Word from Nürnburg Oct. 24, 2011

schöne grüße – nice greetings

What's with all of the missionary injury? I knew about the G's nephew. It was big news at ZoKo and they told us that he was only home for a very short time before he got sent back out. I knew A and F were a thing. I think it was like that since freshman year of high school. IDK if they were always an item but they were always together. I don't want to get sent home because I know how hard it would be to come back out. There were a couple other missionaries that went home from our mission due to surgery. One isn't returning because he needs a 6-month recovery and he was already more than half way done. That would be tough. Schöne Grüße on the F and A.

Star Wars sounds great! I've seen it in the stores. It looks awesome.

What would I want to know about your mission... I think just the fact that it is an emotional and spiritual roller coaster. I don't think anyone can be fully prepared for it. It is the hardest thing I've ever done but also the best. I can't describe it but there seem to be several aspects. Yeah, there are the glory stories but the part that taxes you I never really grasped. I know when I finally do go home that the whole experience will feel like a dream. The real world and the MTC already feel that way. I don't think what anyone could have told me would have prepared me. I'm just glad I have my Tschüß book because I think that will be the one thing that will have captured my mission the best. I don't know what you could have told me, Dad. But I definitely want to know more about your mission.

This last week was crazy. I fell apart physically myself. Something I ate towards the beginning of the week tore apart my insides. I haven’t been the same since but I think I'm leveling out. I was able to handle a Döner on Friday so that is good news. Nothing to worry about but that was the highlight of the week - Yuck. Missionary work has been struggling. We don’t really have any investigators and don't know yet where to find them... but we are still seeing success!

I think Elder A and I will be getting lederhosen today. We really hope we stay together for Christmas so that we can make Christmas cards and send them to our MTC teachers and other people. I know that shouldn't be the main reason for wanting to stay together but it would be a bonus.

I got to ride home with president the other day from Würzburg back to Nürnberg. That was an hour of awesomeness. And he bought me a Kit Kat.

Lots of love! Tschüss!
Elder Evan

Nürmberg - Building On The Water and flowers

Word from Nürnberg - October 17, 2011

You may think that your weeks are mundane but it's always big news to me. I feel bad that I probably don't give nearly as much info as what happens here. Sadly, I see everything as just another week in the life of a missionary. I would like to avoid that though. So let me tell you about something awesome from this last week, namely yesterday after church. These past two weeks I've kind of noticed from experiences and stories from the other Elders that the relationship between the members and the missionaries wasn’t really there. So to our surprise, the ward council held a surprise meeting after church strictly for missionary work. The member in charge began bearing his heart and soul out to us about how we need to work together as members and missionaries and that they were sorry for not being on board before. It was really cool. When I was in Wesel we had 1 eating appointment every other week and from what I heard from other returned missionaries that wasn't the best. I got here and the Elders didn't even get that many. Then the relief society president was talking about how we are going to be getting 2-3 eating appointments a week and...  It was just really cool. I love the members. I'm always terrified to talk with them but once I do I'm glad I did. Every member a missionary!

We have a senior couple here in Nürnberg that is in charge of the institute center. They showed us all of the Mormon.org TV ads and told us about all the attention the church is getting. It sounds and looks way cool. President also said that the website will be in German at the start of the year. We should get those ads here in Germany! No one knows anything about the Mormons here accept for the fact that we are a sect, we practice polygamy and ride around in horse driven wagons. False. We do have a member here that is a cop and sometimes police will stop us and ask us if we know him. The truth will definitely come from the members who are asked the questions or just tell it vor by themselves.

Elder Peterson's Christmas
present this year - lederhosen!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Should I get dad some lederhosen as well?  Dad, I feel like I never knew a whole lot about your mission. Just a couple stories here and there. But there is so much more that goes on! You're keeping secrets. Or I just never asked before.

I love you all very much and pray for you all the time! Keep spreadin the word and lovin life! Love you! Tschüss!

