February 11, 2013 This Week's Itinerary

To those of you about to die, we salute you.  (In mission language, this means "about to go home from your mission".)

If anyone cares at this point (this should be limited to just a select few), I will post an itinerary for the next week or so. That way, everyone has an idea of what's going on.

Monday: I will be finishing Tschuess books, maybe play Elder Turner in chess at the mall and then pack.

Tuesday: I will be going to the Buchenwald concentration camp to broaden my horizons. Then I will be with the ward for the Book of Mormon class and to say my final goodbyes to everyone.

Wednesday: I have my last eating appointment with Sister Doerlitz and then I will be going to the Krauses to enjoy some more company.

Thursday: I leave at the crack of dawn to catch a train so that I can get to Frankfurt for transfers.  Then I go to the temple with President Schwartz, have a meal at his place, then go to the Hotel.

Friday: I leave with all of the other missionaries for the airport and catch my flight at 11:30 to DC. I then meet with Dad (hi Dad) and have most likely a burger at Dulles. I then catch a flight from DC to Charlotte and arrive at 6:41. I then drive to the stake President's office to be released. I talk, show some stuff, unpack a little and then go to sleep.

Saturday: I do whatever I want (or whatever I am forced to do) until 6pm. 

-- Elder Trevor Joseph Baker
Kirche Jesu Christi
Germany Frankfurt Mission
Corneliusstrasse 18
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

February 4, 2013 Eleven Days

Hi, I think I will start out with saying that I think it's ok now to be obsessed about going home. I am not saying that to excuse my behavior in any way, just so that I can justify it in my own mind. It's been a long journey and I am winding down. I think I am going to be sleeping for about two weeks before I come out of my coma. 

1.  What are your plans for this week? 

Well, tomorrow I am cooking Musubi, Somen Salad, Pani Popo, and some other stuff for the ward. Thats going to be a fun party. Wednesday we have apartment inspections, Thursday we have two eating appointments, Friday is free (for now), Saturday as well, and then Sunday I have a talk. It's going to be busy. At least busy for us.

2.  How are the Kempes?  

I told Elder Kempe. He then asked me, "Are you sure your mother wants you back?" Hahaa.

3.  Are you keeping focused or are you trunky or a little of both? That depends on who you ask. I am not literally trunky. I haven't packed yet. 

4.  What was the best thing that happened this week? Uhhh... I had some pretty cool dreams. One of them was in German, English, and French. Don't ask me how, I have no clue.

5.  What things would you like to do before you come home? 

Well, I am going to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp on Tuesday before I come home.

6.  How are your investigators? 

It's a slow time of year. 

7.  Do you have any goals for this week? 

To finish important aspects of my Mission Book.

8.  Do you have enough money? I have enough for the things I want to buy. Don't expect really nice souvenirs. I am on a budget here.

9.  Do you have any questions for us? 

Can I come home now? Haha. Just kidding, but seriously.

10.  Have you been working on your mission book? 

I have been trying to, but it's so. hard. to. concentrate...

Next week, I assume we are going to solidify the time that you are picking me up from the airport and stuff like that. Oh and is dad going to meet me in DC or something?

Oh and the night I come home, I want to watch both parts of the final Harry Potter. I can't tell you how much I want to watch that.

--
Elder Trevor Joseph Baker
Kirche Jesu Christi
Germany Frankfurt Mission
Corneliusstrasse 18
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

January 28, 2013 Zone Conference

Well, I had my final interview with President Schwartz... that was
fun. I liked how he talked about how I needed to get married for 44
minutes. We then talked about what I learned on my mission for like another hour. It was a great time and rather insightful.
I found out from a vote from the entire Zone that if I were to be in a
Hogwarts house I would be a Slytherin. I always fancied myself a
Ravenclaw but apparently I am too ambitious for that. We had tons of time to chat with everyone on the trains to and from Zone Conference.

