Trains

I would love to look up how many miles I travelled this week, it seems like it was quite a few. We went to Berlin and back... twice. I went to Dresden, Chemnitz, Mittweida, and plenty of other places. So the first picture defines what a lot of the last week has been like, people trying to take pictures of me asleep on trains. Somehow I have a magical ability to wake up and catch people before they snag a pic... but we'll see if the magic lasts. 

All of my pictures are from my two Berlin trips, so you can enjoy some typical German touristy things. 

How am I doing? Fantastic! This week our ward had a Christmas party, complete with a full blown play put on by the members! It was so hilarious to see everyone decked out in costumes and doing their thing all week long. This ward is something special! I'll see if I can track down any pictures. 

Funny moment of the week: (PG-13) I was on companion exchange with a fairly new missionary and we came across a Chinese student while street contacting. I stopped him and started speaking a very odd mixture of Chinese, English, and German. A while into the conversation, the new missionary chimed in with the one phrase that I had taught him in Chinese... "我没有包皮!" Which I had told him meant, "I don't speak Chinese." ...... That doesn't mean that you don't speak Chinese. Look it up at your own peril. 

Somehow we moved on with the conversation, though this Chinese man was now very intrigued. And found out regardless that he would love to hear more about the Book of Mormon! 

Oh, and if you're wondering how good my Chinese is... pretty horrible is the answer. No joke, I speak enough to stop and entertain someone for 30 seconds... and then it's game over. But sometimes that's all you need in Chinese here! I've literally started praying that they don't ask me to give a homecoming talk in the Chinese Ward in my stake.... That would be a nightmare haha. 

Well, if I had anything important to tell you guys, I forgot it. Sorry

Please pray that I don't have to give a homecoming talk in the Chinese Ward! Thanks!

Love you!

Elder Openshaw 

The Land of Christmas

This morning we had to wake up super early and we are on our way to Berlin to pick up our car. Our area is really hard to handle without a car haha. We got stranded in some dwarf towns a couple times and had to be rescued by our bishop. Turns out that the little town we went to has a crazy amount of Jehovah's witnesses, like 80% of the population. 

Saxony is a really strange area. Many people here are very religious, but it is also the place that communism effected the most. We get a very weird mixture of happy, angry, impassive, and passionate people on the street. 

You may be wondering what christmas is like, here in Germany. Many little kids are very scared of Santa here, and I totally understand why. At a Christmas party, all the children ran away and a bunch of them were crying as he walked in the room. He just looks a lot rougher and less jolly than our Santa haha. He dresses in a long black coat and carries a big staff around. And then he makes all the little kids recite poems or sing songs in order to get their gifts. 

Oh man, it snows so much here! We've already had 6 inches or so. But sadly it all melted due to rain... last year they had 3 feet of snow here, I hope that we get that again! 

The Christmas markets are up and going again! That means that all of the best German Christmas songs play through the town all day! It's crazy how well I can still remember them all from last year, but I guess I did play them through the whole month of August as well. 

As for mission work, everything is going really well! Nadine is going to be baptized on the 13th of January! I'm so so excited for her. She's going to the the Relief Society President of the church someday, Mark my words. 

I have also been able to continue teaching Sandra and her 4 little kids! They drove all the way to my new area to come to church here! It is amazing to see how the gospel is starting to effect their lives. Sandra just seems so happy to have her kids in primary, and the kids love to sing the songs and participate. 

I couldn't be happier to be on my mission, I love this place. 

I know that people can change, and I have been very lucky to see that through my mission. There is no such thing as a "fatal flaw," in real life. I think it's very important to recognize that. We aren't slaves to our mistakes, we are masters of our decisions. I love you all!

Elder Openshaw 

My week in a photographic essay

At the temple

Wow, it is amazing here in Freiberg.  There are so many cool members and this area is amazing!  I have already had tons of great experiences.  I have honestly had all of the best areas in my mission, all the other elders are very jealous.  