Elder Evan

Word from Nürnberg October 10, 2011

 I LOVE Nürnberg. It's way different than Wesel, which is maybe why I like it. Not that I didn't like Wesel but change is good. As for Zone Leader, I don't want to be one of those Elders who's like,

'I was a ZONE leader on my mission. Were you?'

'No'

'Oh. I see.'

There are more responsibilities and an opportunity to serve and work with more missionaries... but other than that I think a lot of missionaries play it up more than it needs to be. There are Zone Leaders in Nürnberg, Erfurt, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Düsseldorf and Dortmund. Elder A has been in Nürnberg for two transfers so he knows the area really well. Our apartment is huge so we actually have four elders here. One of them is Elder B, who was trained and Golden Busted in my last district. I don't know how I lucked out (most likely) being here for Christmas and in a four-man apartment. We'll have a blast. Elder A is just as awesome as I remember him being. We have four districts in our zone, those being the Würzburg, Coburg, Erlangen and Regensburg districts. Elder Mayle is in Regensburg there which is way fun. We were in the same district for four transfers.

Right now I am doing emails across the street from where the Nürnberg trials took place. There is a LOT to see here for sure. Not that that is why I am here. But I promise I'll experience the city. Transportation is wonderful compared to Wesel. Again not hating on Wesel but if I miss a U-Bahn I don't have to wait 30 min to an hour for another one. Everything is concentrated in the city itself. We do not have a car but I will probably get my license soon anyways. I should have taken care of that a long time ago.

I'm worried about sending stuff home because I know how expensive it is. For that matter I can't really think of anything I want for Christmas. I'll probably leave my Christmas deco here. If anything I'll send some lebkuchen and spekulatius home. LECKER! But yeah, I can't think of anything. Maybe new music if there is anything.

The ward is awesome. They're all characters. Our GML served in Erfurt a long time ago so we bonded over that. There is this one lady who shall remain nameless who scared me. I sat behind her in church and someone next to me had a phone go off. She whipped around and was like, 'Sister! You know we are not supposed to have our phones during the meetings!' She just looked angry. And she was dressed in a very classic German style dress with stockings. She also scares all of the investigators away. Love her!

  

Elder T will keep me updated on Frau J our S Lady.

Sounds like things our going well back home. Keep me updated on the outside world. Even though I am in it I don't know what is going on. Stay healthy and happy!

Love you. Pray for opportunities to spread the gospel! Tschüss!

Elder Evan

Word from Nürnberg October 4, 2011

You would be right in assuming that the five-week transfer is up. Transfer calls came in early on Friday instead of Saturday due to conference. After six transfers of being in Wesel I'm finally heading out. I was quite sad actually. Wesel is my city! I was expecting that though. I was getting too comfortable in Wesel. I was not expecting to go to Nürnberg or to be a Zone Leader. Blah :( I can't ever be comfortable doing my thang. Not complaining! I'm quite excited actually. I just know that whenever I don't push myself the Lord finds some way to push me out of my bubble. I'm going to be working with Elder A who is the same Elder A from my MTC group! That will be fun. All the members told me that I lucked out being in Nürnberg for Christmas (most likely). Our Zone Leader here in Düsseldorf served there and said there is lots of history there. Anyway, I'm getting out of the west and heading south.

I had a lot of questions and was quite grateful that it was General Conference weekend. I found lots of answers to my questions. Don’t you just love conference? We watch it here at the church. Everything is delayed. We get the first session Saturday night, then a recording of the Priesthood and second sessions on Sunday morning followed by the first Sunday session live in the evening. Leide we don't get to see the second session of Sunday. Elder T and I were getting similar messages about repentance and hard times ahead. I loved Elder Holland’s talk at priesthood session. That was pretty fiery.

I would be careful with package sending. My bags can’t handle too much more.  I still need room for me future lederhosen!

We are trying to set up a German class here for our Serbian Lady. The ward is doing everything they can to help but she does need to learn German. She understands though, that if she gets baptized that she is going to be there every week on Sunday. We showed her how to watch Gen Conference on the Internet in Serbian and she just thought it was the coolest thing ever. She was defending the church and our beliefs against her mother-in-law’s beliefs. That was fun. Anyway, she is doing well.

I don't know what else to say! I'm sad to be leaving. Elder T and I had a blast together. I'm now passing Wesel over to him...

Love you! Sorry for the late email due to our delayed P-day. I'm sure I'll think of more I wanted to say after. Schuss!

Elder Evan

Word from Wesel September 26, 2011

Mensch that is weird! C in the MTC? And when you say a few months ago for J you mean over a year. J only has 6 months left! How is that possible? I did get K's package at ZoKo last week, which was way awesome! Tell her thanks from me! Legos, nerf guns and sweets... what more can you want?

Our S family is doing ok. A lot has happened though. She is way awesome and the ward takes care of her, which is what we like to see. We have a Russian lady in our ward whom LOVES her because Russian is supposedly really close to Serbian and they can understand each other. We called on Saturday to make sure they were still coming to church and the son said something about his mother and a broken foot and that they couldn't come to church. We were freaking out and after church we took her already assigned home teacher with us to go give her a blessing. The funny thing was is that she was walking around and doing just fine so that left us a little confused. Then we went into the other room and it was her mother-in-law that had the broken foot. That was a relief but it is also setting the baptismal date back two weeks. Our S lady has to take care of her. She is still way awesome though. We taught the Word of Wisdom and she was like, 'I don't understand why I can't drink coffee... but if that is what God wants then I will do it’. Not too many people say that here. Her faith is incredible. She also says if she gets baptized that she is committed. She doesn't want to get baptized and then not be at church. She is awesome. We just have to work through some things.

This mormon.org campaign sounds amazing. President Schwartz said they’re working on something similar here. Start of the New Year the site will be in German and we will have pass along cards specifically for the site. I don't know if I already talked about this but it is a great tool. Kids will talk to us and ask us what we do. We ask them if they have internet and they all pull out their handys. Perfect! We pull up the site right there and they think it is pretty cool. It's a good chance for them to practice English. Proof that we need iPads (which is apparently in the works).

The work moves forward. Thanks for the support! Love you all! Tschüss!

Elder Evan

Word from Wesel September 19, 2011

Günstiger – favorable

Dafür - therefore

  

Yes, the transaction was made by me. I used the money to buy a Wesel Esel and also a new soundtrack - Pirates 4 to be exact. Sadly the last half is all of this techno remix stuff that isn't really mission appropriate but the first half is some really good Hans Zimmer stuff with some guitarist with a Mexican name. Quite excellent. Very inspiring.

Elder M... The name sounds familiar but to be honest there have been several Elders going home for this or for that and I don’t know them all personally. That's too bad though. That would be really tough to have to go home. I hope he does OK.

Europe trip. Well... I wouldn't mind coming home first and being released because then I wouldn’t have all my junk with me. But I don’t know what is günstiger. That is my preference, but I am willing to do whatever is best for you. Where all are we wanting to travel?

Star Wars blu ray... I will need to invest when I get home. I've been waiting for a box set with all 6 in one. I don't know how I feel about Darth Vader yelling 'no.' I don't know why, but Star Wars and Lord of the Rings are the most quoted movies among missionaries. I think it is because they're universally well known.

The package did come and I am very grateful dafür. I already ate the animal crackers. They aren't that bad! The teddy grahams I do appreciate as well as the new music and the pizza stuff and the camel... thank you. Thank you very much. My iPod... I didn't realize what a temptation that would be having all of my old music on there. Elder T and I have the same taste in music so when we saw The White Stripes and Wolfmother and Iron and Wine... we had to hide it for a while. As much as I love the package it kind of slapped me in the face. What happened? Has it really already been a year?

Well our S lady is getting baptized! Elder T set the baptismal date on a Golden split with one of the other Goldens. Hence the term golden split. Her two sons were going to get baptized two but the husband said no. We've got a plan to try and soften his heart. The appointment sounded way cool. The 12 yr. old son that translates had been sitting in the appointment quietly thinking after the Elders had told him that they got baptized when they were 8. He was like, 'Echt?!' We've been talking to him about baptism for a while but before he always felt like he was too young. He was silent and then was like, 'you know what I am thinking? I think I want to get baptized.' Way cool. We'll see if the man’s heart can't be softened.

