Sorry, but your princess is in another castle!

Well, I wasn't looking for any Princesses... but the investigators
must be in another castle as well. Regardless it was an awesome week!
I think I'm finally getting the affliction that I was expecting coming
here to Germany! In the past couple weeks I got yelled at for the
first time, kicked out of an apartment building, had to politely
excuse myself and my companion as we accidentally talk to Muslim
women, had a huge language barrier (story later on), and froze to
death twice!

Speaking of language barrier, we somehow ended up in a lesson with a
family that speaks only Spanish. So I desperately tried to remember
the tiny bit of Spanish from my freshman year, and the tiny bit of
Spanish that the waiter tried to teach me and the Barber kids in
Mexico. I succeeded in saying that my name was "Eldersito Openshaw,"
but they kept calling me "Richard" the whole time... so maybe I didn't
succeed. We have an appointment with them this Friday, luckily we will
be skyping some Spanish speakers.

Other than that, this week was so great. I will be staying in
Braunschweig for at least another 6 weeks, and we are actually having
two Turkish speaking elders move in with us.
I also want you all to know that this Church is blessed, and that if
you aren't on the train/"good ship Zion"/active membership of the
church, get there fast! It's amazing to see the influence of the
church, even here in Germany where the membership is small.

Love you all!

Eldersito Openshaw

VW Autostadt

Hey everyone, this week was awesome! Mostly because I just got back
from visiting the Volkswagen factory, which is the coolest place in
the world! Wolfsburg, which is in my area, is the city that Volkswagen
essentially built. Featuring this huge factory that you have to take a
ferry to get into. And they have this awesome theme park that is
literally just car-themed, which we were seriously the 

only people at today.
Other than that we had a couple investigators at church this week, and
I'm really excited going forward. We are trying some new things here
in Braunschweig, and I hope that they work out. For example, we
emailed a religion professor this week asking to meet with all his
classes and to be interviewed by them, and I really hope that that
goes somewhere! If any of you have connections to the University here
in Braunschweig, get me in! Our president really wants us to focus on
students and the younger generation (I think it's because the older
generation are all pretty grumpy and stubborn).
Well, other than that, this week has been... humbling I guess. Lots of
effort, not tons of payoff. It's funny though, I really feel like my
companion and I are just about to be super blessed 

(not that we aren't already).

I love you all! Please pray for the people here, they need some hope and love.

Where am I?

Germany is a weird place, so I am just going to dedicate this weekly
email trying to explain some strange things about this strange place.
(If you can't tell, not much happened this week... I practiced lots of
finding introductions)

1. The recorder is no joke here... a recorder, the little flutey thing
that everybody in the motherland learns to play in the 4th grade,
apparently is regarded as a real instrument here hahaha. Probably the
hardest thing I have had to do on my mission is try to stifle my
laughter when someone plays the recorder for a musical number in
Sacrament meeting. (To all you recorder players, I sincerely
apologize, and I will learn to better appreciate your instrument)

2. Squirrels here are super red. .

3. Ice is unhealthy, and will give you a cold. But you can eat
ice-cream in any sort of weather.

4. Everybody here wears scarves! It doesn't matter who you are, if
it's winter in Germany you are supposed to wear a scarf. (So don't
call me feminine for any of my scarf pictures)

5. Everything is locked, and every old German carries at least 25
keys. (There was this guy who seriously had a key for his Freezer from
1960 that we had to move from the basement)

6. You better be hungry when you go to an eating appointment. Germans
can eat a ton in one sitting! And they want the missionaries to match.

7. There's no place I'd rather be in the world. I love these people,
and their weird ways. I love the gospel, and the incredible members of
the church here. In the east some of the people had to sacrifice
everything to be members of the church. I have grown to appreciate the
history of this land, and of the church.

I love you all, thanks for all the emails!

