June 24, 2013

Hallo!!

Sorry you didn't get an email from me last week.... I just didn't really feel like it. Haha just kidding just kidding, we had a Zone P-Day in Bonn, and we just didn't have any time. It was sweet though. We all ate a pizza place there and then went up to a pretty tight castle and just chilled and took pics there. Something pretty cool, one of my old EFY roommates (elder Hawker) just came in this transfer and he's totally in Ddorf Zone. Pretty tight. It was cool to chill with him at that. But yeah, that's why you had to go two weeks without hearing from me... tut mir leid. 

Everything went fairly well with the transfer. The new comp is super cool. Elder Collins and I get along really well, and we've been working really hard. The gemeinde seems to have kinda reawakened as well so I think the transfer will be rockin. 

Last week had some days that were hottttttt. Hanging out in apartments with no AC makes for a good time. Haha but in no time it was back to normal... raining and cloudy and 60 degrees. I'm sure there are more hot days to come though. 

I was thinking the other day about how it had been a year since I went to BYU... Freaking crazy. That went so fast. It has really been a great year though. Not much that I would change. We just got an email about the leadership thing (we don't watch it until next week) and my ZL just called me and was like "we get to use Facebook" and I was like "I know." Pretty dope. Except I don't really know how that's gonna work. Guess we'll see though. 

The past two weeks have gone well. Thursday to Thursday last week and the week before was kind of a crazy period, and not a whole bunch got done because of transfer stuff. But me and Elder Collins have kinda settled in and we're doing some good stuff. We have started teaching a super cool Brazilian lady and her daughter, and also the friend of one of our JAE´s. All three are really cool and have a ton of potential. We're still working with most of the same people. We've been trying to do a lot of contacting to find some new people and have had a little success, gotta keep trying. We're trying to up the member work in Solingen so we're doing that as well. We've got a really busy week ahead of us so we're excited. 

Anyways, I can't really think of much right now (the past week or so has been kind of a blur) but I think I´ve covered pretty much everything.... We had Zone Conference, so that was sweet. I don't even know haha this past couple weeks has been crazy. It was fun though. I'm having a great time. I'll take some time this week to collect my thoughts and next week’s letter will just be great. 

Love you guys!!! Hope everyone has a great week!

Tscuß!

Elder Brown

The view from a castle near Bonn

With companions at a castle near Bonn

June 10, 2013

Hallo!!

Hopefully the Heat keep it up.... I would be so mad if the Spurs win, buncha old farts.  And yes.... something did indeed happen with transfer week.... My trainer got transferred to Bitburg! So yeah, I have to basically know everything about Solingen by Thursday, so that´s sweet. My new comp´s name is Elder Collins, and I think he's been out for about 8 months or so. And then soon, Solingen will possibly be getting another set of missionaries... We'll see how that goes. 

Sunday was great as usual. We had one of our investigators at church, and it was all about temple work... like the whole 3 hours haha. We sat down, and I leaned over and asked him if he´d ever learned anything about the temple and he said no... And I was just like, this will be fun. But it was cool. Then we had two dinner appointments, so that was awesome. I have never been more full in my life. At our second one we were eating steak and the sister brought out chocolate fondue and I was just like come on.... It was wonderful though. They´re a super cool family.  

This week was cool though. We had Zone Training last Tuesday, and then after that I went on a split with one of the Zone leaders in Düsseldorf, Elder Ockey. That was fun. Split back on Wednesday, then on Thursday stayed in Solingen on a split with an elder from Wuppertal, Elder Meinert. That was super fun. We met with Bruder Olbert, and then our investigator who came to church, and those both went really well. Then we spent like an hour trying to find a potential investigator we had met on the bus, only to find out she lived in Wuppertal! It was great. Haha. We were on the phone and she was like "I'm outside my apartment can you see me?" and we were just like "nope". Turns out there is a G….. Strasse in Solingen and Wuppertal. It was sweet. So Elder Meinert got a referral out of that.

Saturday morning was the transfer call, so that was cool. Then we met with another investigator and he made us spaghetti.... a lot of spaghetti. It was pretty good. We were going to set a baptismal date with him at church yesterday but he was sick. 

But overall, the week was pretty fun. Spent a lot of it on splits, which was kinda weird but also really fun. My new comp will be the DL too (my first was as well) so we´ll still do a lot of them. I can´t really think of too much else. All the floods and stuff are down in like Bayern and Österreich so pretty far away from me. Still rainy though. Although it kinda has been sunny and hot this week. Summer´s coming slowly but surely. 

Anyways, Hope everyone is doing awesome, I love all of you!! 

Auf Wiedersehen

Elder Brown

June 3, 2013

Hallo everybody!                                       

Greetings from Solingen, and agreed, it is so weird that it´s already June. Time goes by so fast. And I´m sorry that Summer has begun yet again... I don´t think I´ve experienced a day over 80 here yet. And we´ve probably had like 3 days over 65 haha. But they use Celsius over here so I mean... 15? or something... No idea. It´s overcast and rainy pretty much every day. And I love it. 

The Heat better win!!! Haha.

