This week was another great week here in Germany full of great experiences and fun stories. We manage to stay increadibly busy, I am not quite sure how, we have so much going on, but at the same time like not much. I dont know how. But as always, we had a great week. It started out with meeting Brother Rajahkumar, a member in our ward from Sri Lanke. That was so amazing, and what a cool family. The got sealed in the temple this weekend after finding the missionaries 23 years ago. It was cool to hear his story and everything that lead him to this increadible day.
Tuesday I witnessed a miracle. So I haven't quite said this before, because I never thought it was true, but I am thankful that I was raised by an OCD father. Someone that gave me this same cumpulsive desire for everything to be clean, and not sticky... I hate sticky. But unfortunantly, not everyone has this same desire to scrub everything. One of these less that cleanly people happen to be my companion. In fact, he is quite the opposite. I love him to death, but not clean. I conducted a little experiement the other week to see what his limits were. We had recieved a big bucket of grilled meats from a member after an appointment last week, and so we had it as leftovers. Last Tuesday, after coming home from Siegen, the tuperwear full of meat was sitting out on the counter.... So I decided to see how long it would take for him to put it away. Well I lost... It took me till Friday, when there we an entire colony of flies living in our kitchen before I just cleaned it up myself.... SO ya.... Not exactly the neat freak that I was raised with. Which kinda makes things scary when I see how much I take after my dad... I was wiping out the corners of our cabenants the other day.... OCD... scary. But the miracle was that on Tuesday we had an appartment check. And we almost got our picture taken and put up on the outstanding appartment board. If we didn't have a big pile of useless crap in our keller, which has been there over 6 months, we do not know where it came from, we would have had our picture taken. How that happened I do not know. But I am greatful for the miracle that wiped the sludge off our appartment.
Wednesday and Thursday were the big days this week. They were a couple of days that I hope I never forget. So we went to go help a member with some service, we were helping a member move, and the entire time we were getting ready to go Elder Butcher was just laughing and saying that I am going to be so suprised. He wouldn't tell me what was going to happen, but I was just imagining the worst. That the whole place was going to be sticky, or that there was just going to be nasty stuff everywhere or that it was going to be super unorganized. I just didn't have a clue what to expect, besides that it was going to be bad. Well I was defiantly suprised... So we get there and I have never seen so much STUFF in such a tiny appartment. I can see why he had to move, it was either buy a new appartment or swim through enough stuff to throw a neighborhood garage sale. He was a hoarder, or pacrat, or whatever you want to call someone who collects anything and everything but has like a million of them. There were enough stuffed animals to give one to every kid in Germany, the best unopened movie and cd collection of all time, and enough books to start his own library. Not to mention about 100000000 kinder egg toys on the wall. And we were helping him move.... And that is not even the best part... Oh there is more... much more.
So we go down into the keller to grab some boxes so we can start boxing some stuff up... I dont exactly know where the boxes are going to go, there was no room. But we go down there and he grabs two boxes, about 1ft*1ft*1ft.... TWO boxes and says that we will start with that... It took every fiber of my being not to burt into laughter as I thought that we were going to pack up this man's house two boxes at a time. So that was our Wednesday night. We didn't get much done, and it didn't look like we got anything done looking at what was still left, but his big concern was the bed and the table. He wanted that to be in his new appartment, and he had the key, so that he had more room to pack.... We sat there thinking a little bit about what we could do and how we could get his bed and table to his new appartment but nothing came to mind. That brings us to Thursday.
I have done a lot of thinks for 5 kilometers, Skated, Skied, Ran, Biked, Hiked, Drove, and probably Swam.... But I can now add another to this wonderful list... Caried a bed. Yep thats right, thursday we carried his bed, with the mattress, bedding, a table, and two chairs, 5 kilometers to his new appartment. Me and Elder Butcher, over two bridges, through a park, around a lake, to this new appartment. That was by far the hardest thing I have done while on my mission. And I thought wearing a white shirt and tie made people not want to talk to us, carrying a bed is even worse. I am not lying when I say that there were litterally parents pulling thier children away from us as we walked down the street... But we made it. After a couple hours of 100 meters at a time we made it, and that is something I wil never ever forget.
