Thursday, June 30, 2011
June 30, 2011 President and Sister Ninnow
Today is the last day of President and Sister Ninnow's mission as Mission President of the Germany Frankfurt Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm so thankful for their service and dedication. They not only cared for their own children who came on this mission with them but also the 100+ missionaries they became responsible for with this calling. Thank you so much. Words can't express my gratitude.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
The Krefelder Kraken (aka Death by Chocolate ala Elder Mayle and Elder Baker)
There will be some happy Elders at the next district meeting when they bring this!
The ingredients
German chocolate chunks!
Cookie dough and brownie batter!
The trick is in the layering.
Ready for the next layer.
Elder Mayle's turn.
Time to cook the kraken!
Wondering, "How many calories are in this thing?"
Thinking, "How many miles will I have to run to work this off?"
Four pounds of Kraken
The ingredients
German chocolate chunks!
Cookie dough and brownie batter!
The trick is in the layering.
Ready for the next layer.
Elder Mayle's turn.
Time to cook the kraken!
Wondering, "How many calories are in this thing?"
Thinking, "How many miles will I have to run to work this off?"
Four pounds of Kraken
Monday, June 27, 2011
June 27, 2011 Strange Experience on the Train
Hey Mom,
Boy this last week has been pretty crazy for us too. First of all, probably my most interesting story, we were "harassed" or one could even say "threatened" on a bahn on Saturday.
There we were, Elder Petersen and I on a companion exchange and two drunk guys started yelling, "Ah, the Mormons!" So we sat there like any good missionary and ignored them. Then they decided to come sit next to us and start talking.The first guy walked up to me, held his crucifix up to my face and said, "Do you know what that is?" I said yeah, and then he said "Kiss it." I told him no way. One of them looked at Elder Petersen and said, "If I hit you, you wont hit me back." Then the guy looked at me and said, "But you, you will. Will you hit me back?"
So at that moment time literally froze and my mind went like a supercomputer figuring out all the possible combinations of what I could do. I thought, if I lost it and threw a punch back, what would it make the church look like, as well as myself. Then I thought of the story with Jesus. I only have 2 cheeks. Then, back to reality, I said no. He told me I better not be lying.
So during all this, everybody on the Bahn is staring at us like, what are they going to do? Elder Petersen decided to go for the "Are you happy?" liner, but its not like they could have felt the spirit, drunk anyways though. So they quickly got bored and possibly scared because I was about to call the police (German "Polizei" are not known for compassion).
After all this they got off the Bahn and started stumbling away. I still dont know how I came up with the answer I did. (Spirit) But I know that If anything would have happened, I could have either 1. Ran away or 2. Defended myself and companion. (The guy looked like weak-sauce, and I am the Elder who does like 100 push ups a day as well as Kenpo workouts with Elder Mayle.)
Well that was the highlight of my week and the only other thing that happened was that we revived our Macedonian investigator.
The story starts at Zone conference... I end up procuring a "JW Shuffle." Then we saw our former investigator on the street so we invited him to church by using the words, Kirche, morgen? He was like, yeah. So we meet up at church and since he doesnt understand anything, I decide to give him a lesson and base it off of getting him to understand that Jesus Christ is Jehovah. That whole deal.
So I end up giving him scriptures from the JW Shuffle and I can see the indocrination coming out of his face! It was crazy, I looked at Elder Mayle and said, "Its working!" So we end up making an appointment for tuesday and we will finish going over the name of God with him. Yay!
The Krefelder Kraken was a little tricky to make. Basically you can take any brownie recipie and cookie recipie and just put it together. You have to bake it in layers though. Ours didnt cook all the way through so we improvised. This 4th of July Celebration we are going to try making another one.
Thats not cool about the AC or the water faucet. Ugh, that must be rough. We dont really have AC here either but I can imagine how bad it must be at home. Blah. I will definitely include you all in my prayers.
We dont really eat very often at the members houses, we typically get like 1 a month or so. Its kinda sad but We have 2 this saturday which is way cool.
The language here is coming along really well. I dont speak it as much as I can but I can get the point across pretty well. Its sometimes hard to speak it with a companion that is fluent already but we work at it. I wonder how corey is doing. The thought just crossed my mind that some missionaries dont get to do emails. Hah, arent you lucky?
