Sept 21, 2017

So we went to a members house. His name is Bessem. He has a heart if gold and his à Muslim convert and makes friendly rap. He isn't all the way there but just so friendly. He asked if he could say a blessing for us. We said we would love one. Then he said a prayer about when we finish our missions that we can find a beautiful lady to marry and she will be perfect and will have beautiful children. A beautiful virgin. I was kinda reminded of the joke I heard in the MTC. 

1 Nephi 11:10,15

And the Angel said unto me what desires thou? 

And I said unto him, a virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins. 

I just kinda looked up in the middle of the prayer and was like

Hey thanks. Will do man!

So for what has happened that is notwendig.

We were dooring in this catholic neighborhood. Horrible idea. We door for three hours and one guy kinda listened to us and took our card at least. He didn't let us in and we just talked on his porch. The others all said they were all catholic. Rough.

One of them really was interesting though. She was a little over sixty it looked like wearing lots of make-up and really tight leather black clothes. Like painfully tight. We asked her if she wanted to hear a message of Jesus christ. She was like (in the weirdest highest voice ever)

Oh I am sorry. I am so busy and my children aren't home. It is so hard cleaning the house and it's so stressful.

So as my call states that we are called to serve, I asked her if we could help her with any problems that she may be having. Her reply...

Oh you m'en are wonderful young boys. No but I think you are so sweet. Come by another time and we will see about it......

TCHUSSY GUSSY!

Then blew us a huge kiss and winked, closed the door, and me and my companion just stood there in awe. We had no idea what the crap just happened. We freaking ran into a cougar. And for the elders who are reading this letter, TCHUSSY GUSSY is actually real. Tschüss in German means bye, but adding the GUSSY in the end just makes the whole situation worse.

Then another fun one. My companion is an interesting guy. I think I am learning lots from him, like in the other way haha. He wears this long trench coat thing he calls the black mamba. He is a little out there and loves this thing to death so he wears it everywhere, despite Germans giving him so much crap about it. So for example we were contacting people on the streets/shop Platz. Then two trashy looking female druggies in their teens and a druggy guy comes up to Elder ockey and asks.

Do you sell speed?

What?

Do you sell speed?

I am a missionary! Can't you tell?

Then this guy booked it, but my companion stopped him and asked him spiritual questions as to why he does that. The guy said his coat was big so he thought he was hiding drugs. Gave him a Mormon card, they went into a store, alarms went off everywhere. Hate it when you steal stuff lol.

Then another guy who was high on cocaïne (he had lots of energy and was dancing around as he talks) told my companion his cape looks cool and likes his Harry Potter costume. Haha. My companion didn't like the roast so much. It's what you learn on a mission. I still have fun with this guy. 

We had Interviews with President. He is always a great guy. He told me expect to see more changes in Saarbrücken. I know we can change this place. It is a rough place and really fun at the same time.

Still working with Isaak. Hope all goes well for him.

I just realized something on my mission. Lots of people aren't there all the way, but without that life wouldn't be interesting. Everyday I meet someone who does the most ridiculous things. Perhaps he tries to cut someone's fingernails. Perhaps a guy in lederhosen tries to make his journey somewhere in a Peter pan hat but goes home because he is too tired, or an old guy with a motorcycle helm on who steals empty bottles to recycle it for money, or drunks scratching the sides of lots of cars with the trunk of a sapling. Or just turks in general haha. It is ridiculous. I was missing out on all of this when I was home. I wouldn't be in any other place. Germany is my dream mission and what do ya know. I love it here and I love the people. I can speak pretty good German and it's coming faster and faster. It's a lot more comfortable being here and of course I still have lots more to learn. Life is good, and it only gets better.

Much love

Elder Monroe 

hello once again

This place is crazy. I really don't know where to even start. I will honestly say I am overwhelmed. It's a good thing, but it is insane. 

