Hello!
This week has been
really good. We started off with the New Year celebration. The ward here
had an activity in the church. Elder Christensen and I were able to be
there until 9.30, and then we had to go home. German New Years (called
Silvester) is so much bigger than back home in America! oh man.
Fireworks that shoot up into the air are legal and go on sale the week
before New Year. Everyone stocks up and has a ton of fireworks to shoot
off at
midnight.
We went back to our apartment and had a normal evening and went to
bed... well... tried to go to bed. haha. It was super tough to fall
asleep because of the constant explosions outside. Elder Christensen and
I got up to look outside at all of the fireworks going off and saw
crowds of people moving from the apartments around us over to the main
street with bundles of fireworks. It was so awesome. We saw people with a
beer bottle in one hand shoot rockets from the other. The scariest part
was that it seemed completely normal to everyone. The ideal way to
shoot off rockets seems to be to set down an empty bottle from an
alcoholic beverage and light it with the end of a burning cigarette.
Ahhh Germany :)
Transfer calls arrived and there is only one real change in the
district. Elder Christensen is now district leader and I will show him
the ropes before crawling into my grave :) I'm actually really glad that
I'm no longer district leader. ah man. It's so nice to be a normal
missionary! 9 transfers as a district leader. That's more than a full
year. bleh. That means that my nights for the last year have been
occupied with calls to district members and then cramming to write in my
journal or do anything else with my time. But now I have the
opportunity to leave that to Elder Christensen and to take time to do
other things :) ahh that's nice.
We have been helping the Family Schwab with some things around
their house. Schwester Schwab's dad is now 97 and is living in the old
folk's home. He used to live in the upstairs apartment in the house, but
can't handle going up and down the stairs anymore. We're going through
all of the things that he doesn't ever use anymore to clear out more
space for the family. It's such a maze of old things! haha. It looks
like he didn't like letting things go or throwing things away. There's a
lot of junk... but under the junk are some super awesome treasures!
haha. Old family photos, things from his hobbies like a couple of
accordions, keepsakes from vacations, beautiful chess sets, old books,
and so many other things. It's sad to see some of the things thrown away
that don't have any worth to the family now... but there is really no
use for some old things. We are keeping some of the things and bringing
some things back to the apartment to replace old things that we have
been using. It's really fun actually to go through these things. I feel
like this is one of the better ways that I have seen to get to know
Germany. There's so much more culture in the couple rooms that we've
been cleaning than in so many other 'cultural events' that I've seen.
Last transfer I was having a pretty tough time keeping myself
motivated, but I'm really getting a lot of help from Elder Christensen.
If I had a poopy companion things would not be as good as they are now. I
am super glad to have him here. We're starting off the transfer well
and we're going to be doing a lot of finding in the next few weeks and
we are going to find someone and we are going to baptize them :)
There's not too much else to say...
I love you! (saved the best for last.:) )
Elder Thorkelson
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