Anyways, this week was good. Nothing too crazy but it was still good. Last P-day we went to Düsseldorf and played dodgeball with the zone. It was sweet. Our zone is pretty tight. It´ll be interesting to see who replaces Elder Hall as ZL. That night we went to dinner at our ward mission leader´s house and ate fajitas and chocolate fondue. And then had dessert. Haha it was tight. 

Then Tuesday, I had my visa appointment. Super easy. I´m legal now. We also met with Bruder Olbert, which was wonderful. Wednesday, we met with the member helping us with our language skills, and had Deutsch practice and got our new “homework assignments.” Met with a couple of our JAE´s... pretty chill day. Thursday, we met with one of our investigators, and had a good lesson. Then we had a dinner appointment, which are always great. 

Friday was sweet. We met with three less áctives. One brother, fresh dude from Thailand, gave us noodles that were delicious but spicy as crap. They all went well and it was just a cool day. Saturday we were in Wuppertal as a district and did a street thing with like a board setup and stuff. It was fun. Then we had District Meeting. That night we met with a member that cuts the missionaries hair. So he gave us haircuts, and we ate.

Sunday was good as usual. Always chill. And then today we´re probably going shopping in Düsseldorf.

Anyways, things are going sweet here. I love Solingen. I really hope no funny stuff gets pulled this week with transfers. With all the new missionaries no one really knows what will happen haha. We´ll see though. 

Love you guys! I hope everyone has a great week!!

Tschus

Elder Brown

May 27, 2013

Hallo!

The Champions League final zwischen Bayern and Dortmund was this weekend. Literally everyone was watching it. Except us. Haha. But it was all anyone was talking about at church on Sunday. Some big Dortmund fans in the ward were getting trash talked a little bit in Ward Council and stuff... Pretty funny.

Well, let’s see what I can remember about this week... It was good. Haha like always. But we had District Meeting in Düsseldorf on Thursday, and that´s always good. Today´s a Zone p-day in Düsseldorf so I´m here right now actually. I like this city a lot.

We had some good lessons with one of our investigators this week, prepping for baptism. But then, I also had a split with another greenie in Wuppertal, so that was fun. It actually was really fun. We just had an eating appointment and a member appointment, so it wasn´t too crazy. Wuppertal´s tight. Look up "wuppertal schwebebahn"... yeahhhh haha. Pretty sweet. 

On our way home on Friday (I think)... we were on the bus, and a lady came up to us and asked about our nametags (in English!) haha, so I was already excited. But then we just talked about what we did and she had a bunch of pretty deep questions about life and stuff.. so I really enjoyed that conversation. But then she gave us her number so hopefully we set something up there. I would very much enjoy that .

Nothing too crazy happened this week. We really just set up appointments and keep ourselves busy most of the day, and there´s often a lot of travel time, so nothing too crazy happens. Just missionary work. Haha it´s really fun though. I´m looking forward to the day here in Düsseldorf. 

I did hear about the tornadoes in OK... One of the members told me about it. He also said something about a flood? (maybe talking about the same thing... Idk) but yeah... that´s no good. Hopefully all the crazy stuff back home is done for a while. 

Say hi to the ward for me in testimony meeting or something. And tell them to give the missionaries referrals haha. 

Well, that´s like all I can think of right now...

Anyways, love you guys!!! Schöne Woche noch

Elder Brown

(Dinner appointment at a member's house on an exchange)

May 21, 2013

Hallo!

It was Pfingsten (Pentecost?) yesterday, and everything was closed, so we moved our P-day to today, so sorry for the heartache of no email yesterday. Haha but that´s another thing that I like about Deutschland, they have holidays all the time, and actually observe them. The first day I got here was a holiday, and we asked a guy on the street what it was, and he said, "the Erste Mai!" ... The first of May. Haha. So tight. 

But anyways, the week went well, let’s see if I can remember what happened. On Monday, I did indeed hit H&M, as well as Deichmann, and C&A. I very much enjoy shopping here.

On Tuesday we had District Meeting in Düsseldorf which is always fun (and provides great nap time on the Bahn). Then we spent most of the day traveling to and from Monheim for a lesson with a guy. He´s cool, wants to quit smoking (like everyone else). Gave him a blessing, it was cool. Then that night we had a lesson with the investigator who´s our main focus right now. He´s super tight.  Told us he reads his Book of Mormon every night and takes notes on his laptop. Pretty cool. But he now has a baptismal date for June 29. We´re excited. 

Wednesday was Frankfurt for trainers and greenies and that was tight. Train ride to Frankfurt is realllllly long but really pretty. I slept most of it. The meeting was tight though. Got to see all my MTC buds so that was cool. Didn´t get home til like 22 so that was all we did that day. Thursday we met with the less active member who teaches us German. He´s such a boss. He gave us a news article about a bishop in Utah that scared off a robber with a samurai sword. Kinda cool. But then I have like no idea what we did the rest of the day. Met with another investigator who also wants to quit smoking. But he´s a really cool, chill guy. Lessons with him are cool. 

