Arrived 3/29/10

Whew! Well hi there people!

I'll apologize perhaps a bit beforehand, this might be a bit of a shorter one, we're headed to Buchenwald today, nearby Wiemar. An old concentration camp. Should be an enlightening experience...maybe...

Anyway. Well, Elder V is gettin blitzed away! to Schwarzenberg. over near Freiberg. he is only kinda excited. I am getting elder P, from Twin Falls. His ancestors come from New Zealand. I hear he's a stud, so I'm excited. I'll let you know how things are going!

Before I get too much farther: HAPPY BIRTHDAY E!! Happy 19! Now I'm sorry Birthday bash hasn't been working out so far, but I have a present I think you might like...so if you hit me with your college address I can get it to you. Unless it'd just be faster to send it home, and then it can wait for you there...anyway, thanks for the support out here, E. And thanks for all the fun times back in the day. We'll talk some German when I get home, na?

Easter will be a big thing here, lots of big lunches and drinking and general peaceful celebration. World Cup will dwarf Easter Celebrations, though...

Well, gots to run. I love you all and thank you mightily for your support. Keep the faith and know that the Gospel is true! Love you guys,

Liebe Grüße,

Elder Sterling Mason

Arrived 3/22/10

Hey
'ow you doin'?

Things are going great over here in the NDH (that's Nordhausen for ya). This was again a fairly uneventful week, but good all the same. So E S had to go back into the hospital this week, as she developed some inflammation in one of her mammary glands. Daniel said that they pumped some milk from her and didn't quite get it all, so what little was left in there caused some pain and swelling and she got a bit loopy. Didn't know milk could be so powerful :P But she is doing much better now, should be back home again by middle of the week. Daniel is gettin a bit ragged looking after two little girls and a newborn all at the same time, but he is holding strong. We took him the sacrament last night and he was so grateful for that, it really is neat to see the power that ordinance has in his life. He will be a very solid member one day. And his wife too. Man they'll be running this branch. And Daniel talked with us about the World Cup for a while, about German soccer in general. It was cool to learn more about Fußball from a real German. I have so gotta get hooked up to a rugby chanel when I get back...I saw some bits about the Six Nations Tourney on a newspaper in the trainstation here...good 'ol Scotland...

So! School! Sweet, thank you so much for getting the apartment situation all worked out. I really appreciate it. Hope D still like me! Hehe jk jk. I talked to Elder C, one of my best mission buddies, just a minute ago (he is in my district again, over in Gotha) and he said Liberty Square is a nice place. He was looking into going there once he got back as well. He gets home in mid Nov, so he'll be coming on for Winter, I'll be looking to see if a spot opens in our apartment...

Classes look snazzy. Gotta have PS 200 to get moving in the IR major, so that's good, Hist 202 will be fun, VASTU 101, huh? That sounds familiar...is it mainly a drawing class? Na ja, I'm sure I would actually learn something in it as opposed to LAHS Fine Arts...sounds good. Let's go for it. Take a leap of faith. German...whew, alright. Gotta do that one, I guess.

Religion. Yes. New Testament first half, with P. Even if it's at 9 in the morning. Good good. I like the looks of that. Should gimme something fun to do each day. And hey, if you were to put most of them on Mon-Wed or Tues-Thurs setups, I could have most of Friday free again! Oooh now doesn't that sound nice...haha. However it works out. I don't mind a lighter day in there with only like one class period or something, though.

So. 9 minutes of change left. Don't know TOO much about the Honors program, to be honest. Honors English was cool lat year cuz the class was small, Honors History could be neat. Parker is more important than Honors in Religion, and Honors German just sounds harder...but what are your thoughts or insights?

ok. put another 2 € in. should have a bit more time.

Any Paintball classes at BYU? That'd be fun AND exercise...

