Die Woche des Tempels

I’ve talked about the temple in like my past 3 weeklys, but technically none of you can complain, because complaining about the temple is borderline blasphemy. Well, this week wasn't really the week of the temple, but we did go. We can speak more about that later.

We had an unexpected/unplanned appointment with our fav Arabic family when one of our appointments fell through and they happened to be home, that was great. We actually had a sister from our mission call in and speak to them to kind of explain a little better what we do in a language they could understand good. We also played some good ole European football (soccer) with the kids and destroyed them like usual. I'm not even sure why they even try against me, they don't understand how much soccer I placed when I was 6.

We actually didn't even eat once at our apartment the whole week, just filled with eating appointments and being in Freiberg, so I’d say that’s neat. We ran into a group of African dudes who were speaking English very loudly in the Bahn, and it was nothing less than humorous. One of them was telling his friend that his mom is excited to see him because he doesn't eat KFC, but makes him and his friends all eat corn and rice, so they've all lost weight. The original also told him he was going to go to KFC right then and just eat it right in front of his face, it was quite the situation to witness. Gotta love those angels.

Well, let’s just get on with it and get to the craziness of getting to the temple. Well after a night of not too much sleep, we wake up bright and early to head on over to Berlin very early. On our ride all the way through Leipzig, Chemnitz, and then to Freiberg, we didn't run into any problems which was quite surprising. No delays—nothing. Until we got off the train in Freiberg, I pat my pockets making sure I have everything, and don't feel the phone. Can this really be? We ran back on the train before it left and checked our seat and, phew, it wasn't there so it had to be with us somewhere. But no, we checked all through our things and there was no phone to be found. So it must be on some train somewhere in Germany just riding around. So we had no phone, no way to contact anyone if something happens, but nevertheless we made it to the temple in time to be in the endowment session with Sister Musehold, as she does it for the first time. It was a very sweet experience for all—these worries of not having a phone and whatnot just go away in the temple and just live there in this place away from the worldly things. We did two back to back sessions which was quite tiring but very worth it. The House of the Lord is definitely the coolest place to be it was great to be able to go again after 8 months without being able to.

good times in freiberg

Dresden is cute

took this ICE to Leipzig, rip Oldenburg 
(Inter-City Express train with speeds up to 185 mph)

We finally got a new phone today and everything's just slowly going back to normal after that craziness this week.

That’s about it though, so enjoy your week I guess?

Tschüß

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Plauer Straße 11d

Brandenburg an der Havel 14770

Deutschland

T-4 days till the temple

!سلام

Well this week was just fantastic. Again, we met with our favorite Russians, and were treated with some very nice Russian food (and tons of it). And had with them a nice little lesson on prayer and how they do it as Muslims and we told them how we do it, but all in all we had a grand time. We're looking forward to our next lesson with them

Our next legendary family also invited us over this week--the Arabic one. We came over and nobody was home, but the kids were out on their bikes, so we went and asked them where everybody was. Since they had also no idea, we went to the Spielplatz and played a game of soccer in which the little boys destroyed us both. Afterwards, we went and checked and the rest of the family was there, so we got to say hi and make out an appointment for them not to forget this time.

We also met with another couple people this week, nothing too crazy eventful though. We finally caught our friend from Africa who had a lot of potential and we were able to finally make an appointment out with him, so we're pumped about that one.

So it's finally here!

This Friday we are making the trip out to Freiberg for the temple!!! I'm super excited, but it's really about the new convert and not too much about us, but we're still pumped, because neither of us has been in the temple since we got to the mission a loooonngggg time ago (for him). You will hear alllll about that next week for sure, don't be too excited.

That's about it for the week to be deadly honest. Today we went out to Oranienburg, where the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp is, and my oh my that was neat. It was crazy to read all the stories about the people who were murdered here, and people who escaped barely--neat stuff. I will drop some pictures here for your enjoyment.

some after-concentration camp Doner

not too sure what this is

big memorial

actual campgrounds

the housing

a previous mass grave

I hope you all have an alright week.

