Well hello hello...
First off, I am so excited for Christmas here this year! I went last week to the Weihnachtsmarkt, and it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life. There were rows and rows of little wooden shops set up in the square and every single one had these really bright lights on them. They were selling Raeuchermenchen which are those little Santa Clauses that burn insense, and steins (they hold your beer), and candles and wurst shops and different kinds of shaped glass sculptures and nutcrackers and basically everything that you can imagine that is related to Christmas. It was unbelievable. We should be going by for Elder Jongejan's birthday (which is today) and having some kind of wurst. We are also having a scavenger hunt today with the Nuermberg Elders, Sisters, and the Elders from Regensburg (Elder Mayle my trainer is there right now haha). It should be fun!
Well, I wrote down a few of the interesting/funny things that happened this week...
So we were riding on a bus on the way to Nordostbahnhof to go by a potential investigator and yet again, there were two teenage girls there trying to take pictures of Elder Jongejan and I. They looked like they were trying to read out nametags too so I pulled mine off and showed one of them and she goes, "Ahhhh..." This happens on a regular basis unfortunately.
So we also decided to branch out this week too. We tried some Malz Bier and Alkoholfrei Bier. Disclaimer: Malz Bier has no alcohol. It was actually pretty good. We tried both of them and the common consensus was that the Malz Bier was wayyy better than the Alkoholfrei one. It was cool. Course its about as "cool" as you can get as a Mormon Missionary.
So then on Tuesday with Elder Peterson on the way to district meeting, we were running a little late and decided to run to catch the U-Bahn. Well Elder Jongejan and Elder Anderson were ahead of us and decided to run and try to make it. Elder Peterson and I (In back) followed suit and tried to make it. On the way down to the platform I turn around and ask Elder Peterson if he has a pass for both of us. He said he did and I was like Ok good. I bolted up the escalator and made it to the top when I heard a crash. I turned around as the Bahn was leaving and saw Elder Peterson holding these two jars in his hand and clenching the other one, bleeding. I was thinking "Why does everything interesting happen when I am with him?" Well it turns out he tried to take one too many steps on the escalator and didnt quite make the last one. He braced himself with one of his hands and the glass bottle he was holding hit the sharp part of the escalator and shattered and cut his hand open. So it was a fun ride to the Church while I was trying to keep him from passing out because he was going light headed... Well that's yet another fun story that I have with Elder Peterson.
We went caroling this past week too, which was awesome! I have never (honestly) had this much fun while doing "finding time". I honestly cant stand finding time here but caroling is way fun. It's a great and meaningful (not to mention effective) way to spread the Christmas spirit. There is that singing quote that just came to mind haha. Christmas cheer... Well most times people try to give us money but we dont accept so they try insisting chocolate instead. The people here are really generous, I have never seen a more generous people anywhere, but the idea with this is just channeling this charity into different facets such as the gospel. That would be nice. I remember president Schwartz talking about using service projects as a way for people to come to recognize the name of the church and keep themselves preoccupied with great activities.
So I don't know whether I have gotten any packages or not. They all go to the mission office and we could possibly be getting them this week or next week. So I guess keeping up on those online tracking systems would be best. I will let people know if I get packages so there isnt some kind of rummage around frantically trying to find them.
We had a Christmas party with the ward which was so much fun. We did an acapella version of white Christmas, I was unfortunately sick so I had to sing the bass parts and not the high part. The Senior missionary couple took a video of it so I will see If I can pass that along. The ward absolutely loved it, we got a hugh round of applause. They even asked us to sing another song, so we did Deck the Halls and Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It was a blast. Of course we came home laden with chocolate and baked goods. The ward is so awesome.
So like I said, I got sick on friday. Not much else I can say about that...
We also were at the church last night to watch that Christmas fireside and I really liked the quote from President Monson about how Christmas is what you make of it. I love the Christmas season.
On to some logistical things. I have some times for skype: I will be skyping home at 12:00 noon your time. That is 6:00 pm my time. Be prepared for high noon. I believe that Sean has a laptop with skype set up already. You should ask him so you don't have to buy a web cam. I will have approximately 1 hour and if there are any problems there is a phone number that you can call to figure out what is going on. So the skype name is -----and the phone number is--- that is a Colorado number but the phone is here, so the charge will be only to Colorado. I think the best option (if this is possible) is to see if Sean can make it and have him set the computer up in the living room or something. I will let you all work that out though. But if there are any problems with the time or anything, let me know.
Love you all and Merry Christmas!
Elder Trevor Baker
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