Elder Tage Rex: Germany Frankfurt Mission

  Code: Fine back A wise woman by the name of Brenda once told me, "If you're going to make a mistake, make it a doosey!" So, that's exactly what I did. Just after visiting the beautiful city and cathedral of Köln, we headed back with the trains and busses to Wesel. The busses were a little late, but everything was going fine. We got to the Bahnhof, and went to get our bikes, and it was pouring rain. I felt around in my pockets to get the keys to unlock the bikes, and was in a slight panic as none were to be found. My companion didnt have them either. We dumped everything outside of our backpacks, rummaged through every corner, and alas, no keys. No bike keys, no house keys, no church keys, nothing. All hope was lost. And I was the one in charge of them. We spent about 30 minutes in the rain wondering what to do, and eventually took a bus that dropped us about 2/3 of a mile away from our house, and we walked, keyless, and drenched towards our residency. We rang the do...

  science and progress pulling the puzzles apart :) It's the end of the transfer! We got to listen in on the "leavers testimony meeting", which is where all of the people leaving this week (or 'dying' as we say) bear their testimonies. That was pretty powerful. We got notice on what the plans were for transfers on Tuesday (we call it D-Day), and both me and my companion Elder Koch are staying! Actually our entire district stayed, which is apparently unheard of, but now my companion is District Leader, which will be cool. We'll get to go on exchanges a lot more often. I will say I was hoping for some kind of a change just to see more of the country and see new perspectives, but Wesel is a great city so I'm mostly OK with staying. We started out this week strong, going 4/4 on lessons getting canceled on Saturday, and learning the boy that we had a baptismal date for a couple weeks ago now is dealing with some stuff and we have no idea what the future holds f...

  It'll all be OK in the end Sorry this email is coming out late, our mission president made history this week by giving us an extra half p-day on Saturday! I wasn't able to finish on Thursday so this'll have to do :) (he even let us sleep in and stuff  ) it just might be extra long this week, and you'll get a treat next week with a shorter one. On Thursday evening we had a lesson with a guy named Mike. He looks like a leprechaun, he just needs a green suit and a lil hat. He even sounds what you would imagine a german leprechaun sounds like. But he's really cool! It was over zoom, but I was able to contribute some thoughts in my broken German and it went really well.  On Friday we were doing some street finding, and were on our way back, and found this couple from Greece, who speak Greek and everything! We were talking to them and had a great conversation- they don't really partake of any particular church but they are Christian and practice meditation to feel c...

  I'm afraid that's not possible, sir This week was a doosey. Not sure what that word entails but it feels appropriate.  We got home last week after p-day to a voice message from the Oma that lives beneath us and owns our dwelling. We got scolded for a solid 3 minutes in german. The words "junge junge junge, meine gute" are burned forever into my brain. Don't worry, we didn't really do anything wrong I think and our relationship has repaired and she hasn't kicked us out yet. I think.  My companion almost got hit by a car, but he saved his life by turning the bike and crashing into the ground, from which he was nearly unscathed but his phone is broken now, so we've been sharing a phone for a week which has been interesting. We've still gotten everything we need do to done though so it's alright.  The german language is wild as always, and I can tell I understand just a little bit more every day but still very difficult. Some people speak incredi...