Guten Tag!

This was a pretty good week!  We've been having quite a bit of fun and have been staying busy and productive all the while.  Although a few things happened this week that jammed up our schedules.  We had to wait four hours at a registration building on Tuesday to start the process for my Visa.  It felt like the DMV.  The rest of the day was a bit messed up as a result, but other than that, things have seemed to be going pretty smoothly this week!

Also, it's WAY HOTTER HERE than I ever expected for right now.  I've been dying a little all week.  Germans typically don't have any air conditioning because it usually doesn't get hot, so it's been a bit rough.  I know why I didn't get sent to South America now, haha!  Just kidding.  It's not too bad, but I'm excited for the inevitable winter freezing.

We have a few investigators that I believe are making good progress, according to my companion and from what I've seen so far.  Our progressing investigators are all ones that have been progressing long before I arrived, so I haven't been able to see their full change, but I'm sure I'll get plenty of opportunities to see that in the next little while!  One couple we have, Vincent and Petra, have been investigating for months, and have been on board for baptism for a long time.  It's taken a bit of time to get them fully ready, but they now have a baptismal date set for early September, and we're all super happy about that!  They're both very kind with me and patient with my currently...beautiful...German.  We also have another couple, Hugo and Lily, who both speak English.  They're both very kind as well, and we're trying to get them to feel fully ready for baptism.  They want to, but in the words of Hugo, he feels like he needs to "earn his baptism" by biking 1500 kilometers before he is baptized.  They say that they really just aren't fully ready yet, but they're very open to having us over, and are doing their best to prepare themselves.  I'm hoping and praying for them!  

We got three new potential investigators this week--all within the span of forty minutes, actually.  We were tracting for quite a while one of these last days with no luck, and we had no luck finding prior to that.  I said a quick prayer in my heart to help us to find people who were interested, and the apartment complex we visited right after had three people, back to back to back, who all were interested in accepting Book of Mormons, giving us their phone numbers, and accepting lessons to be taught this upcoming week on various days!  That was super cool!  One lady was a pretty devout Catholic, she said, and wasn't interested at first, but as we continued to talk about the Book of Mormon, her eyes lit up and she seemed to pretty excited about it!  We really have a good feeling about her, and I'm hoping this one specifically works out!

The language is...going, but there are several difficult things about it right now.  Since I'm still super new, my sentence structure falls apart at times, and people have just sort-of raised their eyebrows at me and look straight back at my companion to do "damage control" after I make an attempt at speaking.  I expected it to happen like this a bit at the start, naturally, but it's hard right now to really practice the language because I'm just not really reliable to communicate in most circumstances right now.  And it's still hard to understand people.  Still, though, I think I am making progress even if I'm not practicing as much as I'd like with actual people!  I got much more out of our sacrament meeting this week and that got me a bit excited.  I still only picked up like 30% of what was being said, but oh well!  I also got a document full of the 4000 most commonly used German words, which compose about 98% of spoken German, so I hear, and I'm about 200 words into the first 2000, which compose a supposed 95% of spoken German.  Since I've started studying that, my comprehension has increase much more, I believe!  I would say that overall, the language is coming along just about how I expected--perhaps a bit better.  I just need to practice speaking it casually much more.

I found a bit of interesting scripture passages about missionary work in The Book of Mormon this week.  One that stuck out to me was in Jacob 1:19, which says:

"And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.

I don't think I have fully realized yet just how significant missionary work is to this world and all who live in it.  I'm sure that this realization will come as my mission progresses, but this scripture really emphasizes the sanctity of our calling.  Sometimes we forget how blessed we are to have access to the full and restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and may forget how precious even the truth that we consider "basic" or "simple" is to those unfamiliar to it.  I know I have in the past, and sometimes now. But this gospel makes us so genuinely happy, and the truths in The Book of Mormon bless us so much, that we should feel obligated by God to provide all means necessary to teach and share this message of joy.  We won't force anyone to accept our message.  We don't want to, because that is the opposite of everything we believe to be right in this existence.  But we need to do all we can to let them know what great choice is available, and when we give them the opportunity to accept this gospel, and to do all we can to invite the testimony of the Holy Ghost, we've done our job.  That's what I'm here to do.  Sorry if I just wrote way too much.  I'm compensating for how much I'm unable to talk in our lessons for the time being.

