Hello! I've been quarantined in the Preston MTC here in England and I have to say, I'd rather not be quarantined again. But, I'll be doing that exact thing upon my arrival in Frankfurt, so that's lovely. I've been put in a room with Elders Felt, Helmer, and Sumsion. Although I miss my friends back in Texas, all three of my roommates are going to Frankfurt with me, and we've had a great time. They're all funny guys, and in comparison to my last companion this is a heavenly situation. We also have been in contact with President Hammon (our Frankfurt mission president). He's incredibly passionate about missionary work, and truly loves all of us missionaries. We've been able to tune into some of the Frankfurt zone conferences, Monday morning prayers, and He's even had one on one interviews with us. I haven't heard of any other mission president for the missionaries here going to such lengths to meet with the missionaries and include them before they're even in Germany. I can't wait to get there. Side note: he told us to really hit our german hard, as it's very possible that we'll only have 4-5 weeks of training before we're on our own or training other missionaries. Oh yikes. Upon arrival, we were put into these rooms with some strict rules. We have to stay in these rooms unless we are going to our assigned bathroom. Food comes 3 times a day and we have to stay in our rooms while they deliver it. I don't know if this is a reflection of the country, but oh my goodness mayonnaise and cheese on a sandwich is by far the worst lunch idea I've tasted in a long time. We get many nutella packets with our meals, so we've done the only logical thing we could: use them as currency for different food items. We were allowed outside time twice a day for 30 minutes, but had no room to really exercise. The classes they recommended we attend were basically our MTC classes but with different teachers, so we have been skipping them and practicing german on our own. Although it's been boring, we've had near daily devotionals from the area 70, which has been uplifting. That was my boring schedule, however due to some changes in the UK our quarantine limit was shortened to 10 days. Although we have to stay in our rooms when food is delivered, we have unlimited outside time and are allowed to go throughout the entire MTC campus. We've had the opportunity to visit the temple grounds daily, and might have snuck onto the grounds during a run on our first day of freedom. We've also been going on runs through Chorley, the town we are right next to. It feels amazing to get out of the MTC, and these runs really hit home the fact that we aren't in the US anymore. It rains a lot here, and It hasn't been completely overcast or rainy twice while we've been here. One of those times was yesterday afternoon. We went up to the temple during this time and the gates were open, so I snagged some pictures of the temple. So that's my life right now, In about 48 hours I'm going to be on a plane to Frankfurt for quarantine v2. I miss y'all, and hope you're doing well. Tschüss! - Elder Wilhelm LAST DAYS IN TEXAS ELDER WILHELM and ELDER ELDER (and yes...that is his name) ELDER WILHELM & ELDER JOHN (COMPANIONS IN BONDS RANCH AREA) ELDER WILHELM & ELDER LARSON PRESTON, ENGLAND ORIGINAL MTC DISTRICT - ALL ARE FINALLY IN ENGLAND
Hey again!
I usually don't have much to talk about, so I have been sending emails every other week. However, I felt that today I had enough to say. We've been working hard on connecting with our ward members, both active and inactive. We have an incredible new bishopric and ward mission leader, and our progress on a ward mission plan is going strong. I'm glad to see the positive impact we're having, and I hope to be able to keep this solid effort up! Other than that, I did a few other fun things this week. We did a lot of service, from a Thanksgiving food drive to setting up rooms for kids at Christhaven. It feels great to help others, and we also made sure to have a fun time doing it. Today is P-day, so we thought it would be fun to go fishing with the trio in our apartment. Some members who have an enormous ranch let us fish at one of their ponds. Only Elder Larson caught a fish, but I got a couple bites. We usually end up having a super fun times with each other, and the mission wouldn't be the same without them. And that's my week! Short, I know, but I thought it'd be nice to check in! Love y'all, Elder Wilhelm I almost forgot: on December 3rd I'm going to quarantine in the Preston UK MTC for two weeks before heading to Germany! Hello!