Oh here is the story of how I got to Nuremberg on Friday for Zone
Conference. It starts out with Elder Smart and I on a split in Gera
for Thursday. Then Thursday night we take a train to Jena to spend the night. We get to sleep at 11:30 ish and then have to wake up at 4:00am to catch a train. We then take a train from Jena to Weimar, switch trains from Weimar to Erfurt, switch trains from Erfurt to Saalfeld, then switch trains from Saalfeld to Nuremberg. We then finally arrive at Zone conference and then have to head back the same night. So the return trip begins. We leave Nuermberg taking a train from Nuermberg to Saalfeld, Saalfeld to Erfurt (the train broke 20 minutes out, and we finally got to Erfurt missing all of our trains), and Erfurt to Gotha. We overnighted in Gotha to take a train to Gera, go back to Jena to split back, then back to Gera for Ward Mission Coordination meeting. Yay, that was my weekend.

1.  Do you have a baptism coming up with your investigator? No,
actually he skipped out on the interview so there is definitely
something going on that I don't know about.
2.  So do you have many German books that you will be bringing home?
Not as many as you might think. Just the cookbooks and a couple of
other religious books.
3.  What is the thing you like most about the German people?
Discipline. It goes a long way.
4.  Do people in your ward know when you will be going home? Yeah, I let them know about it all the time.
5.  Did you do anything interesting or fun last p-day? I think I took a nap.
6.  Did Elder Turner get a new suit last week? No, we still need to
find a good store to buy one. Gera is lacking in the suit department.
7.  What do you have planned for today? Ooooh, I wanted to go check out a few of the things I still need to buy. My time is short.
8.  What was your favorite thing you did this week? Well, Zone
Conference was pretty cool, but I don't remember any of it.
9.  Colin wants to know if you will teach him some German when you get back. If he wants to learn a few words, sure.
10.  I wonder if you could help out in Herr Hablutzel's class.  Is
that something you would be interested in? Yeah, sure, why not. Or as we say out here, "Why don't?"
11.  Any uplifting advice or spiritual thought you can give us for the
day? Uhhh... I am going to think about that...

Well, that's about it for an email. I do have pictures from Zone
Conference though. I will be sending those momentarily. End
Transmission.

Elder Trevor Joseph Baker
Kirche Jesu Christi
Germany Frankfurt Mission
Corneliusstrasse 18
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

January 21, 2013 Tannenbaum Wands

Well, I guess the only new exciting or interesting thing that we have done recently was make a couple magic wands out of wood. That was fun. We both have real Tannenbaum Wands. Haha.

Ah yes, we had Zone training too. It was wierd, we ended up talking about stuff that will go on after I go home.

I am seriously getting tired. This time of year is really hard. Ugh, I need a nap...

1.  What are the plans for Gera when you get an extra set of missionaries?   Will they live near you or another part of town? Well, I am not sure for now. Its still going to be a while before they get here, heck, I don't even think they are in the MTC yet.

2.  Do you know if you will be getting Elders or Sisters? I am pretty sure we will be getting Elders. I can't see them sending sisters to Gera. They have other bigger cities they can send sisters to.

3.  How's Sean doing?  I have no idea. I think I will shoot him an email this week.

4.  What are your plans for p-day today? Well, we are going to go looking for a suit for Elder Turner and then I have no idea what else. There really isnt anything to do in Gera, especially while its snowing outside.

5.  Is there anything that you will leave behind in Germany instead of bringing it home? Probably a bunch of books. I am not sure which ones yet.

6.  Have you gotten a new bed yet? Yeah, we got them set up and now I can sleep like a baby.

7.  Does Elder Kempe have to get a new apartment set up for the new missionaries that are coming?  How does that work?  Who sets up their apartment? I have no idea. 

8.  It is probably too cold to think about eating it now, but have you had any spaghetti eis since your birthday there? No, I haven't really thought about ice cream in a while...

9.  How are your investigators coming? They are doing well, we are anticipating setting a baptismal date with one of them on tuesday.

