Christi Himmel Fahrt

Well before I begin with what happened this week, I just want to say that this morning it snowed! It's the 25th of April and it snows in Germany.  That's pretty crazy, the snowflakes were pretty huge as well.  I thought summer was coming, but boy was I wrong!

This week we haven't been able to get in contact with 2 of our most promising investigators, its frustrating, but we aren't going to give up on them!
We did meet with a super strong Catholic guy, who has been meeting with the missionaries forever, and that was interesting.  He gave us super good hot chocolate!  We asked him why the Catholic Bishops aren't allowed to have a family, even though it says in the Bible that the bishops can have a family.  He said that it's  because they have to focus on the church and that the Catholic Church made a statement about it.  It makes sense I guess, but at the same time it's the Catholic Church going against what the Bible says and changing doctrine.  Come to find out, he has read all of the Doctrine and Covenants and totally didn't understand it.  He hasn't read the Book of Mormon, so of course he won't understand the D&C.  We talked a lot about Polygamy and how God gives us commandments that we don't know the reasons why.  He wants us to keep coming back, but I don't know how much that is going to help.  It was a little frustrating.

Another lesson we had was a joint teach with a less active.  We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon because the investigator said she had "keine Zeit" or no time to read.  Man if I had a nickel for every time a German said that to me I would be richer than Donald Trump!  That's the excuse everyone uses, it doesn't even matter if they are taking a slow walk through the city, they still say they have no time.  But back to the lesson, it went really good and we committed her to read in the Book of Mormon. She is moving in 2 weeks, but we will be sure to give her information to the elders in her new city.  She also baked us really good cake, my companion and I each ate a 1/4 of it.  It was that good!

 We have been meeting with an American named George for a little bit now.  He is super cool and has been here for 8 years, but can't speak a word of German!  George is one of the hippiest people I have met.  He's all about peace and he smokes some weed every now and then.  He actually was a roadie (someone who works for traveling performers taking care of their equipment) for some bands and that's what he did for a job.  He met his wife over the internet and that is how he came to Germany, because she is German.  I love George, even though he loooooves to talk, you can't just have an hour appointment with George.  We talk mostly about the Gospel, but he gets sidetracked really easy.  Lately he loves to talk about politics and of course Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.  But he doesn't like either of them, he's rooting for the green party which is the lady who wants to legalize marijuana!  Luckily, George believes in God. In fact he has a very strong belief in God and we are just trying to strengthen that.  We make very slow progress with George, but one day he will read the Book of Mormon.  Right now we listen to it with him.  It was pretty funny, we were listening to somewhere in the Book of Mormon and it talked about the Nephites using herbs because God gave them to them to eat and use for diseases.  Well George loved that passage!  He stopped and was like, "Hello, are you hearing what I am hearing, haha!

We played soccer with the Kiel Zone Leaders and some German kids and that was really fun.  Germans are crazy good at soccer.  I managed to score a goal though, woohoo!  Next time we are going to play basketball and then they will see how Americans play basketball.

We gathered stones again this week for service.  It wasn't bad this time because the youth came and we got to talk to them.  We have removed all of the big stones from 1 field and supposedly there are 8 more fields!

There is a holiday coming up and it's called Christi Himmel Fahrt.  They celebrate it as Father's day now and all the men just drink beer and go around the city pulling a wagon full of beer, it's pretty weird.  The ward youth has planned a party for that day and since my companion is the Young Mens Advisor we need to go.  Well, President Fingerle wants all of the missionaires to stay inside the whole day and read the whole Book of Mormon.  Big problem, since we don't want to disobey the Mission President!  Anyway, we ended up talking to the Zone Leaders about what to do.  They approved us going to the party and then going home to read. (editors note: This holiday celebrates the Ascension of Christ into Heaven forty days after Easter.  It is also Father's day and Fathers get presents from their children.  Men tend to leave their wives and children at home on this day and go out drinking with their friends.)

The members here are just the coolest!  We work super well with the ward and they really help us out.  Whenever we need a joint teach everyone is super ready to help!  And when they need help with home teaching, they know who to call!  I don't think I have ever seen better communication and Zusammenhang between the Ward and the missionaries.  I don't know what Zusammenhang is in English, I only know what it means in German, sorry.  (editors note: It means close connection ) But at our eating appointment yesterday, the family said we are the best missionaries and their favorites!  #browniepoints!

Tschuss (bye)
Elder Spangenberg

Weekly Email

 We had Zone Training Meeting this week and it was about preparing for the temple which is going to be rededicated soon.  So we made a human pyramid and guess who got to be at the bottom!

Transfers came and my companion and I are staying together!  My companion goes home after 5 weeks and there are 7 weeks of this transfer, so I guess I'll be in a trio somewhere.  It also means that I will be killing my first missionary, in mission talk!

This week was pretty normal.  We met with some people and found some people, you know missionary stuff.  On a sad note, one of our investigators Mei the Chinese woman, doesn't really have much interest in God.  She said her life is going good so she doesn't need God, but if it was going bad then she would pray.  That's a really sad outlook on life, but sadly that's why God chastens us, so we remember him.

We did a lot of work with the members this week and on Saturday we did service for some less active families!  We demolished a cement wall, which was pretty fun!  Then we picked up stones in a field so they wouldn't ruin the machine used to till the ground for planting.  So we are both pretty exhausted!  But it's always nice to serve people!

I also went on exchange in Flensburg this week and that was really fun.  It was nice being with a young missionary again with that MTC excitement!

 Even if it rains every day here in the north, there is still stuff to do and people to meet.

Today for Pday we are going to a really famous bat cave, that should be really cool.

Elder Spangenberg

These pictures are with the missionary that was born in Samoa and lived in Alaska.

Neumunster Zone Training Meeting

Conference Week

 I hope everyone had a spiritually uplifting time hearing all of the conference talks.  I love how Elder Uchtdorf even spoke in German.  I have never been to Dresden but it's in my mission and I would love to see it. All the talks were great and I haven't even seen the last session yet.  With the time difference, it's too late for us to watch it, so we will see it next Sunday after church.  Hey, my companion and I had the best seats in the building...oh yah...we were the only ones.  Everyone else stayed home for 2 of the sessions and watched it there.

This week we were pretty much on the streets talking to people the whole time.  It's not really fun, but it's what you have to do when you want to find people to teach!  We were persecuted only a little, just people flipping us off and honking at us.  We just met with a really cool guy from Syria who has a real desire to learn if our church is true.  Sure, he probably was the one person out of the 30 or more people that we talked to that has interest, but it makes him totally worth it.

My companion and I are eating healthier, so we eat salad every week and lots of veggies. It's definitely a change from what most missionaries eat.  See the pictures below.

Now it is our job to read and reread the Conference talks to really get everything we can out of it.  I know that Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet called of God and that he leads this church and has access to all the priesthood keys.  When we follow him we won't be led astray.

Question of the week from Mom:  What is the single most important thing you have learned on your mission?       Well, ultimately the thing that I have learned is that God really knows me personally.  Everywhere I have been, I know was right for me.  I love Neumunster, it's definitely going to be a favorite along with Nienberg.  Even though I didn't want to come up here (at all!), these members are the best members I have met.  They support my companion and I in everything and it's so great.  We went home teaching with an old Stake President in the ward and he was talking to us.  He was like, "You know I just can't picture the thought of you two leaving Neumunster.  You should come back, marry and stay in the ward."  We actually might take up his offer, haha.  But seriously, God knew that what I needed was Neumunster and I truly know that God knows me better than I know myself and just like Elder Halstrom said in conference, "You can have what you want, or you can have something better" from God that is.

Love,

Elder Spangenberg

Easter!

This guy loves Sherlock Holmes and calls himself Sherlock.  He loves the missionaries and everyone in the city knows him, he is pretty funny!

Happy Easter Everyone!
First off, Happy Birthday to my brother Lincoln, who turns 12 this week!  We had a good week, full of member appointments.  Kristijan is doing great!  We gave him a big photo of the temple that he can put on his wall and he was really happy.  We taught him about the fall of Adam and he understood it perfectly!  Most people have a hard time understanding it, but he understood it and believed what we said.  He just needs to come to church and then he can be baptized.

