Harvest Time in Germany!

Harvest time in Germany!!
Ish...

So the cultural highlight of this week was definitely when we went with 3 men of our ward--Brüder Richter jr., Richter sr., and Albrecht, and drove to a old barnhouse in the forest. We then proceeded to eat--and eat, and eat, and eat--all you can eat schnitzel, sausage, ground pork soup, wurst, pork ribs, raw pork--yes, raw pork--and various other pork-oriented meat dishes, all that had been slaughtered the day before. Less then 14 hours actually. Why?

Schlachtefest!! Which, of course, translates as ''Slaughter Party.'' Part of ''Oktoberfest,'' Which is actually now halfway over. It is the last week of September, and the first week of October.

Anyways, other stuffs.

Last week I did find a set of C.D.s on sale at Müller, titled: ''Das Beste Cello.'' Exactly as it sounds, it is a 3 disk set of just cello music. Lovely. Love it. Love. I have already listened to all 4 hours twice, and might be starting to bug Elder Poch with it [hehehehe].

What else....Oh yeah, my back hurts. Significantly. All of it. It isnt good, walking around all day with a shoulder bag on, with a copy of the German Book of Mormon, which is bigger then the English proselyting version, much bigger, and also a bible, a study journal, an umbrella, several registration papers, a tiny tiny english book of mormon, and sometimes my own triple-combination German scriptures. It is hard sometimes. My back is getting much stronger, and every night I use a heat pack that I found in the apartment to help my back relax as much as possible, but sometimes I can't do morning-sport--push ups and situps usually--because it is too stiff and painful in the morning. I may switch to using a backpack for a while, if it doesn't start getting better. Not sure yet. Präsident Kosak does ask us to use shoulder bags, but I am sure will be more then willing to give me special permission if it is causing me any pain at all.

And, my feet. Unfortunately, my right arch is acting up again. It spends a significant amount of time during most appointments we have cramping slightly, and stuff. Not too painful, but worrying. I roll it on a frozen water bottle sometimes, and that helps a lot, but I was wondering if Sam or anyone had some good stretches I could do, both for my foot and for my back. that would be brilliant.

Sam:Its the Bears. Like I wouldn't know when there is a game. ;)

Oh, btw, I heard that they have called missionaries out of several countries in Africa, and Eastern Europe. I was wondering if someone could send me a list of the missions evacuated. I have lots and lots of friends on missions right now, and yeah...

About the temple: The mission rule, is that you may go to the temple on P-day, once every other transfer, if you can accomplish it within p-day hours (Finished with the session, back in your area before 18:00.) So, my companion served in Zwickau, which is really close to Freiburg, and did get to go to the Temple, but there is no guarantee that I will be able to. I cannot in Kassel. Actually, our Ward Temple week was a couple weeks ago, and they went to the Frankfurt temple!! We are much much closer to Frankfurt here then Freiburg. We really should be in the Frankfurt mission...

So on P-day we usually have a lot of stuff to do...so we have about 3 or 4 hours of free time total, after emails. Most everything is closed on Mondays, actually, like museums and stuff. So what we usually do is go shopping and explore the Innenstadt, or down town, for a while. We have gone and seen Herkules and the WasserSpiele, as I told you, and I will probably do that again sometime with my next companion. But yeah. mostly exploring and shopping.

Speaking of shopping, I hope I am not spending too much...something I do have to buy in the next few months is Long Johns, and maybe another jacket. I don't really have a medium, dressy jacket. I hope that is okay...hopefully also, I will run out of thing I need very soon. Long Johns and a jacket, and I should be set...and A Tschüss book. I am sorry. Eventually I will have bought everything, right?

My language is coming along very well actually. Obviously not fluent yet, but I can understand the majority of what is said to me--slowly and clearly at least. Seriously though, I can understand all of our investigators, and speak with pretty much anyone on a one-on-one conversation. I do have a little trouble with a member of ours from Bauern, but that is okay. he just does it to worry me.

That's all I have today...OH Except, I am actually running a Halloween party for our ward now--since it was my idea--and have to organize it and stuff. Elder Poch and I have some good ideas, and stuff, but if you can think of any cheap, easy, cool halloweenish things I could do, send me the ideas!! More details to come later.

Looking forward to General Conference this week--rumor is that they are letting the speakers speak IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE if they so choose, and providing subtitles for the rest of us. Totally hoping Elder Uchtdorf speaks in German. Ich Freue mich wirklich darüber.

Sei sicher, sei zu frieden, sei glülich. Ich hab' viel viel Lieb für Sie. bis nexte Montag. Tchau!