaching, there's a guy whose name is M. He referred himself and actually already received all of the lessons in Russia, but had to move just before he could get baptized or something, so now he's here and he really wants to get baptized, so hopefully that will happen fairly soon. We have to teach him all of the lessons again to make sure he understands everything, but otherwise he's ready to go, he's already keeping all of the commandments and reads and prays and everything, so that's pretty cool.
Also, I can't think of anything else...except that you should all be jealous because I get to met Elder Bednar on Friday. Of course we learned this week that in order to get there on time we're going to have to catch an ICE at 5:12 in the morning, so we're going to be running on not too much sleep, but it should still be great.
Bis nächste Woche!
Love you more!!!
Me
As for K, we haven't actually been able to meet with him because we had to move our appointment from last week to today. He did come to church again though, and he seemed to really enjoy it. We watched the last session of conference and he seemed pretty interested in all of it. There was also some random guy who showed up yesterday because he's interested in religion and specifically our church. He arrived a half hour early and talked to us the whole time, stayed for the whole meeting and then spent another hour and a half or so talking to the bishop about all the questions he had. It was pretty crazy and I hope he got a lot out of it and felt the spirit. As for other people I'm actually teaching, there's a guy whose name is M. He referred himself and actually already received all of the lessons in Russia, but had to move just before he could get baptized or something, so now he's here and he really wants to get baptized, so hopefully that will happen fairly soon. We have to teach him all of the lessons again to make sure he understands everything, but otherwise he's ready to go, he's already keeping all of the commandments and reads and prays and everything, so that's pretty cool.
Also, I can't think of anything else...except that you should all be jealous because I get to met Elder Bednar on Friday. Of course we learned this week that in order to get there on time we're going to have to catch an ICE at 5:12 in the morning, so we're going to be running on not too much sleep, but it should still be great.
Bis nächste Woche!
Love you more!!!
Me
Monday, April 13, 2015
Germany Week 43
Dear Mum,
I'm fairly certain I say this everytime, but it still throws me off that you moved. I was dinking around on lds.org last week and while I was there I saw that I could look at the Ward Diectory and so I looked at your new ward. It was weird. But they all looked nice, at least the people that had pictures on it.
As for General Conference, I've watched most of the last session, and I've watched Pres. Uchtdorf speaking in German about a bajillion times, but the internet at the church always freaks out toward the end, so I still have a few talks I haven't seen. They announced yesterday though that they're going to show it for church next week so that should be good.
The rest of my week was regular. I suppose the most interesting part started a few months ago now, when Elder Tolson (my former companion if you don't remember) contacted this guy named K on the bus. He seemed pretty interested and he said he would come to church. But he didn't. So we called him, multiple times to see if we could meet or something, but everytime he said he'd like to come to church first and never came. Then, we randomly ran into him on a Bahn and talked to him there and he still didn't come. We eventually kind of just gave up. Then, last week, the sisters where dooring a random house and what do you know they doored into K. What's more, he promised them he would come to church. And guess what, he came!!! It was way cool and he seemed to really enjoy it and afterwards he asked if we could meet sometime and teach him more, which we gladly accepted. Proof once more that God gives us miracles after all we can do, just usually not in the way we think.
Well, that's the only particularly awesome thing that happened this week, at least that I can think of right now, so I guess I'll wish you a wonderful week!
Love you more!!!
Elder
As for General Conference, I've watched most of the last session, and I've watched Pres. Uchtdorf speaking in German about a bajillion times, but the internet at the church always freaks out toward the end, so I still have a few talks I haven't seen. They announced yesterday though that they're going to show it for church next week so that should be good.
The rest of my week was regular. I suppose the most interesting part started a few months ago now, when Elder Tolson (my former companion if you don't remember) contacted this guy named K on the bus. He seemed pretty interested and he said he would come to church. But he didn't. So we called him, multiple times to see if we could meet or something, but everytime he said he'd like to come to church first and never came. Then, we randomly ran into him on a Bahn and talked to him there and he still didn't come. We eventually kind of just gave up. Then, last week, the sisters where dooring a random house and what do you know they doored into K. What's more, he promised them he would come to church. And guess what, he came!!! It was way cool and he seemed to really enjoy it and afterwards he asked if we could meet sometime and teach him more, which we gladly accepted. Proof once more that God gives us miracles after all we can do, just usually not in the way we think.
Well, that's the only particularly awesome thing that happened this week, at least that I can think of right now, so I guess I'll wish you a wonderful week!
