Allan, Landon PT

Hallo alle! Frohe Weihnachten! This week was awesome!   On Saturday/Heilig Abend (Christmas Eve), we had a french toast breakfast with our district and the Hahns. Afterwards we sang at the Christmas Market, and I got to play my little pocket saxophone/clarinet/recorder thing. It was a lot of fun, a couple people were interested in why we were doing it and what church we represent, which was cool.   That evening we went over to the Westermann families and I got to experience a real German Christmas Eve. We all sang Christmas songs and then the kids got sent to their rooms while the presents were put under the tree. The lights got dimmed and the lights on the Christmas tree turned on, and when the mom rang the bell, the kids came running out and immediately started tearing open their presents. We gave them American candy canes and two little lego missionaries and they were pretty excited. Elijiah (the boy) got a big lego NASA rocket and a big part of me just wanted to stay the w...

Hallo Leute! This week was incredible!   The other day we organized an activity with our district and we baked 350 cookies to deliver to members. It was a ton of fun, and we actually saw a lot of success! We stopped by two peoples' houses who hadn't been responding to our texts or calls, and they both really appreciated the cookies and we are now in contact with them! On a side note I ate way too many cookies. I need to stop, someone stop me.    The other day we wanted to deliver some cookies to a couple of members who we hadn't met before, and one who we are pretty close with named Sören. Turns out we has put our extra plates of cookies in the one cabinet that gets locked, so we couldn't even get our cookies. So we sat down, said a prayer, opened the map with all of our members on my phone, and swirled my finger around the map, and when Elder Laurence said stop, I pressed my finger down, and what do you know! I just happened to click on Sören out of the 150 little dots...

Hallo gang! Another pretty crazy week.   We had an INCREDIBLE lesson with our friend Dennis. One of our members, Sören, was nice enough to invite us over and meet in his apartment. Sören is incredible, was able to share so many cool experiences and he and Dennis really connected with each other. The Spirit was really strong and you could tell how much Sören's testimony of Jesus Christ and his experiences with everything he has gone through in life really touched Dennis. It was a cool experience, especially since we barely had to say anything! Sören and Dennis just talked. That's how it should be!   We also had exchanges with the Dortmund elders. I was with Elder Stewart, and we got to finally finish our exchange that we had started last transfer but never finished that one time since we had to end it early for an emergency.   With the Hahns (the senior missionary couple) we went to the Christmas market as a district and sang Christmas songs with Elder Hahn playing accordi...

Hallo Leute!   This week was really successful. We had our ward Christmas party, and had been going around knocking doors in the neighborhood and trying to invite people to it. Unfortunately no one came, but I saw the Lord bless our effort when our friend Dennis (who is normally always busy) and a random person we texted on Whatsapp (Ursula) showed up to the Christmas party. We will now start meeting with Ursula, and Dennis said he cannot remember the last time he had seen such a nice, warm Christmas celebration, and that it really felt like family there. At the Christmas Party the "Weihnachtsmann'' came and gave all the kids gifts, after which he called us (the missionaries) up to the stage and said if we want gift we have to do something to earn it... so we gathered around the piano and sung obviously the Star Spangled Banner. The ward thought it was pretty funny... luckily.     We also found another new friend who used to have a baptismal date earlier this year, b...

My Amazing Elder Allan HAPPY 18th MONTHS!!!!! that it has been 18 months already since you left on your mission.  I clearly remember you opening your mission call and reading it out loud. As you read Germany Frankfurt Mission in that unforgettable moment I could never have foreseen or comprehended the eternity altering experiences that laid ahead for you.  Two years seemed like such a long time for me to be away from you. No missionary mom who hugs  her son goodbye has any real clue of what her missionary is getting himself into. No amount of Preach my Gospel preparation can prepare the heart and mind for the soul-stretching months that lay ahead as he walks away from his loved ones into a bright, yet foggy destination. And here you are 18 months later where once you went relatively blindly into your mission experience you now have actually experienced it for 18 months. It’s no longer a vague destination on your mission call letter but it’s a place and a people and an era...

Hallo Liebe Leute! I'm back!    Me and Elder Allen the other day were a bit tired of being inside so we decided to get out and go talk to people, so we prayed about where to go, and I felt like we should go to Gablonzstraße (right by our house) and he felt we should go to Kampstraße (in the city center). So I said what if we walk down to Gablonzstraße first, and then we will take a subway to Kampstraße. So we did that, and no one wanted to talk at Gablonzstraße. So we headed to Kampstraße and the moment we got out of the train, a guy stopped us and told us how he had met with the missionaries before but lost contact and wanted to visit church again. If we hadn't taken the time to go to Gablonzstraße and then also go to Kampstraße we wouldn't have run into him! Oh yeah and transfers happened! I'm staying but Elder Allen got transferred. Don't worry, you can still look out for our law firm "Allan and Allen" in the future! Now I am with Elder Laurence, who I ...