That's the update for this week!  Thanks for your love, support, and prayers!   I miss you all!  I'll keep you updated on all the happenings over here!  

Hellooo everyone!

Well, I made it!  We arrived in Germany on Wednesday morning after about a twelve hour flight overnight!  I tried sleeping on the plane but couldn't.  So jet lag has hit me pretty strong for this last week.  I'm exhausted whenever I try to study or listen.  But it's slowly getting better.

Other than that, the transition has gone much smoother than I ever expected.  I don't feel like I'm experiencing culture shock really at all, minus needing to work on the language.  Our apartment is a huge blessing.  We actually have a washing machine, microwave, fridge, and EVEN a toaster.  I don't know if that's unusual at all for a mission living area, Europe or not, but hey, it's nice to have regardless.

It feels super crazy here still, though.  I'm having some serious flashbacks from our time in Belgium.  Even though they're two separate countries, they feel identical in many ways and much is exactly like I remember, I.e. The weather, climate, stores, buildings in general, smell (huge one), and in some aspects, culture.  I think this might be the reason I'm not really feeling anxiety here, because even though we only spent a year and a half there years ago, I still feel like I'm "home".  That's a stretch but it's the best explanation I got.  Also, living in a developed apartment and having someone who knows the ropes helps a lot too.  Who would have thought that this experience is easier than being thrust into a pig farm for a while?  (Long but fun story.  Email me personally.)

My companion is also super cool.  He's been out five months and comes from Oklahoma.  We get along well and it seems we have a lot of the same interests.  Every other day we go on a 5k~ run and so that's great to be able to run outside for the first time in about two months.  We get to see a lot of cool things.  But yeah, so far our companionship is going great.  Neither one of us have to push the other to wake up on time or get on our feet or keep working in whatever we're doing.  Granted, right now it's easier for me since I still have the early mission enthusiasm, but I hope we both can keep it up!  He is super enthusiastic about it.  It makes me want to do better and work harder than before.

My first area is called Oberhausen and it's the smallest one in the mission land-wise.  It's pretty populated though.  It's pretty industrialized and we don't see much open area, and I hear a lot of missionaries kind of dislike it, but my companion is super positive about it and loves the area!  So we won't be needing bikes or cars here, but just walk and use public transportation.  I'm loving everything about it so far.  It's nice not to have to worry about transportation so much.  And the town is still pretty beautiful in my opinion.   It has a nice feeling to it.  The ward is awesome.  We have about 100 members, only 50 active ones though.  They're all super friendly and patient with my inability to comprehend 70% of what they're saying.  I received a warm welcoming on Sunday.

But as stated before, the language is something I am concerned with as well.  I'm not stressing about it because it's just going to come with time and I know I'll get it, but I'm still a little inpatient to become proficient at it.  I just didn't focus on secular vocabulary at all in the MTC so I still need to learn  most of it.  That's what I'm spending language study time on right now.  Also, my accent is horrible.

First of impressions with the people?  Great!  They're a lot more friendly than I ever expected.  I know that a lot of people may be a bit rigid at times.  However, I've quickly learned that smiling at them (albeit sometimes misplaced and awkward) is a great way to break through the barrier, often elicits a smile returned, and even sometimes a pleasant conversation, whether they accept your message or not.  There are so many different ethnicities here.  We have a bunch of Ghanians in our ward and they're so, so friendly.  And we've talked to a bunch of Syrian immigrants and refugees.  Many are religious, but it seems as well that many are without it.  Those in the latter groups have generally been very friendly and many have accepted Book of Mormons.  One, quite willingly, gave us his number and we're currently trying to contact him.  This definitely is an exciting time in Germany.  Many more natives, according to our records, are accepting the restored gospel, as well as those who are not from here.  I'm excited to be a part of this!  It'll still be a challenge, that's a given, but people are ready.  