I heard from Sean too. Glad to hear that his spirits are up and he is keeping on going. Bummer about the cords, I am sure if colin went back there he could find them. Oh well, with the games he borrowed, I am sure he wont be too disappointed.
Also, pictures will be in a seperate email this time. Haha
Love you!
Elder Baker
Boy this last week has been pretty crazy for us too. First of all, probably my most interesting story, we were "harassed" or one could even say "threatened" on a bahn on Saturday.
There we were, Elder Petersen and I on a companion exchange and two drunk guys started yelling, "Ah, the Mormons!" So we sat there like any good missionary and ignored them. Then they decided to come sit next to us and start talking.The first guy walked up to me, held his crucifix up to my face and said, "Do you know what that is?" I said yeah, and then he said "Kiss it." I told him no way. One of them looked at Elder Petersen and said, "If I hit you, you wont hit me back." Then the guy looked at me and said, "But you, you will. Will you hit me back?"
So at that moment time literally froze and my mind went like a supercomputer figuring out all the possible combinations of what I could do. I thought, if I lost it and threw a punch back, what would it make the church look like, as well as myself. Then I thought of the story with Jesus. I only have 2 cheeks. Then, back to reality, I said no. He told me I better not be lying.
So during all this, everybody on the Bahn is staring at us like, what are they going to do? Elder Petersen decided to go for the "Are you happy?" liner, but its not like they could have felt the spirit, drunk anyways though. So they quickly got bored and possibly scared because I was about to call the police (German "Polizei" are not known for compassion).
After all this they got off the Bahn and started stumbling away. I still dont know how I came up with the answer I did. (Spirit) But I know that If anything would have happened, I could have either 1. Ran away or 2. Defended myself and companion. (The guy looked like weak-sauce, and I am the Elder who does like 100 push ups a day as well as Kenpo workouts with Elder Mayle.)
Well that was the highlight of my week and the only other thing that happened was that we revived our Macedonian investigator.
The story starts at Zone conference... I end up procuring a "JW Shuffle." Then we saw our former investigator on the street so we invited him to church by using the words, Kirche, morgen? He was like, yeah. So we meet up at church and since he doesnt understand anything, I decide to give him a lesson and base it off of getting him to understand that Jesus Christ is Jehovah. That whole deal.
So I end up giving him scriptures from the JW Shuffle and I can see the indocrination coming out of his face! It was crazy, I looked at Elder Mayle and said, "Its working!" So we end up making an appointment for tuesday and we will finish going over the name of God with him. Yay!
The Krefelder Kraken was a little tricky to make. Basically you can take any brownie recipie and cookie recipie and just put it together. You have to bake it in layers though. Ours didnt cook all the way through so we improvised. This 4th of July Celebration we are going to try making another one.
Thats not cool about the AC or the water faucet. Ugh, that must be rough. We dont really have AC here either but I can imagine how bad it must be at home. Blah. I will definitely include you all in my prayers.
We dont really eat very often at the members houses, we typically get like 1 a month or so. Its kinda sad but We have 2 this saturday which is way cool.
The language here is coming along really well. I dont speak it as much as I can but I can get the point across pretty well. Its sometimes hard to speak it with a companion that is fluent already but we work at it. I wonder how corey is doing. The thought just crossed my mind that some missionaries dont get to do emails. Hah, arent you lucky?
I heard from Sean too. Glad to hear that his spirits are up and he is keeping on going. Bummer about the cords, I am sure if colin went back there he could find them. Oh well, with the games he borrowed, I am sure he wont be too disappointed.
Also, pictures will be in a seperate email this time. Haha
Love you!
Elder Baker
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Elder Baker's District
This is Trevor's District. Elder Garlick is the missionary he rode bikes with in Mönchengladbach. He's the second missionary from the left. This picture is from his blog. He writes amazing letters. His blog is www.eldergarlickgermany.blogspot.com
I can understand why Trevor said he's the hardest working missionary he's seen there. I'm glad Trevor's got great examples to follow and is learning so much from the missionaries he's serving with.
June 20, 2011
Hey Mom!
Things here have been going great! Elder Mayle and I are having a great time. Thats way cool about the iPad thing at your school. I have actually seen a couple of members using them in church haha. That would be way cool to use them in class.
