Word from Wesel - May 30, 2011

Insgasamt – on the whole, all in all

Zufrieden – content, satisfied, pleased

Happy Birthday Heather and Dad! I hope your birthdays were as awesome as mine. The day itself was probably one of the busiest I have had on the mission, which is awesome! We didn't do any celebratory stuff until the day after. We went to our favorite ice cream place and had crepes for breakfast and then we tried out a new pizza place for dinner washing it all down with a nice cold fanta. Thanks for the love and birthday wishes. The pictures were my favorite. Tell everyone thanks! I was so surprised. How did you manage that? And of course all of the goodies were awesome. I was really impressed with those books too. The tie I will have to wait to wear until it is cold enough to wear sweaters again or maybe if I just button up my suit coat at District Meetings or something :) Who picked out the Where the Wild Things Are t-shirt? 

I have some B-Day pictures of the cake and other stuff, which I will send with the next card. Did you get the last one I sent? What was a huge surprise was when we were over at the B's yesterday for an eating appointment and when it came time for the dessert they brought out a birthday cake and sang happy birthday to me. They even got me a tie! That was really thoughtful. Insgesamt, it was an awesome birthday. Thanks!

We also got an emergency text from Sis. Ninow telling us to avoid all lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. That pretty much eliminates half of Elder W's diet. 

I don't know what else to talk about! There are only two weeks left in the cycle which means transfer calls are coming up soon. Elder H and I are pretty sure that one of us is going. He thinks I am going to stay. I am zufrieden right now with 3 transfers in Wesel. I could stay and be ok or I could go and be ok. Right now we are working with the members to get them thinking about inviting their friends to church and other such things. My real sadness in leaving Wesel would be leaving Herr Q. He is so close. He recently had a problem accepting our take on Adam and Eve. Enough that he spent a whole day studying in the bible and pearl of great price. What a stud. He wants to know. He's willing to work for it. He's humble... he's just waiting for that confirmation from the spirit.

I love you fam! Thanks again for the awesome birthday. We'll keep trying to tear it up in Wesel. Tschüss!

Love

Elder Evan

Word from Wesel - May 23, 2011

5-23-2011

Well, you're right! The world did not end. Even our favorite shy investigator scoffed at the false prophets and their predictions. The past few days have been sunny and warm so when we woke up on Saturday morning to see ominous cloudy skies and a thick fog covering the city we thought maybe there was some truth. Nope. Not so.

Speaking of our favorite investigator, he kind of has his answer that the church is true. He has felt and recognized the spirit while reading a conference talk from President Uchtdorf. But he hasn't had that same confirming spiritual witness while reading the Book of Mormon as he had while reading the talk. So he says he can't say that it is from God. We've spent a lot of time talking about how recognizing truth can also be an answer and that everything good comes from God but you can't just tell someone what their answer is - tough but the highlight of our life right now.

  

I'm not sure what I will want by the end of my mission. We’ll have to see. Would we just do a trip to Germany or do what we did 4 years ago?

The Allergy meds were safe. And it was a surprise. Elder H and I got all excited, opened the box, undid the paper towels and then just stared at it and said, 'oh.' But much appreciated! Thank You! :)

As you will see in my next batch of photos, Elder H and I splurged a little bit and bought some legos for p-days and lunch breaks. I promise I won't be throwing my money out for random stuff all the time. We just look for ways to stay sane but still focused.

Yes that was Elder M renting the dress shirt :)

Well! I hope memorial weekend is awesome. So far I haven't been too homesick about missing that but mal schauen. I hope schooling or other endeavors won't prevent me from missing future memorial weekends :( Lots of love! Thanks for all the love, support and prayers. Tschüss!

Love

Elder Evan

PS Which movie will you all be seeing for the weekend???