Week of May 31 from Prenzlau

Howdy ya´ll! How´s it going back on the other side of the pond?


Well we had a pretty long/solid week over here. We worked hard, we get tanner every day, and we give lots and lots of people the chance to accept the gospel and it´s message every day. Problem remains, however, there aren't many takers. We keep working though, I just keep trying to think to myself every day how I can give the next person I talk to the best chance possible to accept the Gospel. I figure if I can do that it can: 1- keep me from going insane, and 2- make me a better missionary to those who actually acknowledge my presence haha.  It´s been good though. We made out a couple new appointments this week which ended a bit of a drought, so can´t complain to much.

Probably the highlight of our week was Sunday. We had a record attendance in church with 17, and it probably should have been higher had a couple of the normal people been there. I don't even know how so many got there to tell you the truth. But ya, it was pretty awesome. The big news though is that we FINALLY got our baptismal candidate to church!!!! It was so amazing. You see, there´s only a handful of cars who can pick people up for church in the morning, and the branch president is the only one who´s willing to help, all the others just flat out say no. Anyway, so we finally had everything lined up and everything, and then bam, President B´s car wasn't going and they were running behind with the kids, so long story short, after a quick prayer I went up to a guy whose wife is a member, pretty scary guy as well, and told him I needed his help desperately, and somehow I got him to go pick the investigator up. It was great! So ya, the branch wasn't receptive to him at all unfortunately.  I don't think anyone even acknowledged he was there without me introducing them. But the bright spot was that a member from the district presidency was there and he fellowshipped him swimmingly, so that was pretty exciting. He really liked the church though, in spite of the luke warm welcome, and it looks like he might be getting baptized in 2 weeks as planned. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I really hope everything works out.  We also got the 27 year old single adult in our branch to get her patriarchal blessing recommend, which was another way sweet triumph, to me anyways. We´ve built up a pretty good friendship and it was cool to see the process of getting her started to prepare for the temple and her patriarchal blessing. It might not be a big deal to some, but it means the world to me to help her. Half of our branch has either A- been to the temple once and now can't go back or B-has never been at all. So any time progress is made, it´s just awesome.

Haha, well there´s the good part of the day and the week, but of course i wouldn't be being honest with ya´ll if I didn't throw in some of the not so sweet moments.:)  So we also set a new record this week in what we call diss points. We were honked at 16 times, and had insults shouted at us 8, so ya, it was a 24 pointer week, we usually like to keep it in the 12-15 range but oh well. Also, last week during church, someone messed with my new bike´s gear box and jacked it all up so it really blows now, haha but this week they stole my whole brake system during church. I don't even know how they did it- mad props- but they literally stripped everything. So we´re trying to find new places to park our bikes now because everyone knows that they´re the missionary bikes and at this rate, my bike´s going to be one blocks this next week.  That´s not the worst for the week though. Also on Sunday we went out to an appointment in a tiny dorf about 7 to 10 km´s outside of Prenzlau. The appointment fell out so we just decided to finish out dooring the rest of the dorf. Some kids were harrassing us a bit on their bikes and stuff, but nothing really out of the usual, until we came back to where we locked our bikes up and realized they had totally jacked up our front tires. They let all the air out and pulled the tube partially out of mine and well, it was obvious we weren't going to be enjoying the way awesome downhill bike ride back to Prenzlau... it was a long walk instead. I was having an internal struggle whether or not to go find the kids and chew them out and get angry, or to just laugh it off and get walking. As I started walking away, the scripture in Acts 5:41 came into my mind when the apostles walk away from a council "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name."  Then I thought, ya it´s kinda embarrassing walking along this country rode with flats, and the people in the cars sure thought it was funny, but I wouldn't call this suffering haha. So ya, there´s where I found my perspective, I got to take a scenic walk through some beautiful fields of flowers in my favorite country in Europe, not so bad when you look at it that way. No doubt that some of the things I pass through here are hard, but I´ve learned over time that I can do hard things.:)

2 weeks left til the end of this, my 5th transfer. Not many missionaries at all stay over 2 transfers here in Prenzlau, so I´m interested to see what this transfer call has in store. I´ll probably end up being frustrated, transfer calls never ever seem to be good or satisfying, but it´s something interesting to look forward to at least. I cant believe I´ve been on a mission for 8 and a half months now, it boggles my mind, time flies but stands still at the same time. I can't recall my life before being a missionary.  It´s like there´s a veil there President Topham put on me or something haha, but you just have to keep working hard to make time count.

Thanks so much for all the support and love! I love you all the mostest!

-Elder Ott