Speaking of iPods and such, what I was thinking, was that I could just buy an iTouch here so that I could get it soon. The reason for that is because if you send it (or and ipod) right now, I wont get it until August. Thats because we have Zone Conference this week and thats when we get packages and so on.
Oh and I wouldn´t need speakers because all of the apartments have them. So I was thinking that I could get an iTouch here and use it for my mission and even afterwards. This way I can put some of the music that my companions listen to onto the iTouch and continue having it for the rest of my mission. Elder Mayle ended up buying one and its been working out great for the apartment. Let me know what you think. I am going to let Aunt Glenda know too. I hope she didn´t go out and get something already.
Let me know what you think about this idea. So far I have talked to about 3 other missionaries who do this and it works out really well. They say that they get their music from members.
Thats so cool that Dad is going to be the Elders Quorum president! Awesome!
Well the only real big thing that happened this week was our Muslim friend. He thought we were the Jehovahs Witness church. We ended up finding that out last time we met with him and he hasnt been to church in a couple weeks. There really isnt anything we can do at this point other than be friendly and see if we can find a translator and possibly try and continue teaching. Its rough but such is life.
Oh and technically we arent supposed to contact muslims as we tract and do doors. For a couple of obvious reasons. And if they want to be baptized then they need to be interviewed by the mission president. And we need to make sure it is safe if they return to another country. Oh well. We actually found out that there is no church building or ward in Macedonia but there is one in Serbia. So we have no idea if it was safe or not. Maybe this is for the best. Na ja.
Basically thats all I have for this week. Nothing has really happened other than that. I just wanted to let you know that I am still think about you and praying for you. I heard from Sean too so I am really happy about that. I think that next week I will write down a few more things during the week so I have more to tell you all.
Love You!
Elder Trevor Baker
Things here have been going great! Elder Mayle and I are having a great time. Thats way cool about the iPad thing at your school. I have actually seen a couple of members using them in church haha. That would be way cool to use them in class.
Speaking of iPods and such, what I was thinking, was that I could just buy an iTouch here so that I could get it soon. The reason for that is because if you send it (or and ipod) right now, I wont get it until August. Thats because we have Zone Conference this week and thats when we get packages and so on.
Oh and I wouldn´t need speakers because all of the apartments have them. So I was thinking that I could get an iTouch here and use it for my mission and even afterwards. This way I can put some of the music that my companions listen to onto the iTouch and continue having it for the rest of my mission. Elder Mayle ended up buying one and its been working out great for the apartment. Let me know what you think. I am going to let Aunt Glenda know too. I hope she didn´t go out and get something already.
Let me know what you think about this idea. So far I have talked to about 3 other missionaries who do this and it works out really well. They say that they get their music from members.
Thats so cool that Dad is going to be the Elders Quorum president! Awesome!
Well the only real big thing that happened this week was our Muslim friend. He thought we were the Jehovahs Witness church. We ended up finding that out last time we met with him and he hasnt been to church in a couple weeks. There really isnt anything we can do at this point other than be friendly and see if we can find a translator and possibly try and continue teaching. Its rough but such is life.
Oh and technically we arent supposed to contact muslims as we tract and do doors. For a couple of obvious reasons. And if they want to be baptized then they need to be interviewed by the mission president. And we need to make sure it is safe if they return to another country. Oh well. We actually found out that there is no church building or ward in Macedonia but there is one in Serbia. So we have no idea if it was safe or not. Maybe this is for the best. Na ja.
Basically thats all I have for this week. Nothing has really happened other than that. I just wanted to let you know that I am still think about you and praying for you. I heard from Sean too so I am really happy about that. I think that next week I will write down a few more things during the week so I have more to tell you all.
Love You!
Elder Trevor Baker
Thursday, June 16, 2011
June 14, 2011 Another Tuesday P-Day
Hey mom!
This week has been pretty crazy, we found out that our investigator from Serbia is a Muslim and them we found out he has been reading JW literature. Ugh, oh well. But we still need a translator. Haha
Then we went by a couple of potentials who might be interested. We stopped by one lady, but when we handed her a Tamil Book of Mormon she said, "No, I cant read this book." We asked why and she said, "My pastor told me not to." Elder Mayle and I discussed this for over an hour. I can go into detail about it in a letter or something.
