Pastor Johnson

Instead of greeting you on this fine cold day, I’m just gonna go straight into our week because 1) the bock is running low and 2) the iPad battery is running lower. We had 3 big events this week.

Harburg Christmas Market is in Full Swing

First, we had Thanksgiving!!! We had almost no time throughout the day, but we didn’t let that stop us. We made sure to find a window of time to get some good meats and Thanksgiving feast ingredients. We also made sure we told everyone at the Tafel Happy Thanksgiving. Even though Germany doesn’t celebrate it, they are obsessed with all that happens in America so most people knew what we were talking about.

After our busy day, we were able to finally feast. We had country fried steak, fried chicken, mashed potatoes (done the American way), corn, and of course Mountain Dew. Even though we both know at home we would only be allowed to have water at the dinner table....dad..... But it was truly wonderful and we truly had the spirit of Thanksgiving with us throughout the day.

Thanksgiving feast boys

The next big event was Elder Hillyard’s birthday!!! I was able to sneak off on splits earlier and buy him a new basketball and give it to him on his birthday which was lit. We went and played some soccer where I was the second to last picked (classic), but destroyed nevertheless. Afterwards we headed to Elder Hillyard’s favorite pizza place and got his favorite pizza and enjoyed that.

Harburg Christmas market #birthdayboy

Then we hurried and changed and headed to Stade, to a fireside about baptism. Jason came with us, which was awesome. We had a good time there, the members sang to Hillyard, and we ate some cake which was fun.

As we got back in to Harburg, the suburb of Hamburg we live in, we realized the Christmas market is already up. So we decide to have dinner there and man did we have fun! There are not many better things on this planet than Christmas in Germany. We had some classic Kinder punch, and rode on the carousel with this 5 year old German legend who had not a single clue what America was—it was great. We then ended the night off with a legendary lesson with Jason.

Harburg Christmas market

Lastly, yesterday we hosted a mourning service for a Ghanaian member of our church. I was informed a few hours before the start that I would be needed to, „Preach the word of God.“ So, that I did!

The mourning service advertisement

Needless to say, it was something I’ve never experienced before and also something very cool. They mourned the loss of this member’s mother, but it was nothing like the funerals I’ve been to. They danced, they made sure they were happy and left no room to be sad—it was truly influential.

There were a couple more interesting parts, but we don’t need to get too into that. These people really love God though. It’s awesome!

All in all, we had quite the week. Not enough time to write it all, unfortunately. We had some freaking bomb churros today.

I don’t think I can begin to describe how excited we are for Christmas and how well it’s done here in Germany. But for now, the bock and my batteries almost on empty, sooooooooooo bye

Bahnhof Train Station

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Heckengang 55

21079 Hamburg

Germany

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