November 2, 2023: On my own in a separate sky

 But here I lie


Transfer week is upon us! We got the news on Tuesday morning, drumroll please...


Elder Koch is going to be a Zone Leader in Offenbach, and I am staying in Wesel! I'm getting a new companion that I get to meet tomorrow evening, and I'm super hyped to meet him. He goes by the name of Elder Gibert, except pronounced like a classy Frenchman. I know next to nothing about him, so hopefully he's cool. He will also be our district leader, which means I get to do more exchanges this transfer which is always fun. Chances are that next time I'll get transferred to another city, so that'll be exciting to look forward to.

Other crazy news- the church is opening 36 new missions around the world, including a new Hamburg Germany mission! This is significant because 2 zones (my zone-Düsseldorf and Dortmund) will get flipped over to the new mission, and they're changing some boundaries for the other nearby missions to accommodate. We will be acquiring the Stuttgart zone from the Alpine mission!! I quite literally bounced off the walls when i heard that. I visited the Stuttgart area last year on an exchange strip through school, and I love the area. Just the chance of being there again gets me going. All of this takes effect 8 months from now, so nothing is different yet, but good things are coming!

This week on Friday and Saturday we did an exchange with our Zone Leaders, which was super fun! I was with the Englishman Elder Wainwright, and he's always cool. He's also like almost a pro soccer player. We got to teach a Japanese lady which was crazy, and one of the ward members translated for us, it was 'wicked'. We had sport night and played soccer in the gym at the church, which means I get to laugh at myself trying to kick a ball for 2 hours haha. It's okay though, we got to play again on a bigger field the next morning😂. We traveled home afterwards, and I forgot tennis shoes and we didn't have a chance to change, so I wore shorts and a t-shirt, a big old coat, and dress shoes on the way home. It was quite the fit.

On Sunday we ate with Schwester Heyer, and she made us some fine spätzle and roast beef stuff, and naturally 3 deserts that she doesn't tell you about till the end. She also gave us scarfs and beanies that she knitted! The Omas just give us so much stuff I don't even know what to do with it!

On Monday Schwester Ebbert had us cook with her to teach us a recipe, and we made frickadellen, potatoes, and salad, all super tasty. We spent way too much time there unfortunately, but it was probably worth it. We gained so much relationship points by doing that and a number of side quests that we unlocked a new ability! Achievement unlocked: "du"tser- obtain permission to use the word "du" with Schwester Ebbert.

We did another exchange on Tuesday through Wednesday, I went to Mönchengladbach with Elder Mackenzie, and I love that guy. He's pretty old on the mission, but he's got one more transfer in him. He's got so much wisdom that we have yet to unlock from that brain of his. His family is from Argentina so he's fluent in Spanish as well. We had one lesson in Spanish, so I just sat on the side, but he said it went well. We went to another friend's house, because he said he was having a Halloween party with a couple friends and invited us over, offering us alcohol, so we declined to that and decided to come anyway. We got there, and he was a super cool guy, and we had a great lesson with him. It was so sad though, because he prepared food and drinks and everything, but Elder Mackenzie and I were the only ones who showed up. It was really sad, and we'd already eaten so we couldn't eat the food either :(. I just hope he remembers us as the guys who showed up when nobody else did. I think we made him a little happy though. 

We also saw the transfer boards that night, which was super exciting.

We woke up on Wednesday to some scurries in the kitchen. Elder Mackenzie took a peek, and we found mice in the trash can! 2 of them! I have no idea how they climbed in there, but they were stuck, and trying to jump out. The apartment there is notable for mice, so hopefully I don't get rabies or something. We did what any noble man would do, ans dumped laundry detergent on them, sprayed them with stain remover, and put a lid on the mostly empty trash can. They have nothing to eat now but chemicals, so hopefully they have fun with that. Not the most humane solution, but we didn't know what else to do. 

We had D-rat, but unfortunately Sucuck&chill was closed due to a german holiday, so we went to another döner shop to eat, which was alright. We went home and had a YSA activity, and watched the chosen which I'm not sure if it's allowed or not, but it's close enough right? We had a leavers testimony meeting, which is always sad. Crazy to think that one day I'll be there. Can't think too much about that right now though.

I'm definitely forgetting some things as always, and I'm 1.5 weeks behind in journaling, but things are going well and I'm excited for the future!

Much love,
Elder Tage Rex

Included in the photos:
- coming home through the rain
- The Rhine River at Düsseldorf
- A map of my home state that shows that while we don't have the rocky mountains in Oklahoma, we do have a rocky mountain.
- Some mice 
- picking our scarfs from Schwester Heyer
- The district








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