Assignment: Kiel!

Oh... hello

 

This is Elder Ott writing from a little country called Germany (that´s in Europe) and as it turns out i´m in europe also. Sitting in a little internet cafe, Californiw Gurls playing on the radio, it´s supre weird. I havent heard this kind of blaspheme for weeks. This keyboard is super weird too, so if i replace a few of my y´s with z´s bare with me. They´re reversed. Well anzwho, so i bet you´re wondering where in the world i am, in Germany, well that´s way cool they didnt tell you, haha i could totally keep this a secret like my whole mission haha. Well i´m actually in the most amazing city ever. When i was in the MTC one of my teachers actuallz talked about it and i decided i wanted to go there, and just like with my mission call, when i read my golden letter that´s where i got called to. And with the exact trainer i wanted to, we actually talked and sat next to eachother at dinner before i read my call. So i´m in a beautiful town called Kiel, it´s up by the Baltic Sea. It´s an awesome, gorgeous harbor town with about 250000 people. And here´s the coolest part, ha we´re opening up a new area! And my trainer was only here for 5 mins before he came to get me. Ya we´re doubled in to a new area ha. No teaching pool, no knowledge of the lay out of the city, ya it´s an adventure and a half! But i wouldnt trade it for the world. Its the coolest this ever. My trainer has been out 21 months and his name is Elder Badger, he´s pretty much the cooles guy ever. We´re having such a good time. I´m just so blessed. And then our city actually has the Zone Leaders in it. Elder Schär from Switzerland and Elder Chimpf from Washington. They are the stinking coolest elders ever. They have a money car too, so it´s nice when the make it down to take us places. Ha actually we might be taking this car this week to do some stuff and since my comp doesnt have a German license and you can drive on a utah one for 6 months here, ha guess who might be driving this week? Ya, crazy. So the language is super hard as it turns out. Apparently the speak better German here in Germany than they do in America. Like faster and with slang and what not. So i´ve gotten good with my Golden (we dont us greeny in this mission) 'hi im just happy to be here smile`'  ha works like a charm. It hasnt really stopped me from talking to people tho. Naturally these last 3 days have been ALL contacting, but Elder Badger always has my back if i talk myself into a hole. Í actuallz made mz first teaching appointment the other day. Ha it was with a like drop dead gorgeous polish girl, she has the cutest little polish accent ever, it was really cool. So im really excited for that, not because she´s absolutely beautiful, that´s not why im here, but because she is super nice and i know the gospel can bless her life. Ha the girls here are really really really pretty tho. But anyways, the ward here is one of the most studly in Germany. We´ve had 4 eating appointments already! German food is sooooooooooooooooooooooo bomb. Ugh i love it! Not so much the cabbage, but i´ll get used to it.  Anyway, we made 7 or so teaching appointments this last week, which i guess is super good, ha i have no idea i´m so wide eyed and golden, but that´s really cool. We´ve already dropped by on a few members, ha oh my gosh there´s this one member named ushi, she is the most CRAZY lady ever. She´s like 75 and super huge. So we went by on her, i think it was a joke by the zl´s, and we buzzed her and all the sudden we here this big yell out the window in her wohnung in the slums, and when we get up there she answered the door completelz naked! Ugh i almost puked. The place smelled so bad! Ugh it´s sad. But she got some clothes on and we tought her, i didnt understand a word she said, but she was the funniest person i´ve talked to ever in spite of that. The zls and mz comp were crying they were laughing so hard. So it was the most scarring but funnest experience ever. All the other members are a bit more sane luckily. I lucked out on Sunday big time too, i guess it was the primarz program, my comp says he hasnt ever even seenn one here. So that was reallly cool. Little kid German is the best thing EVER! It´s so cool. Ha it´s funnz too, babies like understand more than i can sometimes, it´s reallz cool.  My comp likes to give kids warheads here because they dont reallz have sour candy, so their reactions are priceless! So if you ever want to send warheads, please do! I´ll bring back some good videos in return haha. Even the adults cant handle it. We made on of the danish missionaries in the MTC promise he wouldnt spit one out, and he cried! So it´s funny.  Well anyway, so ya the language is a lot harder than i had hoped. It´s weird, like all the missionaries, even the natives, speak English wish each other, so im not always as emersed as i would even like to be, but Elder Badger assures me my German is excellent for a Golden and it will get better, so i trust him completely, he´s trained before. I just CANNOT WAIT until i feel completely fluent. I´s über frustrating sometimes, but it´s nice and humbling and it gives me drive to do better. I thrive off that Humble feeling at this point ha. Well anyway, i could talk for hours i feel like, but that would be expensive so ill just wrap it up with this last little thought.  When we got here we were able to got to a special grove of trees where the Berlin Wall once stood, where we read some of the prophesies of Präsident Monson and Elder Uchtdorf for this land, we then where able to find space alone to dedicate our missions to the <Lord. I could never begin to describe the feeling i felt there. It had been raining the past few days and we had prayed for it to clear up so we could make it there (it´´s a bit out in the mud) and sure enough the next morning it did. And i do not lie when i tell you that as soon as the last amen was said there that day the rain began again. I cannot talk about all my feelings that day i felt as i prayed standing in the no mans land where that great wall once stood, but i can tell you this, the tender mercies of the ´Lord will touch EVERYONE who seeks to serve him. I will not ever deny that now. I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life more in the past few weeks that ever before, and i openly acknowledge i do not deserve most of what i have been given, but that´s what makes God so great. From my call, to the people i met on the plan i prayed for, to my first area, to my trainer, i know that God knows me. This is his Church. It´s the true church. Great things will happen here shortly, and i´m here to help prepare for and participate in them, i see that more clearly than ever. To whoever may read this, know that i have a firm testimony of these things. Find ways to serve the Kingdom. Member refferals are 100x´s more effective than street contacting, do whatever you can. You will be blessed. I hope the Lord blesses your lives this next week as he has mine. Take care, i love you all! Hoorah for Israel!

-Elder Ott

 

p.s. Shout out/congrats to Rachel Thorley! First person to write me in Deutschland

p.p.s Go DHHS BBALL! (to bad so sad Hurricane)

p.p.p.s The church is true!