May 7, 2012

So, in preparation for mothers day.... :D I will be going over to Familie Shumaier and they will be letting me use their computer for Skype!! I guess I will try to log in to my old skype account and see if it works. I believe the Username is bubthorkelson but if not, just make an account for me because I think I can call you quickly right before we skype! and then you can give me that information. so cool. I will get on at 18:00 here in HEIDE, which SHOULD be 10 am IN WEST JORDAN on Sunday. just wanted to be clear :)

The "Whitewash" is going pretty well. finally feeling a little comfortable with directions and areas. We have a GPS which helps a TON. so much. If we did not have that piece of technology, I would be in deep deep doodoo.

I mailed a bunch of stuff home, we will see when it arrives. All of my flight tickets and my train ticket to Heide from Berlin. and a letter (naturally)

And of course you should go represent! Show some love! haha. totally awesome.

The camera is totally functional, but it just would not be waterproof anymore, a little flap of the covering near the buttons is not sealed. If there is a guarantee or something, I would want to get it replaced or fixed if it is covered by a guarantee.

Hahaha. Jared doesn't have hair?? I need to see a picture of that. I can't attach photos here... kinda dumb. but whatever. you will get my sd card eventually.....

This week has been pretty good. There are a lot of kontacts in the Area Book that seem very promising. Yesterday we called up 2 contacts and made 2 appointments! super cool. We have been making a lot of appointments, but not many of them actually hold up, pretty frustrating, but 'das ist Leben' (that is life). So many of the people that we have been talking to are busy for the next week or two, one contact even said to come back in July... dah! They should be ready for the gospel now. haha. Geduld...Geduld...(patience)

There are so many things that I did not really expect that have been happening all over. Like I didn't expect to use that tiny bit of spanish that I took my freshman year in high school... but this week an Ecuadorean man from Spain named Salomon showed up at the church and only spoke spanish. goodness. Those little phrases/words that help out, like bien, malo, ahora, anyo, trabajo, counting--they actually helped a lot more than I expected. We were able to refer him to a member family here from spain that should be able to help him.

Another sweet thing that happened this week was after we had finished a good session of SK(Strasse Kontactieren[Street Contacting]). We stopped by an Eis(ice cream) Place, and got some ice cream for a small reward for our work. The man behind the counter said the he had met with the missionaries before, and so we talked for a bit and we were able to bring him a Turkish Book of Mormon! It is so great when people come to YOU.

Oh, did I forget to mention that I have been driving around Germany?? yeah... I went 120 on the Autobahn, no biggie. Driving around here is pretty strange, there are a lot of weird rules that are just a little bit different from US... for example-- Right turning at a red light?? yup, don't do that in Germany. haha. I have seen more tractors on the road here than I did in Idaho. really?? hahaha. that is one thing that I never thought I would see here. And so far I have seen 6 trucks in the many hours of driving. A lot of motorcycles and smart cars, especially in the city. A parking space is a very precious commodity.

Little things I have learned:

Germans have a lot of words that mean the same thing or just slightly different. awesome.

I actually don't mind reading the scriptures for all of my study time.

Days go by WAY too fast. I wake up, and before I know it, I'm going back to bed. Wierdest thing ever. Journal entries help show how much actually happened.

I really do love this gospel... and y'all.

Elder Thorkelson