Love you more!!!
Elder
Monday, April 6, 2015
Germany Week 42
I loved Conference! It was sooo good! We haven't watched the Sunday afternoon Session yet, but I'm sure it was great too. It was amusing to be with a bunch of missionaries as we watched the first session because there was so much stuff about family so all the missionaries that are about to go home really enjoyed it.
So aside from Conference the week for us was actually, absolutely crazy. Well mostly just Saturday. Though on Thursday we also had a way good lesson with one of our investigators and I think he now understands the Godhead a lot better which was probably his biggest obstacle to getting baptized. But anyway, Saturday was Transfer Calls. Elder Bean and I are staying together and in fact our whole district wasn't too affected by transferrs; Elder Ninow and Elder McKeever left, but everyone was expecting that. Before they announced all that though President told us that six missionaries are coming from the Berlin Mission into the Erfurt Zone in preparation of the Berlin Mission officially takkaking that Zone over next transffer when the Erfurt District becomes part of the Lepzig Stake. Crazy right? Well after President finished telling us that he then informed us that when Elder Bednar comes later this month, he'll be giving us iPads. Yep. I had become convinced that neither of those things would ever actually happen, and here within one transfer both of them are. It's insane. (Also clerical matter in Bezug auf iPads, apparently you'll have to pay for that in my new home ward and the Stake President should have info on it. That is if they sent it to the right Stake President since I've forgotten to tell the office that you moved...)
Well, some over things probably happened this week, but I can't remember them right now, and those where the biggest. Church is true! And the Gospel is awesome. Remember that.
Love you more!
Elder Cloward
So aside from Conference the week for us was actually, absolutely crazy. Well mostly just Saturday. Though on Thursday we also had a way good lesson with one of our investigators and I think he now understands the Godhead a lot better which was probably his biggest obstacle to getting baptized. But anyway, Saturday was Transfer Calls. Elder Bean and I are staying together and in fact our whole district wasn't too affected by transferrs; Elder Ninow and Elder McKeever left, but everyone was expecting that. Before they announced all that though President told us that six missionaries are coming from the Berlin Mission into the Erfurt Zone in preparation of the Berlin Mission officially takkaking that Zone over next transffer when the Erfurt District becomes part of the Lepzig Stake. Crazy right? Well after President finished telling us that he then informed us that when Elder Bednar comes later this month, he'll be giving us iPads. Yep. I had become convinced that neither of those things would ever actually happen, and here within one transfer both of them are. It's insane. (Also clerical matter in Bezug auf iPads, apparently you'll have to pay for that in my new home ward and the Stake President should have info on it. That is if they sent it to the right Stake President since I've forgotten to tell the office that you moved...)
Well, some over things probably happened this week, but I can't remember them right now, and those where the biggest. Church is true! And the Gospel is awesome. Remember that.
Love you more!
Elder Cloward
Monday, March 30, 2015
Germany Week 41
If it makes you feel better I also had to speak on Sunday, but in German. It wasn't for Sacrament Meeting though; the missionaries taught the combined Priesthood/Relief Society Class. I personally talked a little bit about Alma 36 because we were talking about the Atonement and I used Alma's story to illustrate how the Atonement can be used. The main purpose of the lesson though was to introduce the Church's new Easter Video, which is way amazing. If you haven't watched it yet, you should. It should be on this website: http://www.mormon.org/easter just so you know.
The rest of the week was fairly average. We did have a crazy experience on Friday though. We were just getting back from a split in Wesel when the Sisters here in Duisburg asked if we could come to the church. They had contacted a referral, but he was more inclined to meet with Elders, so they started teaching him, but asked if we could come as quickly as possible, which we gladly did. He came to church on Sunday too, and he seems like he really wants to learn and understand more about the church, but he also has a very interesting religious background which seems like it will take some time to figure out and help him understand some of the doctrines they way they truly are. But I know that if he truly does want to learn as much as he says he does that The Lord will help him and he will be able to quickly understand.
Have a loverly week!
Love you more!
Elder Son
The rest of the week was fairly average. We did have a crazy experience on Friday though. We were just getting back from a split in Wesel when the Sisters here in Duisburg asked if we could come to the church. They had contacted a referral, but he was more inclined to meet with Elders, so they started teaching him, but asked if we could come as quickly as possible, which we gladly did. He came to church on Sunday too, and he seems like he really wants to learn and understand more about the church, but he also has a very interesting religious background which seems like it will take some time to figure out and help him understand some of the doctrines they way they truly are. But I know that if he truly does want to learn as much as he says he does that The Lord will help him and he will be able to quickly understand.
