July 28, 2014

Hey!

I actually kinda miss the Texas summers.... I don't know, probably just good memories of wanting to puke my guts out on the football field haha. But yeah, we've definitely had no shortage of heat here in Gera, but it hasn't been anything too uncomfortable. It was kind of funny, I was on a split with Elder Christenson, who is from Utah and in his first transfer, and we were walking outside. I said, "man, it feels pretty good outside today." He didn't really reply and kind of let out a little laugh, and I said, "what?" And he replied, "I would probably say it’s a little warm." It would be funnier if you knew Elder Christenson probably... haha. He's a really quiet, calm guy, so it was just a kind of funny exchange because he said it so politely. 

But... to the news of the week. We had transfers, and I will be going to Kaiserslautern on Thursday, and I will be serving in the German branch there. There's also an American ward there and a big American military base, and the Rammstein base is not too far away. So it'll be interesting, but I'm excited for the change. Gera was fun and I learned a lot...

That's awesome that Joseph is going to New Jersey, that'll be fun I'm sure. 

But to your question Dad, there are "Mexican" restaurants in Germany, but they are horrible. Okay that might have been strong but they're super Germanized, just like the American burger places and stuff. For some reason they think we put corn and kidney beans on everything.... 

Have a great week! Love you guys!!

Elder Brown

July 21, 2014

Hey!

Thank you for the guacamole recipe! It will be enjoyed thoroughly. If not by the Germans, then by me. But they're way excited about it... they even asked about it at church on Sunday. So I will for sure let you know how it is received. 

But I'm doing well, as I think back initially I can't think of anything too crazy happening this week. We met with our investigator Raymond, who's from Zimbabwe, so that was fun. He's a super Rastafarian guy so he reminds me of a lot of the people that Griffin would talk about from his mission. I actually wanted to show him the song that Griffin did with one of his investigators... the "Keep the Commandments" one, but I didn't know where to find it. He's super into reggae though so I think he'd appreciate it. He's a way cool dude. I also wrote a pretty sick rap last night while Elder Wright did his District Leader call-ins. Haha. 

The World Cup celebrations did not last too long.... Germans get over things pretty fast. But it was fun while it lasted. 

It's been pretty hot here recently, but today is a little cooler and cloudy, so that's nice. Might head down to the park and play some soccer or something. 

I hope you all have a great week!! Love you, 

Elder Brown

July 14, 2014

Hey!!

So sehen Sieger aus!!!! Haha that was sweet.... there were fireworks going off all night and yeah... pretty awesome. Germany is the best. Literally. But the game was on Sunday night and now it's P-day.... so I don't really know if the people are willing to listen yet. They're probably all really hungover though so my guess would be no at the moment haha. Maybe tomorrow.

Sadly we were yet again not able to go to the zoo. Maybe someday. It's just been raining a ton lately so everything's kinda had a damper put on it. But it's better than brutal heat, I guess. 

But this week was good. We had a good Zone training in Jena where we talked for a bit about the history of East Germany and its dedication/building of a temple here and what not. If you haven't researched the church history here too much, I would definitely recommend it, it's pretty sweet. President Monson has a book about his experiences here called Faith Rewarded and it’s pretty awesome.

But one of the highlights of this week was helping build and take down a super sketchy rock wall as part of a marathon being run here in Gera. One of our members does a lot of organizational work for city events and he volunteered our help. So one of the things we had to do was help build this wall which was basically a 30-40 meter high scaffolding with rock wall clamped to the front. And we built it right up against a tree, and we had to saw off a bunch of branches. So we're all standing on different levels of this kinda shaky scaffolding, lifting things, using tools, sawing off branches, just like no problem. No one really even asked us who we were. It was tight.

But this week was pretty ordinary, but good. We've got interviews with President Stoddard this week, so that will be good. But yeah, that's about it. I hope you guys have an awesome week!!! Love you all,

Elder Brown

July 7, 2014

Hey!

This week was good once again. Went down to Nurnberg again, for our welcome Zoko with President and Sister Stoddard. It was really good, and they're both really cool...the mission is in good hands for sure. It all seems to have transferred over pretty smoothly though. 

Fortunately we have another chance to push the old people around the zoo again tomorrow.. so hopefully the weather cooperates. But besides that, the week is looking pretty normal. We do have a zone meeting in Jena on Thursday though so that'll be fun. 

I bet the ward party was fun. For the Fourth of July we and the other elders went and did some garden work at a member's garden, and then grilled up a couple hamburgers and brats, so that was our celebration. It was actually pretty fun. I don't know how it is back in Texas, but here, member relationships have probably been the best part of my mission. But that might just be a German mission thing. But to the sister question, we do have 4 sisters in our zone, but none in our district. Our district is kind of the warriors out in the wilderness haha. We're like a good 45 minutes away from Jena, which is kind of the center of the zone, and then Werdau is about an hour past us. So we've got each other. 

The week was good, we are just working trying to get something started back up here. It's moving, slowly. But we're gonna get it here soon. I'm having a really good time, and I'm happy.

Have a great week everybody, love you guys!!

Elder Brown