Week 37- Wilkommen in Göppingen!

Liebe Familie,

Well, guess whos writing to you from DEUTSCHLAND! This guy! And let me be the first to tell you that it is surprisingly different from Austria! The branch here is AMAZING! I am loving it so let me just catch up the last weeks events!

Monday through wednesday was a lot of goodbyes. Its was REALLY emotional trying to leave St. Pölten- a lot of packing, and lot of nerves, a few tears shed. But I felt like i got in my proper goodbyes to all those who truly matter. The hardest was saying goodbyes to bruder Bauer, Wolfgang, and the Brunnsteiners. We all exchanged information and so we will keep in contact. But its still hard! Sorry thats a lame recap of 3 three really important days, but i have no time!

Thursday i was in trains ALL DAY going from east Austria up to west Germany! In Munich i met my new golden, Elder Dickson! He is from Buckley, Washington, and he is a stud! We rode together to Stuttgart with the other 2 elders who are opening up Göppingen with us- Elder Thompson and Elder Caldwell. They are both on the quiet side, but they are ready to work!

Thursday night we all attended ward council, and it was a blast to get to know everyone. It was so different to see younger looking faces! In St. Pölten everyone is basically 45+. here, the average age is probably 12! More than half the ward is kids, and the adults are all pretty young and really strong members! Its so cool!

Friday was interesting. We spent the morning splitting the Sisters old area book- and trying to get in contact with their old investigators. No real luck there, so we made a battle plan and just got to work talking to everyone we could see! We gotta find those gems somewhere! Luckily Elder Dickson is a boss at talking to people on the street! He has NO FEARS. unfortunatley the german is still coming, so i usually step in a translate, but its been fun and we saw a HUGE miracle. We talked to a guy right next to city hall named Thomas. We ended up sitting down on the steps and talking for over an hour! We taught he whole first lesson and he seemed decently interested, and more than anything just a really nice guy. He is a native german too! He even missed his bus home because he wanted to stay longer with us, but we set up a return appointment. so cool!

Saturday we had a big meeting in Stuttgart for all the trainers. It was pretty good- really cool to see Elder Horlacher again! He is the ZL there! We went right after that to the baptism of an 8 year old in our ward- there we got to meet a few more members of the ward! 

Sunday at church- we called someone from the area book and he came to church! Imad Jud is his name! He came and we taught him a little lesson before the meetings started and he seemed really interested! Church was AWESOME! The ward is so nice and so cool! There are so many young kids- and they all adore the missionaries! So many little faces all fighting for our attention- especially the little gang of 14 year old girls. They remind me a lot of nickelle- its kinda fun!

that evening we went out for a couple hours, and talked to A MILLION people, because we didnt want to come home for dinner or anything until we found someone we could teach! and of course, late at night, the LAST person we talked to was actually pretty interested and we're meeting up tuesday! Miracles!

The work is true. The Lord protects us. How else would two clueless guys survive in a brand new city?! Thanks for your prayers! I love you!

Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew