Small Branch in Rostock

So I have this feeling that my letters will become shorter and shorter haha.  I'm sorry.  I'll see you in 2 months!  That's nuts right?  Elder Bean and I are doing well.  He is from Idaho Falls. 

We do a lot with the less actives here in Rostock and they are all just amazing.  We have a great time together and they have awesome testimonies that just need a little help.  It is hard to go to church in a little branch with 10 people including the missionaries.  I understand that definitely.  We are trying to help them keep the commitment that they made to God at their baptism. 

We are in an crazy internet shop and this guy is just screaming while he is playing a game.  Sorry if I don't finish a sentence of something.  I have to duck in order to dodge him throwing stuff around. 

We had district conference this last weekend so we went with a less active to Neubrandenburg and we had a great meeting there!  The meeting really was great and the spirit was really strong.  These people go to church in a little apartment building above a grocery store here in Rostock.  It is an interesting experience and a tough one as well.  I love the challenge though and also the example of these faithful saints here. 

I like a quote from Elder Bednar that I heard this last weekend.  It says, 'If we do the same things over and over again, we will always get the same results'.  If we do things forever and expect different results then we are crazy.  We need to be constantly changing and trying new ways and use the inspiration of heaven to lighten new paths. 

Wir sehen uns :)

Elder Hays

Another week gone :)

I don't have a ton to say this week and don't have a ton of time but it was a good week of finding and teaching!  We had two investigators who came to church this week and we are teaching about 10 people per week!  It is really cool here in Rostock.  The ward but it is small and I can see the difficulty of leading and teaching on Sunday.  Elder Bean and I are doing great.  Getting along great and having fun :)

I love you!

Elder Hays

Pics of Rostock

Elder Bednar - An Apostle

Ahh man...This week has been nuts!  Monday we went to a really cool museum about Poland during WWII and that was a huge eye opener.  

Tuesday was transfer day.  We headed to the station, I got to say goodbye to a lot of great people and then headed off to Rostock.  When I got there, I got picked up by Tobias, our Ward Mission Leader who is AWESOME.  I've never seen anything like it.  He took us to our apartment and we dropped our stuff off and then we went to an appointment with him.  Just an older sister that needed a blessing.  A great start to the week :)  After that he took us to the church to show us around a little bit.  

Wednesday-Thursday was planning and working.

Friday we went to a member's house and were able to serve them in their garten.  After that we were assigned to take the train to Neubrandenburg and stay the night there in order to get to the meeting for Elder Bednar on time the next day.  We get there and stay with the Elders there.  We get up at 3:45am, get ready and leave at 5am to get to Berlin at 7am.  We arrive at Berlin and I see Elder Young (who I trained in Dresden) I leap out of the car and we have a great talk.  It was awesome to see him again.  He is now Zone Leader in Chemnitz.  After that we all pile into the chapel.  All 280 from us serving in the mission.  We were trying to kill time, so President asked if somebody could lead us in stretching to wake us all up.  He ponders on who he will call to lead then he yells out my name...oh joy...so I go up to help everyone wake up.  I then proceded to lead our mission and stake authorities in 'head-shoulders-knees and toes'.  Mom...I know...What was I supposed to do?!  Everyone got a kick out of it.  Elder Bean and I had the BEST seats.  4 rows back and right in front of Elder Bednar.  I will not attempt to explain what happened in the meeting because the best news reporter in the world could not have written an appropriate enough word for describing that Divine experience.  

That meeting literally ripped my soul apart and put it back together better than it was. I feel strength! I really do! I feel the desire and the burning more powerfully. When Elder Bednar gave his testimony, I couldn't even look at him. He was radiating as he spoke and I shook. My eyes where freaking out and produced some water haha. Just picture a jet on a runway about to take off. Elder Hays standing directly behind the jet engine and then the pilot turns on the jet's engines and you get a picture of Elder Hays. Just let that picture sink in.  

Sunday we went to church like good Christians do.  We had about 7 people or less from the ward there so it was a party :)  After that we found a few new investigators and came home.  

Good week :)  

I love you!

Elder Hays

(Totally going to the beach today...be jealous)

Transferred to Rostock

Haaaaaaaallochen. 

I got transfered!  I am sad to leave Neukölln but I'll go, where you want me to go, dear Lord'.  It was great to give my testimony and then to go give a blessing right after, and then going to eat with Bishop's family, and then going and having a great lesson with N***!  N**** is doing great.  We baptized him on the 1st of June and he has recieved the priesthood, comes to all 3 hours of church since his baptisms, is giving us referalls, is bringing less actives to church and is just so strong!  I'm so proud of him.  I am heading up to Rostock.  It is up on the edge of the Baltic Sea.  I'm excited!  I will be serving with Elder Bean and it will be his last transfer on the mission.  We will go hard :)  

Wanna know why I think the Lord sends prepared people to us? Here's why...So we talked to this lady on the street about a week ago and made out an appointment with her for Sunday at 16.30. Up to this point we had no joint teach and we knew she lived alone. A baptism was taking place at our church from Tiergarten. We ask her if she wants to go and she had no objection. So we take the busses to the church together and show up to the baptism. Well, it starts and they start speaking SPANISH. I can understand spanish but what about the investigator sitting next to me?? I look at her and said I had no idea that this was in spanish and she replies,'I speak spanish'. I was blown away. It was a really pretty baptism of a little spanish girl and our german investigator could randomly speak spanish. It was really cool...We gave her a book of mormon and then found out that she had already read it in english and she asked for one in turkish, so we gave her one in turkish (she was born in germany and grew up here speaking german but grew up in a turkish family and can therefore speak turkish). She said she will read it again and that we can come by with another friend next time so that we can come in :)

2 more transfers left...it's nuts. 

Elder Bednar is coming to speak to us on Saturday!  That will be pretty cool.  I can't wait.  It's like the Super Bowl for missionaries but BETTER. 

Well, I bid you all farewell and until next week!

Elder Hays

Reading the Book of Mormon

So...This week...B*** is getting baptized!  That's exciting right?  I mean, that's why I came out here?  :)  It's always awesome to have a baptism and to see people change in order to be able to be baptized. 

I finished reading the Book of Mormon in English this last week and started in German and am on schedule to finish before I come home so we will see.  It is cool studing the Book of Mormon in a different language because you see certain phrases in a different perspective.  It's awesome.  I actually am almost to 2nd Nephi in Spanish as well! (got it back). 

Have I told you I love Elder Christensen?  Yeah, He's great.

So I wrote a REALLY big story about how we got an investigator to come to a baptism and about the baptism but then the computer deleted it and my draft wasn't saved so I will type it up next week and send it to you. 

I will tell you about J**** though.  He is an African preacher and is INTENSE.  Think about having someone quote to you the bible from memory at the speed of Bethoven's 5th.  We had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon with him.  He would quote some truth from the Bible and then I, and Elder Christensen would quote something from the Book of Mormon and he would be like, 'Whoa'.  That's just like what it says here!  I gotta read this book!  

It's a lot of fun teaching him because I get to talk like an African preacher too.  He responds to it really well If you can picture me doing that.  I get a kick out of it. 

I love you family!

Elder Hays