December 10, 2012 Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is coming and sometimes I can't wait until it has come. This season is the most stressful time of the year especially for missionaries. We are just beat up by all of the things going on around here.

Sometimes I think we need breaks, and Pday sometimes doesn't cut it. To be honest, I can't wait until the new year.

There certainly is a lot on my plate right now, and I am still debating what I should tackle first. Here is a good idea of what's going on:

1. Apply for Fall Semester (somewhere) for school

2. Concentrate on the missionary work here

3. Finish planning everything going on in Gera for the next 2 months

4. Write a talk and come up with a couple other lessons.

5. Finish anything else I need to do before I leave Germany.

I guess number two is an ongoing thing while I concentrate on everything else. Anyways...

Questions!

1.  So how are you and Elder Turner doing? Pretty well. 

2.  When are you going to send me a picture of you two? When I get the photo from the Lees in Jena.

3.  How did your Christmas singing go at the Market on Thursday? 
Great. We got a lot of good publicity from it.

4.  What songs did you sing? A list of about 15 songs. 

5.  Were they all in German or were some in English, too? Both

6.  Are people being more willing to listen to you talk about Christ since it's the Christmas season? Nope.

7.  Do you see many nativity scenes in Gera? No way.

8.  What are you going to be doing for p-day? Well, we have an appointment with Martin. And I am thinking about what I still have to do this month.

9.  Do you think you will have a dinner appointment for Christmas? Oh we already have a calendar up on the board in the hall. It's almost full.

10.  How have you been finding investigators lately? No, that's the hardest thing in this city. We got a referral though.

11.  Any news about how many new missionaries you may be getting in your mission since they changed the age for service? There will be a lot coming in. I don't know the specifics.

12.  What is a piece of advice that you have gotten from your mission president that has really stuck with you? Oh gosh, I can't recall anything right now. 

13.  How big are the stakes over there (geographically)? Not very large. Probably the same as back home. I have a skewed sense of size in Europe.

14.  Did you have any experiences this week that you'd like to share? Nothing that I can think of in the moment.

15.  What is church like for you on Sundays? It depends on the Sunday. Sometimes it's really long, and other times it goes by really quickly.

16.  Do you and your companion do anything special at church like teach a class or pass the Sacrament, etc.? Well, in Gera we bless just about every week. 

17.  You said your ward only had a few members in it.  It seems really small.  Why do you think that is so?

18.  So do you think you'll be in Gera for your last area? Or do you think you will be transferred?

19.  Have you gotten your new bed yet? No.

20.  What happened to the old one?  How did it break? Well it creaks every time somebody moves on it. It wakes the other person up because its a bunk bed.

21.  Have you heard from any of your old companions?  What's new with them? Well, Tyler Mayle is at BYU and other than that, I haven't heard anything.

22.  How are your investigators? They are doing well. We are taking things at a comfortable speed with them. I think both of them will eventually get baptized. But these things take time. 

23.  What is your favorite thing to teach people about? Everything. I haven't really thought about what I like to teach people. I just cover everything.

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

December 3, 2012 It's December!

Well, this week sure has gone by. I don't even know what is happening with the time.

It sounds like Sister Kempe did a good job writing you an email. I don't like to gush... you know. I already know I am epic. : )

I am working on uploading a bunch of video diaries to my dropbox account... stay tuned for more details.

1. Is there anything else you've organized on your mission besides a mission choir? 

No, we have done other things like workshops, ward activities (especially Summerfestival in Saarbruecken), and other things like that. I also end up planning all the travel arrangements.

2. Tell me about the mission choir. 

So, we have the Elders from Jena, Werdau, and Gera singing in it. We recieved permission to sing on the stage this upcoming Thursday.

3. How many emails did you get this week? 3 or 4.

4. Do people send you letters ever? No.

5. How is your new companion?

 He is pretty cool. We get along well.

6. What's new in Gera? 

Nothing except for the Christmas Market.

7. How are your investigators? 

They are doing pretty well actually.

8. Do you work with a ward mission leader or ward missionaries? 

We have no ward missionaries that I am aware of. There is just the Kempes.