We had about thirty members come to church last Sunday. Our less active member list shows about 330 who didn't come. And many that we did meet who are less active, know the church is true, but there is always something little that stops them from coming to church. For example this one Italian lady. She just lost her husband, and so she doesn't come to church because she is afraid that all of the members will try to set her up with someone new. But then she feels alone and she has no Priesthood holder in her house and doesn't understand why women don't hold the Priesthood. Then she told her fourteen year old son that he needs to check this church out for himself. I don't think he really has the interest because his mother doesn't. So, this is interesting. 

Another already knows the church is true, she just doesn't wast to go to church. Asked her why not, she just doesn't want to travel. Really wish we can help out some of these people. 

Something cool though happened to a less active family. We were planning on how we can get these people back to church. They just need a boost to come back to church, and as we said that they called us and said hey when can you guys come over and have dinner? Cool, so we will see them tomorrow. 

We find lots of appointments, lots dont show up. Just gotta let it in the lords hands. We try to set at least two or more appointments with people on the street. Just gonna say the most effective thing is going to the restoration of the church. I can't count how many times we have taught the first lesson on the street, it is super cool to see how many people actually just like the idea of hearing the restored church. They love it, even those thugs with piercings all over their face. It's just a matter of meeting them again after that. Haha. 

Having lots of fun here, and my companion does work hard. We do have our differences, but we are effecient. 

Not really much more to say. We ran to the French border today. Cool. Our district leader really teaches me a lot, he is great to have around us and we work well together. Look forward to keep working with him. 

I hope the pictures work this time. Sorry for the other pictures that didn't send... Haha. 

Strange place, let's see how this goes. 

Much love 

Elder Monroe 

saarbrücken

Well looks like I have been transferred, as my last companion is now training. Congrats to him, but now I am in the land of saarbrücken. I literally feel isolated from the rest of the mission. It is right on the border of france(we can literally walk to France) and we have some members in France as well, giving me the chance not only to serve in Germany but France as well. I can't understand anyone here because either they speak French or Portuguese. No more Muslims it looks like. 

This place is extremely beautiful. From the slums and pits of Duisburg, to a small city and Dorfs (villages and farms) everywhere. Rolling hills of green, farms and forests is everywhere. This is literally culture shock once again. 

The city is really old, so all the apartments and stores are also really old. They are all made of brick and stone, looking like a more 1700's style of Germany. Just a little graffiti ruins a little bit... But that's everywhere in Germany. 

Our new apartment is amazing. I thought my last apartment was massive, this one is way bigger, wood floors, huge balcony on the second floor to chill, wifi, way sweet beds, a freaking dish washer, and life is good. 

My new companion is an interesting guy. His name is Elder Ockey, totally from Utah and has a lot more energy than I do. I will just say that. He loves talking and is usually just a happy guy in general. I think I can use that to help me learn a few new things. Plus he is one hundred percent fluent in German and Spanish. He sounds way good and helps me speak with people from Portugal. 

There has been lots of problems in Saarbrücken. I guess lots of offenses has happened here with the bishop, as he tends to run his church as a business, causing the membership here to plummet to the ground. Lots of less actives, and we have two sets of missionaries here now trying to repair what the last missionary did I guess, as he was like the bishop and Stern to the members. 

Our next pair is the AP as our district leader, he just finished his position as AP and president sent him there to take charge of things as well as training. Elder Jones is serious about goals and I really look forward to working with him. We literally met with our mission leader here and he said this city is dead, so we get the opportunity to change that. 

It was very hard for me to leave Duisburg, but hey. New opportunities ahead I suppose. This is going to be a really interesting transfer and lots of new experiences. Great living circumstances, hard serving circumstances. 

Dad, just gonna say you look way old. Haha love ya guys. 

Much love 

Elder Monroe 

Lots still going

Last week was a bit rough actually, but this week in general we have gotten a couple sweet investigators in our area. 

One of them is named Danquan from Ghana and is an avid follower of religion. He is fifty years old and has been looking for the right church for quite some time. He then told us he needs to ask God if this church is true. We readily agreed. 

There were moments when he even praised Joseph Smith and said he needed to do what he did. I think he shows lots of potential. 