Have a loverly week!
Love you more!
Elder Son
Monday, March 23, 2015
Germany Week 40
Life here is pretty great. Probably the coolest thing about this week though happened on Monday. One of the families we met while dooring that I told you about last week had told us to come by last Monday, so we did. As it ended up she didn't have a huge amount of interest, but she did tell us that if we were in the neighborhood again we could stop by some other time. The cool part was that she was hosting for a family for a student exchange program. The girl and her mother (who was the teacher over the program back in the states) were actually members of the church, which is actually why the lady who lived there had told us to come back on that day. Well, as it turns out, the mother and her son are the only active members of the church, so the daughter doesn't even know too much about the church, but she was sick, and the mother asked us if we could give her daughter a blessing, which we of course gladly did. Now, I don't really claim to know why, pretty much anything happens the way it does, but in that moment I felt like Elder Bean and I had truly been sent there, not for the family that actually lives there, but for this girl, who just happened to be there and just happened to be in need of a blessing. I hope she'll be able to remember that experience and it will help her in the future.
I suppose nothing much else happened this week, at least not anything exciting enough for me to think about to talk about, but I just want to say that I know the Lord does work miracles. Sometimes they're small, but I know that if we pray for them, and work for them they will come, we just have to open our eyes to see them.
Love you more!!!
Elder Son
Monday, March 16, 2015
Germany week 39
Life here is, well exactly the same as always. Nothing too exciting. Met with G a few times. Oh, also went over to M's house. That man is crazy. I was on a split Thursday and we thought nothing was going to happen, and then he called us up and said he invited a few investigators over for dinner and asked us if we wanted to come. It was way cool.
Also, on Tuesday we gave a Chinese Book of Mormon to a girl and told her a little bit about it, but she wasn't as interested as we had hoped so it lasted about five minutes instead of the half hour or so we had planned for so we had a lot of time to go finding. We decided to go off to a deserted road and say a quick prayer that we could actually find someone who might be interested and then we started klingling some doors. Very first door we went to the people were at least vaguely interested and told us to come back some other time and maybe they could actually talk. It was cool.
Love you more!!!
Also, on Tuesday we gave a Chinese Book of Mormon to a girl and told her a little bit about it, but she wasn't as interested as we had hoped so it lasted about five minutes instead of the half hour or so we had planned for so we had a lot of time to go finding. We decided to go off to a deserted road and say a quick prayer that we could actually find someone who might be interested and then we started klingling some doors. Very first door we went to the people were at least vaguely interested and told us to come back some other time and maybe they could actually talk. It was cool.
Love you more!!!
Monday, March 9, 2015
Germany Week 38
Life's pretty much normal here in Duisburg. Nothing too exciting happening, though we did have Stake Conference this weekend. They asked the missionaries to sing a few songs in a choir, so that was fun, but because we're missionaries over a whole Zone we only got to practice once, so that made it more exciting. President and Sister Stoddard also spoke and it was great. President had to translate for Sister Stoddard, until the very end when Sister Stoddard bore her testimony in German. It wasn't the best, or most complicated German, but it was awesome, and I think the members appreciated the effort at the very least.
As for the rest of the week, it was interesting because it seemed to be themed around The Book of Mormon. There wasn't anything particularly crazy that happened, but there where a billion small things that just seemed like they were trying there hardest to point out it's importance. So that's what I'll leave you with today; that The Book of Mormon truly is important, and that reading in it everyday truly will help us to be happy, like nothing else I've discovered.
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
As for the rest of the week, it was interesting because it seemed to be themed around The Book of Mormon. There wasn't anything particularly crazy that happened, but there where a billion small things that just seemed like they were trying there hardest to point out it's importance. So that's what I'll leave you with today; that The Book of Mormon truly is important, and that reading in it everyday truly will help us to be happy, like nothing else I've discovered.
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
Monday, March 2, 2015
Germany Week 37
Dearest Mummzy,
Sending Elder Tolson home was about like sending Elder Swan home. Except Elder Tolson was more noticeably trunky since he had to interact with Sister Madsen all the time who was also incredibly trunky. As for Elder Bean he's from Idaho Falls, just like Elder Tolson. In fact Elder Bean's mother was Elder Tolson's math teacher for two years. I think the simplest way to describe Elder Bean would simply be to say he's a nerd. Now, while he may be younger than me in real life, he actually didn't come out with me, but rather trained Elder Christensen, who came out at the same time as me. So yeah, he's on his death bed just like all of my other companions have been. I might even kill him too, but probably not.
