From letter

The new thing this week is nicer weather (not as hot). Not many people wanted to listen to us though, and the few that did wanted to argue beliefs rather than come unto Christ. My German is definitely improving though. I learn new words every day. Some of them more pleasant than others...

Excerpt from letter

It's been pretty crazy this week. It seems like I've been ever-busy. My new companion is Elder Horlacher. He's a pretty hard worker, so nothing has really let up. There was a Utah family at church this week. We got to translate for them. The ward seems ready to begin their own missionary program, so we are planning on starting with a few families this week, because member referrals are most likely for baptism. - 7/19/20

Letter Excerpt

There is also a gummi bear factory here called Haribo. Apparently it is a well known brand, but I have never heard of it.

Excerpt from letter

The city I am in is famous for sword and knife making. There are about 4 factories here for making weapons. They are pretty expensive though, and I don't think I could bring them home on the plane.

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Elder Miller

7/12/10

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Elder McArthur
7/12/10

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Elder Gunnell (he is 25. He decided to go on a mission when he really had a desire to. Super great missionary), Sister Botcher and her companion, and Elder Merrill
7/12/10

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My plate of food. Some pasta and salad with unlimited bread.
7/12/10

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Elder Miller. We went to this expensive restaurant called Vapiannos. Expensive in Germany is 10 Euro a plate or so...Most restarants are cheap.
7/12/10

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missionary message....actually a sticker.

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Our District. This picture turned out bad, but everyone is in it.

Our District again. This time, Sister Botcher and I got cut out. It was kinda weird cause we just set the cameras on a table and did it with the timer.

7-12-10

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Elder Rogers- He is a Zone Leader with Elder Gunnell. Super solid missionary also. He is going home however. He will be dearly missed.

7/12/10

Email

On my end, some interesting things have happened. The missions are now combined. The 90 year old sister Pickelein got baptised and confirmed. And my first cycle is over (6 weeks in the field). My companion is getting transferred after serving 1 year here....life is going to get tough, cause he knew this place like the back of his hand, so I never learned which busses/trains go where, etc. I also never really used the phone, so I don't know the good people to bring with to appointments, etc.

Normally, you get 2 cycles with your golden trainer, but I am just getting one. But I am kind of excited for my new companion. Everyone seems to think I will get along with him really well.

We found a lady with 2 little babies that wants to hear our message. She has taken the first 2 discussions and may come to a ward Summer Party on Wednesday.

We also got contact with this lady who initially had no interest, but wanted us to help her move. Well, that didn't really work out, cause they moved before they told us they would. However, she was impressed that we kept coming back, so she agreed to meet with us. She is also bringing 5 or 6 friends who want to hear whats up with our church helping people. Jehovah's Witnesses don't really do that, so they want to know who we really are.

Hope life is cool in Irvine, cause the weather is ridiculously hot and humid in Germany. We have an elder from south Carolina and he says the weather reminds him of home.....

-Elder Schuetz

Excerpt from letter

Written 6/28/10:
"... In other news, I haven't been getting much sleep recently. If you watched the Germany vs. England game, you will understand why. Cars honking, people blowing horns, yelling, chanting, & getting drunk. In addition, on days where Germany isn't playing, there are decent populations of Italians, Spanish, & Africans to supply noise pollution at night. Needless to say, missionary work is difficult during the World Cup..." :-)

Excerpt from letter 7/5/10

"I got cussed out on a bus - in English yesterday. He basically said 'Go back to Utah'. Which was funny because neither me nor my companion are from Utah..."

More Pictures

Here is the weekly pic update


Here is the sign for the knife shop we went to
. We went to the shop for pocket knives, shaving knives, etc., but they also have one for kitchen knives...


some knives...

more knives....

and more knives....

some big knives....

The döner guy. He's pretty cool. He like missionaries, because they all come to his shop for the best döner.

Here is cow. It's on a spit, but it is vertical, and the meat is shaved off. kind of like shaved ice, only there is a heater in the back that slow cooks it.

Here is the chicken one. it's not as good. All of the meat is according to hallal standards, though. So it's Muslim Kosher.

2 pics of Remscheid, The city we contacted in. Lots of leadership members, but everyone who isn't a member, usually wants to stay that way. I saw a funny graffitti thing written in English on the train that day. It said: "Eastside? Westside? REMSCHEID!" Pretty good, huh? There is a lot of cool looking graffitti here. A lot of it is artwork. Some communities have paid graffiti people that come in vans filled with tons of different paints

cloudy day

I don't know if you can see it, but this van's back door is totally broken. A garbage truck backed into it, and glass shattered, interupting our morning study. The guy didn't seem too mad, but I didn't think to get out my camera till he cleaned up the mess and was driving away...

