On December 18th, Andrew flew from Manchester to Frankfurt, Germany. He was greeted by President Hammon and his wife. He then headed to the mission office building where he quarantined for 5 days. He was able to take a COVID test which was negative and was then sent on a train to his first area in Darmstadt on December 24th. It was an interesting train ride with one of the sisters that was also heading to Darmstadt. In Andrew's words: "Today we are leaving to our assignments - we took the U-bahn to the train station, which is a neat station. They bought us tickets last minute. Me and the sister missionary got on the train to go to Darmstadt together. She's been out for 10 months already and is just now getting to Germany. We sat together on one side, which had normal seats, and put our bags on the side with an aisle. In front of us were fold out seats so we just put our bags next to it. Unfortunately, in our excitement to get to Darmstadt, we totally lost brain cells and left the bags on their wheels. As we pulled to the first stop the bags all started to rush down the aisle next to us. I had to dive out to get the bags, managing to stop them next to the bathroom. We had a good laugh about it and put them in front of us instead, so we could just catch them while sitting down. Not our brightest moment, but it was funny. I'm in one of the two elder companionships in Darmstadt and both of them are together in a quad apartment. Our apartment is good, not to nice, not too shabby." Andrew met his new companion, Elder Jenks (District Leader) and the two other Elders in Darmstadt (Elder King and Elder Jackson), one of which is the Zone Leader. In Andrew's words: "After dropping off my bags we went straight to a lunch with a German family. I felt like a deer in the headlights. I understood like 70-80% of what they said, especially the wife who said she served in Temple Square. We talked about me being new in Germany, what our families do on Christmas Eve, and the husband talked about how the covid mutation in England almost stopped me from getting here. I feel proud that I could understand them but was so mesmerized at being able to understand a German person right off the bat that my brain flat-lined and I couldn't muster a good enough response in German. Need to work on my vocabulary." One of the members fed them on Christmas Eve. In Andrew's words: "I had my first dinner with a member. It was really tasty. He made us cake, let us eat cookies, and played a card game with us. He is an incredible member, and I totally embarrassed myself with bad German, but that's ok because at least I tried. Germans, so far as I've been told, usually reserve singing silent night until Christmas Eve. Since his family is getting back into town tomorrow, we sung silent night in German with him. It was really neat." This member gave Andrew and his companion really cool pens in a wooden engraved Darmstadt case. On Christmas Day, they spent time during the day at two different member's homes. It was nice that they had somewhere to go on Christmas. The work moves on, even during COVID. Although there haven't been a lot of service opportunities, the members have been awesome. Andrew really loves the people he has met so far in Germany. After the New Year, Andrew was finally able to experience eating Doner. It was something that he had been looking forward to since finding out he was going on his mission to Germany. It did not disappoint. Doner is essentially a big meat sandwich. On January 9th the missionaries found a cat outside their apartment and were tempted to let him come in and chill with them. It was kind of a highlight of their day. The next week on January 16th, Andrew found out that he was being transferred to a new area. In his words: “I am going all the way up to the literal edge of our mission at Bad Bentheim.” Before transfer day, Andrew and Elder Jenks took a little field trip to meet the sister missionaries who gave them both a haircut. The sisters had a little fun with Andrew's hair before making it look normal. It's great to see that these missionaries can find humor in the everyday. Andrew was also able to see Elder Helmer who he quarantined with in the UK before leaving for Rheine. He and Elder Jenks brought packages back from Frankfurt and delivered them to some of the missionaries in and around the Darmstadt area. It was a nice reunion. ARRIVING IN FRANKFURT, GERMANY LEAVING FOR DARMSTADT, GERMANY - 1ST AREA GREAT BUS SYSTEM & AWESOME NEW DRINK DISCOVERIES EATING DONER FOR THE FIRST TIME & FINDING A FRIENDLY CAT FROM THE MISSION PRESIDENT (DEC 2021):
November and December were exciting months for our mission. In addition to receiving 3 wonderful missionaries from Europe, we have had four groups of missionaries join us from the United States. It has been an interesting process getting these four groups into our mission. There have been three steps:
Several groups of missionaries have joined their companions in the mission field on the following dates: Group 1 - 13 missionaries - November 24 (as shown in the November Der Mitarbeiter) Group 2 - 27 missionaries - December 8 Group 3 - 24 missionaries - December 23 With these 64 new missionaries adding to our existing group of 97, our mission now has 137 missionaries. And we still have a group of 24 missionaries in England waiting to join us which would bring our number to 161 missionaries. They were to fly into Germany on December 29, but border restrictions have delayed their arrival. We are all praying that they will be able to join us soon. We are so thrilled to be receiving these wonderful missionaries. We thank Brother and Sister Hicken, Brother and Sister Schott, the office elders, the assistants, and the Europe travel office for coordinating all the many details of their arrivals, housing, and transportation. We also thank all the missionaries involved in training these missionaries. To all the missionaries of the Germany Frankfurt mission we say: "Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission Is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation." D&C 31:3 President and Sister Hammon |