Yöurs trulie, élder Johnson

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Plauer Straße 11d

Brandenburg an der Havel 14770

Deutschland

R.I.P Jens

Hello everyone, it's me here again.

It is pretty rainy and cold here in Eastern Germany, unlike most of you who are being roasted in these 117 degree days. Speaking of rain, we had a pretty good week. First off, to relieve you of your trouble and worries, I am honored to announce that I will not be transferred, me and my Lego buddy are staying together for another good 6 weeks or so. We went to a wonderful eating appointment with our favorite Russian family an der Havel, and we had some great food. They are very strong in their faith in Islam, so we weren't too sure what we could do with them, so that we’re not just going over for free food and socializing. Well, what is our real goal as missionaries? Exactly, to help others come unto Christ and Heavenly Father. Some might mistake this purpose as baptism, but baptism is just one step in the ultimate goal of coming unto Christ. We decided we can still fulfill our purpose with them by helping them read in their Qu'ran, pray more, and strengthen themselves as a family. Although it’s not what most people would see as mission work, but if it helps them come closer to God, then that exactly is.

it's 4th of July somewhere

Today we went to an American store in Berlin, might I say I felt at home it was quite amazing. It's this random little shop in Berlin and it has everything from license plates (not Arizona) to American flag towels. We all ended up getting a lot of sodas. I got some cream soda, real Dr Pepper, grape soda, Barq's root beer (better than A&W), just wonderful. They didn't have hot Cheetos though 😔. If any of you ever have some money laying around you don't want, you know where I live, send some hot Cheetos on over. We also visited a church in Berlin where Elder Oliver's great great something grandparents were married, pretty sweet. He's really excited to post about it on Facebook 😊.

the lute

a church

the inside of before-spoken church

Something sweet that happened this week, was when we had an appointment set up with an earlier investigator who apparently is always out of town but had time for us on Sunday. We went over there, and lo and behold he was in Berlin for the weekend. Since he lives near our Arabic family friends, we decided we might as well just go visit them, and it went awesome! They were home and welcomed us in and we got to have a good conversation with them and make an appointment for this week. We might end up needing to take the same path with them as we do with our Russian family, we will see.

Well, to prepare for a lesson this week, I studied a little bit of forgiveness. Something that I really enjoyed, is what it says in Collosians 3:13-Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. So, if you have someone you haven't forgiven for something they did to you, don't hold on to that grudge and forgive them, just as Christ did.

Well, have an alright week, not too good not too bad ok

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Plauer Straße 11d

Brandenburg an der Havel 14770
Deutschland

Zone Conference

Berlin Zone

Elder Glenn Johnson has his face squeezed in behind two sisters in the front row! He's hard to find otherwise!

The Week of Eating Appointments

Hey, Happy day, everyone!

I don't really know which day it'll be for you, so happy day. Anyways, a lot this week happened. Two topics in particular.

We were invited 7 different times this week to eat with both members and non members. I say it almost every time, but this branch truly is legendary. Some of the highlights: in our dinner appointment with Sister Musehold, we were able to make out a date for the temple! July 21^st will be the day, I'm super excited.

With the legend, Hasan

On Wednesday, we had no dinner appointment set up, but as we were walking to the tram to go home after contacting a few people, we were stopped by a really nice and dope Russian father who we see almost every week at our service, and he invited us right there on the spot to come to his house! We were able to have some Russian food with them, and share our beliefs, with a turn appointment for tomorrow! ...A miracle for sure!

On Thursday from the walk to the train station from our lunch with Sister Jaserick, we got destroyed in a rain storm. I mean absolutely destroyed, we were basically walking in small pools.

Which brings me right in to the next interesting part of the week. For some reason, it has rained almost every day here in our little slice of Germany. On some days, it was so bad that we were getting absolutely soaked. In Berlin, the autobahn had to be shut down and people evacuated because the floods were so great. It was okay though, because we just get more points every time we have to walk back to our house dripping wet and freezing cold.