Highlights of this week: 

1. Bernd for the last time, I will miss that man.  He was such a big influence on my time in Jena.  For those of you who don't know, Bernd is an 80 year old man that we help every week.  He has a huge garden and lots of projects, so we always have something to do.  He is strong and healthy, and I would have never guessed that he is 80 years old.  I'll include a picture of him, so you can get the whole picture.

2. Saying goodbye to all of the friends in Jena.  The branch in Jena changed my life more than any other people that I've ever met.  I learned so many things about myself and the world in my 8 months in that town.  I was glad for the chance to see many people before I headed off to the temple.  

3. Jumping straight into the fire here in Freiberg.  HOLY COW! There is so much going on in this ward building!  It's such a dream for mission work.  I hope to meet many many members and then eventually meet many many friends of members.  We started off my time with a huge RS party! We had the wonderful opportunity of serving the food, looking after 3 devil children, and trying to be reverent and patient at the same time.  

you know, there's too much going on at the church right now for me to be able to send real emails to you guys.  sooooooooo... here are some pictures.

End of chapter.

Well everyone, the great and dreadful day has come. My time in Jena is
coming to an end, and Wednesday I will be on a train headed east. I am
headed to Freiberg, which is where the temple is here in Germany. I am
so sad to leave my home, here in Jena, but Freiberg will be a Great
experience.

This week was exciting, and I had a good chance to say goodbye to many
of the close friends that I've made here. The time here has changed
me, and I can honestly say that I'm leaving Jena a completely
different person than I was when I came here. I don't want to get too
sentimental this week, so I'm not going to write much. Just know that
I love this place, and I love these people.

Jena, you were the greatest chapter of my life. Here are some of my
strangest, best, clearest, shortest memories from the cookie tin city.
(This is a list of things for you to ask me about after my mission)

1. Running into people we knew, again and again. "Mann sieht sich zwei
mal in Jena"
2. Watching the Jehovas witnesses trying to knock doors in a building
3. Riding my favorite industrial elevator to get out onto the street
4. Cooking shrimp in the apartment with elder Hsu, complete with state
of emergency trash takeout the next day. (Warning: when you throw raw
shrimp heads away, never ever let them stay in the trash overnight.
They will destroy your sense of smell)
5. Playing foosball with rob, elder Larsen, and elder Hsu.
6. Learning what it means to have to eat more than you can. Thanks
Karsan, you are an amazing cook, habibi.
7. Spending time in hack space with Christian
8. Finally getting noticed as a church. Putting posters through the
town and then repairing vandalism, repeatedly
9. Running in a relay with elder Hsu and Josi
10. Having a strange relationship with the evangelical church here
11. "Bishop" Tobi
12. Eating Hot Pot at the church with all of our Chinese friends.
13. Working for Bernd
14. Playing chess on the street
15. Frank, the party animal, chess master, commander of women, and
overall best guy in the whole Stadtteil Lobeda.
16. Garden parties with family Krause
17. McDonald's with Nadine
18. The Bjorkman's lunch, every Sunday.
19. Cooking in the church with elder Hsu
20. Making videos in the apartment with the Erfurt elders, elder to,
and elder Larsen.

I'm gonna miss this place.

Love you all,
Elder Openshaw


P.S, read D&C 6. It's worth it

Breakthroughs

Hey everyone! I'm still living the dream here in Jena! Things have
been good, strange, and more difficult than ever before. I feel like
I've started living the mission that I always thought about as a
little kid! Now if you're wondering what that means, I'm not really
sure. I thought about many types of missions as a little kid, but I
never really imagined what it would be like here in Germany. But I
want to tell you guys some cool things that have happened:

1. We have started teaching a young family with 4 kids that are 8 and
under! (I honestly didn't think families like that existed here in
Germany). It is my favorite type of chaos trying to teach them, I have
a couple action pictures of our halloween party and that might give
you a slight idea of what it's like. Just imagine getting mugged by 4
little villains that all speak with a crazy german dialect while their
two lead bosses (also speaking with a heavy dialect) try to
communicate with your Hong-Kong companion in a dialect of a language
that he's learned for 9 weeks. It's a very uplifting experience, I'm
sure. Luckily on Sundays we can send the little villains into the
primary, which has doubled in size because of them!