Another is a friend of Matu Sanns in our ward. His name is Daniel Thiel, an avid soccer player who even is payed to play, loves BVB, and is really helpful with my German. We like the same things and we get along so well. He likes to keep me informed who is winning soccer games and tells me what I need to know about German soccer. Just a really friendly and way cool guy. 

Our poor new Yorker is having trouble trying to be a member. He has problems with his family and they told him they didn't support him being a Mormon. He already knows the book of Mormon is true and reads it faithfully everyday. I think we just need a little more time with him to soften the poor fellow up and help him make the decision. 

Now! For some interesting moments you might like to know. 

We were in Krefeld and everyone did the noes goes without me knowing, and I had to contact these two guys from Nigeria. No problem they are usually the nicest people in the world. Go up and have a nice conversation with them. We became good friends in a matter of seconds. They both didn't speak German, only a little. 

Then all of a sudden I realized it was a soccer game today and that means everyone is drunk. I would believe that 80% of Duisburg was drunk that day, and some of them were in Krefeld. As I was talking a German drunk went up to me and said. 

Oh! RELigion peoPLE? 

It all went downhill from there. The guy knew I was a Mormon, so he started saying that we have more than one wife. I declined and he said. 

I am gonna prove you wrong... With the internet! 

I smiled and put our card on his iPhone with Mormon.org. He lost interest in that idea really quick. But then the African people backed me up! They had no idea about what Mormons believe and they said yeah they have one wife. He is a cool guy! You are so wrong man! 

Awesome. Then the drunk realized he had long fingernails and asked the Africans for fingernail clippers. They had some on them for some reason. He clipped his nails.... Then began cutting my friends nails! My friends flipped out and Elder Burch and the Krefeld elders just sat back and watched the show. Finally the train showed up and they all went away. There goes a couple of good contacts. 

Good to see that the family is doing well. Took bad that dad has to stay in jackpot for a while. I guess the little climb over the last hill is the hardest, but there will always be a nice downhill somewhere. Ha! I bet dad misses wells now! 

Much Love

Elder Monroe 

Duisburg during contacting near the Rhine

US chilling with Brüder Suhl

And also some great ice cream. Spaghetti ice cream. 

More Success

Always finding success! Set a baptismal date with our new Yorker guy and he loves to talk. Then we set more soft commitments! Really good to see. 

We have also been sending referrals everywhere from Istanbul and England. We have invited countless people to church and we will see how that goes. 

President Boyer is quite the guy. He is a Stern president and wants success. For example in zone conference one elder remarked how sometimes he has to drop people because of their lack of interest, but then they remain friends and still support them as friends... Bam president totally roasted him in front of everyone and flat out said after a mission you can make friends, now we gotta work. He did more moments like this and it was crazy. We will see more happen I can imagine. 

Thanks for the package! Pop tarts saved me. Haha and also the countless other things. Everyone blew outta their mind when they saw it in a blue bag besides a box. It wasn't shipped so to say. Thanks Jessica Smith. 

Anyways I have found a little Idaho here in Germany. I was on a split in the area of Wesel and they have this town called Emmerich which is pretty much farms and houses and a bunch of little stores. No apartments praise the lord. They even had a home depot there. I felt like I was in America. Really quite refreshing. 

In Germany it is allowed to throw all the furniture out in the sidewalk next to your apartment so turks/missionaries can take it. Needless to say we have a big sweet picture of ballet dancers, an office chair, bio trash can, and a sweet Light huge design thingy. I don't know what it is called. Our apartment is really souped up. 

OH yeah and a cool fountain thing with plants and water going down the stairs. Epic. 

I think I am learning how to enjoy the small things in life. Kool aid is exciting, American socks I found are exciting, life is simply exciting here I suppose. 

Anyways love you family. 

Elder Monroe

Our lamp thingy

My favorite little guy called a Jerome. He was just baptized. 

Little Idaho with even more trees.  

New companion

Hey guys! I am now serving with a new companion. His name is Elder Burch. He and I will serve in Duisburg for another six weeks. He seems really cool and works really hard. I think I am going to learn awesome things from him. 

For example when I picked up my companion from Köln, we took the ICE train home and we were in the overflow section, which was full of Turkish people. One of them had a guitar and started playing and they all sang, which was interesting. They were extremely loud, but then Elder Burch pulls out his ukulele and starts strumming the strings. Let's just say they all stopped and looked at him and everything went quiet besides the sound of elder Burch. Then they laughed and started playing along. 

We became really good friends with all of them and there was 12 in total. They then wanted to know who we were, so we told them who we were. Then they wanted to contact us and know more. So we got a few phone numbers and some actually called us. We are now teaching German to a bunch of turks. 

It was bitter sweet seeing elder fisher go. He is now an elder in Frankfurt and hope all goes well for him. 

Another experience, behind us was a really old lady. She kinda followed us as we contacted people on the street. Finally she caught up to us and yelled... 

AMERICANS 

Come here! 

We obliged and she said she was so happy to see us. We asked how she knew who we were and she said that we dress so decently and are very respective of everyone around you. She saw something different in us. 

We then invited her to church but she said no and was too old for that and too late. We tried to change her mind but to no avail. 

So that totally made my day. 

Looks like we're going to have lots of fun here. Elder Burch comes from twin falls and told me he hates wells because he got a ticket there because of that retarded "intersection". Haha I have finally met someone that knows where wells is. He is totally from Idaho. And we are both really new. This will be insane. 

So excited to hear about you moving to Kuna. I hope you enjoy it there. Don't worry about me, all is good. For example our tech elders made a mistake by not buying me a train ticket to Köln to drop off Elder fisher. We found that out on the train. Then this man came to check the tickets on the train, but totally skipped me and my companion. All went well and we got Elder fisher to Frankfurt. 

Love you guys! I am sure there is something interesting in wells. 

Much love

Elder Monroe. 

Another week gone by

I have already been out for 4 months. This is the weirdest feeling. Anyways we have had success! I was on a split with one elder and I sat next to this guy called Musab. He is a black man from Sudan and is Muslim. I started talking about soccer and we became good friends really quick. He had a beard and looked like he was 23 or so, turns out he is 17. 

Our first lesson with him went so bad. At first I thought he only wanted to be friends so he showed us around his international school. (which I thought was really cool because it had people from all over the world there.) Then because he was showing us what he was doing to learn the language and how we can learn the language, so we went to the library which was really cool. But we wasted two hours. I was really frustrated at the time. 

But! It wasn't all for naught! I decided to call him and asked him to go to church. He said definitely and we went to church together, where he met really cool friends in the ward and was totally comfortable. He was almost there for the entire session of church. 

We then had a lesson with him about the book of Mormon and Jesus Christ.  We asked him if he thought it was true. He replied he had to read it and pray about it. He is already so far ahead. What a boss. We are excited about him. 

Really rough still dropping many less active or signing them off. One of them won't even sign off the paper because she despises us so much. She yelled that we believe in fairytales and we need to live in the 21st century. Then we tried to explain why it was important to sign this paper because we weren't the only missionaries that came by and she never wants to see a Mormon again. For 10 minutes she grilled us. And we have been chased out of many apartments. We must be doing something right. ☺️

Another one of our Chinese investigators dropped us. He told us we were wonderful people, but he can't believe in God if all the evidence we have is a book, he simply can't believe in God. As it says in the book of Mormon, when we first believe, then signs will be shown over of a surety that God is real. I have seen quite a few already on my mission, I just wish our investigator would have taken the first step. 

Also saw a cool cathedral and coliseum in Xanten. So much history here. 

I love our members here. Sometimes they give us rides home on the Autobahn, and we hit 160 km. Switch that to miles per hour. 

I love you guys. Hope all is the best for you. 

Much love

Elder Monroe

OH and by the way I look good with short ties... Haha. 

