Different Day Same as the Rest

It's been two weeks since we've had an email. His father was terrible at writing with great frequency so maybe this is the result of the dreaded curse, "I hooe you have a son just like you!" Although, that wouldn't be a terrible thing as Michael was an amazing missionary who loved his time in Alaska.  

Despite asking tons of questions in our letters to him he provides surprisingly little detail.  However, I guess I really shouldn't be surprised as Cameron has never been a big talker.  So here's the email, all six sentences :)- Enjoy!

Hi, I'm alive. There's nothing to write about It's been the same thing every day, except we finally have an investigator. His name is Tapas, he's Indian and Hindu. We had zone training and interviews on Friday and we didn't get home from Düsseldorf until 930 because they found a WW2 explosive and everyone had to stay inside until they figured everything out. It was way more boring than it sounds. I got my visa taken care of, so now I'm legal. 

Putting your shoulder to the wheel

Cameron's latest letter:

So Kenya Oma isn't the one who accepted baptism and it's kinda rough, Dania, the lady from Cuba who accepted baptism.....We're going to have to push back her Baptismal date pretty far back. we've also lost all of our investigators and now our teaching pool is empty. hopefully we can get back in contact with some or find new ones, but losing all those people has been hard

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As his mother, I'm not going to lie. These short letters are killing me. The internet costs to use so they're short and lately not too sweet. Missionary work is hard and he's experiencing the hardness of it. Sister Newmeyer, (http://rememberiwill.blogspot.com)

a missionary from our ward shared this great quote that I think sums up the work:

"... mission presidents, you will have an occasion to ask and your missionaries will have many occasion's to ask, Why is this so hard? It's true, Why don't the people just flock to the font? Why isn't the only risk in the mission field that of pneumonia? being wet all day and all night in the font, Why don't the people just listen president? Why can't we have success president? Why is this so hard? ... because Salvation Is Not A Cheap Experience, why do we think that this would be easy when it was never ever easy for Him..." - Elder Holland

Some weeks are better than others

We haven't had a lot to post the last few weeks. Elder Brande is in an area where the internet is expensive to use so his emails have been pretty short. So here are some excerpts of emails he has sent to various family members. We hope to hear more soon. On a fun note, their Mission President's farewell gift was to allow them to watch the Germany/USA World Cup soccer match. It was kind of neat watching it on our end knowing he was watching too. Even though, he only had a short time with President Shwartz he was very impressed with him and grew to love him and will really miss him.

Here is his new companion, Elder Jack:

To give this letter context Michael wrote to Elder Brande detailing his experiences at Girl's Camp:

Dad,

I'm glad you survived that much Estrogen and pain :P It's funny, you can relate anything to the gospel, and I think that is what is so amazing about our church, there is simplicity and all comes back to it. Just when we think we are most prepared that's when temptation hits the hardest. "Let me tell you something you already know, life ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It will beat you to your knees and keep you there if you let it. Me, You, Nobody, will hit as hard as life, But it ain't about how hard you can hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."- Fun Quote

Love you Ganz Liebe

Elder Brande

 So where to begin? Well I found out that my trainer is going to be leaving me in the middle of my Golden cycle and that a new elder is going to be finishing me up :P We had a HUGE storm come through Aachen last week and it went in as far inland as Düsseldorf, it knocked over a bunch of trees and completley knocked out the train systems out here. Public transportation is the only way people get around here in Germany and this storm made it so when we went to Zone training in Düsseldorf, a normally 2 hour straight train ride turned into a six hour adventure. Getting home on time isn't an option anymore :P Good thing is that it has given me the oppotrunity to talk to my Mission Präsident a lot before he goes. I'm in a small little internet cafe in the middle of Bonn now, because we are having our own Distrikt Meisterschaft :) the downside of it all is that this place charges waaaaaay too much for me to justify writing a longer letter so Tschüß 

'm so tired and I don't know what to write about and I don't have time so yeah, ask dad if he knows a Blackley family from Alaska, with a kid named Brandon, just curious, I think I'm a little grumpy because we haven't been eating well because I was out of MSF waiting for some reimbursements, because me and Elder Anderson thought we had at least another transfer together. I'm so hungry and tired. I hope dass alles gute. Love ya

Chio  

Elder Brande

Here's a little excerpt from a letter he wrote to his Uncle Justin. This kind of hurt my heart a little bit but I am so proud of the way he and his companion didn't get discouraged and kept working. It's a great life lesson for all of us.

"Thank you so much for all the letters. They have been a strength to me on tough days like today. Just today we were cursed and spat at (though that's pretty normal). I have a man accuse me of the most horrible things, then a punk kid body checked me and said the most vilest things to me. We got back to our wohnung and I wanted to give up and honestly,just cry. Instead we went out and worked, and we found people that God had prepared and put in our path.

