LEARNING SPANISH!

So this week we received a member referral and it is a family form Mexico City and Elder Fitch and I have been cleared to learn how to teach in Spanish, so that will be interesting!

 

On a sad note, this week Elder Fitch's pneumonia came back so we spent a lot of time inside learning Spanish.

 

We did manage to get outside on one of the days this week and we were talking to people out on the streets and we talked to this one guy who was interested and he invited us inside, but it wasn't into his house, it was into a Muslim Mosque.... so that was pretty interesting. 

All in all we had a great week! 

Thank you for your prayers and emails!

Love Elder Schmalz

 

Standing in front of the statue of the King of Hannover

 Two soaking wet missionaries after the storm of the century! No wonder Elder Fitch's pneumonia keeps coming back!

 

P-Day Adventures Visiting Marienburg Castle

Selfie with the past me who had a beard...

 

 

Hildesheim

So this week we did A LOT of street contacting, and we had a lot of fun just talking to people and getting know the city.

 

That's me off in the distance talking to a guy with a dog. Thanks to the sisters for the stalker photo!

We actually were walking around and we found a basketball game going on, so we asked them if we could join..... Germans are not very good at basketball... It quickly turned into everyone against  the two american guys... we still won!

I'm having a great time. Elder Fitch and I get along fantastic! He is a farmer from Idaho, which makes sense as to why we get along so well. His dad trains rodeo horses and travels the world doing cowboy stuff.

 

In my travels I found this book in a book store called "The Man From Utah". Can you believe it, all the way in Germany?!

My new area is absolutely amazing. I can proudly say that I love Germany because of this city. This ward is like what I dreamed a cool ward would be like on my mission. I love it!

Here are a few shots from around Hildesheim. We will be visiting a castle later on today so I will be able to take some more pictures of this beautiful city. The symbol for Hildesheim is a rose so there are roses planted everywhere you look. It smells amazing here!

Thank you for the emails and the prayers!

Love Elder Schmalz!

"Invite All" Zone Conference

Hannover-Oldenburg Zone

 

 

Good News!

Elder Fitch is better and we have permission to work!

This week I had the opportunity to go on exchange in a city called Celle. While on exchnage in Celle we were riding our bikes through a thunderstorm to get to an appointment, and as we were riding I saw this...

 

and the rain stopped just long enough for me to take a picture with it... I'm Famous!

 

All in all, it was a really good week but it was really uneventful so nothing much to report. Just happy to be out of the apartment.

 

Thank you all for everything!

 

Love, Elder A. Gavin Schmalz (The future car garage owner in Germany, because hey, I already have a sign) 

Week 2 in Hildesheim

So this week was...... Very long.

After taking Elder Fitch to the hospital once we were sentenced to do light work and to have him rest a lot. We were warned that if he participated in any hard labor or activities he would contact pneumonia.....
We tried to do our work as slowly as possible but our week ended with a trip to the emergency room...
Elder Fitch has pneumonia!
We are now not allowed to leave the apartment for any reason for the next 7 days. I did not attend church this week and will most likely be missing our zone conference where we get to meet our new mission president.
Other than that news we were able to meet with some really cool people this week before the sickness took my companion.

We taught a lesson to a group of Kurdish refugees, some of them are Muslim and others are atheist. Due to this mix of religious opinions, actually teaching anything was pretty hard. Every time we mentioned a point of the lesson they would just go off talking about their own opinions and we would lose the lesson. Eventually though we were able to pull it back to the restoration and Elder Fitch (what a stud!) bore an awesome testimony and I backed him up with my testimony, and then something super cool happened, for the first time in this whole little lesson we were able to take the reins and teach.
The only time they would listen to us is when we gave testimony about something we knew to be true. We ended up having a great time with them and we hope to meet with them again after our time of quarantine.

This experience with testimony is one of my favorite things to see as a missionary.

In pretty much any teaching situation where someone only wants to argue, the best thing to do is just bear your testimony. Almost (I use the word almost very loosely because sometimes people are just beside themselves and don't want to listen at all) every time you bear your testimony people will change, it may only be temporary and it may not be drastic enough for you to even notice but almost every time something changes. This is also something I think we can use in our own daily lives. When things start to get crazy or hard, we can turn to the things that we know and they can help us to focus on the things that matter and can bring us comfort and hope in those times of confusion and trouble.

Well, as I have sat inside for the last two weeks I have a lot of time to study and to just think about everything. I have come to the conclusion that we really are just so blessed!

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the city but I have been in an apartment for another week!

Thank you for the support! And for the emails!

Have a great week!

Love Elder Gavin Schmalz 

 

 

PS. I really need a haircut but I can't get one due to my half dead companion, so forgive me for my long hair.

 

 

President & Sister Kosak welcoming President & Sister Fingerle

 

Goodbye Germany Berlin Mission-We Love You!

 

 

 The Best Three Years!

 

 

"We're home already-100 km South of Berlin. We left the office and had tears in the car.
  Needed to stop since we couldn't see anything anymore.
  The fight  for Christ continues.  

Love you forever!"