(there should be pictures coming with this, one of the appartment, one of the bed coming through the window, and another of the us with the bed all packed up)
Friday we got our new district members, Elder Liebold and Elder Penfold. Because last week was transfers we lost Elder Fuchs and Elder Walker. But I am really excited for this transfer, I think that these new members to our district are really going to help, I am excited. But the other big event of the week was watching President Monson in Hamburg. It was a long day, driving in a bus to Hamburg, I think we spent around 8 hours in a bus total. But completely worth it. It is undescribable to be in the presence of a prophet. The spirit there was just so strong. A personal message to the people of Germany is exactly what the people here need. I just know that there is a huge work to be done here, and it is going to happen soon. I wish I could talk a little bit more about this, maybe next week, my time is running out in this internet cafe so I have to wrap it up soon. But next week I will talk more about President Monson.
This was a very fun week, and it only keeps getting better and better. We have the opportunity to hear from the prophet again on Sunday, and I am excited for all of our appointments this week. I love and miss all of you guys back home, but I am absolutels loving being a missionary, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. It is the best thing ever, and I know it is exactly what I need to be doing, helping people come unto Christ.
Love,
Elder Blackley
Monday, February 4, 2013
Week Sixteen
Week Fourteen
This week has been busy, busy busy, busy... I am not quite sure how we got everything done, and how we managed to stay sain while doing everything. But it all turned out good, just another blessing. But I would have to say that the theme this week has been miracles and tender mercies.So this week, it may not seem like a lot to some, but it felt like we were just always running around, but we had two splits and a ton of other things everywhere. But it started out with Siegen, which I am going back again today for another split. I spent the night in Siegen and we traded companions for a day, so I was with Elder Milton, and we had a really fun time teaching. They have a University in Siegen, which means we got to speak to a ton of young college students, which was a nice change, normally here in Hagan, they are families and mostly old. But then on tuesday, I was back in Hagan and we had our English class, and a new investigator came, which was SOOO awesome! I am super excited, a young couple, the wife from Cezk and the husband is german. But they are way nice. But it was tuesday that we had our first big tender mercy of the Lord. We were walking around (after I was already back in Hagan) and our lesson had just got cancelled, we had another lesson with a Jehovas Wittness who just wanted to argue the whole time, and then we went by on another investigator who was... ya he was not all there... So we were walking down the slums of Hagan (and by slums I mean the worst, but not even bad part) and we were just feeling bad, and then from right behind us comes this lady running and yelling ELDERS, it was Tanja, a lady that we had tought with our Hungarian Family. And she told us that the family had been talking about us and really wanted us to come back and that she wanted to be there for the next lesson. Oh that just made my day! I love the Lord and His tender mercies that just make me humble and see the hand of the Lord in all things.Then on Wednesday it was time for another split, but this time I stayed in Hagan and Elder Garlick (the zone leader) and I worked here. We were able to go by on our African investigator, Brother Kekere, and we had an Awesome lesson. But it was the weirdest day with weather. It must of downpoored like 10 different times throughout the day, and then inbetween it was super sunny. There was even a time when it was sunny, and the rain was coming down in buckets. The next big moment for me this week was sitting in Herna Bahnhof. We were just sitting there waiting for our Umsteig and we were outside, it was dumping rain, and we had missed our Umsteig once and we were an hour late getting back to Dortmund, and it was right then that I just felt peace. I cant really explain it, other than peace. I knew that what I was doing was exactly what I needed to be doing. I had nothing on my mind, no stress, no doubts, just this overwhelming sense of love for what I am doing.The rest of the week went pretty smoothly, we had a lot of things to do, but they were all in Hagan and we were able to get everything done, but I have really just been amazed at the work of the Lord. I swear, every time we are thinking about a family and how to get in contact with them, we see them walking in the stadt or they call us or just miracles happen. I have really been trying to just stop and really look at all the ways the Lord helps us as missionaries, because sometimes it can been hard working in Germany, where people yell at missionaries and they are not always the friendliest encounters. But never has the left us as we have been working here in Hagan, it is such a testimony builder to this wonderful work.Other than that not much has gone on, I have no pictures this week, but we are going to Hohensyburg Castle today and then going to play soccer at the field next to the Castle, no big deal, but I will probably have pictures for next week. I love it here and I just want everyone to know that I love them and I miss them, but I am so happy to be doing this. This is the only place I want to be right now. Here in Hagan, serving with all my heart, might, mind, and streangth.Love,Elder Blackley
Week Thirteen
So I am not really sure how long this email is going to be, I am trying to think of everything that happened this week and I am really having a hard time remembering, this whole week feels like a blur. We were all over the place this week, I dont think that we spent a single day just in Hagan. This week we traveled to Breckerfeld, Iserlohn, Lüdensheid, Frankfurt, Dortmund, and Herna. We had a very busy week, and it seems like it never stops, this coming up week we have two more meetings, and two splits. So we are basically always busy.But this week we had a bunch of super awesome meeting, both with investigators and with other missionaries. We met with a family from Hungry, and they are just the coolest family ever. They were professional theater dancers here in Europe, and now the husband is trying to become a director, and he actually applied for the possition at the theater in Anchorage, Alaska. That was pretty cool, but right now they own a fitness studio and sports rehab center. That was such a cool appointment, and I am super excited to be meeting with them again this week. We also met with a man who owns his own recording studio. He is from Togo, Africa, and he goes to Africa all the time to do charity music recordings for people there who want their music on a CD. It has been alot of fun meeting with him. We have investigators from Morroco, Poland, Togo, Germany, Hungry, and just everywhere. It has been so much fun.This past wednesday, we had the chance to go to Frankfurt for a meeting for all the new missionaries and thier trianers. It was a blast! I got to see all of my friends from the MTC and hear all thier stories. I know that we have only been out for like a month now here in the field, but we could honestly talk for the whole 5 hours that we were at the meeting, and we still didn't talk about everything. You just have so many incredible experieces here on a mission it is so much fun. And President Schwartz is so inspiring. I really feel his love just being in the same room as him. He loves all the missionaries so much, I really couldn't ask for a better mission president, he is the best.But speaking of amazing leaders. We found out this week that President Thomas S. Monson is coming to Frankfurt on October 21st!!! I am so excited! We are not quite sure if he is going to do anything specifically for missionaries, but the bishop called us and told us to keep our schedual free, because the whole ward is going down, and we can get a ride with them! I am so excited!Then this week we had another zone conference. This one was focused on having a 20 lesson week. It was alot of fun. It is alway good to meet with other missionaries. It just streangthens your testimony and gets you excited to work hard. Plus it is always fun to hear what other missionaries are up to and about the sucess that they are having in their areas.I had my first opportunity to do service this week. We helped build those stands that they attach new trees to so that they can help them grow. I am not sure what they are called. Then we also cut a bunch of their old wood for them, so that they can have some fire wood for the winter. Which was primarily my job. I had spent about an hour and a half cutting all this wood, working super hard... And then the member that we were helping comes over to help me finish up, and does one log, and then realizes that there is a better way, goes and grabs the table saw and finishes everything in a matter of minutes.... Yep, I pretty much just used a handsaw for almost two hours for no reason... haha. But it was alot of fun.The last big thing that happened this week was stake conference. We went up to Herna for stake conference, and here in germany, apparently they take the work conference litterally. We met in a giant conference hall, and I felt llike we were at a buisness meeting. The speakers came up to the stage to talk, it very strange. But it was two hours straight of me trying to understand german, which was great practice. It is coming along, I am pretty sure that I can understand just about everything. Or atleast peice togther everything. But unfortunantly I still sound like an idiot while speaking. Haha.We have to go catch a train to Seigen, so I have to go, so sorry if this letter seems rushed to end,Love,Elder Blackley
Week Twelve