10.  How many lessons do you teach on average a week? Oh gosh it depends, sometimes we have a lot of fallen out appointments and other times, we aren't even in Gera because of meetings we have with other missionaries. Anywhere from 5 to 10.

11.  Have you been able to talk to anyone successfully through tracting lately? No. Its really hard here. I think that the majority of people have some kind of faith but they don't for some reason want to open up to others. Probably due to an offense by some religious person in the past. 

12.  Do they have pass-along cards in Germany like they do here? Yeah, we have all of the materials in English translated into German.

13.  How do you stay warm when you are outside for the day? Breaks.

14.  Is there anything you wish you would have brought with you but didn't?
15.  How's Elder Turner?  Running much lately?  And no, its way too cold to go running outside. Like -8 C.

16.  Do you have any questions for us? Well, what are you expecting me to do when I get home?

Yeah. Well, catch you later!

-- Elder Trevor Joseph Baker
Kirche Jesu Christi
Germany Frankfurt Mission
Corneliusstrasse 18
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

31 Days...but who's counting?

Well hello. This week certainly has gone by quickly. Oh and this next week will go by really quickly too. We have Zone Training Meeting coming up.  I will let you know how it goes next week!

1. How's your teaching going with your investigators? Its going pretty well. I think the teaching is the easy part. The hard part is the commitment of the investigator. I think that teaching is the most fun part too... so I would say its going well.
2. How's your running going with Elder Turner? It was going well, when it wasn't freezing cold outside. I don't think the idea is catching any momentum, but I am definitely going to try! 
3. What happened this week that you can report to us?  I was sick. Yeah, that was fun.

4. Do you teach any classes on Sunday at church? I wasn't in charge of any of the teaching. We had a member from the District Council present.
5. Do you go to ward council meetings?  Yeah, we go every time. Its nice to report what is going on and coordinate with the rest of the ward.

6. When are you going to start getting a lot of new missionaries in your mission? This upcoming and the next transfers. I will miss it.
7. So are you living out of your suitcase yet or not yet because you didn't have to transfer? I am not living out of it... I just have everything I am not using, packed up already.
8. What is a good scripture that I should read this week? Probably the entire chapter of Mosiah 29.
9. Have you changed a lot on your mission? Yeah, but I am pretty sure you are going to like the change.

10. What plans do you have for your p-day? Well, its really cold outside and I don't know if I want to go wandering around. We will see.
11. How are the Kempes? They are doing well. I will say hi for you.
12. Have you taken many pictures of the architecture there? Well... I have taken pictures of all the pretty things in Gera. I don't know of any new or exciting locations or buildings here. Even the branch president said, "Even Elder Baker isn't ashamed of Gera." Because I wear my Gera pin on my suit jacket. He thinks its an ugly city. Meh.

13. Will you send me a new picture of you and Elder Turner for the blog. Yeah, I will try and get that done this week.

January 7, 2013 Happy New Year!

Well, here we go for his week.

We had New Year's Eve, which was pretty fun I must say. It was great
having the Elders from Werdau there. We stayed up until midnight to
celebrate and watched all of the people shoot off fireworks. There
were, as always, a few impaired individuals. I made sure to get videos
of them. Despite all of the mayhem, we had a great time just hanging
out.

There was one especially drunk guy who kept blowing up beer bottles at
the end of the street. I got a video of it. Haha.

There were a few people that I said goodbye to this week. I talked
with Elders Baum, Jongejan, and Johnson. It was cool to see them going
home. I never thought I would actually see them leaving. I talked
about it all the time, how they would all be home and I would be stuck
behind, but I think the next 6 weeks are going to be fun. I am at
least going to try and make them fun.

1. Do you have any other pictures to send this week? Yep.

2. Have you had any interesting events happen yet this new year? Well,
new years was interesting. It was pretty fun just watching the crazies
outside.

3. How many missionaries will be going home from your mission when you
do? 2 as far as I know. Elder Liebelt (my MTC comp) and I.

