moin moin

i cant say moin moin anymore because im in the east, so i will say it in my emails :)

well i hope everyones week went well. a lot of rain i hear and that is great unless its flodding and then no good. 

this week was great. we did a lot of work and we can see the blessings from that hard work. i love it here in berlin. just yesterday we had stake conference and it was just so cool to see the whole berlin stake come together and fill the stake center to capacity and listen to the speakers. everone so happy and loying. it was great.

so this week. monday- well we went to the castle here in spandau after we did emails. its really cool! its on an island! talk about protected. this castle has like 50 foot walls all the way around it and its on an island that doesnt have a beach. so basically just a castle in the middle of water. cool stuff. hopefully i can sned pics this week. :)

tuesday- we left really early to go to tiergarten to go to a district leader meeting. it was a great meeting. but before we got there early, so we played some soccer basketball, basketball without using your hands or arms. it was a blast. finally everyone is there so we go in and have our meeting., the  zone leaders (one of which is elder scholes my former companion) are really awesome. we have some great goals for the zone and we will change berlin. we had a lesson on using the "work of salvation" dvd broadcast as spiritual thoughts and it was great. i learned a lot. afterwards we had lunch together at burger king and it was just nice to talk to old friends on the mission who are also district leaders here and it was a nice time. we then went home and started work on our over 170 potential and former investiogator list! we went to an area nad went by people. not much success so we went to the church for a lesson, but it fell out. so we had comp study which we ahdnt had earlier and then home. 

wednesday we had district meeting.the entire week i was to busy or just didnt know what to teach to plan my lesson, so wednesday morning i cram one together but i feel really good about it. the zone leaders joined us and our district meeting went really well. afterwards i didnt even say anything and elder wilde says "that was a good meeting" i was happy. we went a little long because we talked forever about rules and the specifics on them. we also had a really good "district rat" (district councel, or a time where we can ask questions and all give answers for prolblems with investigators or whatever). my lesson went really well. i talk how to ask questions and it was awesome. after the meeting we tried to visit a gator who was home but had no time. so we join everyone for district lunch and then go home for comp sutdy. we then go out and try by more of our contact list. we then have a good lesson at the church with one of those contacts. it was great. unfortunatly he is suuuuper strong and "fest" muslim. the nicest people ver, but not willing to change because they are to happy with what they have. after him we left for another appointment and we get there but the man isnt home. so we cant go in because we cant visit women alone. so we ask when her man would return and she said 30 minutes. well its already 8 pm. so we say, alright we might come back in 30 minutes. so we go by some more contacts and then come back and it was super late. we were worried the kids would be asleep and everything. but they were all awake. the dad was home. we talk them and got to know them. it was great. a quick 25 minute lesson and we were out the door at 9. so we hurried home to plan and go to bed. 

thursday- we had a slow morning and we watch the broadcast for part of ourt study. we then just go by contacts the entire day and then havbe a fallen out appointment and that was it. thursday was a dud.

friday- an amazing day. not everyone is ready for the gospel but there are people out there that are prepared and ready. well there are so many in berlin that you jsut have to sift through all the unprepared to find the elite (as it says somewhere in D&C). well friday morning after about 2 hours of OYM'S we find a man. it was interesting to because he looks rough and tough. i didnt want to talk to him. not because i was scarred but because i assume dhe was either high, or drunk, or just a bum. well i ahve the impression that i should talk to him and i kid of chasticed myself for judging this man. by the time i finish my thoughts he is already on us and about to walk bye. thankfull elder wilde talks to him. he have a wonderful conversation about god and christ and the purpose of life. why we are here and what we need to do. we make out an appointment for the next day. so that was great! it showed me never to judge, which i try not to do, and to talk to everyone because we dont know who is ready and who is not.  that day we also went out to an area in the forest that has houses in it instead of in the city with just apartment buildings. we go do doors ther.e it was nice. it reminded me of lauenburg. a nice little town, doors, and nice people. well we didnt have success but we had loads of fun and met a very nice man who wanted to give us something to drink. also a man who knows our church for our geneaology and uses it a lot, but does not like our gospela dn what we teach. so we invited him to church to visit our geneaology center. i also broke out my harmonica!!! elder wilde and i walked through the forest ( the quickest path to this dorf was through the forest) playing my harmonica. it was great. im working on praise to the man right now. hopefully i can learn it quickly. also a few christmas songs. its loads of fun. 

saturday we had a ton of appointments. so we start with boateng who is was cool and met the elders in italy but didnt really understand anything they taught and then moved here. now we are teaching him. its truly a miracle we found him becuase the elders in italy didnt pass on his records. or even tell us he moved here. so the sisters actually found him on the street and passed him onto us. then we had an appointment fall out which sucked, but then another one with this man that we met on friday...also fell out. he diodnt show up. but then we had an appointment with an innactive and that went well. friday night i had a cough and all day saturday it got worse. just a lot of stuff in my throat and i was feeling warm. so i just push through it on saturday and suck it up. i make it through the day but i am wiped out. so the last hour of the day we go to a grocery store and get a treat and go home and do some area book work to keep us inside and rest a little. 

sunday we get out the door super early to get to stake conference which was awesome. sooooo many missionaries!!!! just in this stake we have like probably 70 missionaries or more. this mission has over 270!!!!! poor president kosak, no wonder he is stressed all the time. haha. stake conference was good. afterwards we go home with the sisters and two members. we eat at her house and as she is about to open the door she asks "angst für hunde?" i was appalled she even asked that question. i say no adns he opens the door. two medium sized dogs just popp out and attack us. it was awesome!!!! the on was a spaz and the other (his mother) was more calm. well i just flipped out and couldnt stop my self from playing with them and wrestling with them. before the food was ready and we sat down to eat i was covered in dog hair!!! my suit was covered in dog hair i should say. i loved it. i would sit calmly with the mom dog and then the boy would come over and want to play and so i would wrestle him and get him to calm down and such. then go back to his mom and sit calmly and this process was done like 10 times. awesome! they were exactly like gus and bear just a lot smaller. the owner was worried i would get bitten because of how i was playing with them. i was like " haha, a dog...bite me? never." so she said well i cant say i didnt warn you. well we jsut had a blast. it was great. no bitting. some growling both from the dogs and me. but it was great. the meal was great to and the spiritual thought also.  afterwards we had an appointment that fell out. then another one that only the wife was home so we couldnt visit her. so we went home and we totally forgot to do weekly planning so we barely got that in last night. 

well thats my week. today was just cleaning and organizing the appartment. its now clean!! yay!

i hope you all have a wonderful week. stay dry with the rain and until next week.

elder ustach