Well one thing that happened this week unusual, was going to a Jehovah Witness Sacrament meeting.  This only happens once a year.  Our Ward Mission Leader meets with them and they talk about what they believe; don't worry our ward mission leader has a strong testimony, so there is no worry there.  We went with him because it's only a once a year experience.  The people were really nice and we got along with them. I don't know what everyone knows about the Jehovah Witnesses so I'll explain a little bit.  So they believe that 144,000 people will be saved and live with God, so equivalent to us living in the celestial kingdom.  For the others who were not saved, they can still get eternal life but not with God Or Jehovah , yeah that's pretty sad.  And only the 144,000 can take the sacrament, keep in mind that it's 144,000 of all the people that have ever lived on the earth.  So they passed around the Sacrament after talking about it for an hour, but nobody partook of it.  I asked our Ward Mission Leader what would have happened if I had taken some of the Sacrament.  He said that it would not have been good!  SO yeah, everyone just passed the tray from the aisle. They said you can take of it, if Jehovah tells you that you are one of the 144,000 and if you take it, then they write your name down and keep track of all the people who have taken of it.  Another weird concept is that they believe that we die because we sin, not because that's just part of life.  My companion and I wanted to take a selfie there but I left my iPad so we didn't, but they gave us some of their booklets and bibles and they were really nice to us, so that's cool.

We just had our Easter breakfast today and we had 2 investigators there!  One of them is an ewigator, which means he has been an investigator for like 5 years.  Those are the people that are too stubborn to change or who knows the reason to be honest.  But we also had a new investigator show up that we found!  Her name is Mai and she is from China, she is really cool.  We found her talking to people on the street this week.  The ward was super happy and excited when she came, and she made some great friendships.  Actually her and our new ward mission leader's wife have a lot of things in common.  They both work at the same mall and are both foreigners, but married to a German and they both speak English!  We have a couple of appointments with her so hopefully everything goes good, she even took a Book of Mormon in Chinese!

Yes, my companion knows the missionary that was hurt in Brussels.  They went to Lone Peak High together, not good friends just know of each other.  Because of that event, we are not allowed to be in groups at the train station anymore.  So we can't wait at the train station for our train, we wait outside till like 10 minutes before our train comes, then we go in, but that's only in big cities.

 I'm so tired of the people here talking about Trump.  They say all he has is money and if he is the president then everyone will be against America and he could create World War 3.  Has he won the republican nominee?

I hope everyone had a Good Easter.  I know that Christ rose from the grave and because he did, we can too!  He lives and I know it.  Have a great week!
Elder Spangenberg

Our companionship slogan, Don't worry, be happy! 

Flensburg!

 I was on exchange this week in Flensburg and that city is beautiful!  It's right on the border to Denmark.  We met lots of people that are actually Danish.  We didn't have any appointments so we did finding the whole day and it was great!  We were there twice this week because we helped the elders and the city for the "Clean Flensburg Day".  All we did was walk around and pick up trash, but it was fun.  If only the city would do that for Neumunster!  #ghetto

Most of this week was actually train rides and now my companion and I are totally broke.  But we are doing great together!  We got a new Ward Mission Leader this week and we are pretty excited.  This week is mostly eating appointments but that's a great opportunity to receive referrals.

We are really working with one of our investigators, the only thing he needs to do is come to church, but he can't because he has work!  All of our other investigators are doing well, we can't get any to come to church but hopefully that will change.

If you haven't seen the Hallelujah Video, then I invite you to check it out.  We went by on a part member family this week and we showed that to them and the spirit was so strong and we could tell that the nonmember felt it.  Have a great Easter!

Elder Spangenberg

Selfie with the dog in the car.  Notice my companion looking in the window on the other side!

Me looking at the sunset in Flensburg

North Sea

 I am super tight on time this week, but we had a good week, even if most of our appointments fell out.  Our recent convert just went to the Copenhagen, Denmark Temple on Saturday.  It's about a 2 hour drive and then they took an hour ferry ride to get there.  She had an amazing experience there, so we are really happy for her.

On Pday our ward mission leader took us to the North Sea, thus all the pictures.  It was pretty, but cold.   We still meet with lots of people and our days are pretty packed.  It's great here, I love it!

We heard "Puff the Magic Dragon" yesterday in the car and it brought back some good memories of home. When I was little, I used to sit next to the stereo while it played and sing it.
 
Elder Spangenberg