I've been staying busy these past few weeks. Sometimes it seems that 12 hours is not enough time to get everything done, which I have a hard time hearing from the mouth of a lazy teenager. Regardless, I haven't really had much to say at all, hence the lack of emails the past few weeks. I've done my best to make friends, have fun, feel the spirit, and work hard. After a little over a month in Texas I am confident in saying that I've gotten into the groove of being a missionary. We've been working hard on finding more people to teach, and have been working on setting up a ward mission plan alongside our newly made family history plan. We're still working at it and are praying for the best. Aside from that, I technically am allowed to knock some doors! We are able to check up on inactive members or people who have been taught by the missionaries if they first don't respond via text or call. I've knocked a lot of those doors, and have had plenty slammed in my face. So I'd say I've gotten a solid taste of the classic pre-covid missionary experience. This past week, Sister Schellenberg left to quarantine in the UK. She was the other German missionary in my zone, and was also out just a few weeks longer than me. I'm optimistic about heading to Germany soon, but it could be before December or well into next year. It's hard to tell. My other big highlight was finding out that the Elders Quorum president in our ward has a two-seat plane in a trailer on his driveway. The wings fold up, and it has a giant parachute in the back to safely stop / land the plane during an emergency. He told us how he sometimes flies it when his kids are at school between the days he has to fly for work. So that was my little captain's log, but I wanted to leave off with one small message. This Friday, President Nelson will be sharing "A Message of Hope and Healing" live around 11 AM MST. I encourage you to tune in, and I hope his message brings some comfort and peace into the hectic world we seem to live in. See you next time! - Andrew Wilhelm Hello again! Man time moves quickly. It's been about 4 weeks since I came out to Fort Worth Texas. These past two weeks have been focused on exchanges, service, and a little bit of finding. My companion is the district leader and as a result I go on exchanges twice a week. Last Wednesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Edwards, who was originally assigned to Thailand. We spent most of our afternoon helping a member build the foundation for a small patio in their backyard. He lives with another companionship, where I got to meet Elder Fake. As it turns out, the both of us grew up on the same street over a decade ago when we lived in Dupont, Washington. Last Saturday on my exchange with Elder Hawkes, we also had the opportunity to go to a service project. It was a short one involving hauling wood next to a lake. While out by the lake we saw all sorts of enormous insect, and Elder Hawkes even caught a big grasshopper bigger than my pointer finger. And most recently, I went on exchanges with Elder Hunt. A member called us at 9:30 asking if we could come help them with a project on a ranch. All the other missionaries in our district already planned to go to another service project, so we decided to go to the ranch instead. The members there were super nice, but we spent over 7 hours doing service at this ranch. We cut down trees, cut and hauled the logs through creeks, shoveled an unholy amount of dirt... It was tiring but really rewarding to ourselves and helpful to the members who needed it. Last P-day I got our district permission to go to a store called "House of Blades". As the name implies, there were a ton of awesome bladed tools and weapons for us to look at. I got to hold a katana from the walking dead, which was really awesome. I like knives a lot, and we spent hours browsing through the different items for sale at the shop. I ended up buying a Karambit, which has a curved blade that looks like a talon. I bought it because I've often needed a knife during service projects, and it feels pretty sick to twirl it around. Other than that we don't have plans for our P-day today so we're just relaxing at the apartment. I might go on a walk or something, who knows. I also recently received an email about gathering documents for my visa, and now the next step is waiting for my mission president to get a call about when I am to go to Germany. That call could come now, it could come next year, who knows. All I know is that I'm excited to have the opportunity to eventually go to Germany, and I'm doing my best to have a great time in Texas! Yesterday I had the opportunity to give a talk in the ward I'm serving in. I've attached a link to the talk in case you want to read it, but it revolved around these five steps anybody should take to be missionaries in our own capacity: First, Draw closer to God Second, Strive to be disciples of Christ Third, Love others; be a good neighbor Fourth, share what is in your heart And Finally, Trust in the Lord to work his miracles. I wish you all the best! Andrew Wilhelm |