August 2, 2023: An old man, afraid of time

 Ich höre, dass ein neuer Held in der Stadt ist. Herausfordern Sie mich, wenn Sie riskieren" 

Sorry if my emails begin to require more and more google translate interactions every week. We made a pledge the other day to only speak German for the rest of our MTC experience, so it is getting applied a lot! I'm only allowed to speak English if somebody specifically asks me to, but otherwise my companion has to translate for me. It's been challenging, but also really fun. There's so many funny words in German that are just a good time to use.

It's amazing how central love is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Everything in the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and everything the savior teaches can all be drawn back to having love for one another, and that God loves and knows each of us individually. Through Every single difficulty or challenge (herausforderung auf deutsch) we must surmount in life, if we can simply remember that we have a heavenly father who loves us, not only is it made easier but also gives us a new perspective. When  we know God loves us, we realize that there's a reason that specific trail was given to us. Studying German has been really hard. Every time I get a word down, it feels like another one leaves. Slowly but surely though, my vocabulary has grown. I know that if I trust in God's love and plan for me, I will one day get this language down. It'll take months of constant learning, but it will be made possible through him. And I can't wait for that day :)

Highlights:

We had this random german guy come and talk to us for an hour last week. Apparently he just loves missionaries so he came to the mtc, and wow did I understand absolutely nothing. To be fair, he mumbled a lot but it was really cool to hear the language natively spoken and really was a wake up call that we truly need the Lord on our side for this language. 

There are two native German Sisters at the MTC! They're companions right now and are going to serve in the Madrid Spain Spanish mission. It was super cool to run into them and talk a little bit of german. They were excited to see people serving in their country.

Friday= freitag

french fries= pommes fritz

so now i call it "pommestag"

I met a world class jump roper. For those who know what this is, she did a leg-under cross except a triple under at the same time without even trying. She then proceeded to sit flat on the ground and jump rope while sitting. She got 3rd place in a worldwide competition. I thought I was good with a jump rope.

We had a day where literally no teachers showed up to either of our classes. Maybe they're trying to send a message?

I have so many tennis gospel analogies now it's amazing.

I started a google doc where I translate megamind quotes into german, which is nice because now I cant speak english for a week. There was a modern apostle that said if you read the Book of Mormon in a language, you will be fluent by the end of the book. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the same holds true for megamind. 

We still play tisch tisch tennis every day

We had fish and chips one day for lunch. "maybe [british culinary taste] isn't so bad after all" (please somebody get that reference)

Lost both my water bottles, almost found both of them

We cleaned an elevator for service yesterday! I almost forgot they were real because we take the stairs so often. It felt blasphemous to ride in. 

I haven't heard real music for so long, the other day I was looking for new ringtones to set my alarm for in the morning, and that was some of the best music I've listened to for weeks. If any of you have access to samsung alarm ringtones, give them a listen. They put way too much effort into them. 

Laundry was super easy this week!

Question for you German speakers out there. Do Megamind and Metroman use "du" or "sie"? 

Am fritag werden wir unseren flugplan haben! Acht Tag bis Deutschland! Es freut mich. hoffenlich das war richtig. 

Das ist alles von mir heute. Bis nexte woche! 

Elder Tage Rex

Oh yeah, and we saw some deer.