Not so much follow up about early-coming-home-times, i used up all my Favor points this past week with Präsident in affirming my desire to stay in the Berlin mission and not get shipped to Frankfurt. He did say he wanted to hear our opinions on the matter, but I don't wanna bring up too many hefty things with him all at once. It will need to be addressed here soon if it's going to be addressed at all, but I don't think it would be such a bad thing to have more than 5 days 'tween mish and uni...Chidsey suggested I ask Präs if I could ''pretend'' I was going home with the July group, and then ''extend'' for an ''extra'' 4 weeks and then I'd just be leaving 2 weeks early. But that could be a very needed 2 weeks to get home and sort everything out. I don' know. I could use some very honest and/or whatever opinions you have on the subject. I doubt we are going to have large ''Layoffs'' this time around. There are currently too many closed programs that could use a set of Elders...so yeah. Please let me know what you think about this whole dealy-o.

Eatin' a lot of cereal this week to save some money so we can go to Erfurt next week...the things you'll do for a fun Pday...

So, Taylor, what is this thing that most people didn't know about you that people had to guess? Do I know it? :)

So Em, what kind of music does your English teacher listen to then? Muse? Fastball? :)

So. Dad. And Mom too. Dad, you remember Rachel, the girl we stopped by on in Twin Falls on our way down to the MTC? What do you think of her? If I may ask. She has been writing me very diligently and very...attached-ly...don't know how else to express that. I'm doing my best to follow Elder Ballard's advice and counsel with you, father of mine. I'm not having any problems staying focused out here, just been gettin letters from her pretty regularly, and I'd be interested in your thoughts in this general area. So yeah.

Thanks for all your help, family. I really appreciate it. You guys are more than an Elder could ask for :) Hope you are all staying healthy and having some fun too. How's the ward doing? Any cool missionary prospects? Elders or Sisters there right now? give 'em a pat on the back for me. Love you all, quote some West Wing or Supernatural or something for me, and I'll talk to you soon. Macht's gut! Tschüß!

Liebe Grüße,

Elder Sterling Mason

Arrived 3/15/10

Well hey there!

Things are going good here. Slow but well. Yep, so E had her baby cut out of her last Wednesday--C section it was. He was just a tall kid. like 51 cm. they are both in pretty good condition, should be released by Wed. D is excited but pretty scared too--so much more stuff to do now that J S is actually here. We'll do all we can to help them out.

We have daylight savings time on the 28th of March or so. Joy.

Hahahaha Mother that must have been quite an embarassment...bad Taylor! How dare you laugh?? :D

Pops, that science bit is very neat. We try an approach like that sometimes on the very ''I am a scientist and I can only believe in that which I see or can touch'' people...doesn't often work too well, they are just too closed-minded and unprepared...na ja. hehe.

Thanks about the haircut...Elder D hooked me up there :D I have a pair of trimmers out here and sometimes it is just easiest to save the 10€ and do it at home. Thanks on the pics too. Sis M went a bit teary over it, she was really into it :) Nice to be able to help out however I can.

As for my nice CTR ring, I bent it pretty...badly doing a service project at a member's house. It's not really werable at all anymore. So for a time i was wearing one of the standard ones, of which we have several in the apartment, but it kept cutting into the back of my finger when i would stick my hand in my pocket or in my bag. the shield is so sharp around the edge, see...well, so now i am just going around with no ring on anymore. Don't know if there's any way to get one from distribution in Freiberg or Frankfurt, don't worry about it too much, unless you want to :) I am a 10.5 I believe? The last one was an 11 i think maybe...na ja.

Elder C made me that planner, it is a comic of Jules Verne sending a letter to Edgar allen Poe (how'd you get that??? Wow good work there) and it meshed pretty well with our inside jokes from serving together/friendship. Making planners is a lot of fun, I'll have to show you some of my planners when i get back.

Some of the Elders in my group are coming back in July, perhaps a transfer early? I need to talk to Präsident this week and see what is up there. We'll see what he says/what all that jazz is about...

I eat a lot of stuff now that I would have never dreamed of eating back then. Carrot cake, veggies, meatloaf (still not so keen on that one, but if it must be...), i can take mushrooms now, but i do not like them still, it's mostly only tomatoes that I just don't do. They just don't work for me. But yeah...I'll see if I can cook some stuff up for you guys when i get back...

I hope the apartment situation works out...Wyview????? Are you crazy? :) I sure hope not...

Well the Ms found out about my companion's crush on that sister missionary and it was so not my fault, but man was that funny...jokes for the rest of the transfer outta that one...

Somebody ask us to raise our hands? No?? What do you mean, no??....

Well, I am almost out of money here, and I gotta write Em back real quick, so i best be off. I love you all and thank you for your support and prayers. Pray for the missionaries there in our ward too, ok? Thanks! Love you! Tschüß!

---Elder Sterling Mason

Arrived 3/8/10

Well, well, well....what a week it has been!

Elder 'B' (also known as V) and I are getting along well. He is a good kid from Holiday, Utah who went to the Y the year after I did and then came out here. He is very very dry...mostly. He has some wet humor too though, I have found. Well I knew him from the beginning of his mission, and we have some high hopes for this coming transfer.

But yeah. I see Pops is on the road a lot these days! Proud of you, sir ;)

As for Emma coming home soon, man was that a big retransition. Going from making your own rules to being under the rule of the 'rents once more is a hard one. Just maybe have understanding for the fact that she's gonna have to get used to that again, or give her a good bit of leash to do her own thing. Other than that...

Yeah, V and I are getting along great. We have a lot of deep conversations about our futures and the Gospel and so on. He is really a good kid...not many friends growing up, found some self-confidence on the mission, unsure about his future....ha ha! :) No, things are well. I was afraid for a bit that morning when Präs was setting the blitz up that i was gonna get another punk, but V is gonna be one of my mission friends, i think.

You found D's parents??? Excellent! I miss that boy. I hope he is doing well, not head from him in a while...prolly cuz i just barely wrote him back... :P I hope you all can find something...

So I ought to thank you for those little Lego Star Wars ships. They are delightful. Sometimes I just fly them around the apartment for personal study....just kidding. But after planning at night, you bet ;)

And I got your letter this past week. I am awfully torn by a lot of that info. Those track sheets you sent me just sound like the biggest blast one could have in school. however, I think I missed the Fall application deadline, so I would have to wait for the winter one in October(?) anyway...so we'll go ahead with my current major for now, and see what happens when i get back.

You still have that sticky note i left with important class info on it? i.e. which classes I would need to take this fall?

Emma, your FHE brothers are lots of fun, it sounds. Any keepers? :D Hey, you ought to send me some photos from your time up there. Hopefully you can see some of the ones I sent home...

ALSO: Parents, it would be neat to get a photo of you two, even if that means Taylor just takes one of you two sitting on the couch together...please??

Car still in one piece?

Disney people like LDS kids? Cuz of our good family values? Ok, so you go write for them , and I'll come back and draw for them. Plan? :)

So how's school, Taylor? Reeeeeeeaaalllllyyyy bad? Haha just wait 'til you get older :D How is the rest of life there for ya?

Well, as far as the work goes, it was a pretty regular week last week, and not TOO much to report. We are making out lots of appointments still but not having much follow-through. E S is gonna have her baby any day now---could be today. Good stuff. She'll be an awesome member. We'll get her wet as soon as she is a bit recovered. Other than that, we have this African dude named I who will hopefully start making some more progress soon. I have drawn some stuff for the Ms to use in less-active wokr, and I'll get some to send home to you...

Well, my money is almost out, so I'll be wrapping this one up. I love you all and thank you so much for your support and prayers and love in return. You guys are great. The Church is true. That's for sure. Good luck, fam ;) Love you!

Alles Gute,

Elder Sterling Mason

Arrived 2/28/10

Haha hi!