So in Jesus the Christ I am marking my scriptures as I go along. It's getting pretty intense. That book goes so deep it's ridiculous.
On Wednesday night, Elder Mayle and I made the Krefelder Kraken. It's a combination of his brownies and my cookies, and tons of chocolate. The bottom layer iswas brownie with white chocolate. The middle layer was my cocolate chip cookies with (german) chocolate chuncks. (I actually found Crisco here!) Then the top was brownie with Lindt chocolate drizzle. It was amazing, you would be proud.
Elder Mayle started doing all the p90X moves I remember every morning and evening. We are starting to get exhausted, but that's OK. Maybe we will call it our humility program. Haha
Apparently we got a golden refferal yesterday. This girl was an exchange student in Idaho, has a Book of Mormon, and loves it. We haven't met with her yet, but her being golden turned into a priority.
Oh we were in Kempen going by a couple of people and we were standing on the gleis or platform at the trainstation and we were waiting for our train. I was looking around seeing who is around and Elder Mayle notices a really cute girl checking me out. I guess I must be doing something right. Haha I love being a runner.
Monday was a feiertag here which means that all the stores close. We still proselyted but there was no one outside so we went by as many people as possible. It was still good though. And that is why Pday is on tuesday this week.
I worked in Mönchengladbach with Elder Garlick on Sat. That was intense. We rode bikes all day so my butt and legs hurt so bad. He is definitely the hardest working missionary I have seen here. He is a great guy.
So we ran out of food like 2 days ago and because Monday wasnt pday we werent able to get any shopping done. We started going through some of the stuff that has been here for a while. There is a reason it hasn't been eaten. I had some nasty potato puree thing. So we went out and got döners.
For Colin: My companion is way cool. He likes music like me and we play frisbee every week.
Katie: You have to destroy all the liberal hippies when you get into AP Gov. Do it for me!
Mom: We have Zone Conferences every transfer and District meetings every week. I found out on Sat. that I will be staying with Elder Mayle for another month and a half which is pretty sweet.
I still haven't heard from Sean. I will probably shoot him a quick email this week.
Love you all!
Elder Baker
This week has been pretty crazy, we found out that our investigator from Serbia is a Muslim and them we found out he has been reading JW literature. Ugh, oh well. But we still need a translator. Haha
Then we went by a couple of potentials who might be interested. We stopped by one lady, but when we handed her a Tamil Book of Mormon she said, "No, I cant read this book." We asked why and she said, "My pastor told me not to." Elder Mayle and I discussed this for over an hour. I can go into detail about it in a letter or something.
So in Jesus the Christ I am marking my scriptures as I go along. It's getting pretty intense. That book goes so deep it's ridiculous.
On Wednesday night, Elder Mayle and I made the Krefelder Kraken. It's a combination of his brownies and my cookies, and tons of chocolate. The bottom layer iswas brownie with white chocolate. The middle layer was my cocolate chip cookies with (german) chocolate chuncks. (I actually found Crisco here!) Then the top was brownie with Lindt chocolate drizzle. It was amazing, you would be proud.
Elder Mayle started doing all the p90X moves I remember every morning and evening. We are starting to get exhausted, but that's OK. Maybe we will call it our humility program. Haha
Apparently we got a golden refferal yesterday. This girl was an exchange student in Idaho, has a Book of Mormon, and loves it. We haven't met with her yet, but her being golden turned into a priority.
Oh we were in Kempen going by a couple of people and we were standing on the gleis or platform at the trainstation and we were waiting for our train. I was looking around seeing who is around and Elder Mayle notices a really cute girl checking me out. I guess I must be doing something right. Haha I love being a runner.
Monday was a feiertag here which means that all the stores close. We still proselyted but there was no one outside so we went by as many people as possible. It was still good though. And that is why Pday is on tuesday this week.
I worked in Mönchengladbach with Elder Garlick on Sat. That was intense. We rode bikes all day so my butt and legs hurt so bad. He is definitely the hardest working missionary I have seen here. He is a great guy.
So we ran out of food like 2 days ago and because Monday wasnt pday we werent able to get any shopping done. We started going through some of the stuff that has been here for a while. There is a reason it hasn't been eaten. I had some nasty potato puree thing. So we went out and got döners.
For Colin: My companion is way cool. He likes music like me and we play frisbee every week.