My comp on the phone

Pics

A graveyard we tried to contact people in. I must say, graves are much better taken care of in Germany. The graveyard in general seems like a mixture of Paganism and Christianity...but it's interesting.

WW2 graves

A close up of a WW2 grave

some random 10 ft (or 3 meter) tall cross

awesome sunset @ our apartment

2 of my comp during morning study. He is a slight insomniac, so I forgive him. :-)

Here is one of the church. the chapel is off to the right.

And this last one is a picture of my new Solingen knife. It cost a pretty penny, but it was worth it

Pictures

A German version of the musical "Wicked".

This was a sad picture. So apparently, Subway has an All-you-can-eat deal going on.....only on Sunday. Lame!

Capri-Sonne. Here, they have coke flavored, vitamin enhanced, and cherry flavored varieties...at least that is what I have seen so far.

Our District...sorry its blurry. someone else took it.

A bug that resembled a miniature cotton ball. And it had wings...really weird

Me and Elder Miller on our Golden Split! More about that day in the next email.

Letter

This week was cool. I went to my first Zone conference, where we review our goals and find ways to be better missionaries. It was really good. Mission Presidents attend every ZoKo (as we call it), so I got to see President Ninnow again.

I also went on my first Golden Austausch on Saturday. Elder Miller and I went to do service at Sister Gross' house (a recently baptised elderly lady). When we got there, we found she had brought a friend, who was interested to hear our message. We found out she had heard a lot of bad things about us, but that didn't make sense since our church helped Sister Gross quit smoking, and we were going to help Sister Gross with her garden. It reminded me of a similar situation that Paul encountered in Acts 28 with some Jewish leaders. They said: "But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that every where it is spoken against." This lady was very open with us, and despite the fact that were both Goldens, we managed to teach her the first discussion (with the help of Sister Gross) and set up a return appointment. We also offered to help her enter the "quit smoking in 7 days" program that the Wuppertal Elders were trying. She loved the idea. This experience was a testimony to me that God qualifies the weak and simple for missionary work and that the gospel is a principle based on faith and not necessarily on a large vocabulary.

In other news, I got cussed at for the first time. I had no idea what the guy was saying, and he wasn't really yelling, so it wasn't that bad. My comp. told me afterwards that he said some bad words, and some bad things about our church, the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. Oh well.

We are going to check out the Solingen knife shop today. That should be interesting.

As far as food here goes, people eat a lot less meat. For that I am grateful. In fact, the first member meal I had a few weeks ago was completely vegetarian. It was cool. I think I will be eating less meat here than I did at BYU.

They do have this Turkish thing here that is super good. It's about as popular as Hamburgers in the US. It's called Dönner (pronounced dooner). It is similar to mom's fallafel wraps, but it has 3 sauces in it, and it is made out of lamb or chicken (your choice) instead of breaded vegetarian stuff.. They put in vegetables, sauce, and saurkraut, and then wrap it in some Turkish bread.

I will take some pictures when I get one today (according to all of the elders I have met, the best dooner shop is right around the corner from where I live).


There are also a lot more crazy people here than the US. Schizzophrenics are fairly common. Germany has really good medicine research, and is a healthier country in general (minus the smoking) than the US (because medicine is expensive, people have incentive to stay healthy- and the food is fresher), but many people are not mentally well. It is kind of sad to see. I think part of it has to do with the alcohol and drug culture that has control over people. It's scary how many are afflicted with it.

Thankfully the Atonement is there to help these people, and most of the members here have overcome at least one WOW addiction.

That's all for now!

-Elder Schuetz

Letter

About the ward:

The ward is pretty cool. I think most of them like me for the fact that my last name is German. There is this one guy named bro. Köster (pronounced coo-ster). He drives us to church every week. Everyone thinks he's super weird. But from the moment I arrived, he was my friend. He speaks decent English, so he translates for me, offered to give me a haircut, and says if I ever need anything to let him know.

There is another guy named brother Mass (pronounced moss). He has hair similar to Ludwig Beethoven. He is super passionate about the gospel. He taught a priesthood lesson, and it was great.

And of course, the Brauns, who I talked about in my pic emails.


That's pretty much all I've really met so far. Names are different here, and I am not good at remembering them. As for the meetinghouse, we meet here in Solingen at a church building, but the ward bounderies cover many cities. For example, the Brauns have a half hour commute to church each week....It is slightly easier to travel, because of the bus and train systems, but people have to really want to come, to come....if that makes sense.

The stake center is in Düsseldorf, which is about 25 minutes by train. However, that is a different area with different missionaries, so we only go there for district meetings and zone conferences.