9. How many people are in your ward? 

20 Active on a good week.

10. Is Gera a very busy city or really urban?

It's more of a town. There is a mall here though.

11. When do you start singing at the Christmas Market? That's going to be on Thursday at 7:00 pm.

12. Is Gera very touristy? 

No, there isn't anything here except for some famous painter and some tunnels beneath the city.

13. What is your scripture study time like? How long? Companion/personal? 

I don't actually get much of it. I have to prepare for investigators most of the time.

14. Do you ever get to exercise? 

Well... I never used to run in the morning. I still don't. It's like trying to fight a war you have already lost. I am just going to wait until Jan. rolls around.

15. Do people there mostly stay home for Christmas or do they travel? 

I think it depends on the person and what their family is like. I have seen both.

16. What are you going to do for p-day? 

Clean and maybe take a nap or something. I may play some Pokemon with Elder Turner.

17. Are you getting addresses for people you want to keep in touch with in Germany after you get home? 

Yeah, I have already got the majority of them.

 

Probably not. They will just clutter up the apartment and that's the last thing I want.

Well, I hope you all are excited to talk with me in like 3 weeks. Forgot about that, huh? I bet you all were so excited to see me coming home!

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

November 26, 2012 Working Hard

I can't wait until the Christmas season is over. It's so stressful... Anywho. Onto other matters.

I am writing my new transfer ideas for Gera so I can send them to president. It's hard to do something new during the Christmas season though. It's hard. I am just so tired all the time nowadays.

We had one of the members of the District Presidency come over on Sunday. He gave the lesson and I got the feeling that he was stirring up the hornets nest. He talked about member missionary work. It didn't go as well as he hoped I think. These things take time.

1. What's your week been like with your new companion? Pretty Cool. He's Pretty chill.

2. Where is he from? 

Texas.

3. Do you only have two transfers left???? 

Yeah. Actually I have 11 weeks.

4. What are you going to get yourself for Christmas? 

Probably some Movies in German.

5. Will you be sending me a new picture of you and your new companion soon?

I will work on that. I still need to have someone take it.

6. Did Sister Kempe tell you I emailed her? No...

7. What is your Christmas program going to be like at the Market?

 I don't really know. The people here didn't tell me much about it. We are going to be singing a variety of songs and hopefully we can practice them all before time comes to perform.

8. How many other missionaries will be there to sing with you? 5. 6 in all.

9. Are there any other couple missionaries in your city? 

No. There aren't very many couple missionaries anywhere.
10. What do the Kempes do on their mission? 

They help out in the ward and with missionary work where they can.

11. Can you see Dad and me going on a mission someday? Yeah, then you will find out what missionary work really is!

12. If Katie puts in her papers, where do you think she will go? 

France?

13. Did you know that Charlotte does a lot of business with Saarbrucken? 

 Yeah, but the sister city in the US is actually somewhere in Indiana.

14. Do you think Butler will win the State Championship again this year? 

Oh man, I have no idea. I will take a shot and say yes.

15. Do you see many people exercising in Germany--running, walking, playing soccer etc.? 

I see quite a few people running. It gets me trunky sometimes.

16. What will you be doing for P-day? 

Oh let's see, cleaning, Emails, teaching an investigator, and maybe even look around the city. I don't know of anything else to do around here.

17. Have you been teaching anyone? 

Yeah, we have 3 investigators but we are only teaching 2 of them.

18. What goals do you have for your week? 

Like, number goals? Those are sad. My personal goal is to combine Pokemon and Star Wars and talk about StarMon more often.

19. Where do you go to do your email in Gera? 

We go to the Kempes every week.
20. Have you gone to any other towns this week? 

Nope. It costs too much money.

21. When do I get to see a picture of your apartment? 

Never! We need to clean it first!

22. What happened to your bed, and did you get a new one? Elder Kempe is in the process of ordering a new one for us. Then I can finally get a good nights sleep. I have been sleep deprived for over 3 months now.

Well, you guys have a good one. I will try to destress today. Love you!

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