Friday we met with an older member in a nursing home that we go by once a week. Probably my favorite person in the world. He´s so awesome haha. But then we went by another less-active member. He´s a guy that´s super tight. He´s got tats and guns and knives all over the place, and he makes jam. But that was fun. And he gave us jam. It´s delicious.

Saturday was a mission-wide finding day and we bombed it pretty bad so we´ll move on to Sunday haha. Sunday´s always great. Ward is super cool, had an eating appointment and it was good. Then went home and planned. Good chill day. 

Yesterday was a great day. We had a Pfingst Frühstuck in the Gemeinde and it was off the chain. Had like 5 nonmembers there so it was even better. Side note, if I´m not 300 lbs by March 2015 it will be a small miracle. Took the sacrament to a lady in the ward with some health problems... Then visited an older couple with a member of the bishopric and gave them blessings. It was a good day. 

Other than that, I´m loving it here. Deutschland is awesome. The ward is super cool, and I just like it a lot.

 I hope everyone has a schöne Tag and wish everyone well for the kommende Woche.

Love you guys!

Elder Brown

Arriving in Germany

P-day in Solingen

Scenery in Solingen

May 13, 2013

We Skyped with Elder Brown on Mother’s Day so his letter was kind of short the next day – a picture is attached – it was great to talk to him and he looked and sounded great!

Hallo!

The past week was pretty good. We´ve been having some pretty good success, and have two pretty solid investigators right now. One of them came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it, so that´s cool. He´s from Kosovo. He´s a really cool dude and we´re looking forward to meeting with him more often. 

Our other investigator didn´t make it to church because his girlfriend was sick, but he´s really cool too and really interested in the church. He´s German and he´s really cool and pretty funny. Those are always fun appointments so I´m looking forward to that. 

Other than that, we work a lot with less-actives and our young adults. Just to kind of help lay the foundation for the future of the church here in Germany. But I really enjoy that especially. We have some super tight, interesting less active members. And then we have three really strong YSA´s that are super cool. It´s fun working with them, and helping them talk with friends and stuff. 

Other than that, I just really like Germany. I love train rides to and from Solingen, they´re super cool. Went through Köln the other day and that´s a super cool city. The food is wonderful. I don´t know how I ever lived without pomm-döners. The Haribo factory in town is also very convenient haha. 

This week is looking like it´ll be pretty busy. We’ll lose a day because of our trip to Frankfurt this weekl, so we have to fit everything into one less day. That´ll be fun. 

Well, if you guys ever have any questions about Deutschland, let me know! I feel like my emails are really boring... haha. But I love you guys, and I hope everything is going well for everyone!

Auf Wiedersehen

Elder Brown

May 6, 2013

Hallo!

My first email from Germany... kinda crazy. But I´ll get right down to it I guess... Also it´s telling me I´m spelling every word wrong so that´s kinda annoying. Haha but whatever. 

Well, the first week was pretty dope. We landed Wednesday morning and got right down to business. Me and my bud Elder Rogers went out contacting with an elder who was going home, so that was cool. My lone contact was asking an old dude dragging a bag if I could help, and him replying "es gibt kein Gott" {There is no God}... pretty tight haha. Then he started going through the trash. Then we did a bunch of awful paperwork and ate pizza with President and Sister Schwartz. They´re super cool. But then we went to the super foreign Holiday Inn Express and passed out. 

On Thursday morning I met my trainer, Elder Allen, and we headed out to my first area... Solingen. It´s up in the northwest part of the mission, right next to Düsseldorf. It´s a really cool place.. probably about the size of Denton... but Deutsch haha. That took most of the day... Then we went and helped a Nigerian lady paint her apartment. 

Friday, we went to the other city in our area, Remscheid, which is about the same size, to see some less actives but didn´t find any of them. Then we went and helped Esther again. Three YSA´s {Young Single Adults}.. or JAE´s auf Deutsch, have helped us with that... They´re all super tight. A couple are preparing for missions so that´s really cool. But after that, I had my first döner (basically the equivalent of a hamburger in America as far as availability, cost, and healthiness go...) which is basically a gyro. They´re soooo good. I will be eating many haha. 

Saturday we had district meeting in Düsseldorf... District is cool. We went on splits and did a finding day there. I went with an Elder who´s on his last transfer. He´s from Bountiful, but he went to UNT before the mish and spent some time in the YSA ward... - Elder Hall. Also, finding here is a tad difficult. Then we had an appointment back in Solingen... and it was kinda crazy haha. I don´t even know what to say. We went through the 15-step program to quit smoking.... 

First Sunday was really cool. There´s about 70 active members, and they´re pretty sweet. Lots of English is spoken here by the way... so that’s nice. Still learning a lot of Deutsch though. I gave my testimony and introduced myself auf Deutsch. They all said I did wonderful haha. Then we had a dinner appointment that lasted from after church until planning time basically haha. It took like an hour and a half to get there switching buses and everything, but it was great once we got there. It was with the ward mission leader. We had a barbecue and we didn´t even eat like half the meat, and we ate a lot. So that was nice. 

But today we helped the Nigerian sister again... it was cool. 

Anyways, Deutschland has been tight so far. That´s about it for today

Auf Wiedersehen!

Elder Brown