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