Elder Tage Rex: Germany Frankfurt Mission

  No time so just a lil one! Crazy stuff is among us! We got transfer news on Saturday, which was nuts because this transfer decides who gets sent off to the new mission, and who will stay in the Frankfurt mission. Not sure if I've talked about that before or not with yall, but that's what's up. I got told I was staying, but I am being transferred to FRANKFURT. It's a HUGE city, bigger than I will know what to do with. It should be super fun though, cuz that's where the mission HQ is, along with our president and APs most of the time. I'm going to be the new district leader there, so that's cool. Also, I'll be living in a penthouse with 5 other Elders, so it'll be a party every day. Our district consists of the APs (Assistant to the president), STL's (Sister training leaders), the office sisters, myself and my companion. Speaking of my new companion, he is a Ukrainian! crazy. I met him the other day at a mission conference, and his english is so ...

  I failed to write an email last week, it was a bit of a crazy Pday! We had two elders stay the night at our place in order to drive together to an all Elders Pday activity: Paintball! I'd never been paintballing before but it was pretty fun! To me it's like next level laser tag with consequences.  Other things last week: Mothers day, we made mini golf courses for a youth activity, and we visited a friend at McDonalds which was kinda funny (he works there). My companion had a happy meal for the FIRST TIME in his life. Anyways, this week has been a good one! There were a few sad things, but also a lot of great things and it's amazing to be able to recognize the little manifestations of God's love.  We had a plan to improve our Saturday game night with our friends, because usually only one or two people show up. We planned how to make it more structured, include a spiritual thought, and get members to be there as well to support our friends. Unfortunately, nobody at a...

  A good week! We had another Elders quorum activity, this time related to mothers day! We made a ton of Italian food like lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, spaghetti, and garlic baguettes. All of the women in the branch got to have a nice dinner with each other. They enjoyed it! You never know with that kind of stuff, it's either amazing or everything goes wrong.  We worked on Brother Phillips house again, this time lifting massive bricks all the way to the top of the stairs. Great workout! It looked like I got into a fight with a cat for a while after though. We had 2 separate days this week where we had 3 lessons planned (which is really good at the moment for us), but on both days all three canceled at the last minute, so we had white days (days without any plans). We of course still have to do work though. When we have a planned white day, we can often get a lot done because we can visit people far away with the time we have, and have effectively planned finding...

  Pday again! I might get to play tennis later today too if the weather holds up.     (Update from the future- it did. Tennis was awesome) On Friday we had an amazing activity. The Elders Quorum decided they wanted to start doing stuff, so we all got together and played football ( ) and ate pizza! It was a blast. I'm still not very good at soccer, but it's fun to run around and laugh every time I fail to kick the ball. Also I ate some "mac and cheese" flavored pizza. It was kinda good? The activity was a hit and everyone loved it, and one of our American brothers is just insane at football ( ). He would play goalie but every once in a while he'd leave the goal and outmaneuver everyone. Saturday was wild, we had 3 separate service projects, so it took the entire day. We didn't even have time for studies. We helped build that guys house from 10-12, which is always fun. After that we helped out with a primary activity from 12-16,  where we ran a little escape roo...

 But I passed you by Great stuff happening! We've been meeting with our 12 year old friend Dennis, and officially invited him to baptism. He and his mom are looking for and praying for a date currently, which we are super excited about! He is obsessed with Haribo gummy bears for some reason, so we bought him some as a present. If he shows up at church that is ;) We had a game night this week where we played cards, and our friend christian from Syria (who has limited German and English) taught us a game. It was kinda like hearts combined with phase 10. It was pretty fun! Sunday this week was crazy, we had a branch council afterwards (where the leaders of the congregation meet and discuss issues and how to solve them), and basically we made a plan to get members more involved with the missionaries! We've had very few meal appointments, and our connections with the members is somewhat limited, but they are trying to get us at least 2 every week so we are excited to get to know the...

  The days just be flying by New transfer started! Its a mega Long 7 week transfer, compared to the last which was only 5. We had our Kitchen remodeled this week! In Germany, kitchens are super weird because they aren't a part of the house at all actually, in fact you can take your entire kitchen with you when you move houses if you want. All of it is removable and installable, just like a desk or a wardrobe or bed would be. Because of the remodel, we couldn't use our stove or oven or anything for a couple days and had some very interesting meals. Tip: no matter how cheap the TV dinner gets, or how on sale it is, do not buy it. Especially do not buy the sausage with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes one for 2 euros. It is not worth it. We ended up cleaning the church again! We took over for an American member and he said he'd buy us some America food and asked for requests. I requested Jimmy Dean Pancake and Sausage corn dogs. We haven't gotten it yet, but I can't wait...

  From now on Pretty wild week this week. I feel like I haven't been able to say that in a while. It can only be described by one word: "squingy" We had an apartment inspection on Friday! We passed, I think. It wasn't made very clear but we didn't get kicked out so I think we are doing well enough.  The Church hadn't been cleaned yet and there were 4 baptisms planned on Saturday (2 from missionaries), so we took it upon ourselves as a district to clean the entire building, just the 6 of us. We spent most of the evening doing that, and we almost finished. Elder Evans and I, along with our branch president finished it up early Saturday morning. It was pretty fun to have a district cleaning party though! We had general conference last weekend!! It was wonderful. I learned about a lot of things I need to work on, and it was just nice to take a break from the grind and listen to the prophets and apostles speak, and feel the spirit that comes with that. We even had ...