Craziest mission week so far! On Monday, we went to Berlin with other missionaries and were having a great Pday. We were at the Berliner Dom, which is a ginormous church, just chilling there when the phone rings. My companion pulls out the phone and turns out, our Mission President was calling! We were outside on top of the dome looking at the city and it was super loud. So my companion told President that we would call him back and President said, "Okay, just do it within the next 30 minutes. I'm freaking out at this point thinking of all the possibilities that it could be because you don't get a call everyday from President Fingerle, so it must be pretty important. So we rush out of the building and my companion calls him back and he talks with him for like 5 minutes. My companion saying, "okay, yeah, I guess" with the most surprised look on his face. I'm about ready to pee my pants at this moment. Then he finally gets off and is like, "Well I can't tell anyone but my companion", so we go over in the trees and this is what he tells me, "Both of us have to be in the mission home at 8 a.m. on Thursday. You need to bring your suitcases, but I'm coming back. We will be meeting our new companions there." "Oh, and we aren't allowed to tell anybody." Like literally, I have never been more confused, disappointed, or sad in my entire life. I had only been at this new place for less than 3 weeks!
So after that we go get ice cream (I was needing a little cheering up!), then the AP's call and they are like, "Elder Spangenberg, are you ready for your transfer call?" I say, "What the heck is going on?" They said that I will be going to Heide and they can't tell me why and that's pretty much it!! I couldn't believe what they just said, that means that I will be going back to the Neumunster Zone for my 4th time! It felt like a total joke because Heide is the only Ward or Branch in this zone that I have not been to the church or the apartment! I think I might as well just live up there, because I can't get out!
So yeah, I had like 2 days to pack and I pretty much just threw everything in my suitcases and then whatever else I had I just put in plastic bags. Because Heide has a car!! Yay!! My first area with a car. I didn't have to ride the train from Berlin to Hamburg with all my suitcases for like the 4th time! It's actually ironic because the office has been nagging me all the time about finishing my driving record papers and I've kind of just not worried about it because, one I've never had a car, and two I go home in 3 months, why bother.
I did say goodbye to some close members. I hated to leave Frankfort Odor. We met with the Egyptian family the night before I left and that was great. They fed us Egyptian food again and they were so nice made everything great. But I promised them I would come back after the mission and visit them!
Thursday, we went into Berlin and stayed overnight with the elders for like the 5th time in 3 weeks. I said goodbye to Elder Thompson and then I met my new companion, Elder Williams and we had a 4 and a half hour drive to Heide. Road Trip! Heide is pronounced High-duh.
This area is actually pretty cool. I'm gonna be honest, I have heard this place is literally the worst area in the mission, but that was when they didn't have a car. We literally just drive around and knock on doors the whole day, which sounds awful, but it's great because it's so peaceful and beautiful and the area is gigantic! The dorfs (cities) are so small, the biggest town in our area is 20,000 and we live in Heide, which is 18,000. (Microscopic compared to Berlin!) The branch here is super nice! We all ate together on Sunday, so I met all the members pretty quick. It was really funny cause they walk into church and they are like, "Wait, you aren't the other missionary, what happened?" So we had to explain to the 40 members what happened, because the missionaries weren't allowed to tell the ward before they left.
Quickly, this is what happened. In Turkey a civil war is going on so they took out those missionaries and brought all 15 of them to Berlin Germany. This is because Germany has the second highest Turkish population in the world. They are not anticipating it to be a long time. My old companion was studying Arabic and my new companion's companion was studying Turkish so these missionaries were asked to be companions with the Turkish Elders. The reason for the secrecy was because it needed to be announced by the LDS church newsroom before we let it out.
My new companion is from Arizona and actually went to the same high school as Elder Miller, one of my last comps. He goes home one transfer after me so we are like one of the oldest companionship's on the mission. He also loves dub step and electronic music, which I know nothing about but he is "culturing" me about it, lol.
Have a great week!
Elder Spangenberg
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