This week was filled with really interesting people. Everyday is like that here in Duisburg since it is refugee haven. For example we knocked on someones door and the door opened. We went in the apartment building and it was a nasty fat guy with really tight whity tighties and no clothes on but that. He saw us and was like

Ah. Auf Wiedersehen! 

Auf wiedersehen. 

Äh 

So we left and went to knock on other doorbells outside the apartment. Then this guy with no clothes on opened his window and all his body was practically outside of the window and yelled. 

Ah

Auf wiedersehen. 

No one lives there. 

And he stared into our souls. Right as he said that the door ringed open to say that someone was there. In your face underwear man. 

We get to the next door and the guy that opens it is his twin. Needless to say we had no success there. 😐

Then I met 3 Romanians this week at different times. One was a lady with almost no clothes on and she asked me about my book. Okay why not. Said it was the book of Mormon. She lost interest and asked about me and where I came from. 

I will never say anything about America again. She started flirting, I started bearing my testimony about the book of Mormon. She saw I had no interest so she simply left. But the funny part was behind me was a bunch of immodest mannequins which had a really old grandma who was hunched over with a cane looking at these things. 

She looked up and down and kinda "hmm! Hehe". 

She sketched me out really bad. 

Then another Romanian I contacted looked at my book of Mormon and said

"I'm too superior to read that book. My religion is too complex for you." 

Said a guy in a muscle shirt with nasty blonde hair, a cigarette, and 3$sunglasses . Then he asked

Do you speak Greek? 

No. 

I do, So do you speak Latin? 

No. 

I do. Do you speak Aramaic? 

No

... Me neither. But I am working on it. Only when you know these languages you are worthy to speak to me. 

No problem! I guess his church is too good for me. 👌

Not to many lessons this week. Just a lot of finding and dinner appointments. It was actually really fun. German is a really hard language and is notorious for being hard. Still making slow progress, but it is progress. It is sometimes fun being able to speak another language. 

Dad, your fish looks great. That looks about 42 pounds, I mean grams. Glad you guys are having fun. I know that I am. Here are some fun pictures this time. 

1Just our Rathaus that got bombed in world War 2

2 Elder Fisher knocking on hells door. 

3 Just the Rhine river.

May 25 2017

So today we went to Xanten for pay and watched some epic battles in a coliseum. So awesome. 

Still with some of the same investigators. Dudi is great, but my trainer makes me make the calls to drop investigators. Really tough when they don't have interest even though they are great friends. I am going to miss Mohammad Darwish. 

My German only gets better. Now I am having real conversations with others and giving directions. Still don't understand people a lot, but at least they understand me. 

We are doing a mini Mission with a great man called David Kilgore! Last mini Mission I think ever actually. He is a wonderful man who is 18 and only speaks German. Great practice for me. He reminds me a lot of Elder Calhoun. Lots of potential and works hard. For some reason his parents think he isn't ready, but that man has no fear. Heart of a lion! Haha! He is a little different but would not hurt a fly. We have him for 2 weeks. 

The members are always supportive. Wonderful in every way. One is a soccer sports show guy on Facebook. His name is Piet! He is hilarious and yea. I got a picture of him for you. But anyways they are supporting everyone to come and always make sweet spielabbends where everyone gets together and get to know each other. So friendly. 

The Persian families are wonderful. They are amazing. Thean on the far right is called Pooyan. He goes to church every week and will be baptized in 2 weeks I think. 

All is well! I love it here! More and more to see and do. 

Much love

Elder Monroe 

May 18 2017

Hey! It's good to see you guys. That was great. Not much has happened since. We didn't have very many investigators so we I came up with an idea. The 100 contact March. We had to contact 100 people in a day. The first 15 were great. We received 3 investigators just like that, but the rest of the day was a drag. My idea did not go so well. We got 5 new potentials but so far none of them have returned a call. There is a lot of angry people in the world. Some only to call us to say why they never have the time and why we just aren't worth anything. Or while we are walking a grumpy old guy with his window open on the third floor shouts at us that we are beggars and trying to steal money, or even better. Some people drive by and simply yell that God is dead and we are useless. It really is humbling and sometimes makes me sad how miserable some people are in the world today. It just reminds me that without God or his presence I would be just as miserable as the people are. Haha! Yea I sometimes sound pessimistic but for me that is the truth. 