Another amazing week here in Germany. I dont think there will every be a boring week while I am out on my mission, just when you think everything is going the same as another day, something crazy happens. I love being a missionary. There is really no other place in the world I would rather be right now, I am having so much fun, and teaching people about this restored gospel is amazing. To see people change as you talk about Christ brings such happiness, it is hard to discribe.But this past week went really well. I had said earlier that when I got here there were not many prospects as far as investigators went, but I am excited to say that we have a couple families that seem really excited about the gospel. I am excited to see how they progress, the work is really moving forward here in Germany. We talk to so many people every day, it is interesting the kind of people we meet. Right now we are teaching people from Togo Africa, Morroco, Hungry, Germany, Poland, and Turkey. There are just so many different cultures and ideas, there is never a boring day on the mission, I have learned so much. People love talking to us about America and why two young guy walk around and talk about religion. But it seems like people really enjoy talking to us, after all of our appointments everyone always says how nice we are, one old german man even said we were Amigos. It was funny listening to him try and say amigos in a german accent, he thought he was so funny.Something cool about Germany is the stores. I know that sounds kinda lame, but really they are quite impressive. We contact every day in the Fußgänger zone, which is just like a giant outside mall, that is like the city center for every city. It huge and is like 4 or 5 streets, but we were in Dortmund on Monday last week, because Elder Butcher needed new shoes. We went into a shoe store and it was 5 stories with an elevator, nothing but shoes, and some of the shoes were like 800 €. It was insane. And they just have stores like that for everything, and then street vendors everywhere, huge Churches, and it is just a fun place to be. I really love Germany it has been so much fun.But I would have to say the highlight of my week was yesterday during our member dinner. So we had the most delicious meal ever. Oh it was so good, I know I had to wait a while to get real german food, but... oh the food is so good. But then we went on a walk with this family and did some contacting. But they took us to this lake, and huge damm, it was beautiful, actually reminded me alot of Alaska. They live in Lüdensheid, which is a small town in the south of our area, and it is so gorgeous there, just rolling hills, farms, and just really pretty. But the best part of the hole thing was the drive back. It was on this little tiny road, that was only wide enough for one and a half cars, but everytime another car came, you had to slow down to like a crawl and drive half way off the road so that they could pass. It is a tiny windy road through the country, and while we are driving we see this man coming towards us. This man in a funny little had walking in the middle of the road. And then there were thousands of sheep. It was hilarious. We had to turn off the car and just wait as thousands of sheep just passed us on this small road following this funny looking guy. It was so awesome, I love germany. I got some pictures, I think they will be in this email hopefully.But other than that, this week was full of teaching and finding. We have found some really great families who really are interested in learning more about Chirst. It is amazing to see people's countinance change, even just during the 30 minutes that we spend explaining that there is a Heavenly Father that loves them. This gospel really does change lives. The work here in Hagan is picking up and we going to see some miracle soon. I love this gospel, it has brought me such great happiness. To come home after a long day, feet aching from walking city to city, and take off your shoes knowing that you gave your all to the Lord that day... Nothing is greater than that. I want all of you to know that this gospel is true and that nothing brings me greater joy than to be apart of the Lords great work here in germany.Love,Elder Blackley
Week Eleven
Germany has been so much fun! I don't understand anything, I just kinda go around with this dazed smile on my face. I think it could be compared to a lost puppy, but everything is awesome, and it is coming along. The german language gets easier and easier every single day, and the easier it gets the funnier it is to listen to some people. I think I forgot to mention last week that it only took 4 hours after landing before we ran into a crazy guy. We were waiting for a bus to get to the mission office and this old homeless crazy guy started yelling at us and giving us mean had gestures. It was so much fun, because I had no cluse what he was saying, he was just really angry with us for absolutely no reason. But recently, I have been understanding a little big more, and some people tell us the weirdest things. I have been told that the devil lives in Hagan, this city is cursed, that us missionaries live in a fairytale. Talking to random people is just so much fun sometimes.I have yet to have authentic german food at a german's house... The two eating appointments that we had this week both grilled steaks and another took us out for chinese again. But we have a couple more appointments this week and they sounded like they are going to make something german. And as for not getting fat, if I have many eating appointments like last night, I wont be able to walk by the time I get home. We went over to our ward mission leader's house for dinner, and I think he thought we were just bottomless pits, but I am not a very big guy. And I dont really know how to say no thankyou in german, or how to say the button on my pants is about to pop... But he just kept bring food... more... more... and then more.... I think last night I had 4 brautwursts, 3 steaks, and 2 slices of pie.... I was rolling back to our appartment.Oh and Brother Corey, you can sleep sound again, I know that the