An invitation for baptism

He's been extra busy so his letter is short and sweet. Don't ask us what his "German" says. It doesn't quite make sense in Google translate so I'm not sure if the spelling's correct 😄.

Ja, alles klar. Mein Deutsch ist nicht schlimm. Mein mitarbeiter und ich sind töll. Die Idea von meine schwesterin fahren gibt mir ganz angst! So we just hit a minefield of investigators, here's a quick list of all of them; Dragos is this romanian guy who's homeless but not a druggie and he seems quite intelligent, Susan is an older lady who we call Kenya Oma because she is always so nice to us, Matthias is this old 40 something man who REALLY loves AC/DC, Till and Patrick are two Uni students who live in a HUGE frat house, Taran is a turk who is really religious the only problem is he worships the wrong side, then of course there is Dania who Nammen die gelegenheit für taufen an! Dania acceptet the invitation for baptism and here date is on the 19 of July! She was just so prepared and I was just lucky enough to extend the invitation. I love you and I hope that everything back home ist klar.

Elder Brande

Here's a picture of Elder Brande on a P-Day having fun with his Dusseldorf zone.  He's holding up his zone leader Elder Varney.

Finally making some contacts!

Here are some excerpts from Elder Brande's latest letters to us

It's been a little crazy for me here this past week. On Monday afternoon  Anderson, the other two Elders in Aachen and I traveled to Köln and stayed the night in the Köln Elders' apartment. I don't suggest ever visiting there. Tuesday we traveled to Frankfurt for Golden/Trainer Meeting. Then I returned to Köln that afternoon and went on a split with Elder King from Köln to Bonn. After he lost me in the Köln Hauptbahnhopf für eine stunde I went to Bonn and we taught a man. He's a great guy but he is Islamic. He just won't accept Jesus Christ as anything more than a prophet, and I know if he just prayed that he could gain a testimony, but he wont because he says the way we pray is like building a relationship with God and that is the one thing in his religion that is unforgivable :P then we had Zone conference that same afternoon and then I went on a split with one of the zone leaders, Elder Varney. We contacted like crazy, but no one was interested but I was able to bear my testimony to one man and change his whole outlook on prayer, but he still didn't want religion. We then taught a man from Greece. we taught him the stop smoking program, and he agreed to do it, and so far he has been doing great! We then taught a member, sister G I was able to use some of the Spanish I learned from landscaping to make her laugh (she's from Spain), then we gelehrt a guy from West Africa and he was baptised a few months ago and he wants to go serve a mission! Finally we thought A man from Guatemala and he accepted the Erlösungsplan  and the invitation to be baptized! Friday afternoon Elder Anderson and I returned to Aachen. We now have about five investigators and one of them showed up to church! her is D and she is from Cuba. She wanted to learn more and we will meet with her on Mittwoch, she also wanted us to teach her 10 year old son A. I'm excited to see where things go! 

Aachen is so hilly and you have to walk everywhere, your legs definitely get that burn :) We're going to hike out to the Tri Punkte land today, so I'll make sure to send you pictures of me in Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium :) As Die GML, Gemeinde Missionare Leiter, or Ward missionary leader, please help the Elders/Sisters build up that relationship with Die Gemeinde and prayerfully pair up the Untersucher mit members that would be the best für them. those are the Best GMLs :) There's quite alot of crazy stuff happening with the whole election thingy going on. Elder Anderson and I got caught up in a little etwas, a certain group of 10,000 people were marching through Aachen and were going to end infront of a Synagogue. Now a certain group of people like this attracts opposition and it needs police involvement. Elder Anderson and I were unaware of this and if it were for the fact that it was a little rough it would have been awesome. Nevertheless we didn't become Involved at all. really. Elections were yesterday and people here get pretty heated so that's why we're having P-day outside of the city :) 

Please Keep your commitments! as a missionary there is nothing quite as frustrating as someone not keeping there commitments! for being so practical and rule following, Germans aren't so good at keeping missionary commitments :P 

Ich liebe dich, und Ich weiß, dass wir Gottes kinder sind. Ich weiß, dass Jesus uns leibt. Ich glaube, dass beten und hören die geboten ganz wichtig sind, damit wir zu unser Vater im Himmel zurükkehren können.

Love Elder Brande

It's a one jacket week!

The weather has been pretty nice for the last few days and I'm finally able to wear just one jacket! We had a really neat experience the other day; we left our apartment early for an termin and we ended up heading the wrong way (we don't completly know the way around town yet) and out of a blue a lady called out to us. She had just gotten out of an internet cafe in which she was trying to Email a missionary she had lost contact with, so she found us and we set up a time to meet with her this week or the next! It was a huge testimony to me that the Lord puts his missionaries where he needs us. 

To be honest I kind of miss being able to work outside and I don't know why but I'm craving some yard work.

I'm sorry to hear about Aunt Karol. I hope that Grandpa is doing fine, I can't even imagine what one of my siblings passing away would do to me. The Branch here in Aachen is really amazing, and the building is in the Städtteil Brand so every member has brought that up to me. the Elder's Quorum Präsident, Mario is a really great guy, he's always taking us to appointments and helping us with   Weniger Aktives. He's a convert and he went on his mission to Frankfurt (he's German) and moved here to Aachen afterwards and became a baker ( he's always giving us bread and that's awesome!). We found out that he was once married, but his wife died in a car accident, which is totally sad! but it is amazing to see how groß his testimony on the Plan of Salvation and forgiveness are. 

Ugh! look up a picture of a German keyboard. You don't realize how often you use Y until it's switched. Also forgive my spelling, German is kind of killing it. The good thing about German is once you begin to understand it it's really easy to spell. We have cell phones and it is nice to be able to use those, helps save us 40 € train tickets :) 
-We don't have Ipads as a mission, but our district got chosen to be the test group with some new Ipads so we'll see where that goes! 

-No pain really, I did a net weight gain of -4 in a week and a half, but I gained about 18 pounds then dropped :P don't worry I've been doing Morgen Sport so I've been staying in shape :) 

-Elder Sprunt went to Bommburg, Apparently that is one of the nicest Wohnungs, I found out this week that we are liveing in one of the most rundown/Ghetto Wohnungs in the Mission, but that's how I want my first one to be, it will make the rest seem awesome :)

-Cmbrande Mch13f777

Love Elder Brande 

First week in Germany!

This building is where his grandma and grandpa lived while on their mission!

We ended up getting a letter Tuesday after all so here's the latest from Cameron:

Well after a crazy last week at the MTC and a really long flight I made it to Germany! I´m so excited to be here and I can really feel that the work is progressing in Germany. I'm in a area called Aachen and my trainer, Elder Anderson, and I are both new to the area and have gotten lost every day so far, but we're starting to learn the area bit by bit.
Elder Anderson and I are Uni Elders, meaning that we do all our finding and contacting on the big University here and Aachen. It's been tough, we've yet to teach a single person and almost all the referalls we've gotten have shut us down. I feel like we've been working like crazy, but no one is interested yet, but I have faith that this week will be better! We have hade quite a few fruitful conversations with a few students, so there is hope! 

Aachen is so beautiful and so freaking cold! It has rained every single day I've been here! It just started pouring outside as I type!!! We contacted a nice referall the other day, but she lived in a small little town to the west and while we were walking to her house we walked through a part of the Netherlands! 

The Branch here is so awesome! Every single member is so freindly and just loves to help us missionares! They are so excited about missionary work and on Sunday when two investigators showed up to church they just were so welcoming! 

I'm so excited and I look forward to serving the People of Aachen!

Elder Brande 

Here's President Schwartz, Elder Anderson and Elder Brande

No Letter this week so here is an update from the Mother's Day phone call:

Here's Cameron at the mission home with President and Sister Schwartz, the new missionaries and their trainers:

After waiting on pins and needles for a few days and having the possibility that Cameron might be sent home due to his illness, he was cleared by the doctors and sent to Germany! Cameron arrived on Wednesday May 7th. He went to the Mission home where he was interviewed by President Schwartz and assigned his trainer/companion. His companion is Elder Anderson. I am on a Germany missionary mom's facebook group and his mom is on there and she was able to give this information to me on Thursday so we didn't have to wait until Mother's day to hear. SO grateful for technology!

Cameron was assigned to Aachen, Germany. This is a new area that he and his companion get to open up. They are mainly assigned to the University. They live in an apartment right next to the University. The university is considered one of the best in Europe so there are people from all over the world there. They have Books of Mormon in several different languages to pass around. He says the translation in Arabic and Persian is super interesting. He thought it was pretty funny that his first contact was a family from Cameroon - considering his name is Cameron.  They didn't speak much German and neither did Elder Brande so he and his companion used a mixture of English, German and hand gestures to communicate.

The other neat thing about this area is that three countries intersect at one point and it is possible to be in three countries at once - Germany, Netherlands and Belgium.  Because this is a new area, neither Elder Brande or his companion know the area and have been walking everywhere and getting lost at the same time.  He said they went to deliver a Book of Mormon to a referral and they kept walking for hours, pretty soon they saw all these signs saying goodbye in German. Pretty soon, they realized they had left Germany and were walking in the Netherlands.  They quickly turned around and found their way home.

He says it's beautiful there. Here is a little video of the town if you want to check it out:

Luckily, we got to speak with Elder Brande on Mother's Day.  Best Mother's Day present ever. He is feeling much better. The work is hard but the Spirit is strong!

Here's a picture of the Persian Book of Mormon he was talking about: