Zone Conference with a New Mission President!

Elder Westbury and Elder Spangenberg

Hello Everyone!

This week  we met our new Mission President!  The Zone Conference was in German, before with President Kosak, it was in English.  President Fingerle also brought his kids to the Zone Conference as well.  He has 5 kids. His daughter is in Salt lake City at Temple Square serving a mission right now.  His 10 year old daughter, 16 year old daughter, and his son who served a mission to England two years ago, were with us.

We are now focusing on the Temple, our new mission motto is: Faithfully we baptize, focused on the blessing of the temple.  Now we encourage our investigators to have two dates; one for them to be baptized and the other date for them to take a relative that has passed on, to the temple.  Many Germans do not know their family history and many of their grandparents are not living.

He also spoke a lot about inviting people to come to church to all of the events.  His son spoke about his mission.  I really like his son.

This week went by so fast.  One of the days we had planned to go dooring for about 2 hours in the evening.  We weren't  having much success until we knocked on one door and we said we are the Mormons.  He said, "Oh come in!"  It turns out he went to Utah a year ago and went through Zions  and also went through the St. George Temple Visitors Center.  He had a book of Mormon and papers about genealogy.  We taught him the 1st lesson.  We invited him to come to our ward party this week.  Sadly, he didn't show up, but we have his address so we will definitely be going back this week.

We only met with our investigators on baptismal date once this week because they were pretty sick.  All of it depends on whether he will read the Book of Mormon to his wife and if she prays about it.  She can't read, so her husband has to read to her.  In the past they haven't, but we have faith that this time they will read together.

One of our investigators wanted to give something to one of our members.  So she decided that she would call the missionaries and we would deliver it.  Well, there was a little bit of confusion involved and we ended up delivering it to the wrong member's house. It was a bag of magazines and still has not been found!  We are planning to bake her cookies and hopefully things will be well between us.

Saturday we had our ward party.  Only like 50 ward members showed up total, which is not that great.  But one of our investigators came.  He made lots of friends in the ward as well.  The only problem is we aren't sure if we can keep teaching them because of his family being Muslim.  But we will find out this week.

We also received a very promising referral this week. She was an exchange student in the U.S. and she learned about the church there.  Also you could say I'm getting better at soccer cause I scored a goal!

I got the birthday package, thanks!  I haven't opened it yet, but I can't make any promises since there is beef jerky in the box haha!

(Mom asks what's the best thing on a mission  and what do you miss about home)  The best thing about a mission is seeing the change that people make and also the change within yourself.  I do miss sports at home!

I hope you all have an amazing week. Remember that is isn't just the missionaries job to share the gospel, it is every member's job.  Our mission President talked about that at Zone Conference as well.

Love you!

Elder Spangenberg

Zone Conference

Hamburg-Neumunster Zone Conference with new Mission President.

Elder Spangenberg is on the back row, directly behind the Mission President on the front row.

Pday at Hamburg Rathaus!

Hamburg Rathaus- the city or town hall.  After the Great Fire of 1842 destroyed the old city hall, this building replaced it with construction from 1886 to 1897.  Built during a period of wealth and prosperity in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated France in the Franco-German War. It cost 11 million German Gold Marks to build.  There are 647 rooms. It still houses its original governmental functions with the office of the first mayor of Hamburg and the meeting rooms for Hamburg's parliment and senate.

The Courtyard has the Hygieia Fountain.  Hygieia is the Goddess of Health in Greek Mythology and the surrounding figures represent the power and pureness of water.  It was built in rememberance of the Cholera epidemic in 1892.

Map of the fire in Hamburg, the red is where it was destroyed.

They gave these chairs normally for wedding gifts back then. It is really beautiful!

Parliment Floor

Look at the right corner, that is the original paint.

No bombs during WWII for this.  One of the bombs landed just outside of it.  Luckily it didn't explode, this is the detonator of it! 

 

   

Statue from South America because at this time, Hamburg was the only state in Europe to accept South American succession.

Look closely, notice how there is a blank space under the Catholics arm.  Well the original painting had a person bowing to him.  They painted over it because the only thing a Hamburg citizen bows to is God.  I thought that was so cool!