We found out the other week that apparently we get to listen to Elder Bednar in April. (I think that's what President said...) So that should be way awesome. It's crazy because Elder Ballard just barely came (and Elder Bednar was here with him, though he only talked to the Berlin mission not to us) and from what it sounds like that doesn't happen very often.
As for the rest of my week, it wasn't too exciting. Spent most of the first half saying goodbye to people with Elder Tolson and the second half of the week getting Elder Bean up to speed on all of our investigators and the ward and all that jazz. That didn't leave too much time for "traditional" missionary work, but don't worry, we did a lot of it anyway.
Well...I'm drawing a blank as to anything else to say, but you're great!
Love you more!
Isaac
Sending Elder Tolson home was about like sending Elder Swan home. Except Elder Tolson was more noticeably trunky since he had to interact with Sister Madsen all the time who was also incredibly trunky. As for Elder Bean he's from Idaho Falls, just like Elder Tolson. In fact Elder Bean's mother was Elder Tolson's math teacher for two years. I think the simplest way to describe Elder Bean would simply be to say he's a nerd. Now, while he may be younger than me in real life, he actually didn't come out with me, but rather trained Elder Christensen, who came out at the same time as me. So yeah, he's on his death bed just like all of my other companions have been. I might even kill him too, but probably not.
We found out the other week that apparently we get to listen to Elder Bednar in April. (I think that's what President said...) So that should be way awesome. It's crazy because Elder Ballard just barely came (and Elder Bednar was here with him, though he only talked to the Berlin mission not to us) and from what it sounds like that doesn't happen very often.
As for the rest of my week, it wasn't too exciting. Spent most of the first half saying goodbye to people with Elder Tolson and the second half of the week getting Elder Bean up to speed on all of our investigators and the ward and all that jazz. That didn't leave too much time for "traditional" missionary work, but don't worry, we did a lot of it anyway.
Well...I'm drawing a blank as to anything else to say, but you're great!
Love you more!
Isaac
Monday, February 23, 2015
Germany Week 36
My week consisted mostly of fallen through appointments, which was a little bit frustrating, but life goes on and hopefully things will be better next week. This week should be fairly interesting though because Elder Tolson is going home and will soon be replaced by a man by the name of Elder Bean who is coming up from Aachen. Should be an interesting experience.
Also this week I had an interesting experience at District Meeting. For some reason that day was going really well, and I couldn't figure out why until District Meeting. Since it was Elder Tolson and Sister Madsen's last District Meeting ever we had a nice testimony meeting to end it and one of the elders gave his about prayer. And that's when I realized why that day was great. Now, don't get me wrong, I always say my morning prayers, I'm just sometimes a wee bit more asleep than awake, but that morning I had made sure to actually wake myself up before I said my prayer, and I really could tell the difference it made in my day. Prayer is the best!
Also, tschüß!
Love you more!
Also this week I had an interesting experience at District Meeting. For some reason that day was going really well, and I couldn't figure out why until District Meeting. Since it was Elder Tolson and Sister Madsen's last District Meeting ever we had a nice testimony meeting to end it and one of the elders gave his about prayer. And that's when I realized why that day was great. Now, don't get me wrong, I always say my morning prayers, I'm just sometimes a wee bit more asleep than awake, but that morning I had made sure to actually wake myself up before I said my prayer, and I really could tell the difference it made in my day. Prayer is the best!
Also, tschüß!
Love you more!
Monday, February 16, 2015
Germany Week 35
This week seems like it was crazy busy, but I can't remember anything that actually happened. We did meet with some investigators, but nothing too exciting happened with any of those. Elder Tolson has also had to start doing things to get ready to go home, so I've been doing a lot of sitting around studying or something as he writes his mission history or what not. It reminds me a lot of when Elder Swan was going home, so that's exciting. Thankfully aside from those things he has to do to get ready Elder Tolson's still been doing well on the doing missionary work front. We also ate at some members houses, and lately we've been trying to get more involvement form members in the missionary work, and I've been amazed at just how ready most members are. Most of them just need a little push, and some of them don't even need that. The JAE we visited last night is quite possibly a better missionary than I am, and he's not even on a mission! It's crazy!
Well, I really can't think of anything else to say so... Have a nice week!
Love you more!!!
Elder Isaac Cloward
Well, I really can't think of anything else to say so... Have a nice week!
