First week in Delingsdorf!

I spent my last day in Berlin with Elder Morton going to the Zoo.  My companion absolutely loved it!  He knew so many things about the monkeys and just every animal.  The zoo was cool; it wasn't too big, maybe just a bit bigger than Hogle Zoo.  We also went by the Aquarium and saw some enormous fish.


Tuesday was transfer day, so I spent one and a half hours on a train to Hamburg.  My suitcase broke so that was fun dragging a broken suitcase throughout the Bahnhof(train exchange place).  Then I met my companion and we went back to our area.  He is good and we work together well and teach well together. I love this new area.  It rains a lot here too!

The name of the area I serve in is Delingsdorf.  Delingsdorf is where the church is and that's about it.  The population there is 2,000 and we never go there except for church and visiting a couple of members there.  We live in Ahrensburg, it isn't a huge city but there are lots of individual houses and not huge apartment buildings like in Spandau.  It is a nice city and cleaner than Berlin.  The city that we travel to for district meetings is Lubeck.  Oh my gosh, that city is absolutely beautiful.  It has hills and it's so green. Sadly, I don't serve there, but get to see it once a week.  But in our area, there is a part of Hamburg and we'll be going there on some Pdays, even though it's not in our Zone.

After I met my companion, we had a quazi(?) lesson.  We met with this family from Madeconia and they don't speak any German.  They speak Macedonian, and there is no Book of Mormon in that language.  But there is in Serbian, which only the father speaks.  So we went and watched the Restoration in Serbian.  We aren't sure how much they understood, but the spirit was definately there and that's all that's important.

Then we had a lesson with this guy named M.  He is really cool; we aren't sure if he is all the way there, but it was a good lesson.  We are meeting him at the church for a lesson!  Then we found an investigator on the way home.

Wednesday, we had a District Meeting and had to travel to Lubeck for that.  Well, we ended up missing our train, so it took almost 2 hours to get to the meeting.  But District Meeting was good.  This new district is filled with experienced missionaries, a lot different from Spandau District.  Then we had a lesson with a new convert named Claudia.  She was baptized 2 weeks ago and is from Honduras.  She is really cool and super nice.  She also has a really strong testimony.

On Thursday, we had a lesson with Frau J.  She just showed up at the church 3 weeks ago and since then the missionaries have been teaching her.  We had a good lesson about prayer.  Her situation  is tough because she doesn't like her job or her apartment.  But as soon as she gets those sorted out, she will definitely be baptized and become a member.

Friday, we fasted for some investigators.  But that night we had an eating appointment with a member named Hadi.  He is really cool and is from Iran.  He was in the Iranian Army so this guy is ripped.  He has a strong testimony and is a convert of 10 years.  He also draws really cool pictures.  he loves America too, which isn't that common of people born there.  But almost every one of his drawings has something to do with America.
Then we had a joint teach with the ward mission leader and the family we fasted for.  So their story is that they are from Serbia.  They haven't been living here for that long, we think they refugees or something.  But the Government is probably going to make them go back to Serbia.  They are all really interested in the gospel and want to be baptized.  The problem is that the father sold fake sunglasses there; he doesn't want to be baptized and then go back to doing that job because he knows it is dishonest.  And 85% of people in Serbia are unemployed.  And he says there are no honest jobs there.  The ward mission leader gave him a priesthood blessing and the spirit was so strong.  The father said that after the blessing, he saw Jesus hugging him.  We are trying to organize skype between the family and the missionaries in Serbia next week, because we are pretty sure they are going back.  But if you could please pray for that family that everything will be okay and that the father will find an honest job, that would be great!

Saturday, we did street contacting for about an hour.  No new investigators but some good conversations and a couple of contacts received.  We meet this one lady who tried to convince us that Jesus was black. haha .
  Then we went to the hospital to visit a ward member.  It was really sad.  She had a stroke at home and her son didn't know to call anyone.  She waited 2 hours for the sister to get home and she called the ambulance.  Because they waited so long, the lady can't speak.  My companion gave her a blessing, she was crying at the end of it.  She is a cool member that loves the missionaries.  You could tell she was happy to see us.
On Saturday, we also played soccer with the members.  Every week we play soccer with the Bishop and most of the young men in the ward.  It was really fun, but holy cow, we got wrecked!  Even the Bishop was amazing at soccer.  It was really fun though, hopefully I will improve.  There was about 20 people there, which is a great turnout.

Sunday we went with the Claudias family to church.  The ward is really great and has 80 active members.  Which is a lot more than Spandau.  The church is exactly like the Spandau church too, the same plan and everything.  After church we had lunch with the members, then we saw the Sunday Evening Session of Conference.  We had to watch it in German, I am surprised, I understood most of it.  When President Uchtdorf spoke in German the members were so happy, it was really cool to see that.
 Then we spent the rest of the day dooring.  We doored over 100 houses and nobody was home.  Which is weird because on Sunday usually everyone is home.  Then we had a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader and his Assistant.  It was great, they are so cool.  Next week we are going to meet and go by car to all of the less actives and see how we can help them get to church.  Our Assistant is in the Priest Quorum and he is so eager to help us with anything.

That's my week.  A cool thought is that we could potentially have 7 people baptized the next month.  That would be amazing!  Today for Pday we are going to Hamburg, I am so excited to see that.  No photos this week, I couldn't figure out this new computer to do it.  Next week!
Elder Spangenberg