Ich hab nichts von dem verstanden!

Was geht ab? Wir hatten nochmal eine schoene Woche hier in Hamburg.

This week was chill. After my little mini crashout last week though, it would have been pretty impossible to get worse. Often that is the brightside about hitting the bottom. This week was really super chill though. It rained every single day, we taught some really good lessons, I had an awesome Tausch with Elder Bain, and England beat Mexico in the World Cup. What more could you ask for? Also it was like the fourth of July or something. However, I was about run out of the mission for not being over the top patriotic. I guess I can relay a few stories and updates as follows.

P-Day:

Last P-Day we went to Neugamme, the former concentration camp, which is now a memorial in Bergadorf - Southeast of Hamburg. It was an absolute Odyssey to get there, as the S-Bahn line to Bergadorf was shut down due to a police situation. So, we had to get off ten minutes before the Bergadorf Hauptbahnhoff, and then walk twenty minutes to a bus we rode for forty minutes, before missing another bus that was supposed to take us to Neugamme. So we ended up walking the last twenty minutes ourselves. All in slides mind you. Then, we spent two hours at Neugamme before it closed. For a little history lesson about the camp, it was not an extermination camp like Auschwitz, rather it was a forced labor camp. Those who endured the brutality of Neugamme worked in either the Clay Pits on which the camp was built, or in the brick factory nearby. During the war, the Neugamme brick factory produced many bricks that were used in construction efforts in Hamburg. The camp also most often housed political prisoners or dissenters. All the same, like any such location, there is a heavy and gloomy air about the place. Many of the structures have since been demolished, although some still stand, including what would have been one of the barracks, in which there is now a museum. It was a good experience to be able to see the site and learn the history. 110,000 people suffered at Neugamme during it's operation, and over 55,000 lost their lives there.

Wednesday:

I do not remember much from last Wednesday, but I do remember two things. Actually three. First, we had an awesome mentor meeting with Brother Jensen from England, and used his tips to find a super cool dude on the way to Hauptbahnhoff. Second, at Hauptbahnhoff, there was a huge policie situation. Likely a terrorist activity or threat, from the ammount of police that we saw. Consequently, we had to take a very round about detour to get to our lesson with our friend Prince Whinter. Third, we had a super awesome and spiritual lesson with Prince Whinter, where we just read a chapter in 2 Nephi about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We then broke down every verse and explained as we went. We then invited him to keep reading and come to church. He is an interesting guy, he has all sorts of visions and talks about our soul tribes. He is also very big into angels. That is about all I remember from Wednesday, other than the fact that we also got Burg Dönner for lunch.

Tausch:

On Thursday, I was able to go on exchange with Elder Bain. It was a cool experience and a good break from the monotonous work that Morley and I had been engaged in for the last week. I got the chance to do Elder Bain's mentor meeting with him, and shared with him a lot of insights I had learned about teaching, and the importance of helping our friends learn how to feel the Holy Ghost. I was also rocking my new brown sweater from Uniglo, so I felt very much like a Zone Leader. At the end of the day, there is really only so much that we can do or say. It is most important that we teach, and ask questions in a way that brings the spirit into people's lives and gets them thinking. Without the spirit, people will never be receptive to message. I have also learned, that in Germany, the work is hard, and often the best result you can get, is to get people to think about God, or about Jesus, or some eternal truth. Because, even if they say no to us in the moment, you never know if before they go to bed, they'll think about their conversation with you, and if that will make them more receptive to making a positive change in their life, no matter what it may be. It is like President Franz was telling me, many time you can never see your success. Even if someone you talk to goes to their church for the first time in years, that is a success, because they are coming closer to Christ. Anyway, it was very cool to share my perspectives on stuff like that with Bain. We also had the chance to teach this super cool friend of their's named King Robert. King Robert is from Ghana, but fluent in German, and a former youth pastor. He is so cool, and just good vibes, and I was so glad to have helped teach him about following the prophet and keeping the commandments. I was dying laughing though when we asked him to follow the prophet, and he responded in the affirmative, thinking the prophet was actually the first counselor in the Hamburg ward. We also visited a member who had not been visited since the 90s together. He let us in, and we had a conversation completely in German. Which was also a cool experience, because I had to carry most of the conversation, and again, there was no Morley to bail me out this time. But, this guy had some very interesting things to tell us. Paramount among them, was the fact that he said Jesus Christ appeared to him in a vision and told him that the Book of Mormon was true, but also told him that some of the things the church taught were false. Long story short, he is now a baptist, and even though I explained that the trinity is not biblically supported, and gave as powerful a testimony as I could muster, he did not come to church this Sunday. That was really the highlights of our Tausch, it was sick though.

Interviews:

The highlight of our Friday was our Interviews with our Mission President. We went to the office in Pinnaberg, and while President interviewed us one by one, the rest of the district had our two hour district council, with Sister Franz, who gave a Spiritual Thema, and Elder Herber, the German Service Missionary who often joins our district councils. At the districts council, I gave a fire training about how we can better use the Book of Mormon. I would like to extend the following invitation to all those within the sound of my voice that I gave to my district. I implore you this week to take at least five minutes, and a write a few lines, truly reflecting on the following two questions, if you would.

1. What have you learned about Jesus Christ from your study of the Book of Mormon?

2. How has your study of the Book of Mormon influenced your testimony of Jesus Christ?

When answering these, really think about what you have learned from the Book of Mormon specifically, and how it has helped you grow. I promise you that if you do this, you will be edified, for it is not possible that a man feasteth upon the words of Christ, and his understanding not grow.

Anyway, the rest of the council was very good, and all in German, so I got the opportunity to wow Sister Franz with my German. Then, finally I got admitted to my interview with President. I am proud to say, that the first half of the interview was done completely in German, and that it was honestly the best German I have ever spoken in my life. It was only when we began to talk more about how I was doing that we switched to English, just so I could really express what I wanted to say. Pres gave me a lot of good advice. Namely, that we cannot set a goal every day for how many people we are going to find, because that is up to their agency, if they want to become a friend. But we can set a goal for how many people we talk to each day. We then read a scripture together about how those who keep the commandments of God will be happy in this life, and received into Heaven. He then told me, "For our friends, their baptism is like they have arrived in Heaven already, because Christ has scompletely changed their lives". He really helped me to see that my success and my effort is not dependent on the numbers we see, but on the effort we give, and the good we put in motion, seen or unseen. As Elder Morley and Spider-Man have taught me, no matter how many times you get knocked down, you always get back up.

Saturday + Sunday

Saturday we taught three lessons, and helped Ali finish his cabinet for his new apartment. Sunday we had lunch with a member and got absolutely railed on by our ward mission leader's wife for the eigth week in a row. However, there was some very good progress made by our friends which I will now detail.

Progress:

Ali got put back on baptismal date this week! After a battle with our Ward Coordination squad, who would rather die than put two people who speak different languages on date for the same day, we got special approval to put Ali on baptismal date for July 12th. This Tuesday we will have his interview with the zone leaders, and then on Sunday he will be baptized. He is super ready, and it has been cool to the see the change in him. Our friend Jenny, who was previously madly in love with Elder Morley came to church for the first time! She realized the church is in fact not a cult like her parents keep telling her, and now has scheduled to meet twice a week in order to be baptized by the end of the month. We have a new friend named Beder who only speaks French, and this week we had a really good lesson with him, and we got to call Sister Kira Bell from the Paris South mission to translate for us (she went to Bountiful). So that was all very cool this week. Also, we had a friend just show up to church, she was also only French speaking, and got to chop it up with our French speaking Elders Quorum President.

Story:

Ok, one last thing about the title of the email. This Friday I think it was, we were klingeling people's apartments and we klingeled this one old lady's door. She buzzed us in, and so we spoke to her at the door. Elder Morley said something and about two thirds through what he was saying she said, being interpreted "I have understood absolutely none of that". Elder Morely then began overly exaggerating his annunciation, and the way she said it was very funny, because in English we would often just ask someone to repeat and would never say anything as dramatic as this little old Grandma.

Oh well, another week done, this one was pretty quick. Tomorrow or I guess today when this gets sent might be a lame p-day of playing games at the church. I will see you all on the flip side, please do the invitation I sent out, and if you haven't read the Book of Mormon yet, then uhhhh do I guess. Love you all, my blood is comprised entirely of Schwip Schwap now, always remember to get back up.

-Michael Morales (Comp's new nickname for me due to my love of Spider-Man).