This week we were able to go to the beautiful one and only city of Hannover! The place of dreams, city of courage, town of terrific, land of love… Yeah you get it, the place is awesome. But first we had to get there… So that meant that we had to get over to Köthen to catch the train, an early morning train, and we would have ended up sitting in Köthen forever, and Elder Illum and I didn’t want to do that, so we decided we’d ride our bikes and surprise the Elders there. It was about 22km and we didn’t have a map but we knew which direction it was in, and we wanted to make a sweet time lapse so we duct taped our iPads to our chests… haha but it was amazing just riding in the cool morning breeze through green fields and windmills.

Hannover was great, and I really enjoyed my interview with Präsident Fingerle, and it was different to do in German, but different isn’t always a bad thing. 😉 I’m excited for the plan he has, and it will continue the “crescendo” in our mission.

Now back to the city of Hannover. Ahh it was great to walk those streets again, I haven’t been able to visit since my first area, so it was cool to see it again. And to see it with Elder Vellinga, and Elder Braun, a couple of good friends from the original Hannover Zone.

At the end of the day we got back to Köthen, but luckily for us our train had fallen out that we were going to take our bikes on… But we at least we had the bikes! So in the dark we rode home. The day ended in about 50km of biking, because of a few wrong detours. But we enjoyed it!

Since I’ve started to work so much with personal study I decided to give a lesson on it in district meeting. The foundation of it, and the moving parts that make it come together to create a special spiritual experience, that readies us for personal revelation. I’ve noticed that there are 3 main types of scripture study: Reading, Studying, and Pondering. Pondering… now that’s a good one, that’s the one I focused on. Pondering was a new concept for me of a sort, to have a time to just sit and think, no music, no sports center, nothing. Just think about the things I read in the scriptures, and life in general.

I like what Joseph Smith said about pondering:

“The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out. Thy mind, O man! If thou wilt lead a soul unto salvation, must stretch as high as the utmost heavens, and search into and contemplate the darkest abyss, and the broad expanse of eternity–thou must commune with God”

         Now now now, that doesn’t mean we ponder that deep doctrine all the live-long day, but he does tell us how important the things pertaining to the gospel are, and that we really need the spirit to guide our understanding.

So a cool story….

My friend Elder Max Ferrin (S/O) down in Ghana sent a referral up north for us. He was out and about and some lady called them over asking if they were German, they said no, but she said that’s okay I want you to meet my German son! (Via Skype) so they Skyped the kid and told him some friends in Germany would contact him.

So we got the info, I called him up and he said he didn’t have any time… like every German. But then what do you know he calls me up a week later and says he wants to meet up. He lives up in Hamburg so I phoned the elders up gave them the address and they got in contact with him.

They texted me how it’s going, they said he’s a super cool guy, about 17 and interested in baptism because he was baptized when he was young but wants to choose for himself. Also something cool they said was they could see his potential to go on a mission. He’s already planning on coming to institute and church. The Elders were super excited, I’m sure it was an answer to their prayers.

I know the Lord provides a way for His children, PONDER this week about how He’s provided a way for you. Because either big or small He has. I know it.

Elder Winkel ??

I realized I’ve been in almost every major city in my mission and know my way around a little bit from Berlin, Hannover, Chemnitz, Leipzig, Hamburg (only there once), Magdeburg etc. just need Dresden.

Very good week, it went by very fast and surprisingly enough I have been everywhere in our area… pretty much, the 3 major cities, and a handful of villages in the area. Its small but it’s good that I could get to know the area quick.

How we managed to accomplish this feat of traveling all over, was we went by every less active on the ward list. We simply went by and left a little note with our info, letting them know if they need our help we are here! And then this week we are going to drive around with a member and try and actually meet with them. Hopefully we can make some good contact.

We went to a little city to do some contacting and we came across a black dog, an actual nice one too! He followed us all around, as happy as could be! It reminded me of my friend Mark down in Chile that has a dog follow them, the missionaries there had called it “dog black” due to lack of speaking English, so… we called him “dog black”! The whole time walking around “Kommt folget mir dog black!”. I’m sure we’ll see him next time we go back.

On Saturday we traveled to Magdeburg to have a very special tour arranged by the senior couple in our district of the giant church there. One of the only building not destroyed because of bombing raids (Magdeburg had military factories). It was a really cool experience because it was given by the Dome chairman, who is actually from New York. It was an amazing building made by people with great faith, many working on it knew they wouldn’t live to see it finished.

I couldn’t help but think of our temples, especially some of the first ones in the latter-days. So much went into them, the early members literally gave all they had to complete them, so that they could receive those blessings. I don’t understand everything about temples, but I do know that they really are a place of refuge, and place of peace. And I really miss it. But as a mission we have a new focus on the temple, unfortunately both temples will be closed in Germany from September till spring of next year, but I’m really excited for the new plan we have to get recent converts to the temple to do baptisms for the dead.

Our mission now has “temple square missionaries” in Freiberg, where tours will be given by the missionaries there to those that are interested in it. Also as missionaries we are now allowed to travel to the temple once a month (paying our own way) if we bring a less active, investigator or recent convert to take these tours, and help them to understand more about it. Because our Goal is not baptism, but it is for our brothers and sister to have the blessing of the temple. This week look, remember, and find the blessing of the temple.

