Short one this week

This week was pretty long to be honest. We had several busy days, but
most of the time we were forced to drive to mission stuff that was
really far from Erfurt. I think I drove a total of 20 hours this
week... not something that expected out of a mission, but I love
driving so it's been alright.

We worked really hard this week and I'm so thankful to be here. I
actually have next to no time to write you all. So I hope that the
picture with Silvio says enough.

Power Preaching

 Me and Bruder Marschaleck (my favourite old guy in the ward. And he
hates all the missionaries but me haha. He's the most amazing guy, and
told me I have to be a sailor someday)

Typical Erfurt back alleys.

Erfurt Sunrise.

The Weihnachtsmarkt is almost all the way built here in Erfurt!
Seriously I've just been getting so excited for Christmas ever since I got here. They have huge Christmas trees all over the place, and tons of little buildings with food and treats and nutcrackers. I just can't wait for it to officially start! Seriously everyone needs to see what it looks like here for Christmas.

This week was the week of crazy street displays and spending time in
random cities. Our zone leaders forced us to go to Apolda and do a
street display (I say forced because there was just us and a senior
couple there. And they didn't really give us any supplies to be able
to make anything cool.) so we went and ended up just throwing the
football that we had to random people on the street and then trying to
talk about the gospel. Apparently we were supposed to be there,
because we had some crazy success with getting phone numbers and
setting up appointments. Sadly though, none of the appointments are
for us... so we just found a bunch of the people for the zone leaders to teach hah. But apparently they liked our work so much that they planned another one in a different city for the next day.

(A street display is normally when you set up a table and have a bunch of missionaries with pamphlets and stuff out talking to people on the street.)

We had a couple lessons with Phillip and Silvio this week, and it has just been insanely cool. Elder Römer and I have been taking a really German approach to teaching, which means that it's just power
preaching. Lots of missionaries actually don't understand that it's ok to speak really forcefully here. But it actually is way cool to just say loudly, "Come to church and we'll baptize you the next week!" You don't really have to be polite here (aside from at meals), because the people just really want to know straightforwardly what you want from them. I like that a lot actually haha.

Also, we've been meeting with this guy named Mykola, he's native
Ukrainian but sadly he's a little crazy. But he honestly has the
biggest heart out of anyone I've ever met. I don't know what exactly
we can do for him, but we are trying our best just to read out if the Book of Mormon and just be his friend.

This week has just been a good one! Send me pictures of everything at home haha. Love you all!

-Elder Openshaw

Narenweckens

Hello everyone! Quick disclaimer... I'm learning the art of being very
blunt from the East German masters.

This week started off crazy, and persisted the whole way through.
Something you ought to know about Germany, they love their
events/holidays. There was this holiday on Wednesday, and it has
totally become one of my new favorites. It's called St. Martin's day,
and you should all look it up. Seriously the coolest thing ever! It's
a mix of trick-or-treating and caroling, with an awesome message
behind it.


Then the day after that, the other elders in our apartment got a call
and one of them got transferred the next day to Cottbus (which is
totally ghetto), but he kinda deserved it... he fell in love with one
of his investigators. She is goth, he is very strange, yeah it was a
weird week. But the new elder is Elder Chadwick, and he is super cool.
He's from Chandler, AZ and we get along great. I'm very happy with the
change haha.


There was also another holiday on 11/11 called Narenweckens... I still
have no idea what it was. All the sudden all the street trains stopped
and there were a ton of pretty girls marching around in funny hats.
Then everyone would do cheers and yells... I think it is just an
Erfurt thing, but maybe I'm wrong haha. But I was asking people all
over the street what it was... and nobody could really explain it.


We also have some crazy investigators, and they are all so awesome.
Phillip, a brand new one, is such a champ. And I can't wait for him to
be baptized.

Well I actually don't have much time to email today because we were
hanging out with Phillip and now it's time to head back to our
apartment. But I love you all!

-Elder Openshaw

Pictures

The snow picture is in Oberhof, a "famous" ski city in our area. It's the most insanely cold place! We were getting blasted with frozen mist and snow, but I have my dads nice Ukrainian hat to keep me warm. This picture was taken right before I met a lady 

taking her Newfoundland puppy on a walk, one of the most 

beautiful dogs I've ever seen.

Sorry the picture is so dark, and you can't really tell what was going on. But this was a huge saint martins day celebration right by our apartment. That church on the left is der Dom, and on the right is the Church of Saint Severus. They come together at the back and have a space of 10 feet between them... it's beautiful, but really shows how the churchs all try to show each other up here in Germany.

Erfurter blau

 I think it's official.  We have the world's most dapper missionary on our hands!  -Aunt Jen

This week honestly was the best ever. Halloween in East Germany is
interesting. All the old people HATE it haha. And they don't answer
the door when the little kids come "süßes oder saures"ing. And some
little kids are too scared to go out because teenagers all dress up as clowns and run around with knives and chainsaws. Germany.

We also had a crazy service project for a very crazy woman. We built a retaining wall in her garden, but she was very German about it haha. It was the first time in a garden service project that I have ever had a table and paper and a calculator to do calculations. Luckily Elder Römer is a mechanic/engineer, and super good at all that stuff. So we didn't get yelled at too much.

I guess the theme of my week was crazy East German ladies. But I love them so much! Seriously I just can't help but smile when they start yelling hahaha. We taught this lady named Frau Lösch this week. And she pretty much yelled about trump the whole time. I'm not sure why she cares so much... but then we ended up being such good friends. It was funny because she doesn't really like Elder Römer but she loves me.

This week ended with an awesome party at the church! Herbst Fest! I
need Lieder Hosen statt! I was way underdressed wearing my white shirt and tie.

Ok, love you all!
-Elder Openshaw