Well well well, lots to write about this week. Baptisms, Confirmations, Holidays, Transfers... where to start.:) I suppose i shall start with the best part of the week.
Sewwwwwwww Saturday!!! Ba ba ba BAPTISM! The baptism totally went through, it was incredible! So, as it turns out, earlier in the week our investigator confessed he was terrified of the Uckersee, and would rather be baptised in Neu Brandenburg (aka the next nearest font) so we all met up and got up there with the train, which was no easy task. Had to find and call a taxi to pick us up, buy the right train ticket according to our boundaries (sometimes complex) switch trains in Paselwalk, then find someone to pick us up in Neu Brandenburg, then do it all over again coming back, bleh... totally worth it though!!! It was a very small service, no members showed up (wait actually one, but we paid for her), which was very dissappointing... i dont know what to do with the members here sometimes... so it was just us, the ZLs and the Senior Couple. But he didnt care, so neither did we.:) He was really big, so we took my companion down in the font with us to help baptise him, so ya, everything went smoothly. It´s just so humbling to see success of that magnitude in an area where for so long so little has been seen.
Then Sunday came around. Now Sunday here was a holiday called Pfingsten... it´s a really cool holiday where the Germans celebrate Christ giving his disciples the Holy Ghost as he left. It consists of Pfingsten Sunday and Pfingsten Monday, and most Germans seem to celebrate it by getting drunk. A couple weeks ago we had the holiday of Himmelfahrt, or in English i think they say "the Ascension" (man i cant spell worth beans any more) or aka when Christ went ascended to heaven. They celebrate by all riding their bikes around in weird outfits from bar to bar drinking kegs of beer... it´s a charming day for missionary work.:P Anywho, the Senior couple got way sick and our Branch President wasnt there as normal, so guess who got to preside at sacrament meeting, ya, there´s a first time for everything i suppose haha. Then our newly baptised member asked me to confirm him as well, which i dont find optimal, if i´dda had it my way members should baptise and confirm, makes a better connection, but ya, anyways, i confirmed him and gave him the gift of the holy ghost... ON PFINGSTEN! How cool is that? Get the Holy Ghost on the day we celebrate having it. Way cool. But ya, not a whole lot of people there, but it wasnt a bad attendance. Then after that i had to drive an hour down the Autobahn to the missionary program under us in Eberswalde to make sure their Sacrament meeting ran smoothly down there, since the senior missionary is the branch pres there as well as 1st counselor in Prenzlau, so he´s got a full plate. Anyways, ya there arent many men members there who arent mentally handicapped, and the missionaries down there are kinda strugglers, so we went there and got everything back in order and made sure the meeting went well. Oh and i almost forgot, as i confirmed our new member, haha, i gave him a priesthood blessing afterwards and i said his name, ya know, like "and (so and so) we give you also a blessing" and when i said his name haha is said "what?" as he was sitting in the chair. Man the things you dont think of telling people, we just take so many things as normal that are so different to others, we forget that sometimes. Anyways, overall though a strenuous but rewarding day.
Oh ya, and transfer calls (drum roll please)... ya so i´m staying. My companion is going however, was up to Rendsburg which is next to Kiel, lucky dawg! Haha he´s got mixed feelings about leaving, but he´s pretty stoked he only had to be in Prenzlau for one transfer and see the only baptism here in YEARS. But ya, anyways, looks like they´re serious about keeping me here for a while in the branch presidency, it´s gonna be another long 6 weeks i´m afraid, but hey, i can do hard things.:) My new companion is just coming out of his Golden city and is in his 3rd or 4th transer i believe, so i´ll be taking over the Senior comp role as well as the responsibility of a District Leader, which was also a surprise. It will help keep me consecrated and working hard to try and be a good example to a young missionary as well as help support and lead my district, so we´ll see how it all goes down.:)
Well ya, there´s my week, i´m sure lots of other cool things happened, haha but i´m in Berlin again right now to say goodbye to my favorite Swiss missionary who was my ZL in Kiel... ugh i cant believe he´s going home! But ya, not thinking the most clearly... there´s so many buildings and cool people to see! So ya, i´ll send all of the pictures as soon as i can from the baptism and everything and a couple videos too, when i can! Love you all so much! Have a great week!
-Elder Ott
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