Elder Winkel

Wednesday night off to Kothen for the night, for Berlin in the morning! Mission tour! Ja wohl!

Elder Vellinga was a friend of mine in the MTC! He’s now my district leader! Elder and Sister Hilton got us hooked up to have a special tour of the Magdeburg Dome Tower, not very many people get to see it amazing!

TRANSFERED, well off to Bernburg I go, I will be serving with Elder Illum from Roy Utah! He’s only 1 transfer older than my current trainee Elder Burns… it’ll be great! I’ll still be in the same stake as Zwickau so I’ll see all the members in a few months at stake conference! But I’ll be sad to leave, a lot of great members here I won’t forget. I had a great time with Elder Burns, I had a great time training (and he wasn’t very hard to train) but we had a great time, and he’ll have a great mission. And I’ll miss soccer with the orphans… oh so much, some of the coolest kids.

Soooo, this week we did tons of service, the most I’ve done on my mission. We helped a family move in and moving a couch up 4 flights of stairs in a cramped German apartment is interesting… but it was cool! Then right after we went to an older swester in the ward and helped her in her garten, and I cleaned out her plastic pond. That took a while… she’s the old lady that yells at us the whole time because we don’t do it exactly how she wants it. Last week I trimmed her tree, take a moment to imagine being on the top of a ladder, and having someone on the ground try and point out and describe which branch to cut… that’s hard in your mother language right? Now in German that’s nearly impossible. “NEIN, NEIN, NEIN!” Haha but she loves us, she’s just a super grumpy person. I’ll miss going over for sure.

Also this week we finished helping a member with their giant hole they have to dig…. 4 hours 6 feet deep. It was Camp Green Lake. “Let me tell you boys a story, once upon a time there was a place, where it never rained. THE END” yeah it felt like that.

This week, I gave some more thought to the Atonement. A few interesting things were found reading in the book of Mark.

Mark 14:33 “And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;

In my New Testament study guide it says:

Mark’s language bears witness of the reality and severity of the
Savior’s suffering. The Greek word translated
“sore amazed” in the text can refer to a range of emotions, including
amazement, awe, astonishment following great shock, and overwhelming
distress. The Greek verb translated “very heavy” can mean depressed,
dejected, and full of anguish or sorrow. Together, these words depict
a deep and extreme agony. The Savior said that His soul was
“exceedingly sorrowful unto death” (Mark 14:34)–that is, His anguish
was so intense that He felt He was at the point of death.

He was Amazed! The creator of worlds, the Son of God, the Savior was amazed, it was more than what He expected. But He took it, for you and me.

That helped me put more perspective on the whole thing, I’m grateful for the Atonement and the hope it gives us.

Elder Winkel

Off to Bernburg!

Some of the Ward

Going to miss the elders and sisters of Zwickau!

This week was a bit of a ride… it was an interesting one. Tuesday we decided to go somewhere new, so we took a bus an hour out to a place called Hartenstein! It had the closest thing to a mountain that I’ve seen since Provo. We had a less active that lived there but when we went by, the lady’s mom told us to get lost, so then we had some more time to do some finding. We hiked up the “hills” a little bit and ran into an old castle, bombed out, but it was really cool, the gates were locked but we peeked over the wall and took some pics.

Then we went to do some doors… never my favorite but the Lord knows that and after the 3rd one, a lady in her garden asked if we wanted something to drink! We ended up sharing the 2 minute restoration video with her, and it turns out she’s already read the Book of Mormon. However she said all she needs is the Bible but we could always come and talk more another time (so we will). Then I realized what time it was… we had 10 minutes to make it back to the city center before our bus left (the only one for the day) so we full on sprinted, even ran through some newly paved black top, with the unhappy looks from construction workers we made it just before it left!

Thursday we went by some less actives and one of the members that we always go by is never home, but her neighbor was walking into the building so we asked her if she knew her, and BOY she gave it to us! (Understanding German has its downsides.) She started to get in my face about it and about started poking my chest. I decided I could be a little sassy about it or just be nice. Well I chose to be nice, but then I had to hold back from laughing because of how rude she was being so I ended up smiling at her. Then my understanding of German went away for a moment I guess – because the next thing I knew we had talked for 10 minutes about her grandkids, faith, GDR, WWII, and how terrible guns are (everyday topic.)  In the end she wished us to hold strong to our beliefs and good health! A little bit of a Christlike attitude can go a long way!

For the 4th we met with our eternal investigator in the morning, the date he chose to quit smoking, also turns out to be the date that he married his ex-wife… so now he wants to change it. He also asked us for a Book of Mormon that he can give to his daughter. He has a testimony of it. It’s kind of weird, we asked him how long he’s really been meeting with the missionaries and he first had contact in 1996. It can be quite hard to know what to teach because he knows it all. He’s a great guy and came to church the next day.

Afterwards we went to the city, we couldn’t find anyone to talk to, and we thought it was because it was 100 degrees, but it turns out there was just a giant Red Bull event for old mopeds in the city square! It was super rad. That night we roasted S’mores and made Hamburgers, with English muffin buns… haha but it was great.

Sunday we only had 2 hours of church because it was too hot, with no a/c.

I am grateful that I come from the Promise Land. America will always be the best, as a district we sent quotes from famous presidents the entire day, one elder even texted us the ENTIRE declaration of independence. The night ended with a district call singing the national anthem.

God Bless the USA!

Elder Winkel