This week was a pretty normal week. On Monday, we went to Lubeck for a baptismal interview for one of the sister's investigators. He was so nice, after the interview he drove us home from Lubeck. It was like a 30 minute drive and we kept saying he could drop us off at the train station, but he was like, "Nope I'm dropping you off at your front door, nowhere else." It was really awesome to meet him and he is going to be an awesome member!
Tuesday was interesting. We went street contacting for most of the day. Well in one city, we talked to this one guy. At first he just shrugged us off, then he turned back and said, "What are you doing here?" I said, "We are missionaries for our church." He was like,"I'm Muslim, you can't talk with me." (Lots of Muslims say that they think that because they are Muslim we can't talk to them) His German wasn't really that good, so my companion asked him where he was from. Well he slapped my companion right in the face! It was probably the hardest slap I have ever heard, his face was red for several hours. We don't know why he did it, we think it was because he couldn't understand what we were saying to him. It's interesting because last week, we were in that exact same area and some German guy pointed to us on the train platform and said, "Yankees you're not welcome here!" So we probably are not going back to that area for a little bit. My companion is fine, I thought his face would bruise after, but it didn't.
Wednesday, we were again in Lubeck for a District Meeting. After District Meeting, we went on exchanges with the Lubeck Elders. I went with Elder Jensen, he is fresh from Utah! I felt very privileged to be the first person to go on exchanges with him. He is super cool. We went by this one street, and two of the houses had hosted exchange students from Utah and because of that, nearly all the houses knew about Mormons! We called that street "Miracle Street". We had some good conversations with them but sadly, none had interest in the church. They said they probably would have about 10 years ago!
Thursday, we were still on exchanges and we had a member appointment. We had this food that is common in Hamburg, it's called,"Labskaus Eintopf". It was really good, I ate so much food there. They kept asking if I wanted more and usually I always say," yes" unless I really can't eat it, so I ate a lot of food.haha After that they gave us a referral! Then he showed us his book from when he was in Utah. They are a really cool family and they love the missionaries, I have been there about 4 times, maybe even more than that. We exchanged back, Thursday evening, and also had an appointment with the Memetovich family. It was so hard! They have a daughter who is 4 and she just couldn't sit still. Sadly, they aren't going to be baptized this week. We realized there is a lot his wife doesn't understand because of the translation. But we are working hard with them. I gave his wife a blessing because she wasn't feeling well.
Friday, we went by this referral. It took forever to get to his house and turns out he wasn't home, so that was depressing. But we had a less active lesson with a member. It was a good lesson and she was really nice, but wow that lady can talk! Boy can she Quatsch! That's a German word, it pretty much means talk nonsense. But one good part, we did talk about Christ during the appointment and it was really good.
Saturday, we helped with a move in the morning. I thought they had a small apartment, well it turns out they have a big apartment with a lot of stuff in it! We just kept taking stuff out of their apartment load, after load. We had to leave early because a Ward Mission Leader wanted us to go with him to visit an old investigator and a member. So we went with him. Well, the plan was to be with him less than an hour, and it turned out we were there for two and a half hours They talked about everything from immigration to bad hospitals to Nazis. It was weird. (Mom's note: I asked Grant how they feel about the Nazis. This was his response: They said when they were in American, they got made fun of because they were German and people did the hail Hitler sign at them. They hate the Nazis. It's really sad that some people have totally the wrong view of Germans, they aren't at all like Hitler or the Nazis)
After that we went to the baptism for the Lubeck Sister's Investigator. We were debating the whole time about going and we went. It turned out to be really cool! I met some members who were baptized from a missionary in my Mueller Park Stake in Bountiful, Utah! I even talked to this missionary right before I left on my mission, it was so cool! We also got to meet the Lubeck Ward. They all welcomed us, even though we were 15 minutes late because of train times. There is only 1 train an hour to Lubeck. We felt really welcomed from the ward even though we were late. They have such a nice ward and wow their members love Lubeck! I have never met more people that love the city they live in more. Lubeck is really beautiful though.
Sunday, we had church and the Memetovich family came. We tried to teach them during our investigator class but their daughter again wouldn't be quiet, it was really frustrating. After that we went home for lunch because we had no members invite us over for dinner, which is weird. We usually have 3 eating appointments every week, but this week no one signed up. But that was no problem, we had a good lunch at home and then went out and visited the referral we got on Friday.
This time he was home, he let us in his house and he is really cool. He had a lot of wood things like the Christmas Pyramids. Well, he doesn't really have much interest in the church but he loves Barack Obama! It was very interesting, he totally admires everything about him and everything he does! He also told us about his grandpa in WWII. He was a Nazi and was captured and put in a prisoner of war camp for 2 years in France. Well the camp was under the U.S. direction. He made friends with the U.S. guards and helped the guards communicate with the other prisoners. Then he came home and their family was in a financial crisis. One of the American soldiers sent them a package full of food and they were so grateful for it. It was a really cool story, he tried to speak English with us. He was in his 80s. He made me really want to go to an area called Schwarzenberg in our mission. That is where all those Christmas decoration come from.
During my scripture study this week, I have learned a lot about Nephi. Nephi was willing to do whatever the Lord asked him to do, no matter what it was. Adam was the same, when Adam was asked why he was offering sacrifices, he said, "I know not except the Lord commanded me to." Let us all be obedient to all of the commandments even if they don't make sense to us because we know that because we are obedient we will be blessed. As a missionary, sometimes it is hard because some of the rules don't make a lot of sense and it would be easier to not obey them. But obedience brings blessings and exact obedience brings miracles.
I hope everyone has a great pioneer week. Never forget what the pioneers went through.
Love,
Elder Spangenberg
This is the Becker Family. Elder Harris from the Mueller Park Stake in Bountiful, Utah baptized him!