Love,
Elder Openshaw

Witches

emailed on 1/09/2017

This week was awesome! We went to a city in the south end of our area
that is famous for witches... it was super cool and the entire town is
just decorated in crazy witch stuff! It takes about two hours to get
there, and you have to ride a bus through the mountains, which is
really cool. Of course, the snow starting coming down on our way up,
and we got out to about 2 feet of snow in Braunlage (the witch city).
We actually had a couple scary experiences, and I am actually
suspicious I might have been cursed... I don't know what happened, but
I pulled my hands out of my pockets, and they were black! My palms
were just covered with this black stuff, and me and my companion were
wondering what the heck was going on. Then I remembered that I used a
snow shovel to shovel someone's walkway... and that may have been the
cause... maybe. For a split second I thought I was going to face some
real affliction on my mission... too bad.

I have been learning to cook, so be ready for me to come home a renaissance man!

Also! At the end of every day I have an hour and a half of just free
time before bed. It's the greatest part of the day haha, I have picked
up some awesome hobbies. Right now I am making a ship in a bottle, and
I have already done some pretty artsy things. I've always wanted to
learn to draw, and I think I'm finally starting to learn a little bit!

Super scattered email, but I made up for it with pictures! The awkward
selfie is with the Volkswagon factory.

Love you all!

-Elder Openshaw

Where I'm supposed to be

emailed on 1/02/2017

I'm just gonna jump straight into my story for the week!

Sunday afternoon was really long, as normal. And we ended up sitting
in the clerks office in the chapel as we got talked at about the
history of all things Germany, Braunschweig, and family. I learned a
lot, but I felt bad for Elder Lorenzen because he was just trying not
to fall asleep the whole time. And he kept barraging us with random
questions about our ancestors and about how we navigate the city.
After that we went back to our apartment and finished doing a bunch of
paper work that we had to finish by the end of the day. Then we looked
at the clock and saw that we had an hour and a half of time before we
could wind down and get ready for bed. Elder Lorenzen asked me what I
wanted to do, and I could tell he wanted to go door to door in our
neighborhood. So we got dressed up warm and headed out... it was a
very typical German dooring experience, and after being rejected quite
a few times we found ourselves in a very wealthy neighborhood. The
houses were honestly incredible, and it was kind of a sight seeing
venture, with nice rejection detours. But we saw this one house and
Elder Lorenzen said that he had a good feeling about it. We rang the
doorbell and a woman opened the door, Elder Lorenzen started speaking
the best German I have heard him speak. He told her that we were there
to talk about the eternal family, and that we would love to share a
message with her... Then she asked a question and I had to jump in to
answer it.  We ended up going inside and talking with two people in
their 40's and their teenage son. It was the first time on my mission
that I have taught a family, and honestly the most distinct spirit I
have ever felt in my life.

As we stood in the kitchen talking to this family, I just knew that
everything happens for a reason. It was one of the only times in my
life that I knew that I was supposed to be exactly where I was.
Somehow the stars aligned, I did what was right, and I just felt
overwhelming peace and joy. I know I sound like a tacky missionary
right now, and maybe I'm starting to become one, but that was just a
feeling that I want all the time. I don't know what will come of our
visit with that family, but I do know that even if the experience was
just for me, it was enough. It was enough to justify coming to
Germany, struggling to learn German, spending all day with a name tag
on. Wow, it was just wonderful.

I want to thank you all for your support, and the awesome emails and letters!

Love,
Elder Openshaw

Frohe Weihnachten

email from 12/26/2016

 Schloss Arkaden

And the Volkswagen Factory out a train window

Merry Christmas everyone! I am having a blast here in Braunschweig!  It really is such a wonderland when it comes to mission work and just the beauty of the city.  It really does have so much potential... but sadly the ward and the people have to get warmed up to us first.  I also have to get warmed up to the west, it is a completely different mission here.  For example, everyone tries to speak english with us... which makes it really difficult for us to learn better German.  

Some cool things about my area are...

-There are 500,000 people in it

-Volkwagen pretty much has it's own city called Wolfsburg

-The bus system is really bad, and they never go where they say they are going to. 

-The people constantly say "Moin Moin"

We got to eat with some really awesome families this week, and I got to hear a lot of Dutch yesterday.  The funny thing about Dutch is that it kind of sounds like drunken German, and they have some pretty great accents.  There were these little dutch kids running all over the place while I was skyping, but they were seriously such good kids and they would just run around super quiet and try not to bug us while we were skyping.  I love the kids here, they are so awesome! 

I love you so much! 

Keep me updated on President Trump!

Love,

Elder Openshaw