Pinneberg Germany!

My new companion is Elder Halbleib.  He was trained by Elder Gibbs, my MTC companion.  Yes, the Gills are taking over our investigators.

We went back to Nienburg on Friday and Saturday and that was the greatest.  Pictures of the baptism are coming next week.  When I got to the Banhoff right after transfers to meet with the other missionaries my eyes were just full of tears!

  But Pinneberg is cool too.  The apartment is huge, like probably the 2nd biggest one I have seen in the mission.  The only problem is we have little hot water so we each get 5 minute showers and we have to turn the water off during the shower when we apply soap.  The ward is really nice, we have an eating appointment almost every day this week.  My companion is cool.  So yeah, it's good.  Thank goodness lots of people play the piano! haha  I guess it's cool to be in Hamburg, the 2nd biggest city in Germany for Christmas.  The Christmas markets are amazing there. 

We went to Hannover for the referal. (Remember the old photo of the lady that has family in Utah).  The older lady relative has been dead for over 2 years.  And the man wanted nothing to do with us or the lady in America.  He said contact with her would not be of any use.  He was nice about it but yeah, that was sad.  

The following are pictures from Hannover when we went by the referal.  

Cool old church

Organ inside

Elder Larsen had to stop me from taking a swim!

This translates to Everything for the Dog...I thought of Dad.

You can see what the war did to Hannover..it destroyed it.

"Heute" means "today" in English.

Christmas in Hannover!

 

I thought of Grandma Jean when I saw these birds because she always had birds like these around Christmas.

Christmas Markets....Almost all is wood!

This is downtown Hannover and this enormous Christmas pyramid moves!

A huge church in Hannover called Market Church.

Front of the church.

Inside

Cool  Christmas Star.

Last Pictures of Nienburg!

This is the Schmidt Family with Elder Larsen and I.  He will be was baptized this week.

1st Advent in Nienburg.  We had a booth at it.

This is our Church Booth.  We sold cookies and alcohol free punch as well as hot chocolate at it and donated the money to a children's food program.

A huge church in Nienburg right by our apartment.

Our Branch President with Elder Larsen and I.

An investigator in Nienburg with his two dogs that he treats like his kids.  He is really nice; he doesn't have much interest in the church but he loves the missionaries.

The Gills took us out for lunch for our last Pday in Nienburg.  This place has the biggest burgers I have ever seen.  Like I couldn't fit my mouth around them, you have to cut it because it's so big.

Unexpected Transfer Calls!

Elder Billings, Elder Ebisch, Elder Larsen, Elder Spangenberg, Elder and Sister Gill, Elder Horrocks, Elder Rot, Sister Lisonbee, and Sister Brim

Well this week was great, but it ended on a cliffhanger.  We got transfer calls and all I can say is WOW!  So Elder Larsen got transferred which was almost expected.  And I also got transferred!  Which means they are shutting down the Elders here.  Which honestly makes no sense; we have a baptism this week and lots of appointments.  We were both floored.  We talked to the AP's about it and they pretty much said,"Sorry, but it's out of our hands".

 Elder Larsen got transferred to Annaberg, which is pretty much the best area to be for Christmas, I am really jealous of him.  I am transferred to Pinneberg, in the Neumuenster Stake, I just came from there.  It is a lot like my last area because we are right next to Hamburg.  Elder Larsen is also going back to his old stake and zone.  We are losing missionaries so quick.  They all go home and not many are coming out, so lots of programs had to be shut down this transfer.  Elder Larsen and I were both very sad.
We held everything together on Saturday, we mostly cleaned the apartment.  But Sunday was too much for me, I cried all day Sunday and so did Elder Larsen.  I bore my testimony at Sacrament and right after was in tears.  I love Nienburg and Elder Larsen.  I have never seen so much success and happiness from one area.  This has been my greatest time on my mission.  I have learned so much in this area.  I pictured myself here for at least 3 more months. but I guesss God has a different plan for me.  Nienburg will be the first area I would ever think about visiting when I come back after my mission.  My dream now is to whitewash train here in Nienburg when there are more missionaries.  I mean I've already pretty much whitewashed it so why can't I train as well.

Andre is still going to be baptized this week.  I will be coming back for it to baptize him.  Which is gonna make it even harder to leave this area.

 My new companion is only 3 months in Germany, I'm golden busting him in mission talk.  Which means I am his first companion after his trainer and my job is to fix up that the trainer did wrong or just to help him.  But I'm excited because he's still young and full of energy.  But it's been really hard.  Never have I felt so sad about  leaving less than 20 members and about 10 investigators.  I'm afraid to go back to the big ward because you don't get to know the members as well but in these small branches it's like a big family.  And it really was here.  Every month we would all eat together and we would see most the members throughout the week.

As I was praying I felt a calm feeling come over me, but that doesn't mean that I'm not gonna bawl all day Monday and Tuesday.  To make things worse the Schmidts and a couple of members as well as the senior missionary couple are saying goodbye to us at the train station so when I meet my new companion my eyes will be full of water.  Pretty much all we are doing this Pday is saying goodbye to the people that I love so much.  It has felt like home here as well because my Grandpa is from Hannover and every week we went there for district meeting.  But I am grateful that I had the opportunity to serve by where my family is from.  I recognize that this is all part of life, saying goodbye to friends you love and meeting new ones.

Well that's pretty much everything.  I am excited and sad to leave but just like the saying, "When one door closes another one opens."  But hey I'm coming back here on Friday for the baptism and we are staying overnight with the Gills, so that will have a lasting impact.  Have a good week!
Elder Spangenberg  

Thanksgiving Week!

 Happy Birthday Mom!  I am sending a card today, sorry if it is late!  But thanks for supporting me in everything I do!
We now have a pretty big teaching pool because of all our work this week.  We had our Zone Conference in Hamburg this week on Thursday, which was also your Thanksgiving!  We didn't have American food for Thanksgiving, instead we had traditional German food.  Rouladen(meat with a pickle inside) with potatoes and Rotkohl (red cabbage).  It was good food!  They introduced the church's new Christmas video, "A Savior is Born".                            

 Elder Larsen volunteered us to do a role play in front of President and Sister Fingerle.  But it actually went really well!  We also helped pass out food to the refugees!  It was really fun.  Most of them are really friendly, yeah, some sit in the corner and quietly eat their food but most of them love talking to you and when they find out you are from American they love you even more!  I met one guy who was really cool, he is from Iran and he said he loves Iran but the government goes around beating people that aren't Muslim.  He showed me some of his bruises he has from the government beating him.  It was really sad to see that, but then he said the people there are just like us, it's just the government.  Our American government is not perfect either, but I feel so blessed when I hear about things like that.

The Schimdts are doing good.  Hopefully they will be  baptized, "This one is going to come right down to the wire" as Hot Rod Hundley always said.

I gave a talk yesterday on the Atonement, it was about 20 minutes long and all in German! This week is transfers.  I don't know whether something will happen, but I'll keep you posted!

Love ya,
Elder Spangenberg

Our apartment after we decorated it for Christmas!

Our Christmas Tree!