Fatigue & tears, but on top of the world!

Yes I am in Germany!! 😀
The first day was really really hard. I was the most fatigued I'd ever been. I fell asleep while the mission president was talking to me. The fatigue made it hard to enjoy and be optimistic. But after the first day, (and night of sleep) I felt on top of the world. Still do. No one told me that being a missionary was this much fun!!

Just arriving, meeting Mission President and his wife.

My first week has been a blast. I can feel all the prayers you have for me. It's all hard work, but I love every single minute of it. Yeah, I'm perfectly fine! I actually got here AFTER all the flooding had ceased. It was still a little rainy, but not flooding. It's been super temperate. Maybe in he 60-70s. But now the sun is out, and it's around 90. Woo!
105 at home?? Yikes. I'll pray for you guys. It is absolutely beautiful here. I love hearing about the group fast. That is so cool. Let Bishop Mitchell know he's the best bishop ever. :)

Ok! Details:
So I got here and the first thing we did was go proselyting. It was intense. I couldn't understand anyone, and they couldn't understand me in my broken German. With all the fatigue, it was really discouraging.
Then the AP's lost the sisters! We got off the train and they stayed on! So we had to go find them. We did! But it took a while. They were in tears. Everyone's ok though ;)

Just arrived.

Then we met at the mission office and had lunch, and watched tutorials and set up our iPads and stuff.  Then we practiced proselyting and met the office elders. We then took
a walk to the mission presidents home, and had dinner and testimony meeting. Then we got assigned our areas, and they took us to the hostel where we all cried and went to bed. ;)

Dinner with everyone.  Exhausted but smiling.

The next day, we went to the train station and waited for our respective departures, where I said a lengthy farewell to my MTC companion. Then it was a two hour train ride to Stuttgart! I have been assigned to the Stuttgart, Ellwangen area, by the way. Awesome area in the north west area of our mission. Upon getting off the train, I met my trainer, Elder Sorenson. I went to shake his hand, and instead he pulled me into a big hug! He is the absolute best. I've been blessed with the greatest trainer possible.
More on that later.

Elder Sorenson and Elder Larson

We then took another 1 hour train ride to Ellwangen, where we went to our apartment and got set up. We have an awesome little apartment just the two of us (I'll send pictures). And our area is beautiful. All valleys and hills and numberless trees. After we dropped our things off, we went to go help one of our investigators move some things into his home. His name is Mesut, and he's from Turkey. He is absolutely golden. He had some friends with him, and instead of teaching him, we ended up teaching them! He helped us out, cause he's awesome. And now we have 2 new investigators! First day! All that we've heard about Germany being "hard" is so wrong. The people here are so ready to hear the gospel. We already have two with baptismal dates right now. Basically, our investigators are awesome. We have about 6 right now. We do a lot of service, and teaching is so much fun. The spirit just carries your words right to them. I understand so much more than I did
the first day. I can carry on conversations with the people now, so woohoo!

It's been pretty smooth sailing so far. My companion is a beast. He and I both work really hard, and it makes it so much better. He's from Pleasant Fork, Utah, and he's been here for 13 months. He speaks amazing German. Time really flies here. We have nerd gun battles randomly. He really is the greatest.

He's loving the food.

Oh man all the food has been amazing so far. My companion can cook! We've had some breakfast burritos and some amazing stir fry! We also have frozen things, but we try not to too much. We get lots of chances to eat with members. The members here are so strong. We have a branch of 30 people, and the ward council is so helpful. I haven't had the chance to speak in church yet because this week was a broadcast from Salt Lake. I didn't
understand anything, so I fell asleep. But the members are awesome. We have a car in our area, and it's one of a couple in the whole mission, so we're lucky. Our area is pretty big. We walk if we can. The language is really smooth now. I can understand a lot easier, and
speaking is coming easier as well. Our mission president is the bomb! He is really called to be here.

I had a really cool experience with a member family this week. They're having a big problem with getting their son to listen to them ( he's twelve) and he is the most ill-behaved child I have ever met. He has gaming problems. I was able to tell them of my experience when I had a gaming problem. It really helped them to see it from the other side. I shared with them what you did for me, and how it helped. We're trying to help them be more firm when they say no. He has a lot of control, and we're trying to help them be stronger.  They said to me after I shared my experiences, "It is no coincidence that you were called here. Thank you."
It was awesome.

Working hard.

I don't have much more time. But our address is: Hirschbachstrasse 54-2, Aalen, Germany 73430. You can now send me things! Woo!

I have not had real bratwurst yet, but I have had a doner. It is a Turkish sandwich. It's amazing, I'll send pics.

Well I gotta go! I love you so very much and I'll be able to tell you more next week! Let me know which questions I missed in my email and I'll be sure to answer! I miss you all so much!! I think of you and pray for you every day.
Tchuss!