Hallo!

Hallo!

This week was my first week in Forst, my new and potentially last area on my mission.....

Forst is a.....interesting place. It is extremely small but with a surprisingly big ward. The Forst ward is actually the biggest ward I have had on my mission with about 70-80 active members.

My companions name is Elder Wilkinson and he is from Kingston Upon Hull, a city in Yorkshire England. and let me tell you this has been a culture shock that I was surprisingly prepared for through the hundreds of episodes of "Top Gear" that i binged upon the summer before my mission! So that was a funny miracle that I witnessed this week.

But the highlight of this week was most definitely and without a doubt, seeing President Henry Kosak and his wife Sister Elke Kosak in Cottbus at an area conference broadcast.

He was my mission president for the first half of my mission and one of my heroes. 

So yeah, that was my week! i am doing well! 

Thank you for your emails and for your prayers.

Love 

Elder Schmalz

Not a bad view I've got

Saying goodbye to Pinneberg :(

Yep my time is pinneberg is over. And I feel very uneasy. I'm really
going to miss this place, it is a really good place. I will miss the
cool members and Evelin our cool investigator who is progressing
towards baptism. And I will miss Elder Tischner.

Our week was really good.
We had a zone conference with Elder Adler of the seventy. I absolutely
love that man! He has visited our mission a couple times and every
time he or his wife speaks I learn so much and I feel so uplifted!
Some conferences are also a great time to see old friends and to just
have a good time.

We also had stake conference this week, and there was a brand new
seventy there. He is from Italy and he has been overseeing the
construction of the Rome Italy temple and talked a little bit about
that.  We also taught Evelin this week and we actually taught her about the 

word of wisdom and the law of chastity
(kind of an awkward lesson every time) but it went really well. She
accepted it all and she talks to us about her desire to know if Joseph
Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true. It was
fantastic because you could just feel her sincerity and you could see
it in her eyes.
When we first started teaching her she was really shy and just a closed
off person....but she has changed so much, she is smiling and she talks
to everyone at church, it is really just a blessing to have seen
people (even though I have seen very many) let the gospel make a
change in their lives even in small things like smiling more often or
being happy:)

I can not believe that Sophie has graduated high school....I feel like
it was yesterday that I graduated high school....but in reality that
was 2 years ago and I'm actually approaching the ripe age of 21!
I also can't believe that next year Gray could go on a mission!
Sometimes I miss the time when we were all little. But then I remember
that growth and progression are essential in our Heavenly Fathers plan
for us. All I know is that I'm so thankful that he does have a plan
for us and that we aren't just leading a pointless existence on a rock
that is orbiting a star. I'm so grateful for the truths that we know.

Last district meeting in this transfer, and saying goodbye to Elder Horrocks who is indeed not dead, just going home!

After a hard day of missionary work, sometimes you just pass out!

All sorts of service. Makes me happy :)

Hamburg P-day

We live 20 minutes by train from Hamburg and it's technically in our area so we like to go into the big city for P-day sometimes.