Sept. 2, 2012

Hello!
I am here in Spandau and loving it! I still have no idea where I am half of the time... but it's good! I just need time to figure out the area. My new companion is Elder Peter Stoe from Pennsylvania! He's dying at the end of the transfer. He broke his finger the week before I arrived. there's a saying in German... "Sport ist Mord" which means "sport is murder". Whenever anyone asks, he simply replies 'sport' and they nod their head and say 'Sport ist Mord'! It has been a good week though. We have been getting to know each other and I have been learning about all of the investigators that we have, and we really need to find some new people to teach. I started looking through the gigantic Area Books and there are a LOT of people that missionaries have contacted. I will be doing a lot of digging through the piles of pages through the next few days.

We went to church yesterday and it was awesome! we had probably around 100 members there! It was very different from Heide with 35ish members. I was about to give my testimony and introduce myself. It was good stuff. It will take a while to get to know all of the members, but it will be awesome. There are connections everywhere! The Elder's quorum president asked me if I knew where Pocatello is, and apparently he knows someone who used to live there! haha. Such a small world.

We take buses everywhere! or we walk. The bus system here is so awesome! every 5 or so minutes there's a bus that passes. We buy monthly  cards that bring us anywhere we want in Berlin. it's a pretty awesome situation. Everything is super close together and it is so nice being able to just walk or take the bus wherever we want to go!

Today we will be having a nice p day with the elders in Glieneke. going to the park and slack-lining! An Elder has slack-lining stuff that he brought from home! I'm way excited. I am still studying the New Testament, but I'm now in Romans! :D I'm lovin it!

I love being a missionary in Spandau! gotta go prepare for the week!

Love,
Elder Braden Thorkelson

p.s. my wallet is lost AGAIN... I put it in my pocket, I know I did. The pants are way too loose and getting up and down off of the bus is a bad deal. I haven't been able to get it back, but I think we will be able to get it back... I checked on my wells fargo account here online and there's nothing missing... I think it will all work out. I will be finding a place for my wallet that is NOT in my pants... dumb, eh?