Hello!! 

It is so much more humble here. People want to listen and welcome our help gladly, which is a blessing because Frankfurt Oder was a little rough sometimes with people not talking to us and not caring about our message. Church was amazing. You and dad would be proud; I started doing the dishes for the entire ward, and ended up doing them all and did close to 200 dishes. Pro dishwasher right here!! The members were so happy I did them, and all thanks to your  examples:)

But alas, all lucky streaks of no accidents must come to an end as I got in a small accident last week. It was a fender bender, and we can laugh about it now but in the moment let me tell you it was scary. I didn’t think it was my fault but then apparently it was and I don’t know. Germans sometimes confuse me but we are alive and well. I was in his blindspot and he switched lanes and hit me so I think it was his fault but oh well. It’s life. Maybe the laws are different. I feel like the others weren’t entirely honest, but sometimes you have to be the bigger person and just take the 35 dollar ticket instead of maybe compromising the name badge… but we ended up getting a baptismal date later that night!!!! Blessings:)

We are so excited!! Denise is 17-years old, and her mom Zdenka is 45 and they are great. They haven’t come to church in almost 8 weeks, and yesterday they came!! So we were excited and the date is set for July 8th!!

Other than those two events, nothing else really happened that was too exciting or different. We helped Frau Byar in her yard and got strawberries in return. We do at least 4 hours a week service usually working with old wood and in cellars and it is funny because Elder Hofeling is deathly afraid of spiders, so I usually end up going into the dirty places. I love it and it is fun really.  We had a lot of appointments and the work is going well here at the moment. We are looking forward to another week! 

I have seen the hand of the Lord a lot, just in knowing what to do. Knowing how to recover from a hard day, and always listening to the promptings, which are an everyday occurrence. It is great!

Hope all is well, and we have a super busy week next week so my email will be better. Life is good, the mission is good.
I don’t know who won the NBA Finals but go Warriors woot woot. Love you all!! 

Elder Rhondeau

Hey! My new area is gorgeous! Literally just green rolling hills with little towns and castles everywhere and it is awesome. The ward is also great, and it started off with a water fight on a hike with the ward that was hilarious to watch. Here is a little rundown of my week;

Wednesday was transfer day, and that was hectic as I left a bag in Leipzig. It only had a few things in it luckily but still. Not fun. After arriving in Hohenstein-Ernstthal we took a drive and explored and it is so cool. I feel like I am in a dream every time we drive somewhere. It is like driving through England or New Zealand countryside, but sometimes prettier. We have the most beautiful area. It’s in Saxon and is known for its beautiful landscape and everything. Our apartment is ridiculously small, and it doesn’t help that we have 3 in the companionship. But we are making it work and I am staying positive.

We were able to help two older ladies with their garden in the heat, and that was an adventure filled with huge spiders and mosquitoes and what not. Still fun though trying to figure out what she was saying. The language here is nuts. They call it “Mumbling German” because you literally can’t understand, but I will hopefully get it.  We then had church and the ward is amazing--just so loving and nice and strong. There are about 45 members, which is awesome, and we have an eating appointment every Sunday with a member, yay!We went on a ward hike to a castle in Penig. Look that town up. Most beautiful town I have ever visited hands down. It is incredible. So we hiked and hiked and came to a river and waterfall and the bishop started throwing rocks in the water and soaking the kids, and it turned into this huge water fight and it was awesome. So so funny. Germans kill me.

The ward is in Chemnitz. It’s a town with about 200,000 I think. It takes 25 minutes to drive there. I am driving safe and following the laws and everything so don’t worry. It isn’t very sketchy to drive here because everyone can actually drive.... sooooo that is nice, even when driving on the Autobahn where there is no speed limit. My two new comps are cool, and we hope we will see more success here because we have a few good investigators!! 

Last week I really started feeling at home, if that makes sense. There is just a great feeling about a small town that I love. Hope you all have a great week, and I will write you all next week! 

Elder Rhondeau

Everyone--I've been transferred! I'm going to Hohenstein which is the second smallest village in our mission, and it's in the east right by Zwickau in the Leipzig zone. I have a car and I'm in a drit with 2 other elders, but I'm the only one allowed to drive?  I don't know what that's about so we will see. I haven't driven IN FOREVER. I'm excited, BUT sad to leave Elder Halbleib and my first area. He's training a Ukrainian elder who doesn't speak English very well so we are praying for him. 

 

This last week was super interesting! Tuesday was just a normal day meeting with Manfred and Bianka! I won't see Bianka before I leave so that's also sad, but it's okay. Then we had Distrikt meeting which was awesome. It was Elder Mika's last one, and so we played volleyball and had a BBQ in Berlin! Crazy that Mika's going home.. but anyway the craziest night was Saturday. We had just come home from a long day of service at a member’s house, and I was on the phone talking to the sisters about their transfers and I set my hand on the stove (I know I'm stupid) and I didn't know Halbleib had made tea...I burned my whole hand pretty badly. So we ran to the store to get ice and stuff. But on the way home we were walking and this guy grabbed something out of his car and Elder Halbleib looks down and he's holding a gun.. but I didn't see it then all the sudden (we are like 30 m away or so) and he starts shooting it in the air or at someone who knows we didn’t want to look obviously so we just started running--it was sketch. That was such a crazy night and we got home way late and anyway I'm alive don't worry mom:) 

 

Yesterday I had to say bye to the ward and it was sad. They’re so awesome and strong and it'll be weird being in a new area. But that's where I'm supposed to be! Can't wait for what's ahead. Have an awesome week and thanks as always for da support. Ich habe dich alles sehr lieb

 

Elder Rhondeau

Last week was good! We had a food zone conference in Berlin with the Berlin and Neubrandenburg zones! It's always fun seeing others from the MTC group! 

 

Honestly I don't really know what to write about in the weekly emails anymore because we just kind of do the same things but last week we did some finding on the streets, and met with some less actives! A lot of the less actives don't live in Frankfurt Oder anymore, so we'd go by where they live and they aren't there... so we walked a lot! But it was fun. We played soccer down by the river and surprisingly had no one talk to us. We can't proselyte in our normal clothes, and so we have to wait and see if people talk us and it's usually wayyyyy effective. But no one did so we were bummed:( I was also sick on Saturday and so we couldn't do anything really. But Sunday we went to Beeskow with Manfred. That's a little town and it's amazing. Still has the original castle walls around it! We met with someone who got in bike crash and talked with her about how she's doing. Manfred has random lady friends all over it’s so funny. He's also throwing an 80th birthday party NO JOKE called "Project Manfred 80". So funny. I taught Young Women's again, and saying the Young Woman's theme out loud with them is hilarious. We have a good time, and I'm the first Elder to really connect with the two 14-year olds so that's good.... I guesss?? I'm teaching Caroline the guitar this week and also how to cook for her Personal Progress. so I'm excited:) 

 

That's all from this week, but I hope you've all had a wonderful week and I know that when we search for the Lord in our lives, He'll be there for us no matter what. Love you all! Thanks for the support. 

Elder Rhondeau