Highs and lows

This week was strange.

Yesterday after church elder Nielson and I got an urgent call to come
to a member's house and give a blessing. It is this old couple that
aren't too healthy but they had both been at church that day. We
walked in and they presented us the subject of our blessing, old
Arthur, their 17 year old dog. We weren't sure of what to do, but
remembering the story of Sister Smith blessing her oxen we decided to
proceed. It was actually really touching to see how much this old lady
cares for her dog (even though she swears like a sailor at it, and
everything/everyone else).

Elder Rasband came and visited our mission which was really cool. He
talked about how much he wanted to be called to Germany as a young
missionary, I don't blame him. He also talked about how we should
never give up, praying for blessings that we want to happen. The
meeting was great, I was happy to be able to hear from him. It's
funny, the difference between hearing from and apostle in the MTC and
in the mission field. Everything just seems a lot more real here haha.

Right after that meeting we had to catch a bus to the train station,
we only had a couple minutes to make the connection. I think God must
really love me this week because we had the craziest luck and we're
able to catch our train. A bus came early, ran two red lights and was
driving like a mad man and then pulled up to the train station right
as our train did 😂 I think we were the only missionaries that made it
out of Berlin on time.

I realized how much Germany has changed me when one of our friends,
Nowsheen told me that she would skip school on Friday to meet with us.
I was shocked! Hahaha for some reason skipping school seems like such
a huge deal to me now... not that it didn't before (cough cough). But
really, Germans do their school system right.

In America, patience is a virtue. In Germany, punctuality is a virtue.

By the way, I've loved reading through the conference talks again over
the past couple weeks. You guys should do the same! You don't have to
settle with assuming that the church is true, you can know!

Love you,
Elder Openshaw



AHHHH I almost forgot! I ate some incredible borscht this week!! I'll
send a picture!

Smooth sailing ⛵️

I love Rostock!! This whole week was an adventure, here are some
featured moments!

All of the stores were closed and most everything was shut down due to
the amount of snow we got the day before. The weather has definitely
played a huge factor in the way things went this week, probably the
craziest weather changes in my life haha. Sunday and Monday were cold
as could be with tons of snow and a week later we have been enjoying
weather in the 70's.

I'm just going to tell you guys about Nowsheen, because we spent a lot
of time hanging out with her this week. Nowsheen is this awesome girl
from Pakistan that came here about a year ago. She met elder and
sister Franz on the street because they were speaking English and she
got really excited about it. She calls Elder and Sister Franz "mom and
dad" and we all have an awesome, hilarious relationship with her. The
funniest thing is that she is Muslim and a very strong believer in
Islam. (Although she constantly jokes about baptizing herself). She
calls us her little brothers and she is honestly like an older sister
to us, she always wants to go shopping with us haha.

Our relationship with Nowsheen is how the world ought to work. We
don't judge each other based off the precepts of what we hear on the
news. And regardless of her (or our) faith, we treat each other with
respect and love. I'm so happy that I've had the chance to meet so
many people from the Middle East here on my mission. They have really
broadened my perspective and changed my view of the world.

God is great, and he loves us.

Elder Openshaw


(Here are some pictures with Nowsheen and at the castle in Schwerin)

Baltic Sea boys 🌊

If you haven't been on a mission yet, go! There's really nothing
better that you can experience in your whole life. This week was
packed with powerful moments, tender mercies, disappointment, and new
friendships.

New friendship: Katharina lives across the street from the senior
missionary couple, the Franzes, here in Rostock. Because most everyone
in Germany lives in block apartments, one of the common hobbies is
watching neighbors out of your windows, they call it "east german
television."  Sister Franz is quite skilled with this hobby haha.
Somehow, she was able to develop an awesome relationship with
Katharina, the 20 year old medical student across the street.
Katharina is very german so we have been helping (the very American)
Sister Franz to use some german friendship strategies. The latest move
was to invite Katharina over for "Abendbrot (light supper)." It worked
wonders and we have had some awesome lessons with Katharina this week.

Tender mercy: We went to a meeting for a volunteer group who are
looking to help refugees integrate into the German community. They
talked about a lot of protests and other movements that they were
planning on doing. I started to get nervous that they wouldn't be
happy with our suggestions and activities that we have been planning.
But as they talked about Easter we had the perfect opportunity to
introduce the Easter concert that we've planned. Goodness always
dominates fear, I'm so grateful that that is continually proved to me
on my mission.

Disappointment: Shayan, one of the coolest people I've ever taught on
my mission, texted us that she doesn't want to have anything to do
with Mormonism this week. She told us that she wants to be Christian,
not Mormon. It honestly stung to get a text like that. I'm grateful,
however, to know personally that my church is not a church of
Mormonism. My church is a church of Christianity. I am a member of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because it is the church
that has the restored priesthood. It is the church that can prepare
someone to truly and humbly follow Christ. Our leaders are great
examples of disciples of Christ, they are truly inspired. I am
grateful to be a part of a church that is willing to ditch tradition
and culture in order to more effectively follow Christ.