I'm starting another round of Book of Mormon reading.  This time I'm focusing on a few personal questions about The Plan of Salvation that I'm hoping to get answers and revelation for.  I just finished reading about the visions of the Tree of Life, located in 1 Nephi 8 and 11 I believe.  In chapter 8 verse 23, although this didn't directly answer the specific questions I had about the plan of salvation, I read concerning what some people do, who were originally holding fast to the Iron Rod and journeying along the narrow path to reach the Tree of Life:

23 And it came to pass that there arose a mist of darkness; yea, even an exceedingly great mist of darkness, insomuch that they who had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost.

This is an extremely important behavior of people, on which we should take note.  Many people we've encountered so far ask us why our church specifically is the one we need, if they already live good lives and participate in another.  The reason why The Gospel of Jesus Christ and His church has been restored to us in these days, as soon as was possible on this earth, is that we are always, as natural beings, in need of divine direction for our days.  We need it to receive not only joy, peace, and support in this life, but in the life to come as well, through its fundamental ordinances.  Some, sometimes, forget why the church is here.  They lose faith.  They stop seeing the eternal significance of this iron rod, and when the going gets tough, they let go, only to be lost in darkness.  I don't know if I'm writing this clearly or not, it seems like it's a bit out of the way, but we must endure!  Through this gospel, weak things are made strong, and letting go should not ever be an option.  I know that this church, and that the Book of Mormon is true.  I mean, I better; I went halfway across the world to teach people about it. 

I'm glad to be here.  It's all so real now.  I'm glad to finally be able to be doing this.  It's wonderful to finally be on a mission.  I love you all!  I'll keep you regularly updated!  Also I have two pictures, one of our building and one of...the street.  I'll send more interesting ones soon.

Love,

Elder Wallentine

p.s.:  Extra happenings:

-I got cussed at, genuinely, for the first time in my life in German this week!!!

-I ate a tortilla chip chocolate bar this week and it wasn't bad.

-I may or may not have gained another five pounds since leaving the MTC

-The German word for squirrel is Eichhörnchen and it's currently unpronounceable for me 

-I heard Pokémon GO is huge everywhere now.  It's gigantic here.  It's actually getting people outside and giving more street contacting opportunity to us, even if people reply with "Kein Zeit" (no time) to us when we attempt to.   

Elder Wallentine's first area

Dear Parents,

I took this picture of your sons at the main train station in Frankfurt this morning as they were about to catch their train to Oberhausen. Thank you for supporting your sons. We love them and are grateful to have them here.

Mit lieben Grüßen

Elder Jeff Kirk

Mission Financial Secretary/Vehicle Coordinator

Arrival Letter

Family Wallentine,

We are pleased to announce that Elder Wallentine arrived safely in the Germany Frankfurt Mission. He is doing great and is excited to begin this new adventure here in Germany. We know that the lord will protect him in his service and you and your family will blessed for his service.

Sincerely
President and Sister Stoddard

Hey everyone!

It's been a good, final week at the MTC!  On Monday morning we will be heading out from the Salt Lake City airport, to Georgia, and then straight to Frankfurt. I'm so stoked...but also a tad bit nervous about being actually gone.

On Tuesday evening, we had a devotional where Elder Anderson came.  He spoke to us about attitudes on the mission, and really emphasized that we've been called to our countries/states for a specific reason, and that we shouldn't be discouraged about the "likelihood" of us converting people or even just teaching lessons because there are people who have been getting prepared to accept the gospel.  They've really emphasized that this week, actually.  We also had in-field orientation on Thursday, and that was one of the biggest topics that they talked to us about.  It's made me think about what we have control over as missionaries.  We won't have control over a person's decision to be baptized, naturally, but we can have control over our diligence and faith in helping them to accept it.  They've really just emphasized constant diligence and working hard on an every-day basis in the mission field.  I probably have no idea what I'm taking about right now, though, because I'm not in the field yet, but hey, I'll do my best to live by this.

But anyways, it's been cool.  In the six weeks we've been here, we've seen Elder Bednar and Elder Anderson.  We would be seeing Elder Holland if we left two days later.  He's coming on Tuesday.  But two general authorities are AMAZING.  I'll count my blessings.  Both of them testified so powerfully of the truthfulness of this church, the Atonement of Christ and His love for us.  Really cool experiences.