On a higher note we have a Catholic friend who always goes up to us and shakes our hands. He is an older gentleman with his stereotypical old man Catholic bishop clothes. His nice gray overcoat, black fedora, and his cane of black marble. He is always so friendly and always compliments us for our labors. Then ends with a friendly bye and a warm smile. Sometimes I think the Lord sends people like him to simply make our day. 

And our last 100th contact was a man called Stephen from Ghana. He is a professor and was stopped on his bike. We talked with him, already talked with Mormons in Romania I think, and was actually interested and asked us for a book of Mormon. We then learned the Ghana handshake, which is a sign of great friendship and he bought us ice cream and chips to end the day. He said next year he will research the church more, so yea he probably won't, but people like him as I said before, we're probably sent to us so we could have a little more joy in hard times. It was a perfect way to end the day. That March was 8 hours of constant walking. 

As I see these tender mercies in our lives, this just reminds me again why I am here. I want other people to see these tender mercies in life and how God really is a loving father. 

Love 

Elder Monroe

Oh yea that is our pal bruder Suhl. He came to Sacrament meeting like this. 

May 25

So today we went to Xanten for pay and watched some epic battles in a coliseum. So awesome. 

Anyways dad I need your help. We have a 17 year old kid with a heroine problem. He comes from London and he really wants our help. His name is Alex. 6 weeks he goes to counseling. We already have a baptismal date. Me and Elder Davis were on an exchange and BTW we were both new. I just felt inspired to ask him that and he said he would love to and wants to change. So if you can tell us what the effects are, substitute for such, we don't know what to do since our church doesn't really have a great program for drugs. Only for tobacco, alcohol, and cigarettes. If you can be fast in reply, thanks. We already talked to the mission president about it. All he told us was to stay in touch with him and his family. I just want to know what it is. 

Still with some of the same investigators. Dudi is great, but my trainer makes me make the calls to drop investigators. Really tough when they don't have interest even though they are great friends. I am going to miss Mohammad Darwish. 

My German only gets better. Now I am having real conversations with others and giving directions. Still don't understand people a lot, but at least they understand me. 

We are doing a mini Mission with a great man called David Kilgore! Last mini Mission I think ever actually. He is a wonderful man who is 18 and only speaks German. Great practice for me. He reminds me a lot of Elder Calhoun. Lots of potential and works hard. For some reason his parents think he isn't ready, but that man has no fear. Heart of a lion! Haha! He is a little different but would not hurt a fly. We have him for 2 weeks. 

The members are always supportive. Wonderful in every way. One is a soccer sports show guy on Facebook. His name is Piet! He is hilarious and yea. I got a picture of him for you. But anyways they are supporting everyone to come and always make sweet spielabbends where everyone gets together and get to know each other. So friendly. 

The Persian families are wonderful. They are amazing. Thean on the far right is called Pooyan. He goes to church every week and will be baptized in 2 weeks I think. 

All is well! I love it here! More and more to see and do. 

Much love

Elder Monroe 

June 8

And so I write about another rough week. We lost a couple investigators and honestly I think we are down to none again. Our boy Alex was on his way to our lesson, overdosed and was sent to the hospital. He literally went unconscious. His body was in an extreme withdrawal and took all he could and overdosed horribly. I truly wish we could help him, but when his mother doesn't support him it is just as hard to break a habit.

Dudi has an internship and we must wait 3 more months. He is way too busy.

Naeem our pal who got thrown off a building actually is a recent convert. He lives in a thing called a camp where a large building holds many refugees. Most are Arabic which makes it harder to go to church. So this man totally blackmailed his entire camp with photos of how horrible and nasty it is. The employees that work there and many who live there don't clean up after themselves. For example the cooking stoves is so covered with rotten food and grease you can't see the cooking pallets. The floor of the showers are mud, and the fridge is covered with rotten food as well as the sinks. He is working with red Cross America and this older rough American came over and totally whipped them all. Naeem now has the opportunity to live with his Australian friend and will be coming to church. No neighbors to worry about anymore.

