Last Tuesday was a pretty neat day, very busy. I  got to go to Babylon with Elder R. He had to get a tooth smoothed out at the dentist. It was also busy because I was getting ready to leave. The rave at the MTC at that time was to shrink wrap your clothes. We would put a bunch of clothes in garbage bags, then use the vacuum cleaners to suck as much air out of the bags as possible. I think we concluded that it didn’t really save any room, but it sure was a lot of fun to do it.

Wednesday we all left. It seemed like a day of waiting. First we had to wait on the bus to the airport from the MTC. Then in New York we had to wait for an extra two hours or so. I had a terrible thing happen on my flight from Denver to N.Y. I left my notebook that had all of my notes from all of the speakers at the MTC and I also left my notepad for letter writing, along with a few letters. I forgot those things on the plane. I’m hoping since I have a few letters that whoever finds it will be nice enough to send it to the MTC or to one of the return addresses. If that happens, I might get it in about 2 months. I never did get the notebook and letters back. And about two years later another tragedy would strike, when I lose my scriptures and another notebook that I used throughout my mission.

Well, I missed a day in there somewhere with the flying and whatnot. I’m finally here! The travel place for the MTC wasn’t able to get tickets before Wednesday, so when we got here it was already Thursday. So we had no rest day at the Mission Home or anything. We went straight from the plane to the mission home, and after a few things we got our new companions and headed out to our new assignments. I’m in Halberstadt right now. That’s on the other side of the mission from Hamburg. My new companion and I, his name is Elder C, took the train for the rest of the day to get home. One of the members picked us up at the train station, it was about 8 at night or so. So when we came home, all I did was unpack and then go to sleep. Today is my first full day in Germany. I know I’ll do well, it will just be hard for the first couple of weeks. I hope I just jump in and get to work. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get settled in. I know as soon as I do, that everything will go fine.

Today was quite weird. I awoke at 2:40 am and helped the Sisters with their luggage. Then at 5 am we did the same with Elder J. We then came back and slept until 9:00 am. Needless to say we didn’t go to morning class. Elder R and I were the only ones from our district who went to afternoon class, we went to Brother J’s new district. It was a good review. Then for evening class we all went except Elder’s G, and V, but only for an hour.

I’ve been feeling really weird all day today. I think partially because the day was not a normal day, and because I’ll be leaving in one day. Also, and maybe the biggest reason, I got a letter from K. Not just a letter, but a package. It was a shoebox full of cookies and a letter. The letter said a bunch of stuff. Like she says she is my girlfriend and wants to be, and stuff like that. I don’t know what to think. We used to talk like that a few times, but just jokingly. I think it’s just the same way. Reading it, though, just made me feel all funny. I think I’ll just treat it the way I did before. Ignore it. Maybe I’ll write her to tell her what’s up, or ask her what’s up. I don’t know what to think. It would be awesome if it were so, but I don’t think it is.

Also, the Westwood Journals got sent to Pres. Barney. I’m going to talk to him tomorrow to see if I can’t get them back. Elder J W said he was just going to send them home. Hopefully I’ll get them and be able to write a little something in them. Oh well!

Today was an OK day. I had to give a talk in sacrament. I prepared it all today, before sacrament. It was only supposed to be five minutes, so it was really easy. It was about the Priesthood. I also played the piano in Priesthood meeting. I did alright on the first song “Count Your Blessings”. The second was going well until the second to the last line on “Sweet Hour of Prayer”. It really made me realize how much better I could have been if I would have kept up my practicing. I wish I would have kept up my piano playing. I don’t know if I’ll tell Mom that yet.

I saw Elder Russell K, he had the Westwood Journals, but he had just given them to Elder Jackson W a couple of minutes before. So hopefully I’ll get them tomorrow.

We sung “God Be With You” tonight. It kind of made me mad because we sang it in the English Speaking district. It just made me mad, because we’ve been here longer, but we sang in their room.

Only three more days left. Today was really awesome. We, Elders R and G, taught the first discussion to a former Sister that Brother S brought in for us. It was a tad hard. Elder G did most of the talking. I bore my testimony and almost started crying. Sister B, Dan’s old teacher, taught us this afternoon. It was just Elders R, G, R, K, and I. It was a pretty cool class.
I had a couple of prayers answered today. I was praying hard in my heart to find Elder W or someone who knew where the Westwood Journals were. I finally saw Jackson W and he said Elder K, Russell K, had them. At lunch I wasn’t even expecting to see him, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Elder K. I chased him down, but he didn’t have the books with him. I’m hoping and praying now, that I’ll be able to get them before I fly. The best ting about all this was that I’ve got another example for me how Heavenly Father answers prayers. It really strengthened my testimony on prayer.

