Elder Glenn Johnson: Livin' the Dream in Berlin, Germany: Schlappentag

So ihr lieben, belwome cack.

Let me tell you something about our legend Samer. We had a great lesson with him this week on prayer and it’s wonders it can work, but that wasn’t the legendary part. He told us of a friend he has who is having trouble believing in the religion he’s a part of, and that he’s just struggling to know what’s right. Well sometime this week we are going to be going over to him and telling him that we got the perfect solution for his troubles, without him knowing his friend sent us, I’m quite excited.

Zoko - Me, Elders Wright, and Taylor, 3 amigos

Zoko Reunion - Elder Brown, Rasmussen, me, and Wright (we were all comps with elder Rasmussen and each other basically)

Last Zone Conference with President Fingerle

So besides today being Memorial Day for us fellow Americans, here in Hof we also have a holiday that’s just for this city, called Schlappentag (Schlappen-slippers & Tag-day). I’m sure you’re wondering, what kind of city celebrates a holiday called slippers day? Well that would be Hof. Allow me to explain the story of this day to the best of my knowledge why this day is here and what it means. So back in the year 1415 or so, there was a Czech Reformer named John Hus, who was a fighter against abuses in the church, and was condemned to death and was burned. His followers then tried to carry out a reformation of the church, violently, and in the year 1430 they conquered the city of Hof and completely destroyed it. In this time the population turned to the margrave (a military leader in medical Germany times) of Brandenburg and they told the citizens of Hof that they would be exempt from taxes for 10 years to help rebuild their city; the only condition was that the citizens equip themselves with weapons and learn how to shoot to be able to protect themselves in later attacks. This turned into craftsmen having to go once a year to shooting practices and competitions, to which they always went lazily in their work clothes and their „Schlappen“ to go shoot. They made a special beer for this one occasion, Schlappenbier, that can only be consumed on this one special day. Now to this day, the Monday after Pentecost we Hofers celebrate the men who went and practiced shooting and drank some special beer by having parades, wearing lederhosen, and...you guessed it....drinking Schlappenbier (not us of course 😉).

video and pics from the Schlappentag Parade

I hope you feel enlightened and just a little bit more German than you were coming into this email. Some other highlights: we had kindergarten day at volleyball and had a bunch of children who played with us but that was fun anyways, haha. Titian in particular had 0 chill. We had a girl come to church for a little while which was cool! Unfortunately she was kinda like a mouse because she came last week and asked for money and a visiting member gave her 10 euros so she just came back for more money but we offered her something better than money, eternal life, but she wasn’t too interested in that and left. She took a Book of Mormon though, mal sehen what she does with it but let’s pray she reads it hahaha. I got to see Dusty.