I love you all! Hope all is well. Tschüss!

Love

Elder Evan

Word From Wesel September 12, 2011

Leide – sadly

Bibel Kreis – bible circle

Gern – gladly

Speaking of Mid-life crisis, I had one last night when I was looking through our Area book. The more I looked at all the names of the people I am teaching/have taught, the more I don't want to leave. I would miss them too much! Then I thought about what it would feel like at the end of the mission and the thought itself scared me a little bit. I don't want to go! I've still got a year but it hit me last night that I won't be here forever.

Leide the Bibel Kreis didn't work out. We have a couple more we are going to try out but this was the one we were really excited about. I called the main person the night before and she was really excited and said that her husband was going to pick us up and drive us to their house where the kreis was being held. But we waited, waited and waited... The blue car that was supposed to come and pick us up never did and by then it was too late to take a bus. We did, however, get to see one of our old friends JW Salad man (who makes a mean JW salad and likes to talk about how the soul goes to sleep). That was fun to see him again. He likes us.

We might be seeing a baptism here soon. Our Serbian Lady whose son translates almost accepted a baptismal date before her other 3 year old son farted and swallowed a Euro. As much as we love that little Serbian Michael Jackson dancing boy, he does know how to drive the spirit away. Bless his heart.

Last Tuesday we had a mission conference where Elder David A. Bednar came and told us about how we need to teach ourselves and help our investigators teach themselves. IT was really cool. I had it gern. Someone asked him a question about the priesthood, which was even cooler. He started going into the importance of gender and how women don't need the priesthood because they naturally turn out towards others where as men tend to be selfish by and nature and need the priesthood to become more Christ like. It was like a mind grenade full of spiritual aftermath.

Is this new marketing campaign in response to that new musical from Matt Stone and Trey Parker? I have heard about it. It sounds like the church is getting publicity for it. I don't know if it is for good or bad though.

I hope that is everything. Elder Trent and I are having fun. He is way awesome and I think I am learning more from him than he is from me. I can tell I've been here for a while because everyone else can tell I've been here for a while. Livin' it. Lovin' it. Love you! Tschüss!

Elder Evan

Word from Wesel - September 5, 2011

Bibel Kreis – bible circle

This week is looking to be pretty good. Our whole district is in the same phase right now of trying to find people to teach. While our beloved prophets and apostles advise the members to do the finding so that the missionaries can do the teaching, we can't always rely on referrals to be flowing out our ears. I love our ward, but a lot of them feel like they have no one they can invite. We have been working with them to find locations where we can do the finding. So far so good. What seems like everyday occurrences to us are huge miracles to members and they love it. As advice from our new awesome mission president, we are going to visit some Bible study groups this week. Sounds fishy, I know, but we are really excited. I promise we are not going to bust in and try and convert everyone. That would fail. But president advised us to look for those people who are on the search and prepared. I called this lady of one Bibel Kreis who explained to me how they are a group of people who are looking to best interpret the Bible in a way that they can apply it to themselves. They are open to new ideas and are just looking for the truth. She began to explain to me the people there including couples, singles, a Muslim turned Christian, a man in a wheel chair... all the while I kept getting this feeling that these were the people. These were the people that have been prepared. Don't let your missionaries spend hours knocking on doors! Help them out!

While I'm getting really comfortable here in Wesel I'm also trying to avoid it. When I get comfortable I don't progress and don't learn. I have to admit that there are certain things at home that are still important to me, like my movies and games and friends and... what else... oh yeah! My family too :) I wouldn't say I get trunky over any of it though. As much as I know I will enjoy seeing Harry Potter, it also seems incredibly irrelevant. C doesn't have to worry too much. I'm still going to enjoy it.

