Ties

I've decided to do something for the last few weeks.  A transfer is 6 weeks long, 42 days.  I counted my ties and realized I have enough to wear one tie every day from the rest of the transfer.  Every night, I parade around the apartment, and begin what I like to call the "Retiring of the Tie" ceremony.  The tie is removed, untied, folded and put into my "Tie Box," where these ties will remain until they are packed.  This picture is of my unworn ties... 

 

In addition to this little tradition, I am still continuing to sing all the songs in the German Hymnbook, and am on track to finish before the 15th.  I will also finish the Book of Mormon in German before my departure date.

 

It's not that I'm trunky or anything, just that I am now old enough to do all of these stupid things!

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Not Hermann, Not Ludwig, But Kevin

It's kinda tough working with a Göhring...  We get some looks on the street.  This isn't my companion, this is a Nazi leader in charge of the Ausschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland.  But the names are spelled the same, and they actually look pretty similar...

It's fun.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Tschüß, Elder Hebben

It was his last P-Day today.  We went to the world-famous Hofbräuhaus and had breakfast in Lederhosen.  This is the Munich Hofbräuhaus, where Hitler delivered his speech and got enough popularity to march his way up to Berlin.  We enjoyed the authentic 4 man brass band playing, stayed and talked a bit, then headed out to the St. Petrus Cathedral and hiked up to the top.  We bought a comp tie, danced around downtown and had a way relaxed day.  Next comes packing, then on Thursday, he is outta here.

It's a weird feeling fo sure-- I'm starting my last transfer.  There isn't a missionary that's been here longer than I have...  Elder Göhring is coming to me--he was trained by my Trainer, so we are brothers, and we have already worked together on at least 7 or so exchanges.  It's gonna be a great last transfer!

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Sushi

...is why I'm late today.  We went to a running Sushi place.  I wanna put a picture of it on here, but I can't because these computers are dumb.  Oh well, you'll have to wait 6 weeks to see it.  (I put a picture of food I ate in Innsbruck.  This was a porkroast from Peter Kojat, the Chef.)

I am counting this as my birthday dinner.  All you can eat.  I think my stomach ruptured.  But it was gooood.  Not as good as Flying Samurei, but still way good.

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

My 20th Birthday

I hope this picture works.  And I swear, I'm not that fat.  My mouth was full of fries.  And I was in Vienna...

 

In any case, this was taken by Elder La Count on my Birthday, 2009.  In the picture are Elders Le Säec and Warncke.  The picture was take at the Mission-famous Herbs restaurant.

 

21 isn't much different.  We went to Pizza Hut and got pizzas.  Then in the evening, we had a cake.  It was actually Interviews, so it worked out nicely. 

 

I got the card and the package...  Thanks!  The package actually came before the card, so I was a little worried.  But everything got here!  I still say we celebrate for reals on the 14th of October...   

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

You Wanna Steal a Piece of Time

aka- the conclusion of last week.

We went back right after we sent emails to the park.  Construction was even more than before.  They were tearing up the entire section where the card could have been.  We decided we should just search that last segment, and I resolved that if we didn't find it in an hour, we would give up and that would be the end of it.  So we searched...

and searched...

and searched...

and finally, a construction worker comes up to me and asks, "Is it a blue memory card with like Fuji or something written on it?"  I say yes, and ask where he saw it.  HE said he couldn't remember, but that it was somewhere on the patch that we were searching.  So this all gave me new determination.  It had been about 45 minutes, but now, I was determined to find it.  So we searched some more, and no more than 2 minutes later, I find the USB stick.  It was a little broken, like it got ran over, but after a quick plug-in, I found out that it still worked like a charm.  But now the memory card.  I couldn't find it anywhere, until this same punk construction worker comes walking over with it in his hand. 

"You found it!"

He rubs his forefinger and middle finger against his thumb.  You've got to be kidding me. 

So I paid him.  It wasn't too much, and I just wrote it off as a reward.  Whatev.  Something I'll laugh about in the future...

Point is: I found them and have all my pictures back!

Thanks for the prayers!  God listens!

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

You Want to Make a Memory

This is a sad entry today.  And no, there is no picture.  Let me explain.

 

We were heading back last night from the 4th of July barbeque our ward had (I love Germans) and we noticed that there was a storm coming in, full of lightning and darkness.  We were walking across a huge park, called the Theresianwiese, back to our apartment, when E. Hebben asked to see my camera so he could get a cool picture of the lightening.  So I proceed to take the camera case out of my bag and hand it to him.  He takes the camera right out and is holding it for just the right moment.

 

In any case, the moment never came.  Right as we were leaving the Wiese, I noticed something fall out of my camera case (that E. Hebben was holding) and saw it was one of my filled memory cards.  I reached down and grabbed it, and asked if the other memory card and USB stick were in there as well.  They weren't.  So then began the mad search for about 1800 pictures lost somewhere on a field the size of Mariposa Park.  We didn't find them.  So we ran out to the Wiese this morning and did a little more searching.  Still nothing.  I think they are gone.  It kills me.  The 2 gig card was completly full (about 650 pictures) and the 8 gig stick was half full (another 1200 pics or so...).  We are heading back there in a couple minutes, but it's like trying to find a needle in a hay stack...  Forget it.

 

Just goes to show you, not all days are sunny and beautiful...

 

Ok, I can't end like that.  The good news is that all the "good" pictures were on that memory card I found.  All the baptisms and a lot of other good stuff.  It would have been worse if I had lost that one...

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.