October 22, 2012

Being with a new missionary is such an awesome experience! I finally get to be the example! Up until this point I have just been... coasting... just following what the senior companion has said, but now I get to lead! I get to take the things that I have liked from my previous companions and use them to teach Elder Marshall how to be a missionary! It has been a great week. The one thing that is always very difficult for me is time management. I can never seem to estimate the right amount of time to plan getting from place to place! Either it ends up being too short and we're rushing to the appointment, not being able to talk to people along the way, or we have way too much time and we have to wait around for the appointment time to come around... I guess it will just come with more practice!

Things are going really well here in Spandau! Everything is going to be heating up (right as the weather is cooling down! haha. I'm so punny!). This week has actually felt really long. There have been a lot of appointments that have fallen out. We have actually recieved a couple of referrals in the past week! One from Church Headquarters, and one from missionaries in Marzahn! super cool. Referrals are the way to go!

The prophet was here last sunday! He made a tour through pretty much all of Germany! super awesome. He went from Hamburg to Berlin to Frankfurt and to München! The effect on the members is very noticable! They take this kind of an event very seriously and really integrate what was said into their weekly lessons.

There's a super awesome member here in my ward. His name is Fernando, and he's from Brazil. He told us about his first experiences trying to approach the missionaries- The first time he went up to them, they were two Americans speaking english to each other and he thought to himself 'my English isn't good enough... I wouldn't really be able to communicate with them..' and he walked away. He saw them again, and they were once again speaking english with each other. He wanted to ask them about their church, but he could only speak a couple of words in english, so he sighed and walked away again. It was his third encounter seeing the missionaries, when one of the missionaries was from Brazil, and they spoke Portuguese with each other. It was only this time when he finally felt like he could actually talk to the missionaries, and that was when he learned about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!! Because of this super awesome story, I have been speaking so much German! I don't want to be a couple of weird Americans that can only speak English! 

I have been speaking so much German with Elder Marshall! More than I have with any other companion I have had so far. It is really helping me to integrate German into my brain! It is actually becoming difficult to teach lessons in english.... which kind of worries me... but it's good, right?? I just need to embrace it! :D Es macht kein Sinn Englisch in Deutschland zu reden! haha. Und Ich habe eine besondere Gelegenheit ein andere Kultur anzunehmen zu können. Warum soll ich es nicht GANS akzeptieren?

Unsere Gemeinde ist echt Toll. Die Mitglieder helfen uns immer! Die Missionare haben ein List und es zeigt uns welche Mitglieder wir zu Lektionen mitbringen können! Die fragen uns oft ob wir neue Untersucher haben den die helfen können. Wir haben Kontakt wieder mit ein paar alte Untersucher die früher Tauf-datum hatten! Bald werden viele 'Joint Teaches' stattfinden!

Elder Carlson ist fast zur Ende seine Mission?! bah. Die Zeit geht so schnell! Und Elder JOSEPH Carlson wird auch seine Mission bald anfangen! Ich freue mich jedes Mal dass ich höre mehr menschen auf Mission gehen! Gibt es irgendjemand noch der bald auf Mission gehen wird?

Ah Danke! Ich brauche ein Debit Karte... weil meine Schuhe sind ein bisschen Kaputt... es gibt eine kleine loch neben meine Zahne... haha. So my shoes are a little 'worn in'... and I have a little hole by my toes. so it would be great to have a debit card so that I could buy new shoes... :) Und ich verheiße daß ich meine Geldtasche nie wieder vergessen werde :) I promise that I will never lose my wallet again!

This letter was a little better. I hope you like it... I'm sorry... but I love German... deal with it? :P

Love,
Elder Braden Thorkelson