TRAINING A NEW ELDER

Joy comes to my heart when I see this smile and know that he is truly happy serving his Father in Heaven.

 

WEEK 12-14-15

Hello Family!

 Man, this week has gone by fast, and there is a good reason for that too.  It is mostly because we have only been here in Flensburg for only 3 days, but that is a story that I will be more than happy to share.

Well, I guess I could start off with all the goodbyes from Kiel.  I think more of the youth and our investigators said goodbye than the members.  I wish I would of gotten to get them know more, but we were rarely invited or they lived very far away.  But I was able to say goodbye to my friends that I made there.  It was sad but at the same time, I only live one and a half hours away so that will not be too bad.

 And then the adventure began!  Tuesday morning, I started the whole trip down to Freiberg!  There was a lot of us that went down and most of them were good friends of mine.  So we left around 7 in the morning and did not get into to Dresden until about 6:00 p.m. Lets just say at the end of the day, we were tired of sitting down.  But that was really cool to be able to see Dresden again.  It really does not look any different than I left it.  I left it in some cold weather too so it looked just the same.  We were able to walk around and see the Christmas Markets again in Dresden and that was really cool.  I was praying really hard that I would happen to run into members from Meissen but unfortunately, that was not the case.  And then that night  we stayed over in Dresden.  It is really interesting to see how our mission is changing.  I was able to hear that we now will have Turkish missionaries!  Well, I know one of them comes from California (we dont know them) because he is training and learning Turkish but the other lived there for about 7 or 8 years.  And to add that, I have heard of missionaries learning French, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, etc.  I would of never thought that that would happen.  But who knows, maybe I will ask President Fingerle if I could learn one too.  My companion has

been helping me a lot with my German because he is German. (But I will get to that later.)

 And then for Wednesday, I was able to go for the day and go back to Meissen with the missionary that is serving there.  A lot has changed since the days I was there, because now what has happened is they turned the branch into a ward and they meet in Dresden now.  It is somewhat hard for them because all the members of Meissen now have a pretty big commute.  And I got to go by on some of the members and they said that it has been hard for them to go to church.  I also wanted to meet up with Steffi, but that did not ending up working out.  Lets just say that was weird too to be back there.  Once again, it just felt as if the year away was gone for three hours and I was back in the days of Meissen.

 Thursday was the day of meeting our new companions.  There were a lot of missionaries there.  It was real interesting to see how it would turn out. I remember that we were all suppose to introduce our areas and because I have not even seen our area yet, I just told people that its really cold, that we have about an 8 hour train ride to get there, and that its by the danish border.  And that is pretty much all I knew.  I came to find out my new companion is Elder Ausobsky, who comes from the stake of Friederichsdorf here in Germany.  So that has been really fun.  He is a pretty funny Elder and he knows why he is here and that is the best part.  Its weird not to really help a trainee with the language.  And then we were able to also go into the temple while it was under construction, and that was pretty cool as well.  Then we made the 8 hour trip back, but it got too late, so we had to stay the night in Kiel.  That was fun, and weird.

Friday came rolling along and we had district meeting and because the trains don't come til every hour to get to Flensburg, we did not even end up getting there until 6p.m. on Friday.  And so we were able to get settled in and make sure we had food for the week.

Saturday was hit the pavement day.  That is how it will be here in Flensburg for a few weeks, because the sisters who were here last had only really one person that we can teach. All the others either don't want contact or have moved.  So I truly feel like a pioneer missionary because we have to find all the people we want to teach.  I'm not used to that because the last two areas, we had people to teach when I came there.  But we have already have seen some success as well. We were able to find two people from walking around. One of them was actually a really cool story.  So elder Ausobsky and I were practicing how we could talk to people on the street.  And during this practice, I remember I was playing the missionary and elder Ausobsky the guy in the street. I remember asking for his name and he said oh, my name is ... Then I asked for his phone number (during this practice) and he told me and said that his phone is off and he left it at home.  And so when we were on the street, we stopped to talk with this man and we were talking about the family and I asked him what his name was and he said the exact same name that elder Ausobsky said during the practice. (My eyes got super wide at this point) and I asked for his number and he then gave it to us but said that it is off and that he left it at home. At that point, my jaw was on the floor.  That was a super cool experience and we have an appointment with him this Saturday.  So that has been the work for us here lately.  It is also really cool to be back in a branch.  We got to meet the branch and I am excited to work with them.

And don't worry about me with the one year mark of dads passing,  I am doing fine.  It's weird to think how fast the time goes, but I don't allow myself to think that. I am keeping myself busy and I have lots to do here.  That's my new motto. Always keep yourself busy, or always have a goal in mind.

I hope all is going well back at home and you are all in my prayers. I will let you know how the weeks progresses in the coming week.

I love you!

Elder Bretzing

                                   There's that smile I love!!! Market place in Dresden

Week 12-7-15 THE END OF A SISTER'S MISSION

Hey Family!

Well this week has gone by super fast, with new surprises and twists along the way.  It was also transfer week this past week and I got transferred.  I will be going to Flensburg, which is a small city on the very north part of our mission.  So, I will still be staying in the same district, but just in a different area.  It is super funny, because the entire time of my mission, I have gone from south to north, and now I have hit the point, that I cannot go any farther north, otherwise I will be going into Denmark.

And I was there in Flensburg to visit a baptism once and it just looks gorgeous up there.

It is a branch again, so I get to go back and get to know the members super well.  There was a sister program that was there and so they were closed because both of them were going home and so I will go in there and open a Elder program.  It sounds all technical and stuff.

I also found out that I will be training someone new again.  So that will be fun.  That means now that I have to go to the Freiberg Temple to pick up my new companion.  And we have a few meetings down there for trainers and stuff so I will be leaving tomorrow.  It will be fun to be back down there and I really hope I run into someone I know.

Oh, yeah, there is another point that was weird about this week.  I have just finish my Sister Mission! Haha, ok mission lingo, let me explain.  So the Sisters that all are going home this week are from my MTC group.  So that has been weird to watch them leave.  That means that I have been out on my mission for 1 1/2 years!  That sure sounds crazy to me.  And the two that went home in my district kept telling me that I am finishing my Sister Mission.  So now I only have 6 months to go.  I still have no idea when I will be released.  That sounds weird.  I feel old on my mission.

This next transfer will be a relief and weird.  No more going to meetings anymore.  Or doing anything for a whole group of missionaries.  But I still have an assignment.  President Fingerle told me that now my focus has gone from missionaries to one missionary who will need my help.  So I hope to make it fun, but that we get some work done.  There is a lot to do.

Well, that was my week.  But I hope all is going good back at home.

Have fun in New York! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Bretzing

HE FINALLY MADE FRONT AND CENTER

ZONE LEADERS AND TRAINERS MEETING

DECEMBER 2015