Love you more!!!
Elder Isaac Cloward
Monday, February 9, 2015
Germany Week 34
Well, this week was crazy busy for us. We were constantly running from place to place, but a lot of it was just errands, so it wasn't that exciting. Some of it was though! First off, Y got baptized on Saturday and then confirmed Yesterday! I should be able to send you a picture of that so you can see that. That was a way cool experience and it's made even cooler by the story that goes with it. The missionaries here before me "found" Y one Sunday when he walked into church, told them he was Christian and that he was looking for a church. That was about a month ago. It was so cool, and an absolute miracle.
We also had an awesome lesson with a member family this past week. The Sisters were talking to them a little bit about missionary work, and then asked them if they would take a copy of The Book of Mormon and write their testimonies in it and then give it back to the sisters who would then hand it out sometime in the week. It was at this point that Bru. D walked out of the room. When he came back he handed the sisters a different Book of Mormon that already had their testimonies in it and took the copy they were going to give them so his wife could have a copy to try to give to her doctor who she thought might have interest. It was crazy.
Well, as I said, we did a lot of other stuff this week, but none of it was that interesting, but Y's baptism was super great. Church is true!
Love you more!
Monday, February 2, 2015
Germany Week 33
This week was pretty busy. We met with a few investigators, including Y. That was actually the first time I was able to teach him because he's been sick and really busy with school ever since I got here, so while I met him when he came to church, we haven't actually taught him. But he seems pretty excited and ready for his baptism, so that should be great. The baptism means that we have a crazy busy week though, because we still have to teach Y a few minor things, as well as get his interview done along with everything else we usually have to do. Should be a crazy, but also a good week.
Well I can't think of anything else specific to say, but this work is great! I know God is there for us and just waiting to bless us, and when we ask he assuredly will.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
I know what I forgot!Köln! A week ago I visited the Kölner Dom
Well I can't think of anything else specific to say, but this work is great! I know God is there for us and just waiting to bless us, and when we ask he assuredly will.
Love you more!!!
Isaac
I know what I forgot!Köln! A week ago I visited the Kölner Dom
Monday, January 26, 2015
Germany Week 32
Dear Mom,
This week was certainly more busy than last week. I indeed did regain my health and therewith I was able to go around and actually get to appointments and go out and contact and whatnot. Duisburg turns out to be a hip-happenin' place. We've got an investigator who should be getting baptized on the seventh of February and it really seems like he's going to make that happen. There's another family here that we met with, and we'll hopefully be able to set a baptisimal date with them this week, so that should be fun. They're way great and seem pretty excited about the gospel. The lesson we had with them was really spiritual and they definitely seem to feel the truthfulness of it, so I'm really excited for them.
Your week sounds pretty normal. I feel for you with the whole home teaching thing; talking to people is hard, but I believe in you! And I know that the Lord will always help us do what he asks of us. We actually have been teaching that to quite a few of our investigators lately, and I know that Nephi's promise applies to everyone, both investigators and you, and me.
Well, I'm really bad at writting emails, and really have nothing else to say, so I guess I'll just say Bye Now!
Love you more!
Isaac
This week was certainly more busy than last week. I indeed did regain my health and therewith I was able to go around and actually get to appointments and go out and contact and whatnot. Duisburg turns out to be a hip-happenin' place. We've got an investigator who should be getting baptized on the seventh of February and it really seems like he's going to make that happen. There's another family here that we met with, and we'll hopefully be able to set a baptisimal date with them this week, so that should be fun. They're way great and seem pretty excited about the gospel. The lesson we had with them was really spiritual and they definitely seem to feel the truthfulness of it, so I'm really excited for them.
Your week sounds pretty normal. I feel for you with the whole home teaching thing; talking to people is hard, but I believe in you! And I know that the Lord will always help us do what he asks of us. We actually have been teaching that to quite a few of our investigators lately, and I know that Nephi's promise applies to everyone, both investigators and you, and me.
Well, I'm really bad at writting emails, and really have nothing else to say, so I guess I'll just say Bye Now!
Love you more!
Isaac
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Germany Week 31
This week sure was an adventure. Duisburg seems like it's pretty great, though I haven't gotten to experience it too much yet because I arrived Wednesday evening, and was then pretty sick on Thursday. So we took it pretty easy for the next few days. We did meet some pretty cool people though and church yesterday was great. Hopefully this week will be better and I'll actually feel healthy enough to do more than just go to the pre-planned appointments. As for Elder Tolson, he's actually even "older" then I thought. He's actually going home at the end of this transfer, so that should be interesting.