This week, I completed D&C, and I finished the Book of Mormon a few weeks ago in the first half of the MTC!  I really wanted to make sure that I read through them as thoroughly as possible, and I'm very glad I did.  One scripture that I used in TRC and really like is D&C 58:3-6. It states: "Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings.Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand. Remember this, which I tell you before, that you may lay it to heart, and receive that which is to follow. Behold, verily I say unto you, for this cause I have sent you—that you might be obedient, and that your hearts might be prepared to bear testimony of the things which are to come;"

In hindsight, many of the biggest issues that I had at the start of my MTC experience seem somewhat trivial when I start to think about how much everything is going to change, and the issues others are facing. I love this scripture, because it will be there for me to remember when things feel overwhelming again, and not only that, but it provides great counsel to all who feel harrowed with sorrow and sadness.  There have been times in my life where I've felt as though my faith was diminishing, or even gone at some particular points.  I think that the problem with those feelings is that people heed them, and then stop acting in faith, by reducing daily scripture studying, getting casual or all together forgetting to pray, stop going to church, etc.  But, I believe, that a major part of enduring to the end is continuing to do the seemingly "small" things when you feel as though you are lacking in faith, or any other spiritual aspect of your life.  God cannot help us if we remove the tools through which he blesses us.  Even if we feel as though the effects aren't showing in the moment of our small and simple acts of faith, if we continue with them over long periods of time, God will surely help us.  He wants to, and we need to show him that we desire his help, and then act upon it.

That's my thought for the week.  In other news, I learned how to roll my tongue.  So I basically have the European languages mastered now. Just kidding.  Not even close.  But German continues to go well.  My grammar is still a bit rough, though.  I've gotten much of the gospel vocabulary down, to the point where I can pretty comfortably teach lessons 1-3 and similarly with 4-5, albeit a bit rougher (reminding myself that these are MTC lessons.  I have no idea how much it's going to change with real investigators).  But I'm pretty bad at conversational German.  I hope that just naturally improves when I arrive.

That's the biggest news this week.  It's been fun at the MTC.  I've seen plenty of my old friends from school.  Made some new friends. Really enjoy talking to some of the Dutch-speaking missionaries in our class building.  I bump into them a lot and I can vaguely remember a lot of the phrases they use.  One day I kind of want to learn Dutch again, but at the same time, I don't want to screw up my German since Dutch is essentially just a weird middle-ground between the two.  I like to describe it as if an English speaker heard a German speak for the first time, and then wrote down the sounds that they heard the way an English speaker would write.  For example, "Ich auch" means "Me too" in German.  "Ik ook" means "Me too" in Dutch."  It's pretty funny.

Oh, and we got a new shipment of German missionaries three weeks ago. They're fast-trackers.  One of them spent 14 years there and he's fluent.  His companion spent one year there and he's pretty good too. They leave with us Monday.  They're all pretty friendly and cool. Lots of people are intimidated by their skills though, hahaha!

Also, I fed some birds a bagel today.  I think they appreciated it. There was a bit of a scuffle between some over who got the bigger pieces but I think they got it figured out.

Well, this is it.  Hopefully this letter sounded more positive.  I love you guys! Next letter will be filled with likely culture-shock and EXCITEMENT.  I can't wait!  Thanks for your letters!  Thanks for your support!  Keep writing me!  I love you all!

Love,
Elder Wallentine

And here is a picture of our district with both of our teachers!  The lady with her arms folded with the dark blue shirt is one, and the second-to-farthest left man with the white name tag is the other!

GUTEN MORGEN!

Hello everyone!  It's been another pretty wonderful week.  Things have really been shaping up here!  I'll try and keep this one positive again.

I've gotten to be pretty good friends with a few of the Elders here.  One of them, Elder Adams, is from Utah and he ran cross country through high school.  I've been running with him a lot since he's one of the only Elders here who actually likes running.  So that's pretty great.  There's also Elder Winder, who also is a runner who ran a marathon prior to his mission.  We get along pretty well.

