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