Week #7 First week in Germany

August 29, 2017

Week #7 First week in Germany

Hello everyone!!!

Wow, Germany is so cool! It is kind of crazy getting used to all of it but it is definitely been a great experience so far. I have a lot to say so I'm just going to get started. (Note: P Day is every Tuesday and I have two hours to email!)

Okay, my email is going to be all over the place. People, experiences, life lessons...Hope you are okay with that. Anyway, I am in Ulm and it is a gorgeous area. It has been very sunny and the streets are nice! We live in the city but a lot of the members live in the suburbs so we do a lot of travel by public transportation. Kind of fun. It is complicated but fun. It kind of puts our Frontrunner in Utah to shame but that's fine.

So let's back up to last Monday. We woke up really early and left for the airport. The plane was hot! Does anyone in Europe like AC? Its cool, I will be chill with it...excuse me for my puns:) Well, we had a transfer in Amerstdam and the airport was huge!!! We had twenty minutes to get over to the other side of the airport and we had to go through immigration. It was a miracle we got there. A cool thing was we walked outside and they drove us on a bus to our plane. New experience for sure!

Anyway, we made it to Munich and met the mission office and President and Sister Brown. They are so cool! They took our stuff and sent us on the S-Bahn. (The train). We talked a little bit in German and got kebaps! I have fallen in love with Kebabs. It is a turkish sandwich and it is so good! We got to the mission office, did more training, and yeah, Alpine mission is weird and complicated. So expensive and a lot of legal issues to take care of. Its cool though. We just do a lot so we can stay.

Okay, so about my area. I got my trainer the night we arrived and he is Elder Kaufusi. He is going to play football for BYU! So for all of you Cougs, I might be converted by my trainer;) We will see. He is definitely inspiring me to be a consecrated missionary. He is a wonderful trainer. He has given me lots of good advice and he is just so kind. He leaves in October so I am trying to take advantage of every minute. Our area is Ulm and we are white washing. Basically, the sisters moved out and we came in. We have a lot to learn about the area but the sisters made it easy. They left a clean apartment, a packet of notes, and all of the temples taped on the wall! It was so cool!

Mason is 6" tall and he looks short with Elder Kaufusi

So more about the area. Ulm is a great place. They have good shopping areas near us and a park for us to exercise in. I am trying to go back to running and I am doing okay. Our apartment is good, I think. We have everything we need but not much more, which is perfect for the mission.

Here is who we have met so far...

1. Bernie- He is on a baptismal date. He is an artist and he is really into the lessons! I do not understand a lot of his German but we have had good lessons with him. We meet with him tonight!

2. Kerry/Cola- Okay, cool story first. Elder Kaufusi talked to Cola when he picked us up and found out she is from Ulm. So we met up with her later that week and she brought a friend. We had a two hour discussion of missions, religion, and other things. We will see if they continue with lessons.

3. Maurice- Okay, my first impressions are bad. This guy is really fun but when I first saw him, he had tattoes, piercings, and colored hair. But he is really religious. He loves the Book of Mormon and he is on baptismal date too!

4. Hao Zhang- He is our ward mission leader. Because we are low on members, he is in the branch presidency. I love Hao because he is a great example of consecration. He has a stressful job but family and church are still high priorities for him. He is becoming a hero for me.

Okay, so more stuff about Germany!

1. German chocolate- Okay, Sister Marchino and Williams were the sisters in our area before us and they are so wonderful because they left me three things of German chocolate! It is Ritter Sport...well it was. I may have gone through two of them already:)

2. Cars- Okay, Mercedes Benz are all over the place. Taxis, Trucks, regular cars. There are also Audis and Volkswagens. I have never been a big cars fan but the cars here are so nice. Germans love worldy things...which kind of be a problem but that is okay.

3. The language- Ok, so I thought I was doing okay in German and then we did our first hour of finding. German is so... complicated? I don't know. I understand words and phrases but it is so hard to respond. Plus, I am not the most talkative guy in English (this email is not good evidence for that) and now I have to talk to people about religion in German? Yeah, I think we all come on missions to learn good life lessons. And my big one is talking to people. You just keep laughing at yourself and trying, right?;)

Now, onto my experience as a missionary so far. (Sorry my thoughts are all over the place...) To be honest, it was rough the first couple of days but I am okay. I was really homesick. I missed my family, friends, and I felt really alone. I could tell the adversity really wanted me to quit because everything was making me think of home. Dishes, Piano, Pictures. A little girl at our branch reminded me of Grace (my little sister) and that made me really sad. But God has not forgotten me. That is the big message of the week for me. There are also some lessons I want to cover quickly.

1. Humilty and Patience- Yeah, the hardest part about homesickness was that a mission is two years. I know that two years is not long but when you are homesick, it feels like forever! So I had to learn that I need to accept God's will, be patient with the timing, and let God change me. I was so worried about change with me, my family, and home but I remember a lesson from my MTC president. God can do a lot more for us than we can. I really appreciate that because he has done that for me.

2. I am not alone in my struggles!- Okay, so another lesson is that I was not alone. Every so often when I got Wifi, I got a letter from my high school friends who were on missions. That is when I realized that my feelings were normal and I still had friends who were experiencing what I was. So, thank you guys (Elder Perry, Evans, Blonquist, Foulger, Christensen...And all of the other ones!!!). I am a lucky guy and have lots to be grateful for.

3. How to lose myself- So as a mission, we read the talk about consecrated missionaries by Elder Callister. It is a solid talk for anyone who is preparing for a mission or on one or just interested. I learned that I had so many thoughts about home that of course time would go slow! I had to learn to lose myself and work for others. I started to really do that on Thursday and time has flown.

(Okay, I am realizing that this is a really long email. Sorry...)

4. Final lesson. The Lord is in all things! I got a wonderful trainer. I have a great family and friends who are behind me. I am in a wonderful area and I am on a mission! I really had to remember those things this week because gratitude is really important when you are down. The Lord has looked out for me a lot this week and I was so self-asorbed to admit it. Once I realized what I had, I felt the Spirit so much more and the work was actually fun! Even though the language is hard and sometimes it can be a long day, there is always something good in a day.

Well, I hope that helped someone. Sorry that this is a long email. It has been a growing week and I think it would be rude of me to hold back on what I learned. Sometimes we have to forget ourselves and consecrate ourselves to the Lord. We can't hold back. There is so much to do in God's work and also so much to be grateful for!

Hope you guys had a wonderful week! I love hearing from you guys and celebrating the good things going on in your lives! Thanks again for all you guys do! I will talk to you guys later!

Elder Evans