Well, that was pretty much my week, hopefully next week I'll have more exciting things to say because I won't have been coughing with every word I tried to say to the people here.
You're dandy!
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
Well, that was pretty much my week, hopefully next week I'll have more exciting things to say because I won't have been coughing with every word I tried to say to the people here.
You're dandy!
Love you more!!!
Elder Cloward
Monday, January 12, 2015
Germany Week 30
Dear Momma,
Nothing too crazy happened this week. Transfer calls were on Saturday though, and strangely enough I'm actually moving! Weird. I'm off to Duisburg, near the Border of The Netherlands. I still don't know exactly what to think of it. It's exciting to move on and go somewhere new, but I'll definitely miss Bamberg and all of the people here. Well, whatever I may feel I know that it's the Lord's will and it's for the best, for me and for the people I serve. I'll be serving there with Elder Tollson (I haven't ever seen his name, only heard it, so I'm not 100% sure that's how you spell it.) and I've heard he's a pretty cool missionary, and that he's pretty old on the mission.
The rest of the week wasn't too exciting. Thankfully it was pretty warm, though it was also a little rainy. I'm glad you had a good time at Stake Conference and at your movie. I hope you have a great week!
Love you more!
Isaac
Nothing too crazy happened this week. Transfer calls were on Saturday though, and strangely enough I'm actually moving! Weird. I'm off to Duisburg, near the Border of The Netherlands. I still don't know exactly what to think of it. It's exciting to move on and go somewhere new, but I'll definitely miss Bamberg and all of the people here. Well, whatever I may feel I know that it's the Lord's will and it's for the best, for me and for the people I serve. I'll be serving there with Elder Tollson (I haven't ever seen his name, only heard it, so I'm not 100% sure that's how you spell it.) and I've heard he's a pretty cool missionary, and that he's pretty old on the mission.
The rest of the week wasn't too exciting. Thankfully it was pretty warm, though it was also a little rainy. I'm glad you had a good time at Stake Conference and at your movie. I hope you have a great week!
Love you more!
Isaac
Monday, January 5, 2015
Germany week 29
Dear Mum,
My New Year's doesn't sound like it was nearly as exciting as yours. We did get woken up at midnight, because seemingly this entire side of town decided that the best place to set off fire works was in the parking lot next to our house. And of course they couldn't do it on the other side of the parking lot where there are no houses; no, they had to do it as close to our window as possible. So I got woken up, and couldn't go back to sleep, so I figured I'd go and watch the fire works, but I couldn't actually see any of them, just hear them, so I couldn't fall asleep. That was exciting. New Year's day was also interesting because basically no one was out, except for us, so there wasn't really anyone to contact, try as we might.
There were a few more people at church this week. We still weren't full, or even as full as we usually are, but we were able to have richtig church. We in fact even had a young man there, whom we helped move in last week, who three years ago was serving in Bamberg (It was his first area on his mission.). Now he's back and getting married to a girl who lives in the ward.
Wait, Jayden's eight? When in the world did he get that old? Crazy.
Well, nothing else too exciting happened this week. Maybe there will be something exciting to tell you next week. There should be because transfer calls are on Saturday, but let's face it, I'm just staying here.
Mach's gut!
Love you more!
Isaac
My New Year's doesn't sound like it was nearly as exciting as yours. We did get woken up at midnight, because seemingly this entire side of town decided that the best place to set off fire works was in the parking lot next to our house. And of course they couldn't do it on the other side of the parking lot where there are no houses; no, they had to do it as close to our window as possible. So I got woken up, and couldn't go back to sleep, so I figured I'd go and watch the fire works, but I couldn't actually see any of them, just hear them, so I couldn't fall asleep. That was exciting. New Year's day was also interesting because basically no one was out, except for us, so there wasn't really anyone to contact, try as we might.
There were a few more people at church this week. We still weren't full, or even as full as we usually are, but we were able to have richtig church. We in fact even had a young man there, whom we helped move in last week, who three years ago was serving in Bamberg (It was his first area on his mission.). Now he's back and getting married to a girl who lives in the ward.
Wait, Jayden's eight? When in the world did he get that old? Crazy.
Well, nothing else too exciting happened this week. Maybe there will be something exciting to tell you next week. There should be because transfer calls are on Saturday, but let's face it, I'm just staying here.
Mach's gut!
Love you more!
Isaac
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