Elder Perez's Missionary Blog: Elder Perez arrived in Germany! October 16, 2013

Dear Everybody,

15 pounds exactly. Apparently my suit weighs two pounds. And don't worry. Now that we bike everywhere, I won't get fat. It is a half an hour bike ride both ways to get to church. Unless we are taking Bruder Werder to church. Then it takes 120 minutes. He is 75. Makes sense.

Germany. No, I do not have culture shock. Yes, I understand what people are saying. Germans can tell when you are foreign from the way that you talk. They usually slow down for you at first, but with me, they figure out that they don't need to. Gift of tongues is awesome. That is probably the only reason that I can still speak English. Most of the members have complimented me on my German. They are amazing people. I love them and I know God loves them too. I have conversations with normal people all the time. We have done a lot of contacting. Our ward mission leader is also amazing. His name is Mathias. (M-a-t-ee-as) He helps us out a lot.

Cultural differences are many and small. The sidewalks are cobblestone. Keys go into the lock upside down. There are no public smoking laws. People smoke everywhere. There are tons of people, because Germany has actually cities, not suburbs. Buildings are half-timber? instead of brick, so they look better. There is a ton of graffitti. The z and y key are switched on the keyboard. It is super humid. There are trees (real trees, not Utah trees) everywhere. There is twice as much air here. And no mountains. It is fairly flat. (There are some "hills". ) That sort of thing.

I am currently assigned to Leest, a city just outside of Potsdam in the former East Germany area. We have one of the largest branches in Germany, and one of the only branches that has its own ward house. The members built it while the wall was up. Pretty cool. Everyone here is really nice. Most people will at least here what you have to say, if you do street contacting at the right time. When people aren't busy, they won't pretend that they are. My trainer and I, Elder Davis, have had some really good contacting experiences, street and door to door. We have a couple appointments to come back and visit people this week. I am excited.

Now I would like to say something to the people that are preparing to serve missions. This comes from several sources namely apostles, my mission president (Most amazing man that I have ever met. Punkt.). If you are called to certain missions, and as Elder Ballard said, particularly those in Europe, people will tell you that you probably will not baptize people. Doch! (That is absolutely, unequivocally, undeniably untrue.) God is the one that grants us success and he has been preparing people in your mission to recieve your message since long before you were born. He does not command you to "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" and then not prepare a way that you can accomplish that. If you are doing everything you can to find the people who are prepared, and you put your faith in Him, you will be able to perform miracles, including converting people to the Gospel. (What a miracle is that.) Success as a missionary is not determined by the number of baptisms you have, but there is work to be done. The field is white already to harvest, and as one of the Elders put it, when a wheat field is white, that means it probably should have been harvested yesterday. I have been here for less than a week. I have seen miracles, I have seen people who are prepared, they just need the missionaries, the servants of God who are called to help them to recieve His Gospel. And that includes baptism.

That was something that has been pressed upon my mind this week that I felt that I should share.

Overall, I am doing well. Missionary work is the most exhausting thing that I have ever done. You go throughout the day, and perform the Lord's work and you feel like you could outbike Lance Armstrong. Then you get home. The Spirit stops strengthening you. As Elder Davis said, Ich will mich sterben. Ich will hier bleiben und schlafen. His other favorite phrase is, Ich könnte mich tot lachen. (I could laugh myself to death.) But we have a lot of fun. It is so enjoyable. From bike, to bus, to train, to other bus, we travel around. We preach the word, sometimes in English. There are a lot of foreigners in Germany, that don't speak German. Our shelf has the Book of Mormon is three dozen languages or so. And our apartment is on the very top floor after 72 stairs, twelve flights. (Maybe that is why we are tired at the end of the day.) But it is wonderful. There is no greater work. Love everyone. Hope they are doing well. I promise pictures after I get a SD card adapter.

In my prayers,

sincerely,

Elder Perez (P-e as in get-r-same e-ts. There is not really a z sound in German.)