The west

Wow, let me start off by saying that it's been a week.
I'm just going to jump into some stories because I just have to tell them.

First off, I had to pick up my new companion in Freiberg. He is a
brand new missionary named elder Lorenzen. But before I met him I had
to get myself from Erfurt to this hotel in Freiberg by 11 in the
morning. The train part was easy, everything is really organized and I
didn't have to walk very much. But then one of my trains was late...
that meant that I would be getting into Freiberg at 10:30, which
wasn't much of a problem except that I had a 30 minute walk from the
train station to the hotel, over cobblestone roads, with all my
suitcases. I got off the train and started speedily walking, and then
it started to rain. And it rained hard. By the time I made it to the
hotel I was freezing, and tired, and soaked to the bone. And we still
had a full day of traveling to our new apartment ahead of us. As I
arrived at the hotel, President Fingerle walked out to greet me.  He
gave me a nice German style hug, (which means that he pressed his
cheek firmly against mine), and said he was glad I was punctual. (I
arrived at 10:59 because I ran the last couple blocks.)
We had a very good meeting, and then I picked up elder Lorenzen. We
got on the train and headed off to Braunschweig!
All the traveling went very well, and I think that I may be learning a
sense of direction! We found our apartment, and then we discovered why
it is called the princess apartment! It is seriously one of the nicest
apartments I've ever been in. Next week I will get you some pictures
of it.

And now for another story. Elder Lorenzen and I got a very cryptic
phone call from someone who just said "I'm coming to pick you up at
8am tomorrow, we are going to move wood in the forest." Sure enough at
7:45 we got a knock on the door. Then we went to move wood in the
forest... we stacked it in a trailer and took it to someone's house. I
don't know why, but they kept telling us to work slower. So it ended
up taking 7 hours to move all the wood. Then they fed us, a lot. They
fed us Grünkohl (google it), Bregenwurst (brain sausage) and the belly
of a pig. Which means literally they took a pigs belly and cooked it.
I guess that they didn't bother taking the skin off... and all the
sudden I had a steaming lump of white flesh covered in fur sitting on
my plate. I flipped it over so that I couldn't see any of the long,
pig belly-hairs and I choked it all down.   Elder Lorenzen decided to
offend them and not finish it. But we shared our Christmas initiative
with the people, and then finally made it back to get changed and
start proselyting at 5:00pm.

Elder Lorenzen and I are having a blast here! He's just out of the MTC
and I haven't been here too long, so pray that we will be able to
understand all the German we encounter. I love Braunschweig already,
and I'm just pumped to keep working here. Also, I'm very sad to not be
in Erfurt for Christmas... it's so sad to abandon my city. I love all
of you at home, please take advantage of this Christmas season. Make
sure to look out for those who need help through this Christmas time.
Give your families big hugs, and tell them that you love them! Eat
lots of chocolate oranges for me!

Love you all!
Elder Openshaw

Westward Bound

Everyone cry a blue tear for me because I'm leaving Erfurt this
Wednesday... just before Christmas. I seriously wasn't expecting it at
all, and I thought that I would stay at least until January. But
honestly President Fingerle is one of the most faithful and inspired
people I've ever met, so I look forward to what's in store for me in
the West.
My next area will be Braunschweig (Brunswick), in West Germany! I have
been told by almost everyone that it is like a completely different
mission in the West. That people want to talk to the missionaries, and
that everyone tries to speak English with us... (that I'm not super
excited about). As of right now, I don't know who my companion will
be. But next week I'll have all the information.
Braunschweig I know is a really historic city, and that it was bombed
during the war. And I know that I have heard other things about it
before the mission but I can't remember haha. So you could all send me
a cool fact about it if you want to use google for me haha.

I have learned so much from my time here in Erfurt, and I will always
be so grateful for the people here, and the people that got me here.
There is nothing more spectacular than doing mission work, and nothing
more amazing than the light that the gospel brings in a generally dark
place.
This week we went and visited a lady who had been inactive for a
really long time, she was really lonely and had been having a super
hard time. She showed up at church and immediately this old guy in the
ward went up and hugged her. And then he went up to one of the other
missionaries, and just said thank you with a tear running down his
face. Those things just make what we are trying to do worth it.

I am going to miss Silvio, I hope you like the awesome picture I sent
of him! He always is showing off how he looked in his model days haha.

Love you all!

Elder Openshaw

Frohlicher Weihnachts

This week was super awesome.  Elder Roemer and I had a lot of fun and worked really hard on sharing the light the world initiative.  It's been super fun.  We did tons of walking this week and met with some very strange inactive members.  We also went to the Weihnachtsmarkt for P-day which is just so insanely cool.  It has gotten COLD here! The humidity freezes during the night and then the trees are just covered with this awesome frost.  

We have been working with a guy named Phillip a lot, he is super cool and will probably get baptized if we can get him to come to church.  His dad is also an investigator in a different area and they talk about the lessons all the time.  He reads so much and asks the most awesome questions.  You can honestly just tell that he is ready for the gospel.  Hopefully we will have a picture of him getting baptized soon!

I would definitely recommend coming here for christmas when you have the chance.  It is so awesome!

Ok, I've had two weeks in a row of the lamest emails.  So I promise that next week I will find you guys a good funny story, and I will send you some awesome pictures!

Love you all! Thank you for the emails!

Elder Openshaw