4. Do you travel all together when you go home? How does that work?
Hah, no. He is most likely flying to Dallas and I will be flying to DC
or something like that. So the goodbyes are at the airport.

5. Do your investigators ask you difficult questions? No not really.
Its just a matter of correcting funny ideas and doctrines. Thats the
hardest part.

6. What is the most common thing people want to know about when you
talk to them? Either money or how long I have been in Germany.

7. Is Elder Turner a district leader like Elder Anderson was? Elder
Turner is the District Leader and Elder Anderson was the Zone Leader,
but he was more of a Lame Duck Zone Leader because he was going home
at the end of that transfer.

8. What do you commonly do when you go out of your apartment the first
thing in the morning? We usually try to go by on some people.

9. How long do you spend outside? That depends on the day. Some days
we are outside all day, other days we have lots of appointments.

10. Is it getting really cold and snowy there? Not yet. Its supposed
to get bad at the end of this week. Its snowed a lot here earlier in
Dec. but Winter hasn't really hit yet.

11. Does it snow there a lot or get icy like it does here? Oh it
snows, then turns to slush which sucks.

12. Do you see many people outside at all? Surprisingly yes. Everyone
goes outside in the worst weather possible. Last time it really picked
up snowing, we saw people out taking a stroll down the street.

13. So when are you and Elder Turner going to start running? We
already started :)

14. Is he a runner like you or just willing to give it a try and get
in a little more exercise? He ran cross country in High School.
Course, that was like 3 years ago.

15. Or did you have to convince him that running was a good idea???? haha

16. Do you have any plans for your p-day? Uh, we wanted to go running.

17. Do you still have to hang up your laundry to dry in your apartment
after you wash it, or do you have a dryer? Oh, we dont have dryers
here. We have fun little racks to hang the clothes up. On the positive
side, it makes everything easier to put away and fold when its dried.

18. Do people eat lots of saurkraut there or is that just a
stereotype? Yes, and I like it. Believe it or not, I like it.

19. Are your clothes worn out yet? Almost. I am not planning on buying
new clothes for a while though. I think I will be ok.

20. What is the best thing that happened this week? Uhh... I don't
know. New Years Eve?

Elder Trevor Joseph Baker

Kirche Jesu Christi
Germany Frankfurt Mission
Corneliusstrasse 18
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

December 31, 2012 New Year's Eve

Gera Germany

Elder Turner and Elder Baker

Well I am staying in my (probably) favorite area for my last transfer with Elder Turner!

I found out on saturday and then wrote my talk for sunday that night (and then next morning) like any good missionary would! My talk went well though.

We had a pretty epic English class on Friday though. We sat around with the Werdau Elders and talked about movies and guns and stuff with one of our investigators. It was pretty chill. Our investigator liked it. He said its always awesome.

1. So did you get transferred?  I am staying!!!

2. What did you do the rest of your Christmas Day? We stayed at the Kempes and chatted until like 9 and then we then went back to the apartment to check out all of our loot. It was a great Christmas, better than the one in Nuermberg.

3. Did you get a picture of you with your companion? I can do that right now...

4. Are there any things that happen in Germany for New Year's? How do they celebrate it? Any interesting traditions besides drinking?  LOTS of fireworks and LOTS of drinking. We went to the grocery store to buy food for the week and it was PACKED with people. Every single person had alcohol. In retrospect it was kinda funny but now I am pretty desensitized to it.

5. Ok, so what did you think about the letter I wrote you for Christmas? Oh boy, it was pretty good. I enjoyed hearing some old stories that I had completely forgotten about. All of the stories I tell here are about the mission and I guess I forgot about a few of my "back at home" stories.

6. So do you have any New Year's Resolutions? Yes, I am going to get back into shape. Elder Turner and I are going to start running.

7. Do you have any questions for us? Yes, see other email.

-- Elder Trevor Joseph Baker
Kirche Jesu Christi
Germany Frankfurt Mission
Corneliusstrasse 18
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany