The Branch (they are AWESOME) and Driving in Michelstadt

I guess I will tell you a little bit more about our Zweig (Branch auf Deutsch) here in Michelstadt. They actually meet in a fairly good sized church building. It owned by the church and everything. We have about fifty members there so it is getting there to be a ward, hopefully soon. All of them are so awesome. The branch president is President Leimgruber. He is great and we have dinner at his house every Friday. He is really excited for us to be in Michelstadt. He really wants go get the ward involved in missionary work, and it seems to be working. After church for the last 6 months many of the members of the ward would enter into a small room and pray for the missionary work in Michelstadt. They are so awesome and we really do love them.

President Schwartz read our emails last week and felt that he should come down for church last Sunday and visit the branch. It was amazing the things that he told us. He met with us, the branch President and Ward Mission Leader after church and shared some great insight/prophecy.

He said that he not only wants Michelstadt to become a ward, but also re-open the Walldurn branch just east of us. He also said that he wants to start a youth center/institute there and he already has the funding for it and everything. Our jaws slowly dropped lower and lower as President Schwartz continued to talk. It seems like he feels there is something really special about the area we are serving in.

In this meeting President Schwartz also mentioned something really cool about Elder Hogan and I. He told President Leimgruber and our Ward Mission Leader that when it was revealed that Michelstadt would be re-opened again he spent many hours on his knees praying about what missionaries should be sent there. He said that it was revealed to him that Elder Hogan and I were to serve here. He said it was very specific and very strong that we were the right ones for the job. He said that we weren't called by him, but rather called by God to serve here. Wow...

I have to tell you that I love President Schwartz. He truly is an inspired man. He is so full of love and hope and I know that I was called to specifically serve with him. I know that he will lead this mission to do great things. So good.

In other news Elder Hogan and I did receive a car last week! The fun thing is that with a Utah license you can drive in the country for 6 months. Since Elder Hogan has been here for longer than that, and his Germany driving license is in the mail, I get to drive. Haha luckily the car we have is an automatic and not a stick shift. Good news for me, that's for sure.

Driving in Germany is kinda crazy. I don't think the Germans believe in space. The roads are so narrow that I sometimes get nervous driving through them that I will slow down to under 20 kmph, but Germans have no problem zipping right through. Haha pretty crazy, but it is fun to drive again. We do have a GPS and we call her "Jane" Definitely no "Moronica", but she'll have to do I guess ;)

Other than that not a whole lot to report on. Elder Hogan and I are working hard, but we definitely have a lot to do. We are excited and ready to get at it.

Arriving in Michelstadt, Germany

Hallo von Deutschland!

Wow it is crazy that I am here and now writing you from a member´s computer shop in Michelstadt. This place is absolutely beautiful. It truly reminds me of Fantasyland in Disneyland. I really don´t think there is a prettier place in all of Europe.

Elder Hogan and I have had our share of adventures of getting lost and everything, but it has been a lot of fun as well. We have definietly seen the Lord´s hand as we have traveled around not knowing where to go.

I´ll have to share with you the whole story of our arrival here some other time, but man was it crazy. We had left all together from the Frankfurt Train Station, but the person who assigned travel groups didn´t do a spectacular job with us. The train we went on went in the exact opposite way of Michelstadt. We had to figure out what was going on with the both of us having 3 pieces of luggage a piece. Well to make a long story short, after a few fallen out trains and missed stops we arrived in Michelstadt at about 8 pm. The problem is we had no idea where anything was or where we lived.

All we had was an address on our key ring. Luckily people were kind enough to help us out and told us to hop on the bus. The problem was we were out of money and couldn´t buy a bus ticket. The bus driver took pity on us and let us ride for free. (once again God looking out for us.) We arrived at our bus stop and saw a huge carnival down a street with thousands of people. Elder Hogan and I looked at eachother and thought "oh isn´t that nice." Then we took a closer look at the street and Elder Hogan turned to me and said, "Elder...we LIVE on that street." We decided then to carry our 3 bags up a huge hill to try and come around on the other side. We pressed forward and finally arrived at our apartment. Pretty crazy how it all worked out. We felt very blessed and very tired. We started to unpack a bit and get ready for bed. Elder Hogan and I knelt down and were about to start compansionship prayer when we heard explosions! We thought WW3 had started or something. We looked outside and saw fireworks. Haha typical end to our crazy day. We like to think the fireworks were meant for us. They were celebrating that missionaries were back in Michelstadt.

The Branch here is awesome and all are very excited about missionary work. It is really great to have so much support.

Well, I am not restricted on time, but Elder Hogan and I have a lot to get done today. I will tell you that I truly do love it here. I get down on myself sometimes because I can´t understand or speak the language very well, but I just have to have patience. The Lord is with me every step I go. I know that.

I love you all very much.

Love,

Elder Colton Weeks

Thanks to the Petersons!!

Glade and Lola Peterson, Parents of Scott & Jyll Peterson, good family friends, are currently serving in Germany as the Public Relations missionaries. They are based in Frankfurt and have been waiting the arrival of Elder Weeks. Through their connections, they found out where Colton was assigned, who his companion was, and went to visit them on the 1st Saturday that they were there. Thank goodness for them, because they were able to email and then call us (Well, they called Jyll, we just happened to be there to listen in) with the information and updates. As you can see with Colton's letter, he is a little short on details (probably because he knew that the Peterson's would fill us in :)

Here are some of the pictures that the Peterson's took of the area and the boys...














The Peterson were kind enough to take the Elders out to a nice lunch before returning them to their apartment (notice the fried egg in the middle of the pizza, apparently this is a German thing)

Meeting the President, Assigned a Companion and an Area.

This is Elder Weeks with his Mission President, Lehi Schwartz, and his Trainer, Elder Jacob Hogan. We have gotten word that they will be opening up a new area that has not had missionaries for quite a long time, Michelstadt, German. There is a neat story behind this, the branch in that area really wanted missionaries, so they decided to fast and pray for it to happen. On an act of faith they even painted the apartment, getting it ready "just in case" that day would happen. And here it is!! Elder Hogan and Elder Weeks. The area book is completely BLANK so they will be starting from square one. ... Go Get 'em Elders!!

Fun Times in the MTC

All of these Elders attended Bingham High School together and are now headed to serve in Frankfurt, Germany---Elders Weeks, Hill, Ripplinger, and Sommerville.

President Schwartz had the opportunity to meet with the missionaries that would be serving in the Frankfurt mission while he was at the MTC for Mission Presidents Training.

Colton's district while at the MTC

Need I say anything more :D