May 21, 2013

hey family and friends :)
so this week was really good. it went by realyl fast actually and a lot happened that i cant even remember. im glad i keep a journal. so monday we went to lüneburg and had some fun with the sisters there. elder gochnour and i bought comp ties. they are blue plaid skinny ties. legit. i will send pics. after our fun we visited an inactive and went on a walk around town with him and talked a bunch with him. in the middle of our walkw e ahd a rock throwing competition into a pond. i won. elder G had no chance with me playing baseball before. good stuff. Tuesday we had a great lesson with our gator carol. she is awesome. making such progress. then we just found the rest of the day. but at the end we got a call for a alst minute essen termin invite and service project. so we changed and went over to eat some good food and then help the family move soem stuff out of their trailor into their basement. it was a good end to the day.wednesday we had district meeting. we had a good meeting. i gave a lesson on member work and it went well. afterwards we celebrated elder gochnorus birthday!!! he is now 20 years old. the sisters made him cake and then also bought him a licnesce plate with his name on it. so cool. we then took district photos which was cool. after our meeting we walked to walters for a lesson and to celebrate more birthday. that went well and we ahd a realyl good lesson with walter. the sisters were also there and it went great. he actually listened to us this time which is progress. after walter we walked back to the church for engolish class which a family showed to this time. we ahd a great english class and then we had another eating appointment with a member family. they fed us some awesome pasta stuff. finally we got home. mso all in all that day we ate cake from the sisters. then a gigantic chocolate torte from walter, then the family at english gave us a cake and then we had mango torte at the members house. crazy. thursdaywe had a service project and another eating appointment to celebrate more of elder gochnours birthday. that went well and then we did doors and happened to run into the sistsers in a tiny tiny dorf in the middle of no where. so funny. they were going on an exchange with other sisters and so we talked to them for a while. we then had a really good surprise meeting with a member family in boizenburg and we also did some doors there. really good day. we found this one young girl in büchen who was excited to read the BoM then later as we were down the street finishing dooring the entire street. she ran up behind us with something behind her back. i thought " oh no shes coming to give it back" well she was going to do that, but she didnt. she told us she had looked us up on the internet and found out we were a sect (cult). and such. we told her that was totally false and we explained a bit more adn told her to visit the official website of the church and she would find better info. so we will go by her this week adn see how it goes. friday we did some doors in büchen and then we did some more doors in boizenburg and then we had a great lesson with a gator "nils" and his friend. that was a surprise but it went really really well. we taught the plan of salvation and he really liked it. so taht was awesome. that night we were in lüneburg to start a tausch with the hamburg elders. elder briner and i went home. saturday we had service in the rain! well it was misting really but still rain. we pulled devil plants out of the ground. i call them that ebcause these bushed were no higher than 2 feet high but their roots were literally 3 feet long and went straight down into the ground. rediculous. loads of fun though. it reminded me of home :) we then just found the entire day and then we tausched back that night. sunday we had church which was really good. the lessons were amazing and i learned a lot. church here is really hit and miss., its funny. i love it anyway. we then had our ward missionary work meeting and an eating appointment. we then did some more doors and found one woman who we gave a BoM to and was excited to read it and then invited us to visit her church ebcause they were ahving a 150 year celebration this entire week. we are actually tempted to go ebcause on the invitation there is a table with tons of church books on it. and way far in the back we see a blue book with gold writing near the top. we are almost 100% sure that it is a book of mormon at a neu apostolich church bible table. LOL. so cool. so we want to go and see why they have it there and see what we can do. monday was a holiday so there was no shopping or emails. we went to lüneburg and did some doors and then got on a train with nils to go to hambugr to play some hockey with our zone. loads of fun. we also played warball. nils enjoyed it. after sport we got dressed and waited for FHE at the church. that went well. the spiritual thought was really intense and awesome. it was on the savior and the holy ghost. really good. a little deep though for our investigator so we will see how he liked it. after fhe we almost missed our train. we were running through hamburg central station and the doors were closing on our train but elder gochnour caught them and jumped on. good stuff. now we are here on tuesday and we ahve a good day planned. we are excited. this week should be good so we are very happy.

thats really it. notes this week. dad- how hard is it to send me my old ipod? the black one. the pink one from candice is doing great but the battery is jsut suuuuper old and doesnt hold a charge. can you send me my old one possibly? and maybe with some music from home that would be appropriate?

i love you all and i cant wait until next week to write again

tschüss 

elder ustach

May 13, 2013

hello hello hello!

this week has been crazy. i didnt even realize it was mothers day until the day of and i was sitting in front of the ipad talking to you guys haha. at christmas i was so excited and anxious, this tiem i guys i just chilled out or something. of course iw as excited but i guess it didnt show and i wasnt freaking out about talking to you. i guess its because i get to talk to you once a week and i guess thats good enough for me. not sure. haha.i am working on being meek, which according to the definition in my student manual sthing, that means being the master of oneself and your emotions. maybe i accomplished it and i amstered my excitement...not sure. the sisters went crazy with skype. it was their first time skpying home. fun stuff.

this week like i said was crazy. monday was loads of fun. we finished emails and went to lüneburg to hang with the sisters. we had loads of fun there. we went and toured the innercity as well as some churches and such. it was good. we didnt get to go to hamburg with our investigator because he had somethign else so we jsut stayed in lüneburg and did work there.tuesday we started the day with some doors in an area because we ahd a fallen out appointment. then we had luncha dn then ahd even more fallen out appointments so we did doors in schwarzenbek. no success there but it was good. we then went to an eating appointment with a part member family. so much fun. we taught them about the hols ghost and palyed a little game where the dad hid himself and the kids were blind folded and the mom acted like the "hols ghost" and directed them to the dad. it was cool. we then had a really good bbq. so good. wednesday we went bright and early to bergedorf to help wioth a move. they asked almost our entire zone to help them move. we ahd 8 missioanries there adn tow members show up to help them move. we ahd loads of fun. probably the most organized and well done move i ahve ever seen. they already had everything packed and organized and everything. they knew exactly what they wanted the missionaries to do soe we didnt just sit around. it went to fast and efficiently. so cool. we had fun. we rode a lean abck bike. the ones where you are lying down and the peddals are out front. really awkward but loads of fun when you got it all down. after the move we went by an investigator and he was excited to see us and we had a good lesson. we then had lunch and studied and then we had english class and then our weekly meeting witht he ward mission leader. thursday we had district meeting and there was chaos with that. the sisters in lüneburg missed their train because it was a holiday so the bus wasnt working to get them to the train station. so instead of sitting aorund for more than an hour waiting for them wasting time, we had already planned to have a bbq after the meeting for lunch. so we just ahd a brunch and we started cooking without two of our sisters.  so we had fun with lighter fluid and coals and got it all started. the german coals were having some sisues lighting but then i figured it out and the inner scout in me came out haha. sister walker told me i was such a good boy scout because none of us could light the coals and she was making fun of us becuase we were scouts and we couldnt light some simple coals. i figured it out and so all was well. i had to pull out my eagle scout card to prove to her we were actually eagle scouts and that we know what we are doing. HAHA. we cooked some mean brawts and it was really good. the other sisters showed up and we ate and had our district meeting and it was all good. after our meeting we ahd a lesson with carol (the woman who approached us in rewe) that went well. her friend showed up and ruined the actual "lesson" but it was still a good discussion. after that we just doored and talked to people on the streets. friday we had weekls planning and did a lot of doors and then friday night we had a service project. we went to familie Glück. they live on a farm and so usually we do some hard labor as our service. alst time we split wood for 3 hours straight. this time though they told us we were doign a special job. we started out moving some sheep from one pen to the other. then we grabbed a couple of them one by one and we sheared sheep. loads of fun. i will send some pics. it was a blast. funny thing was when br glück left the heaviest sheep for last. we had to first catch the sheep in their pen, then drag them tot he fence then lift them over the fence and then drag them to the spot where we sheared them. so elder gochnour ahd boot on so he was in charge of "catching" the sheep was was really funny ebcaus they are super fast sheep. then he would catch them and bring them to the fence where i was and i would flip the sheep over to grab the legs and we would lift together to get it over the fence. iwould then drag it to the place to get sheared. so we do taht probably like 12 times and number 13 is the largest of them all. br glück wasnt helping at all by the way...well he would shear them but the lifting he didnt do anything. so elder gochnour goes and grabs the big boy. he has a ahrd tiem adn draggs it to me. we flip it over and try to lift. we get two inches off the ground and we die. LOL. so funny. br glück laughed at us. we counted down so we would lift in unison and then we lifted and together we grunted and dropped the sheep right abck down where we lifted it from. so funny. it took some effort but our second try was successful in getting it voer the fence. so funny. great service though. saturday we did some more service (garden work) at a members house. we then did some doors because we had some fallen out appointments. we studied and then went to echem to visit a contact and they let us in so we talked for about an hour. after our appointment it was pouring otuside. insane! we ran to our car and went to lünebugr to meet our investigator to play some sport. we got there and played some soccer and football with the sisters. in the middle of it two random turkish kids showed up all ready to play soccer, cleat and all, no soccer ball though. they came to play. so we palyed some soccer and had a blast. sunday we had church and we ahd two investigators come to church!!! so exciting. we then skyped with otu families and it was a great day.

thats it for the week. i think that was enough stories and such. haha. hope you all have a great week. i love you all. and until next week :)

oh shoot i forgot to tell you. there are beautiful field of yellow flowers here. its crazy. elder gochnour and i saw them and we ahd to walk into one. so we did. we toomk some pictures. the pics arent that great because the sunw as going down. but maybe we will do ti again duringnoon day and the flowers are even more yellow now. woohoo.

 

oh and also we went on a hike into the woods while it was raining. we were dooring and there was a forest about a 300 yard walk through a field. so we decided to go exploring. it was awesome!!!

elder ustach

Letter # 42

hello my wonderful family!,

so this week ahs been great. the start of a new transfer and elder g and i are doing great. we now have sisters in our area and actually the same ward so we talk to them a bunch. they are insane!!! well one of them is haha. on friday we looked at the phone and we called them 14 times and they called us about 20 times HAHA. crazy. they are doing great though for how new they are and opening a brand new area. must be hard.

so this week was good. monday we had no time for emails but we played some sport and i got my new backpack! then we went to lüneburg to help move everything in...so much fun...well kind of haha. we moved an entire van full of stuff (mostls ikea stuff) up to the 5th floor without an elavator. so crazy. we were wiped out afterwards. it was a lot of fun. elder gochnour and i really did allt he work while the two old guys that were in charge of getting the wohnung put together just kind of helped a little. it was a blast though. so we were there super late at night helping putting stuff together and moving stuff around. then on tuesday we went super early and drove down back to lüneburg to help continue building it all. we put together everything in their apartment. the beds, couch, tables, chairs, wardrobes. everything. we are pro ikea builders now haha. we finally got the wohnung put together and then the two guys left to go home. they live 6 hours away!!!! there is one guy in charge of alöl the maintance and such of all the apartments in our mission. and he has a job and he has a calling that requires him to be at ward councel every so often. this guy is crazy. i dont know how he does it. then when president calls him and is impatient with him abotu the apartments not ebing ready yet for missionaries to move in he just has to remind pres of all he does and pres backs off...lol. such a cool guy. so we preped the apartment and then we did some doors and found one women with interest. we then came back hoem to study because we didnt get to that morning and then we had an appointment with walter our old german friend. he cooked us backwursten. not the best but no biggy. that was it for that day. wednesday we had district meeting in bergedorf where we met allt he sisters for the first time. the zone leaders came so that way it was 4 on 4 instead of 4 sisters and 2 lonely elders. it was a good meeting. i already knew sisters hinkle and walker. sis hinkle came from hamburg to bergedorf so i had seen her already and sis walker was in the neighbooring city of cottbus. right next to forst. so i knew her well already.  totally cool sisters. both super enw and way cool.  before the meeting we picked up all of their luggage. then after the meeting we drove it all to their apartment while the sisters took the train to lüneburg. we met them there and put their stuff in the apartment. we also, before thex came, made them a preseant. their walls looked so bare so we made them a picture. well a collage. its a collage of elder g and i. it looks so cool. well when they got into their apartment they flipped out haha. we werent there but they called us and freaked out on the phone. they loved it. so funny. the rest of the day was booring. we just doored and such. thursday was really good. so we studied and such in the morning and thenw e needed to go shopping for a few things. so we went to 3 different stores to find one item. well this was insperation ebcause as soon as we walked into the third store we were stopped by a woman. to be honest i was amazed she talked to us. elder g and i were in a rush so we were like running through the iles of the grocery store to get the item and go. this lady was looking at me wierd but i didnt think anything of it. and as i pass her like 15 feet away she calls after me "sind sie die mormonen?" i turned around and naturally talked to her. she had read online the day before about our church and wanted to read the book of mormon and meet with us and come to church. well that just made our day haha. so we got her info and will meet with her...well the next day :). the rest of thursday was a bust. we were supposed to have a meeting with the sisters and such with our ward mission leader but they missed their train adn then out of no where all of the trains in and out of lüneburg just dissapeared!! crazy right? we have no idea why but for about a 30 minute gap all the trains jsut got deleted and were gone. no trains. wierd. so ya...no meeting. friday we had our meeting with that woman from Rewe (grocery store). we brought a member along and she is really interested and way cool. our lesson was alright. she had a ton of questions and such which is good...but our joint teach jsut went off and didnt stick to the lesson plan and just went off on her questions and such. he gave a lot fo good info but thats not what she needed. he just flooded her with info. it didnt make elder g and i happy. but we have another meeting later this week which hopefully it will go well. the rest offriday was good. we did some doors and then the sisters came up. they came to lauenburg so we could show them the church and such but then they stuck around for a member lesson we ahd with an innactive. it went really well and the afternoon was good. saturday we did garden work at a members house and then we had lunch. afterwards we had a meeting with nils in lüneburg. he is so cool. he says he doesnt believe in god but he is progressing so well in the gospel and his faith. he had prayed once in his life before he met us. now he was asking us if he can pray before his handball game to ask god to help him focus and calm down before a match. so cool. and he is reading. we asked us. is it better to read the chapter you gave me or is it better to ask questions and not finish? we were so happy with this question. he actually reads everysthing and just doesnt skim it like all other investigators. so cool . he is into philosophy and likes to ask deep qeustions so he asked us if it was ok to do that when he read the book of mormon. haha.awesome.taht night we had a meeting in hamburg to go to. it went well. we got home suuuuper alte but all is good. sunday was awesome!!! the sisters got attacked by the ward haha. they got up and bore their testimonies. way cool. the sisters are doing great.  our eating appointment was good and then all we did was weekly palnning. and that was my week.

long week but exciting. now back to normal missionary work. today we were planning on going to one of the old concentration camps in bergedorf with all of the sisters in our district but now its not looking so good with timing and such. but tonight we should be going to PHE in hamburg with our investigator nils. loads of fun.

love you all and see you next week on skype :) (hopefully)

elder ustach