Today was a totally awesome P-day. I had an awesome session at the Temple and I also did almost 100 baptisms for the dead. It was cool. While I was waiting to be baptized I read an article in the Ensign about the Holy Ghost. It helped me out a ton. I know I felt it a lot today. We had an awesome testimony meeting tonight. I was able to feel the Spirit and feel even closer to my district. I’m so excited to leave this place and get to Germany. Being here in the MTC doesn’t feel like a mission, just like going off to school. I can’t wait to get going on the “real” mission. I feel today was a good success. I was able to feel the Spirit, and have a cool day. The only thing I wish I would do more, for today and forever, is read more in the Book of Mormon. It seems that I can never find time to read. I hope there will be more time, at least to read, while in the field.

I got too distracted and didn’t write anything yesterday. But what I do remember about it was that it went pretty well.

Today was pretty awesome. It went by pretty quickly. I was still a bit sick. I finally bought some cold medicine, and it’s helping a little bit. I can’t really remember any particular thing that made it awesome, because I was sick and really out of it most of the day. I do remember that it was awesome today. We ended up only having two new Elders in our room. The MTC had miscalculated, and there was one extra Elder than they had thought. So there are six in one room and the other two in here. Everything will go smoothly, I think. I just wish I could get over this dang cold. My nose is raw.

Oh yeah, Elder G bleached his hair. I tried it also, but it didn’t turn out.

Today went alright! My prayer that my sore throat would go away was answered. It went away, straight to my nose and head. I’ve got so much mucus in my head it feels like it will explode. But my throat doesn’t hurt.

We had TRC again today. It was pretty awesome, considering Elder R and I both felt sick. Our first one was an older lady. We were doing a follow up visit, after the first discussion. We were playing the new missionaries  in the area. the first one, the older lady, was kind of tough. We didn’t really get all of her concerns out so that we could help her resolve them. We did alright, though.

The second one was awesome. We had decided to work on finding and resolving concerns. The second was a younger lady, supposedly she had a 15 year old kid. Well anyhow, the second went a lot smoother. We almost didn’t find out her concern. We were going to read a chapter when she said she had a question. But then she said to go ahead and read. Elder R, great guy, said we would much rather talk about her question.

Her concern was why Isaiah was put so much in the Book of Mormon. Not really a big concern, but fun to talk about. With a few good find out questions, we found out that she had read the whole Book of Mormon in one week. It was amazing. I think we pretty much resolved her concern, we could have don better. Thinking back, we should have asked her if what we talked about helped her solve her concern. I think it worked out OK. She was an awesome “golden” investigator.

I missed the Fireside tonight. It was probably the best one ever. Elder G stayed with me.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We had splits today. We taught and were taught the second discussion auf Deutsch. it was really awesome, especially when we were teaching. It was Elders R, G and I teaching Elders W and J. Elder W shared some awesome feelings. It was really neat.

Also cool for today, Elder G got his box of cookies. Not as big as the first one was, but still cookies.

Today went pretty well. Pretty much a normal day.

Today was fast Sunday. Quite a bit of things occurred today, none really all that important. One thing potentially dangerous was the news that three Elders will be moving in with Elders R, G, and me. That means I’m down to one bed, one closet, and no room. I think it sucks! At least it’s only for a week. There is only 10 days left until I get to the real mission part. I’m kind of ready, but I can’t wait to go.

I’m happy with myself today. I set a goal that I would memorize at least half of the second Hauptgedanke (principle of the discussions) today. And I did! I figured I need to memorize four paragraphs a day to be able to have the whole first discussion memorized before I leave. Realistically, I don’t think I can do that. I at least want to get to the fourth Hauptgedanke.

I’m not speaking as much German as I should. Especially on Sundays and P-Days. Back to the Hauptgedanke, though, I’m so mad that I didn’t start memorizing the discussion from the first day. That will be another goal for me to do, to tell everyone I know that is going on a mission, to start memorizing the discussions. First in English if they are not here at the MTC, or if they are then to start memorizing it in their language. I wish I would have. So much for wishing, it’s the doing that gets things done.