August 17, 2023: The Beginning?

 The Beginning. 


And so it began.

I don't have much time, so I'm going to try to go day by day on this one.

Dawn of the first day:
We landed in Frankfurt! It was crazy to see English be the subtitles this time, and not another language. We met the mission president, and drove to the church building. I tried mayonaise for the first time. We had interviews and a couple meetings, and then we were paired to go street contacting for a lil while for the first time. So a random missionary picked me and we went on the streets of germany to find people to talk to about The Gospel. after a few people who ignored us, somebody took interest in a conversation (in english, he was from Africa). He bible bashed us for over 30 minutes haha. hardly got 2 words in the whole time too. It was a good experience though, and he wasn't mean he simply believed that we had no idea who Jesus Christ was. I think if he knew how much we sacrificed to be here, he would at least have respected us. The people we talk to just have no idea. I wish I could just give them an understanding of everything right then and there, but everybody has to decide for themselves what they want.
We ate a dönner for dinner (although I'm told it wasn't a real dönner), and got assigned with our trainers for the next 6 weeks! I'm with Elder Koch, and he's awesome. Just about everything I needed and was asking for in a trainer, he is, and he helps me out a lot. 

Dawn of the 2nd day:
We took the train to the area we are assigned to, which is called Wesel. A bunch of slightly drunk young adults came up to us asking what we are. It was really cool to explain to them a bit about our church and mostly try to get them to understand that somehow we are Christian, but aren't Catholic or Protestant. I still don't think they understand, but it was cool to pretend like I knew the german words they were saying.  We got to our Apartment, which by the way is not an apartment- we live in a member's guest house, because apparently our apartment burned down a year ago, like completely. So till that is back up, we get to stay here! Also we ride bikes everywhere. Our car privileges also got taken away a while ago. 

Dawn of the 3rd day: (Canonically this is where I stop)
First Sunday in Wesel! It's called Wesel because Esel means Donkey in German, and theres metal donkeys everywhere here. Not even real ones, just metal ones. It's kinda funny. All over the place. But we went to church, and I got to introduce myself in German over the pulpit and give my testimony, so that was cool. Hopefully I said everything right. I could hardly understand anything, but I do remember someone sharing something about their pets for some reason. Like dogs and cats and birds. I'm sure Jesus was somewhere in there too. Our ward has tons of Omas and Opas in it (gmas and gpas) and thats really fun. They are all super nice, but almost too hospitable in the fact that you are nearly forced to eat everything they put on the table in front of you when you meet with them for a meal. We had a dinner meeting with a somewhat younger family though, so that was cool. I ate salad. I don't normally eat salad. Why do Germans eat so much salad? I will never know. I've lasted 18 years without eating salad and I turned out ok I think. Maybe.

Monday: 
We met with the most amazing Oma, Schwester Kluchen. She fed us a whole bunch of  homemade currywurst, and a lot of salad! mein lieblingsessen. I could barely finish all of the food, but I was determined. I'm sure it will get much harder though. She made me read a German children's book to practice my German called "Jesus' Day Off". 

Tuesday: 
What a day. We met with some amazing friends named Eike and Sophie, who have a little baby. Their roommate Toby also tagged along. We taught them a lesson, and they agreed to come to church this week! I completely on purpose left my bible there so now they have to come to church to give it back to me. All part of the plan, maybe. After that we went street contacting for real this time, and that might've been one of the hardest things I've ever tried to do. I already am super uncomfortable talking to strangers and now we're doing it in another language! Plus German people really don't like to talk to strangers either. Half of the people we try to say hello to act like we are invisible. I've never seen anybody walk so abruptly straight in my entire life, avoiding any semblance of eye contact. We did talk to a few people though, which was nice. A lot of immigrants are here, so sometimes it's in English. German people are really scared of us, it's actually a little bit amusing. At least I'm not the only one who is terrified. 

Wednesday: 
We had D-Rat yesterday (district council)! I asked my companion where we were going for lunch, and he said "sucuck&chill", and I thought he was completely joking so I asked him again, but he was totally serious. Theres an amazing dönner shop called "Sucuck&Chill". Some of the best food I've had in a long time. Plus it had salad in it. I already miss it. We also had a Gemein-Rat (ward council) and the ward mission leader looks like Miguel O'Hara from the new spiderman movie. In broken German I was able to tell him that. 

Thursday: 
Today was P-day! we got to chill a little bit at home, go shopping and buy some epic german food, and went and visited the Rhein river. We live with an old woman, who's mother lives with her. they're around 13^2 years old collectively. the younger one fell, and couldn't get up, and somehow the 99 year old lady gained super strength, climbed up 2 flights of stairs to let us know and help her up. I seriously consider it a miracle she was able to let us know. They are both doing okay though. 

I've really learned this week that if you have faith, everything that might seem bad, will eventually turn out for good. We only met those drunk german guys the first day because couldn't find any seats on the train, and had to walk around a bunch. The bible bashers I talked about earlier might seem bad or scarring, but I learned how strong my testimony was, and remembered why I love the gospel and this church. There are so many unfortunate things that happened this week, but through every one of them I've seen little miracles. Sometimes the only way to see light through a brick wall is when it has cracks in it. 

Sorry this is so long! It's so amazing to finally be here, and I love all of you!

Elder Tage Rex



Sorry I didn't take enough pictures mom :(
















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