2.  My limited supply of white shirts is becoming ever more limited
because of the above story. I now have to inspect every shirt to find
out what the damage is, and find what I would have to wear to cover it
up haha. I guess sweaters would be good Christmas gifts hahah.

3. As I tried to nail the thesis of the Jena branch to the door of an
Evangelical church, I was forbidden because, "the scriptural passages
we used were not in line with the evangelical doctrine." Luther would
be proud of his followers, I think.  (Writer's note: point three is
for you to laugh at, but not necessarily to share with your friends)

4. I've learned so many new things about so many new cultures in the
past while, mostly through visiting a falafel stand that some of our
friends from Syria opened. Hah, it's so cool how long I've been here.
I met them when they arrived here, then one time they cooked us some
awesome food, then they told me that they wanted to start a food
stand, and then this last week they got their start up! I love the
people here, Germany is really a land where people's dreams can come
true right now.

5. I have been reading the Bible recently, and have been so impressed
with the change of emphasis in some stories between the King James and
the Martin Luther Bible. (Don't worry, I still have tremendous respect
for the King James Version, but you might want to read a little about
what Joseph Smith said about the German Bible.) I want to share with
you guys something that is very emphasized in the Martin Luther
Bible... please forgive my slight changes to the King James verses.


Matthew 16:5-11
5 And when his disciples were come to the other side, [they
recognized] they had forgotten to take bread.
6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
7 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have
taken no bread.
8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith,
why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves [and the]
five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up [after]?
10 Neither [that with] the seven loaves [I fed] the four thousand, and
how many baskets ye took up?
11 How is it that ye do not understand[?] [Do ye not understand] that
I [never] spake [...] unto you concerning bread?

My changes to the verses now slightly resemble the german bible. I
love the last sentence, "Do ye not understand that I never spake unto
you concerning bread?" It's something I've been really pondering
recently, how quickly I sometimes forget that the sacrament is not
just bread. That our church isn't a church of bread and strange
ritualism, it's a church of life, the body of Christ. It was never
about bread, but the Bread of Life. Please don't forget that.

I love you all!

Elder Openshaw

Living the dream

 Hey everyone! Sorry I have been in and out of contact for the last little bit. I'm alive and well!

To be honest, I'm more busy than I've ever been! We have a full time job just trying to keep track of all of our friends here in Jena! I guess it's a good problem to have. 

Here are some pictures from the last bit,

Me and elder To

Me with stuff on my nose at party

Me (the moving hand) cheering on Frank on his way to victory

Me with elder Vasai and a new buddy that's bringing his whole family to church on Sunday so that he can try and beat me at foosball during primary! 

Everyone should read 3 Nephi 18 and apply it in their lives! So do it!

Love you all!

Elder Openshaw 

Elder To is in town

This week I got my new companion, Elder To! He is from Hongkong and
this is his first area on the mission! He has some incredible English
and I'm sure his German will improve very very fast. We've already had
some funny experiences together, and I'm sure it's going to be a party
all the way through this transfer.

What is crazy to me is that he just barely turned 18! He's actually
younger than Tanner! I guess I never really realized that someone
Tanner's age would be my companion. But it makes sense, just strange.

We did some fun things this week to welcome Elder To here:
-we celebrated the moon festival with some great moon cakes
- had a nice time playing foosball (I kicked elder To's trash, he's
gonna need to step up his game)
- walked around and viewed some of the scenes of Jena, elder To took
pictures so you might get some more pictures of the city
- have tried to watch the Sunday afternoon session of conference but
have been too busy... someone just send me the highlights
- ate a good Döner in Erfurt
- searched the whole city for a water bottle
- ate with the Bjorkmans a few times

Here are some pictures!

Also, everyone watch general Conference if you haven't already.

By the way! Congratulations to max on getting baptized!! Love you, little dude!

Love,
Elder Openshaw

Staying in Jena

Received  10/2/2017

Well everyone! I'm staying in Jena! I'm so excited, I love it here so so much. 

What's to love, you may ask? 

Take a look... (finally going to provide some pictures for Pops) 

Also, I got good news from Budapest... but I'm not allowed to talk about it. Some of you should still know what I'm talking about, so email me and celebrate with me! (Eva, I'm talking to you 🙂) 

Conference was awesome, it's like Christmas for missionaries! Elder Larsen and I enjoyed the wonderful messages, and they all seemed to be directed toward Elder Larsen (who is returning from his mission in Wednesday). He's a good guy, say hi to him in Provo for me. 

My new companion is also in Provo right now, but will be joining me soon here in Jena! I have a bunch of Mooncakes that i ordered from the Chinese black market that I'm going to surprise him with. Wednesday is the Chinese moon festival by the way, so enjoy the moon with your friends and family! 

Something spiritual.... dang it, I used Jacob 6:12 last week. I guess I can just say what I loved about elder Christofferson's talk. I think there is something that we can learn from trying to be holy in our lives. Listen to the hymn, Take time to be holy. Sit down, meditate, and just take a moment of your day to relax. Sometimes God wants us to just relax for a moment and remember him. 

I love you all! Here is an unusually high amount of pictures 

1. Confident rain gutter

2. Elder Vasai 

3. Yunpeng and Elder Larsen (yunpeng invited me to his wedding in China in August 2018... and I'm gonna do everything I can to be there)

4-5. The view from our apartment (its missing the trademark cookie can skyscraper that defines the Jena skyline. Just google it I guess.)

Dresden Adventures

Received 9/25/2017

Well this week was just as action packed as normal! But with lots and
lots of traveling. Some good things happened this week, here's a quick
list of them. (I'm gonna make a highlight/lowlight list so you can
have a moment in the life of elder Openshaw)


Sorry if this is really hard to read by the way... maybe I'll try to
connect some of the high and lowlights.

Highlights
~traveled to Dresden! I love trains!
-saw all my friends from my exchange in Meissen! (Picture included)
-made a birthday video for president Fingerle
+spent a day in Nordhausen! (Found a cool book, der Kleine Prinz)
=wore an awesome jacket in Dresden
-received some awesome birthday packages!! THANK YOU!!
€ I have to teach you a german word in order for this highlight to
make sense. It's called "Fernweh," and it is the opposite of
homesickness... away sickness. Well I had that. But I conquered it
through this week's extensive travels.
- ate some good food
-actually started writing in my journal every day again! Cool right?!



Lowlights
~woke up unnecessarily early because I thought elder Larson said we
had to go at 7:15 when it was indeed 7:50.
-lower lights (don't especially love their music)
+spent a day in Nordhausen. (Found no people that wanted to hear from us)
=the said Dresden jacket belonged to another elder, and I had to return it.
€ spent almost the entire week outside of Jena (made me very homesick
for my little german home)

Well if I wanted to be very german I could end this email on a
negative note. But instead I'll give you all a german culture tip!

East German culture tip of the day : it is good to complain about
things, it helps people to improve things and everything to be more
"in order." East Germans consider it a favor to give people criticism
because it helps people to improve. So the tip is to keep that in mind
when you get criticized by an East German. They consider it a favor to
you and criticize you as your friend.

I actually really like that part of the german culture, despite the
fact that I didn't understand it at all at first. The society is
really all about mutual improvement, and I have learned a ton from
that mindset.

Well, I'll share a scripture that my family all memorized together
(thanks mom). "O be wise, what can I say more?"

Love you all,
Elder Openshaw

1. If you know why this picture is special, good. If not, sorry, don't
really want to explain it.
2. Me and elder Larsen wearing very large coats.