We just got bikes for our area, but one seat is broken. It either leans up or down . Really uncomfortable.

There are now literally more sister missionaries than elders lol. The mtc just got a new load of missionaries. I email my teacher brother penfold. He is so cool and told me he is teaching 28 sister missionaries and 9 elders who are going to Germany. I noticed that there as well, but this is quite different before. I must say the sister missionaries have more of an effect than we do, but it only makes us elders try harder. It is really awesome to have them here.

I think we met 3 more Muhammad's today. They are the type that only want to learn about it but not convert. It is so unusual for them to hear of a religion other than Muslim so they are really interested, but they are too afraid to change their ideas and most of them are in the same situation I am in kinda. They were born in the Muslim faith and they don't want to hurt their parents, but they also want to meet with us as friends. Unfortunately that is not our job so we can't really do that. Many of them are wonderful people, but there are always the ones that threaten to kill the ones that convert. As I said in the last email before, their goal is to convert the whole world and when someone falls away that totally destroys their goal.

We are going to see Pooyan get baptized this Saturday. So exciting to see him. He always makes my day.

Rough week but working hard. I love our President here and is always giving me good advice. We are getting a really young mission president and he is bringing his whole family there. His kids are 6 12 and 14. Extremely young and I am excited to see him.

Love you guys. You are the best. No pictures this week.

Elder Monroe

June 15. Bit more success

Bit more success and such. We have been having lessons with this guy called Hothifa who walked a long way to church just to come and such. He shows lots of commitment and and really wants to learn more. We are so excited for him, but as usual he is busy and must wait 2 weeks because of a wonderful one month party called "Ramadan". Where Arabic people party hard, don't eat all day till the night time, ( which is hard for them because it is bright at about 5:30 in the morning here and is dark at about 11:00 P.M here). Then when it is night they eat drink and be merry most the time. Other than that, he is a really close friend to us and we have had much success with him. He doesn't fight our ideas as the other has, and even better he invites his friends to these lessons. His friends name is Ali. We met him and at first I thought,"oh no we are going to have a bible bashing. He wants to convert us." I was totally wrong and his friend had wonderful questions and is eager to know more. My German was good and I could understand what was going on (gift of tongues is great and the fact that they are Arabic so they mostly speak German really slow.) We gave the first lesson again in a wonderful library. Let's hope we can keep in touch with him.

Haven't really been in contact with Naeem. He is hard at work with Red Cross America and is trying to make things better for other Arabics and refugees living in Germany. I have so much respect for our new member. He is truly converted to the church and has nothing to worry about from Arabic extremists throwing him off a building actually. So wonderful to meet him once a week.

Met with a great returned Missionary. His name is Ben. A really cool man to be with and had the opportunity to do a service project with him. He speaks english better than German. He served his mission in England and it is kind of funny how he sometimes doesnt understand other people speaking German. There is an older investigator called Sasha Pflicht. He is residing in the hospital and he is more of a "ward investigator". What a wonderful ward we have and they are always willing to accept new investigators. Like Pouyan for example. He is our brand new member and was baptized the day before my birthday. He was so excited and Mustabar  (the man who is our Persian member. So cool) he had the opportunity to baptize him. He was in tears, and this next Monday a few members invited us over to dinner with Pouyan and gave a wonderful spiritual thought and had great dinner as well. They welcomed him perfectly and he comes to church every week still. 

Super cool. There are always hard moments. Germany is always rough. They have lots of "potentials" but when you call them to make a meeting, they totally deny giving your number and don't want to hear from you again. But sometimes that will have to happen. I should be with Elder Fisher for 3 more weeks. 2 transfers are 12 weeks, so till the end of July most likely.

Love you Guys.

Elder Monroe