Things continue to go well with my companion, Elder Fromm, even though there were a few times this week where I think we got frustrated with each other.  But he sprained his ankle during basketball on Thursday, and luckily it's not severe, but it has given us opportunities to be patient with each other.  I'm given opportunities to help him out and be patient, and so I've been trying to use those, and I think our hearts have been softened a bit.  Since then we've been getting along pretty darn swell.

I've talked with the other two Elders in my district as well, the ones that I felt I was having the biggest issues with, and we've been able to resolve a lot of our disagreements even though we still will conflict a little at times.  I think we're actually able to tolerate eachother pretty well now, haha!  But yeah, things are a lot better and there's a much stronger respect between all in the district.

I would say that the thing I've learned about resolving conflicts in the last few weeks is this: It's pretty darn hard to hold your tongue, but you won't regret it.  I saw this a lot on social media mainly before I left, where if somebody would insult another person, that other person would focus on coming up with a good "comeback" because it would usually get a rise out of anyone who saw it.  But that never ends a conflict.  There were many times early on where the Elders would make jabs at me, and I would think to reply with a reciprocated jab (Sometimes, I let myself.)  I found that in the times I didn't reply, the situation would often be left to diffuse somewhat independently.  Inversely, when I would try and "counter" the jabs, the spirit would very quickly leave and the tension would rise.  If I was focused on making damaging comebacks instead of just trying to ignore the comments, I'm afraid that by now, I would not be getting along with the other Elders at all.  So a word of advice from my short experience is to be wary of the temptation to reciprocate hostile attitudes, because that rarely helps anything.  It's something I need to keep working on, too.

I've been setting goals to memorize more German scriptures, and I got 2 Nephi 25:26 down just the other night.  Some nights I'm beat, though, and focus more on reading than I do memorizing.  So this is a work in progress.  We've finished covering German grammar principles and now I'm just working on memorizing the articles for the words we're learning to apply a lot of them, since you can't do much I learned if you can't remember the "genders" or articles of your nouns.

My work has slowed a bit in the last few days though because I got sick with a sore throat and congestion, so these have been a rough few days in terms of concentration.  But I'm pushing on and taking tons of medicine to try and get over this.

OH, and by the way, we got our flight plans!  We're leaving Tuesday morning on the 16th at 6:20 AM for the Salt Lake Airport, and fly out at 11:00 AM to Atlanta Georgia, then to Frankfurt!  We'll be arriving in Frankfurt at 8:45 AM the next day.  This is going to be an interesting plane ride.  But I am super stoked to be able to really start the mission.  I'm just trying to focus on work here still right now, though, because a lot of Elders are getting MTC-itis, and can't focus at all.  Nevertheless, it's still fun to think about.

Let's see...that's about it.  The language continues to go great.  I'm getting a good foundation here!  And the more I study German, the worse my spelling and sentence structure in English gets, so that's wonderful.  AP English?  Just a distant memory.  

One last thing, every Friday we've had "world cup Friday" with Argentinian Elders out on the soccer field.  It's pretty funny because both missions of Germany and Argentina just throw out as many people as they can.  There were like 70 people out yesterday (I couldn't play because my companion needed ankle "rehab" ((the trainers didn't really know what they were doing.  I'm not just assuming that.  One of the trainers whispered to the other and said "I don't know what I'm doing" as he attempted to fasten a brace on my comp's ankle))).  And then we also annexed a bunch of other missions onto our team, like Armenians and Georgians (The country Georgia), and Argentina does the same with any Spanish speaking mission...so we get outnumbered sometimes. The chaos is pretty fun but some people take it too seriously and we've almost had a few fights.  Geez, Elders.  Germany is winning 2-1 in World Cup Fridays right now though, apparently, so that's...good...

Okay, sweet, now I'm done.  Thanks for your prayers, interests and concerns!

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Wallentine

​Here are some pictures!  The one taken at night is with a few old friends at Mountain View, and one is me holding our flight plan, and then one of my name tag, and one with a bunch of elders in our district. My companion isn't in the photo though, sorry.  But yeah, the name of the church is:

(Die) Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzen Tage