I have no specific questions about BYU. Just application stuff. If getting a letter of rec from President would help then I would gladly ask and hope he agrees to it. Also if there is any info on how I could get into the media arts program I would appreciate it.

  

Well. I love you all! I'm doing well and having tons of fun with Elder T. He keeps really excited about the work and he is going to see lots of cool things. I've figured out a good pace and what I think is the right attitude towards the work. I'm happy and lovin' it. Bah dah bah bah dah...

Thanks for everything you do on the home front! I'll preach up a storm. Tomorrow I can say that 'a year from now I will be on the way home.' I don't mean it in a trunky way. Just a very weird fact. Love ya! Tschüß!

Elder Evan

Word from Wesel - August 29, 2011

Urlaub – holiday

GML – ward mission leader

You guessed it! I am staying in Wesel for a 6th transfer. Elder T can't stop making jokes about me being in Wesel for eternity. I like it here, but I will admit that whenever I do get transferred that it will be nice to see some new things. You know the donkey statues that you see around everywhere? The city sells smaller ones that you can paint yourself. I think I'm going to get one to celebrate the Wesel-ness of my mission.

You asked about our Serbian lady. Well she still can't speak any English or German... but that's not stopping her. She reads everything we give her several times over and everyone around her talks about how this blue book she is reading makes her cry. She is super receptive to the spirit and wants to get baptized. She's been to church a few times but to be honest I am worried about retention. She needs a relationship with the members, which is difficult to build when you can't communicate with them. Elder T and I are trying to figure out what to do. Sadly, half our ward is in urlaub right now including the branch president and the GML so we can't communicate with either. She is way awesome though. We gave her the Restoration to watch and she said she couldn't understand what they were saying but that she watched it 3 times in a row because she loved the spirit it brought. AWESOME!

So much is happening back home! The family is definitely being blessed. Do you have pictures of the baptism? And happy 30th! Not too many wives would appreciate a macbookpro for their anniversary. I'm blessed to have a mom like that. I don't know what else to say other than there’s lots of changes it sounds like.

It is the end of summer and the approach of fall. This is the time of year I usually get anxious for Christmas. But I think it has intensified on the mission. I may or may not have put up Christmas lights already. Elder T doesn't mind though. We enjoy the Christmas spirit.

I'm sure there is something to tell you that I have forgotten about. As usual there is so much that happens that I don't really know what to write about. I promise I am keeping a journal. Sometimes I have to catch up for a week or two but it still goes. Love you all! Tschüss!

Elder Evan

Word from Wesel - August 22, 2011

Ungefähr - about

8-22-2011

Well my socks and garments are holding up just fine. Thanks for the concern. Actually, I have been quite impressed with those socks. Everyone I know has Goldtoe socks and all of them have holes after just a few months. Mine have none. Thank you Costco Kirkland brand.

Chelsea sent me pics of all the kids and I can't believe how old everyone looks. I feel so left out!

Time IS flying by. Transfer calls on Saturday and next month is just right around the corner. I can't believe it. I will probably stay in Wesel this next transfer. President said he will most likely keep all the Goldens and their trainers together. After that it is totally up in the air. I could bounce having then been in Wesel for about 8 months. Or I could be like Elder F and stay in one area for half my mission. I like Wesel but it would also be nice to see some new things. The thought of not being in Wesel though is weird. I just picture my whole mission being here. So far most of it has been. It does have its advantages.

What will you do without the Free Movies? You've been living off those for ungefähr... 4 years? With a couple of pauses in between. Now it comes to an end. I probably won't go back there. Sorry.

I don't remember that story from A, but that also would have been a long time ago. I have been realizing a lot of things that turn ten by the end of the year. Our house, the Fellowship of the Ring, the Sorcerer's stone, Monster's inc., Smallville, 24... there seems to be a theme here. Makes you feel old though doesn't it? Probably not as old as being married for 30 years... Just kidding! You're not old. Just teasing. Love you all! Have fun! Stay safe! The gospel is true! Live it. Love it. Tschüss!

Elder Evan