Katie: You have to destroy all the liberal hippies when you get into AP Gov. Do it for me!
Mom: We have Zone Conferences every transfer and District meetings every week. I found out on Sat. that I will be staying with Elder Mayle for another month and a half which is pretty sweet.
I still haven't heard from Sean. I will probably shoot him a quick email this week.
Love you all!
Elder Baker
Monday, June 6, 2011
June 6, 2011
Woah, first of all, the Davis Family went to the Krefeld ward? There is no way. That's so crazy.
We had a conference call with the mission president about the veggies situation. We talked about it pretty thoroughly too. I am not worried about it just because we dont really have the time to go get fresh vegetables every other day or so. Always busy busy busy... And yes I am proud of you. (Mom note: I told him I wasn't worried about him or the veggie scare and asked him if he was proud of me : )
Geez, school is really going by fast for you all. So Katie is basically a Senior now? That's so ridiculous. Haha.
I could print out the emails but it would cost money, and honestly, the week goes by so fast that before I know it, I am writing another email back home. I don't have time to get homesick. haha
I hate news like that about Sean. I hope he is doing better. You should tell him that when he feels better he should write me an email and send me pictures of our craziness back home. I am still praying for him.
It's been pretty fun here. It's still Krefeld and it's still Germany. People here are not big on talking about religion, but they will talk about politics all day long!
I find it interesting that we actually have to be selective as to who we street contact. We were told by President Ninow not to contact someone if they are obviously Muslim. Oh and drunk people are not fun either. There was another companionship that almost had to call the police because a drunkard was harassing them. Just another day in the life of a missionary. Haha. Let me know if you don't like hearing about things like that.
Nothing new has really changed here, still teaching and still preaching.
Oh, I wouldn't mind some new pictures of some friends. Sean especially. I have a wall of pictures and he isnt on it at all! There should be some good ones on Facebook or something. But I love getting to see pictures of back home. Maybe Dad could download some higher resolution photos and send them to me in an email. Then I can go and print them out.
Oh and I am going to want to see about music. I love it but I don't want to carry around a ton of CDs everwhere when I get transferred. So right now I am calculating my options. Lots of Elders actually use Ipods, so I will see about that.
Basically this week we got a couple of baptismal commitments out of a couple of investigators and hopefully we will see some progress out of that.
Well that's all for now, I will talk to you later!
Love You!
Elder Baker
We had a conference call with the mission president about the veggies situation. We talked about it pretty thoroughly too. I am not worried about it just because we dont really have the time to go get fresh vegetables every other day or so. Always busy busy busy... And yes I am proud of you. (Mom note: I told him I wasn't worried about him or the veggie scare and asked him if he was proud of me : )
Geez, school is really going by fast for you all. So Katie is basically a Senior now? That's so ridiculous. Haha.
I could print out the emails but it would cost money, and honestly, the week goes by so fast that before I know it, I am writing another email back home. I don't have time to get homesick. haha
I hate news like that about Sean. I hope he is doing better. You should tell him that when he feels better he should write me an email and send me pictures of our craziness back home. I am still praying for him.
It's been pretty fun here. It's still Krefeld and it's still Germany. People here are not big on talking about religion, but they will talk about politics all day long!
I find it interesting that we actually have to be selective as to who we street contact. We were told by President Ninow not to contact someone if they are obviously Muslim. Oh and drunk people are not fun either. There was another companionship that almost had to call the police because a drunkard was harassing them. Just another day in the life of a missionary. Haha. Let me know if you don't like hearing about things like that.
Nothing new has really changed here, still teaching and still preaching.
Oh, I wouldn't mind some new pictures of some friends. Sean especially. I have a wall of pictures and he isnt on it at all! There should be some good ones on Facebook or something. But I love getting to see pictures of back home. Maybe Dad could download some higher resolution photos and send them to me in an email. Then I can go and print them out.
Oh and I am going to want to see about music. I love it but I don't want to carry around a ton of CDs everwhere when I get transferred. So right now I am calculating my options. Lots of Elders actually use Ipods, so I will see about that.
Basically this week we got a couple of baptismal commitments out of a couple of investigators and hopefully we will see some progress out of that.
Well that's all for now, I will talk to you later!
Love You!
Elder Baker
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