"Is This Your King!?" - July 28, 2026

 

Hallochem! (little hello).

I have aged about thirty years in the last two weeks. We have had some crazy experiences, interesting interactions, and all around rapscallionism. I guess I should try and retell some of these stories, even though these last two weeks have become little more than a blur. 

First, it was about two weeks ago, that through a comically catastrophic turn of events that I whacked the back of my head against our apartment window. Every day since, unfortunately, my diligent missionary efforts have been accompanied by striking migraines. Of course, how my luck usually fares, that was only the first of many tiny bumps and jostling I would endure until the present time. The aforementioned bumpage, and the general forgetfulness that follows one in the service of a mission, are likely what have made the last two weeks so remarkably forgettable. But, every day I get up, swallow some advil, and get to work. Usually when I am talking to someone my head hurts much less, and that is very good.

Ellie's birthday party. This Friday was one of our new members' birthdays! Alles gut zum Gebourtstag Ellie! Ellie is a very cool person who has a crazy story of how she found the church. Believe it or not, she first learned about the church and felt the Holy Ghost by talking to a character while playing the videogame Fallout New Vegas. She talked to this character who was a depiction of a Mormon in a post nuclear fallout world, and felt impressed to learn more. Months later she was baptized, and now she has the strongest testimony of the Restoration of anyone I know. Her birthday this week was very fun. She invited all the missionaries, and a bunch of her friends and family. Among those in attendance was another new member Roberto. I talked about him last week, and the highlight of the party was playing "Kicker" (Foosball) with Roberto. Or rather against him. Elder Morley and I played against him and either Elder Fredin or Bain 3 times and lost every single one. He revealed to us afterwards that he had competed in the Kicker world championship in 2008-9. I was honestly not at all surprised. Roberto has lived so many lives already at his young age of 36. He also revealed to us that he used to play soccer for the St. Pauli youth system, and has 2200 chess elo. Also at the party, we did an art night, where I drew a thestral creature from Harry Potter, ate good food, took pictures, and explained the word of wisdom to Ellie's German father who hates the church. 

Dennis's Baptism:

On Saturday one of the Sisters' friends named Dennis was baptized. Compared to Roberto, I know almost nothing about him. However, I do know that Sister Rex and her trainer first found Dennis on the U-Bahn (subway) almost six months ago. He is a 19 year old Ghanian-German kid. He seems very nice, passed his interview, and pulled up to his baptism wearing an all white hat. Also, miraculously, his baptism was on a Saturday, super cool. 

Soups:

This week, in the Hamburg Wohnung, we made two different soups as a group. Tomato and Chicken Noodle Soup. They were both very tasty and therefore worth mentioning. 

Friends:

Ali came to church again, which is good. He still seems a little sick, and has lost hope about quitting smoking. One of our new friends named Larry has been doing good. The last two weeks we had very spiritual lessons with him at his home. He has also been to church three weeks in a row. Dani Mahli has been progressing very well, and even was able to accept the doctrine that God has a glorified body of flesh and blood. We had a pretty miraculous experience about a week ago. We went to a family's house who had previously been taught. There we found the mother, just preparing to take her groceries inside. We talked to her, helped her get the groceries inside, and then shared a little thought. Her daughter, Candy, had previously been 100% taught and placed on a baptismal date, though the mother had made less progress. We talked, and she said she thought her daughter was now more ready, and told us she would like to have us teach her every Saturday at 10 am. So this week, that is what we did, we went and taught. We expected to teach them both, but her mother kept leaving the room and cooking, and cleaning, and being on the phone with her cousin, so we ended up just teaching the daughter, who has the best understanding of the gospel of any friend I have ever taught. So, we tried our best to tell the mother that she was ready to be baptized if it was her decision, but the mother still has doubts. If only she would pause to sit and listen to the power of her daughter's testimony.

Bremerhoven:

I cannot remember if I mentioned this last week, but last Monday we had Elders Pimienta-Knight and Bingham from Bremerhoven saying with us. It was a very fun night altogether and good injection of fun into the monotony.

P-Day: 

Last P-day we did the same thing we always do. Clean, go to the mall, eat lunch, go to Hamburg Rathaus, and then rot in a park. But, this time we also went to Media Markt. Imagine a five story Best Buy on steroids. They have all sorts of electronics you could ever need, and on the top floor, they have a section of free pc and gaming setups that you can play on. To top it all off, the basement of the building was an outdoor goods store called decathlon, with tents, and all sorts of adventure gear. I also bought my very own 12 Euro soccer ball from there, so that by the time I return I will be a professional soccer player. Also, at the top floor of media markt, we ran into basically the entire rest of our zone, who for whatever reasons were there at the same time as well.

Crashout:

I will not lie, Sunday was a rather unfortunate moment for me. The service just was very weird, and no one was translating for our English friends, so Larry for the third week in a row did not know what was happening. There was a first timer in Elders Quorum bashing the teacher, and in our weekly coordination meeting Morley and I got railed for rediscovering and teaching Paulina and Candy Appiah (the mother and daughter we previously miraculously found). It is more than a little frustrating that we always leave our meeting more distraught than when we arrived. Every week, we get scolded about some aspect of missionary work that we are doing nothing more than trying our best on. Also, our Ward Mission leader's wife now hates me, because when she was saying she did not feel safe going and teaching with us in refugee areas, I informed her that we do in fact not teach people who live in camps, per the direction of the Mission President. She lost her mind at the verbiage I decided to use. Anyway...

I think that might be all the stories from this week. These days, we usually play games together at night after the long days of work. It is more than a little scary knowing that I will have to have another companion soon. It will surely be sad to see Elder Morley go if that indeed be the case. I do have at least one thing to look forward to this week I suppose. This week, I will be having an exchange with Elder Stowe, one of my Zone Leaders (The one who didn't go AP this transfer). I am very excited to spend the day and learn from him, especially after how much I learned from Elder Roberts last time I was with a ZL. Also, he is coming to Hamburg for the first time in months to spend the day with me, because he hates the apartment, so I am very excited. 

As to the hard times, I wouldn't really say they've gotten easier, it just seems that the more you work, the more used to them you get. Then, at least at the end of the day I can have the satisfaction that I am trying. Hamburg has and will continue to be a prime opportunity for me to learn the importance of celebrating others achievements. I am grateful always for the valuable lessons I learn and my loving friends and family. I know that I am certainly far from the best at this stuff, but every day that I try again has got to be a good thing.

Also most importantly, LeBron James is on the 76ers, and Elder Morley is distraught. I have been taunting him the whole week, asking, "Is this your king?"

Peace and Love,

Finchbillius Quithers