fact that I had not yet had a döner was really making you worried, but I did finally get one. And I have to say, my companion isn't a big fan of them, so for right now they will not be a big part of my diet, but I can see in the future them becoming a staple food in the diet of Elder Blackley. It was delicious.I had my first zone conference this past friday. I think they are every three months, So I got really lucky that there was one so soon after getting to germany. But it was a blast! We had all the missionaries from two different zones, Dortmund and Düsseldorf, and it was focused on the Book of Mormon. I love President Schwarz. He is just the nicest, most loving man I have ever met, and he really has a lot of faith in the people of germany. He has so much faith that such a big work is going to happen in germany soon, it is so inspiring. And I got to see some of the elders from the MTC again, Elder Wells and Fowler, as well as some from the other transfer before us, Elder Guymon and Lymon. Oh and at that we did have some delicious food! It was fantastic, not sure what it was, some sort of meat ballish thing, but delicious.The next big thing this past week was our street preach. We had a ward street preach in the middle of Hagan, and there were 12 missionaries there and then a bunch of people from the ward. We talked to so many people, and found some people that are really interested in the gospel. And it was also the first time I talked to someone completely on my own. Because there were so many missionaries we kinda just spread out and talked to people alone, and so I was just kinda thrown into the fire. It was either speak german, or drown... I am pretty sure it went well... I did run into one man who wanted to argue with me, he spent like 10 minutes yelling at me and saying how I was just wrong and he was so mad he was talking fast, so I was just smiling because I only understood like a third of what he was saying. Other than that really angry man, I talked to some really nice people and even had a conversation.I had my first couple lessons this week. The work is moving along. We have a lot of potential investigators now, and they seem to be showing a lot of interest. I am excited for the upcoming weeks, I really feel like the work here in Hagan is going to pick up alot here soon. There is just such a need for the gospel here in germany. And I have been really suprised about how open people are about talking about religion here. They are just resistant to change, and growing up with my dad.... I understand that... Haha but it is such a wonderful message, and I truely believe that the people here are ready.Love,Elder Blackley
Week Ten
So much has happened since my last big email, I dont know were to start. If this email doesn't make sense, it is because every single word is underlined in red because they are not german words, and the Z and the Y are switched. So this whole typing experience is throwing me off. But, I believe my last email was two weeks ago from tomorrow. So that would be my last week in the MTC and my first week in Germany. I will start with my last week in the MTC.So last tuesday we had our last MTC devotional, and we were so fortunante to hear from Neil L. Anderson. So finally, after 9 weeks of waiting, we got to hear from a general authority, and it was amazing! Just being in the same building is amazing. It was a fantastic talk on the teachings of President Thomas S. Monson. And a fantastic way to end our MTC experience. The rest of the week was exciting and fairly busy. It was a mix of saying goodbye to everyone, trying to stay focused, and packing. I have to say I really enjoyed my MTC experience, I learned so much and I made some really great friends, and it was hard to say goodbye. But at the same time, not too hard because we were leaving to go to Germany.If Brother Corey, and Sister Covey are reading this, and you should be, my mom should have added you to the list. I have no clue what is going on. I pretty much just walk around with my goofy smile and say, Entshuldigung, (then whatever testimony I try to give) and then they reply with german that is way to fast and complex and I just smile and look at my trainer. I swear everyone thinks I am not all there. haha, but I can atleast bear testimony.Just so everyone knows... I love flying. It is my absolute favorite part about traveling. The small seats and the dumb people making things hard. Also the fact that the airlines dont even know how it all works. It is my favorite.... So this flight was just a blast. About 30 seconds after I had checked in the whole system crashes. So we have 3 elders who can not check in and can not go threw security, and we did not even figure that out untill waiting for them for 45 minutes on the other side of securitz, because the security officer, TSA's brightest, kept telling us that they were coming. So then I had to leave again, go check on them, because our flight was boarding in 15 min, and they said the whole system crashed. So I went threw security for the second time, another one of my favorite things, and got them all food because they had to run to make our first flight. Oh the excitement of flying.So we all knew we were in trouble when we got on the plane from Denver to Frankfurt, and they started saying the directions in German and we cant even tell if they are speaking german or greek. So after being frightened by that experience, I then had the only flight in my entire life I have not been able to sleep on. Go figure, it also happens to be the longest flight of my life, and the only one where I am not allowed to watch the free movies or listen to music. So I watched our plane fly over the ocean on the little screen in front of me... awesome. By the time we were in Germany I had found places that sweat had never reached before, and I am pretty sure that was a visible odor coming from my body. But we were in Germany, so everything was ok.My bag was obviously the last one to get unloaded, 15 minutes after everyone else's, naturally. But then we met our mission president, President Schwartz. He has got to be one of the kindest and most loving and exciting men I have ever met. He greeted us all with a hug and that was the moment I realized I was in Germany for the first time. I couldn't read anything and everyone around me spoke in some made up language that was not what I had learned in the MTC. But we were free, so I was just smiling away. We took the trains (coolest system ever) to the mission office and did some paperwork. We then went to our mission presidents house for dinner. Delicious! I know that I am going to love my time here even if I cant understand anything, because atleast I can eat.We were then transported to a hotel were we stayed the night. We were all so tired, everyone passed out before 6. But elder Richards and I were able to stay strong and stay up till almost 9 before we passed out. We all woke up with a trainer in our room. It wasn't our own trainers but it was still 20 questions. We wanted to know everything about Germany. So we traveled to the church and awaited our assignments. And after a few words by President and the APs I was assigned to...... Hagan! yep I was probably thinking the same thing you are... Were is Hagan. Well it is a small suburban town south of Dortmond. It is not a huge city, but our boundaries are huge so we have a couple cities. It is pretty modern though. My trainer is Elder Butcher. He is from Texas, and went to the Airforce acadamy before his mission. He is so awesome. Hard working, great with the members and just determined to get some stuff happening in our area.So on my way up to my area, a three hour train from frankfurt, I talked to my first german. He hated america and capitalism and thought that religion was a capatalistic society. And the only reason I know this is because he spoke english. I would try to speak german to him and then he would try. It was very multilanguage conversation. But for someone who sounded so mean at first, he was really nice, and talked to me for over half an hour. It was pretty cool. But then when I got to Hagan I was told that we had no progressing investigators, and there hasn't been a baptism in the area in over a year. Apparently the elders before elder butcher did not work well with the members, and he has spent the last 3 months repairing that relationship. But the work seems like it is moving forward. We have appointments this week and we have a couple potentials that we talked to that seem truely interested. So the work is moving forward. The members are way excited about missionary work. We have a ward street preach on saturday and It looks like almost everyone will be there.So that is going great. No one has to worry about me gaining much weight, atleast untill the next two transfers are up. My companion is a healthy eater and not much for the street food. Which means I still have not had a Döner. It is funny I have almost been here for a week and we haven't had german food once yet. Our first member appointment they took us to an American resturant of all places... I had a bacon burger. Second we had lasagna, yep even in germany thats what the elders eat. And this afternoon we had a lunch appointment and we were taken to a chineese resturant. So not anything german yet. So all these wonderful days spent dreaming about german food in the MTC, Brother Corey and I still havn't had any. Haha. But its probably better for me or I would get fat.But we are doing great here in Hagan. The work is picking up and I am excited to work hard. I like a good challenge, and the work here in Hagan right now is just that. Oh! and for a confidence booster, my first day contacting out in the street, I went up to a man and said something to him, he looked at me and said, Dein Deutch ist Schleckt! and then walked away... Ha it was kinda funny. But I love being a missionary. It is hard right now with no one to teach, but that is going to change this week. I just know it.I haven't taken many pictures of germany yet but I will try to soon. But here as a couple as well as some pictures from the MTC. So I guess I will have to send the others in another email, So there may be more than one email going out to all of you guys!Much love,Elder Blackley
Week Nine
Dear Parents of new missionaries,Your missionary has arrived! We are so excited about this new group of missionaries. We have already talked to people on the street, and they were fearless! They are amazing missionaries, and will be an asset to this mission. Thank you for your support and willingness to let them serve the Lord for these two years.Alles Gute!Elder Egan AndersonDeutschland Frankfurt MissionKirche Jesu ChristiCorneliusstraße 1860325 Frankfurt a. Main
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