Neumunster!!!

Well to be completely honest, I love it here!  I have never been to an area where we already have people to teach from the first day!  Normally I go to areas and have to door all day (and everyday), and build up the program.  We are teaching quite a few people and it's awesome!  The apartment here is really nice too, no mold, thank goodness!
 My companion and I get along great.  He is from Utah and went to Lone Peak High School. He likes sports, but also music like me, so it's good.  He's also a fantastic teacher, like one of the best I have seen on my mission, so I hope to improve my teaching skills from him. Our district leader is amazing, Elder Bretzing is such a nice guy and he actually sets the example and tries to help people.  Also, Elder Mayer is in my district and I really like him.  He is such an energy ball, and he's fun to be around. (Elder Mayer is from North Salt Lake and went to Woods Cross High School.)

   The ward is awesome as well!  Actually this week there was a priesthood meeting for everyone in the Neumunster stake so I had the opportunity to see some of the members from Pinneberg and Delingsdorf in this stake.  It's pretty funny, I know over half of the stake here now.

The little red box shows where Kiel is.  

We had two service projects this week.  For the first one, we went to Kiel and helped the Zone Leaders take things out of the Institute Center.  We got these really cool suit things to wear while doing it, because we got very dirty.  We looked like ghost busters, it was pretty funny.  See pictures below!


























We also chopped wood for the stake president and that was actually pretty fun.  My companion and I had a blast doing that!  We got two referrals this week!  One from a member and one from an investigator.

It's pretty cold here but it's because we are close to the sea.  Actually, today we are going to the North Sea with our Ward Mission Leader.  I'm really excited, it should be really pretty.

We had the craziest experience on my mission on Sunday.  We have a new convert here.  She is really great.  She is from Hungary and her German isn't that good but she is learning and somehow we are able to understand each other.  So we teach her during the Sunday School hour of church and we usually just answer questions for her and help her when she can't understand.  She had a question about angels and why they even exist and what they are and stuff like that.  So we directed her to D&C where it talks about them and the difference between them and the adversary.  So we read that with her and then she described an experience she had in which she woke up one night and saw a light and then she couldn't move and this light or something entered into her and then she fell asleep.  Well right after she described that experience her body began to shake uncontrollably.  I have never seen someone shake so much, every muscle in her body was twitching and she tried to stand up, but she couldn't. It was honestly very frightening. So we had a member give her a blessing right then, and right after he told her to be still and told the evil spirit to leave, she stopped shaking.  My companion and I have never experienced something like that, the power of the Priesthood is amazing.

Aside from that, it was mostly teaching people and visiting people.  My companion is actually one of the Young Men's Counselors so we go to Mutual every week.  And this past week, we baked brownies!  It's pretty fun to go to mutual again!  I feel like a super priest, haha.  There's just one priest and he's great.

  Another cool thing is, I saw a mountain this week!  The first one I have ever seen in Germany!!! I freaked out when I saw it.  It's pretty small though.

                         Pictures of the "mountain".  It's covered in trees and in the background.

The lesson this week in the Priests Quorum was about gnade or grace in English.  We discussed what that means and why we need it.  I just want to give my testimony that I know Christ lives and that he loves us and only through him can we achieve real happiness.  We may think we're strong, but really without him we are nothing.

Anyway, I'm really happy here, and I totally didn't want to come here, but God truly knew what I needed and he put me right where I should be!

 Thanks for always supporting me Mom and Dad.   Have a wonderful week!
Elder Spangenberg