October 15, 2012

This week has been awesome!! On Tuesday I dropped off Elder Stoe at the Mission Office. After this point, I no longer have a normal companion. Some Elders at the office gave me a ride up to Berlin Hauptbahnhof (train station) where I met up with Elder Williams, another Elder in my district. We waited around Hauptbahnhof to wait for his new companion, Elder Bossart (Elder Bossart was my second companion in the mission field! He actually finished my training--and is therefore, my mission 'step-father'!) We spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday, and Thursday morning in a Dritt... a group of three... a trio. It was a pretty strange situation. It was super frustrating actually to be a group of 3. It felt very awkward talking to people. 3 is definitely a crowd.

Wednesday, we did normal missionary work, with the awkwardness of a Trio... everything went well even though it was awkward. We actually did street contacting with two of us on one side of the street, and one on the other side of the street for most of our 'finding time'. It was so cool being on my own and feeling confident that I can hold a conversation with people without someone backing me up! Wednesday night we had 'First Finding' with the new missionaries! a lot of missionaries in the zone come together and we each paired off with one of the new missionaries and went out and talked to people on the street! I still was just with a random Elder from the group, but knowing that one of those missionaries could be my Trainee was so cool! i was with Elder Grenke, a super cool guy out of Utah. We went out and talked to everything with a heart-beat. We didn't see too much success until right after we started coming back to the meeting place. There was a super cool couple that we talked to! We gave them a Book of Mormon and asked them to read and pray about it! They said they would! They didn't really want to meet with missionaries... but everyone has to start somewhere! :D

Thursday morning was the New Missionary Conference. First, the trainers meet there a little earlier and learn a little bit about what it is like to be a Trainer for these new missionaries. Some tips on teaching and being an example. The importance of a missionary's first experience in the field is so great! Then the new missionaries were brought in and the trainers were all asked to introduce a little bit about the area. After we were all finished, President Kosak named first the New Missionary, and then said where whe was going and who he would be trained by. I am now training Elder Marshall! A beast of a piano player from Blackfoot, Idaho! haha. Out of the 4 companions i have had so far, 2 of them have also been from Idaho! It's pretty cool. Elder Marshall is a great kid, his German is suprisingly good, but he just needs to trust himself and speak up.

The past few days have been a great experience. It has been testing my knowledge of the gospel, my leadership capabilities, and my German, which is making all of the afore mentioned things so much better!
On Sunday, we had the opportunity to listen to the words of the Prophet! so excellent. We all need to come together as missionaries and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to fulfill the promises of the Dedicatory Prayer that President Uchtdorf gave only a few years ago!
So far, everything is going SO well! I am loving being a Trainer!
Liebste Grüße,
Elder Braden Thorkelson

 

 1) Sister Kingery, Elder Miles, and me! Sister Kingery is actually in the Frankfurt mission! but she was far enough north that she came to Berlin to see the prophet! I thought I wouldn't see for 2 years!! :D

2) Elder Stoe and me in front of the Brandenburger Tor! Brandenburg Gate!

3) Me in front of the Berliner Dom! Berlin Cathedral!