Baptism Date!!!

We met one of our new investigators who is really cool, unfortunately we probably won't be able to teach him anymore because his family is Muslim and they are hostile towards Christians. He is really nice.

 We did exchanges this week with the Zone Leaders, and me and Elder Morton were together for a day,just like old times!He told me about Herr Merankovich or now Brother Merankovich.  He said that 8 people related to him he thinks will be baptized and that 3 of his family members are on baptismal date!We picked up just where we left off and we found 2 new investigators just like old times.  

Two of our investigators are now on baptismal date.  We were wondering what we could teach them before our appointment, because we have already taught them all of the lessons.  We decided they needed a goal or a vision so we had the feeling to talk about baptism.  We have talked about it a lot in the past, but he always shuts down the idea because of them being uncertain if they are going to stay here in Germany.We committed Memet and his wife to be baptised on the 25th of July!

 Our zone now has 8 baptismal dates I believe. That's crazy!

We had a couple of member appointments this week.  One of them was at a Chinese Buffet again, that place is kind of getting old, haha.  But the member was really nice and we had to go in our Pday clothes, because we helped a member move a washer, dryer, and fridge around.This week was also so hot, oh my goodness, it got up to 37 Celsius. Which is like 102 I think. (Mom's Note: 98.6 Fahrenheit)

This week we have Zone Conference,and I am really excited to meet President Fingerle,he seems really awesome.  It was amazing to hear Elder Morton tell about how the gospel of Jesus Christ changed Herr Merankoviche's life. I have seen the gospel change my life and other people around me.  Now it is our job as members to help foster the change in other peoples lives!

I love you all and hope you had a wonderful 4th of July!  We had a good fourth.  I wore my American tie and socks!

Elder Spangenberg

 Goofy District Picture

Elder Spangenberg with Elder Morton

Goodbye and Welcome of Mission Presidents

 These pictures and words taken from the last post of the German Berlin Mission Blog. 2012-2015

Goodbye Germany Berlin Mission-We Love You!

 The Best Three Years!

President and Sister Kosak

 President Kosak says,"We're home already-100 km South of Berlin.

We left the office and had tears in the car.
  Needed to stop since we couldn't see anything anymore.
  The fight  for Christ continues.  Love you forever!"

Welcome President and Sister Fingerle

Gift of Tongues!

We found 3 new investigators this week so now we have some people to teach.  We ate at Mr. Woos again with a member.  It's a Chinese buffet and this time they had really exotic food.  I had Kangaroo and shark meat, it tasted really good.  My companion was a daredevil and decided to try the squid, he definitely regrets that, haha.

  But most of our week was finding and dooring.  We had 2 appointments with the Memetovich Family.  I gave him a priesthood blessing in German.  I was really nervous first, but then I realized I shouldn't be nervous about it and gave him one.  So they might be going back to Serbia this week.  They only received 4 more days in Germany, so if you could pray for his family and that everything will be okay then that would be great!

 We helped so many people with directions.  Everybody thinks we work for Deutsche Bahn (German Trains) because they wear suits, so they always ask us for directions.  One guy we talked to was totally drunk, but he took our card, so hopefully he will call us.

 We biked like 30 km on Saturday and our legs were so sore after that!  We helped another family move into the ward.  Our ward is actually pretty big now, it's over 100 active memebers!  Also on Saturday, we saw some guy just jump out of the bushes after doing drugs.  It was pretty weird.

The German is coming alone.  I am trying to learn at least 2 new words everyday.  I know that the gift of tongues is real, I can't believe I can speak German after less than a year.  It's really cool when people ask you how long you studied German and you say only since I've been on my mission(8 months) and they are like, "What, no way!"

I know this church is true.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.  I know that God loves us and knows us.  I know that Christ suffered for our sins and that when we believe and have faith in him, we can return to live with him again.

Elder Spangenberg

Our District

 For PDay, we took a boat cruise, it was really cool.  It rained halfway through, but I still got some good photos.

 Notice the locks on the "Lock Bridge"