Tomorrow happens to be one of the most important days in history, the 4th of July. Some might say that history started on July 4th 1776, and everything that "happened before that" is made up, and they'd be right. Considering our lack of Americans/American supplies, we will have a hard time celebrating. But we’re Americans, we can make something fun out of anything.

with the 4th of July tomorrow, this picture is only necessary

Well, stay safe then, don’t do any illegal fireworks—ha!

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Plauer Straße 11d

Brandenburg an der Havel 14770
Deutschland

Unwetter

Hello Kinder Eier

Also, na? We had a pretty legendary week, as usual here on the Havel. I'd say the highlight had to be Friday, interview day. We got up bright and early with our wonderful new haircuts, and got dressed all nice to look pretty for President Fingerle. He looked quite nice with his new haircut as well, might I add. Well, when we were at the train station ready to head back to a great city, we notice not only our train was delayed 30 minutes, but it had a notice by it saying, "not stopping at: _____, _____, _____, and Brandenburg."

So, we had to ride it to Potsdam and get off there to sleep overnight with the Elders there, because we were literally stuck. We then found out that a tree had fallen over on the tracks, because of some severe weather (Unwetter) there. There were small tornados and microbursts... We even were blessed with a call from the Hof Elders (Connor Noland, der teufel & Swag daddy Hansen) asking if we were safe, because they had heard about the weather in Brandenburg. So that was pretty fun and exciting.

Spiel Abend Crew (Game Night Crew with cake!)

I was privileged to give a talk yesterday in Sacrament meeting, my first from my mission actually. I thought it went fairly well, until afterwards when my sweet caring companion roasted my german. Alles klar though, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?🙁

We had a pretty neat service project on Saturday where we all stood as living bait to be eaten alive by mosquitoes, quite a good time. No, we did some good stuff though as we removed obstacles in these mini creeks to help the water go through. We were also blessed with some potato salad (Elder Oliver's favorite) at the end.

Well, let’s switch it up. Try reading in the Bible and the Book of Mormon this week, good idea huh? Cool.

Oh, and I didn’t want to forget to thank you for all of your prayers for my niece, Eva. The surgery was a success, and she is recovering fast and got to go home from the hospital two days earlier than expected.

وداعا 

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Plauer Straße 11d

Brandenburg an der Havel 14770
Deutschland

Beware of the Drunk Germans

Hello,

A pretty solid week was had for sure. We had a ton of Persian lessons like usual, and a couple highlights. On Tuesday, we were invited by someone in our ward to go to this refugee activity, where they were repairing bikes. So we went by to get our tires pumped and see if there were any Persians we could talk to, and low and behold, it seemed like everyone there was speaking Farsi! We actually saw an earlier investigator who we had lost contact with, and he and Elder Oliver had a solid conversation and we got to make an appointment out! We met with him on Saturday and he taught us some Persian and we taught him some Gospel, good trade.

On Wednesday I was unreasonably punched by a drunk German. We were standing in a grocery store when this man walks in, comes up to me, and gives me a good ole punch on the arm. Oh man, must be one of those dang German youths from our ward or something, thought I. But no, I look over to find this undoubtedly drunk man pointing down to the ground, where a 1 euro cent piece lie. As I picked it up and thanked him for his outstanding help, he keeps walking and gives me another good punch to the back, right in the spine. We got a good laugh out of it though, not smart to react to those types of people haha.

(This Mom was glad he was wearing the full Armour of God with Christ behind him!!)

We did service on Saturday again, it was great. We saw a snake, so I'd say it was worth it. We also saw many snakes at the Berlin Zoo today. Harambe's cousin was there too, I shall leave a picture with him as the feature and me as an extra.

the snakkeeeeeee (not Taylor swift)🐍

the closest we can get to Harambe and some chump

my father and lil Sebastian (looks like he met up with BFF, Elder Mehr, at the Berlin Zoo)

a Great dog, Amy

Yeah that was basically my week. 

Oh, and this Tuesday (tomorrow), my sweet 8 year-old niece, Eva, is having open heart surgery, so please keep her and the doctors in your prayers. Danke!!!

 خدا حافظ

Elder Glenn Johnson

Kirche Jesu Christi

Plauer Straße 11d

Brandenburg an der Havel 14770
Deutschland