My week has been...good. So get this: On friday morn Präsident gives us a call. Now that' not a common occurance, so we wondered what was up, maybe something with driver's license stuff (oh yeah, we got our licenses this past week!!! Cool stuff. Much cooler than my NM license) but it was really cuz Elder D was getting Blitzed! He had to leave Nordhausen Sunday after church to head up to Berlin to become a new office elder! Crazy crazy stuff. He had a lot of stuff to pack, man. And I got Elder VDB blitzed in to me. He is from UV, despite his crazy Dutch name (his uncle actually works on the Liahona staff, look in that intro section!). He was trained in Leest, in Brandenburg district back when i was up there. So I know him pretty well, and he is a good kid, though he has the driest sense of humor of anyone I know, and he pokes a lot of fun at me, so i may clock him one day.

But we're doing well. He is about 8 months out or so, so his German is comin along well, and he wants to speak German a lot, so it'll be good for us. Elder D and I tried to speak a lot of German, and succeeded often, but we had too many good times and laughs to share that had to be in English, but I think B and I will do well.

ES is expecting her baby very soon. Could be any day now, could be in two weeks, and as soon as he pops out and they have recovered a bit, she's getting baptized! We are very excited for her. She is coming along very well. They talked to us this past week, Elder D and I, about their experiences with tithing and how they set aside some money this past month to pay their tithing, knowing that they wouldn't make it without the money, and just trusted the Lord. Well, long story short, the made it just fine. Somehow :) And now they know that the Lord looks after His Own. And that the principle of tithing is true. So good!

Well, Präsident Uchtdorf dedicated Germany for the preacing of the Gospel on the 21st, the first time all of Germany has been dedicated! East Germany had been before, by Präs Monson, but not the West! Or the country as a whole. So Präs Uchtdorf got that done. Very cool to know we are proclaiming the Good News in a freshly dedicated land!

Well, Präsident Uchtdorf dedicated Germany for the preacing of the Gospel on the 21st, the first time all of Germany has been dedicated! East Germany had been before, by Präs Monson, but not the West! Or the country as a whole. So Präs Uchtdorf got that done. Very cool to know we are proclaiming the Good News in a freshly dedicated land!

That chapter of Alma, 37, is one of my favorites. A while back I was feeling a bit dumb that I picked a Bible scripture for my missionary plaque instead of a Bo'M one, and Alma 37:45 (?) about the Words of Christ carrying us to a far better land would have been a sweet one...but then I just got over my feelings and decided it didn't really matter. Besides, even Christ liked to quote Isaiah...right? Hehe.

I love that scene in the Fellowship where they are lost in Moria and Gandalf and Frodo are talking, and Frodo bemoans his fate at having received the ring, and says, ''I wish the Ring had never come to me...I wish none of this had ever happened.''

''So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that's been given you.''

Powerful stuff. Helps out here during the challenging times too.

Good on you, Pops and Tayto, for going to the temple. We are so blessed that it is so close.

Em, I have maybe been to Book City...I think maybe. found a crazy cool original printing of Heir to the Empire from like the early 90s...for 6 bucks too! We'll have to go hit it up together when I get back. Deal?

Well, I don't think I have too much else to report. We are actually in Erfurt today cuz after emails we are hittin up Wartburg, where Martin Luther translated the Bible and seeing the castle there and stuff. Berin is beautiful and certainly just about my favorite, but the south has castles. Should be sweet. I'll get some good pics for ya. Love you lots family, know the Gospel is true and the Christ lives. Godspeed to ya. Til next week, na? Love you!

Elder Sterling Mason, Nordhausen

Well hello there family!

So Präsident Uchtdorf is an Apostle of the Lord. Did you guys know that? We found that out all very personally as he shook each of our hands!!! :D BAM! Spiritual confirmation! No doubt about it. He spoke to us in German too!! His German is very good. I wonder where he learned it so well...

He talked to us a lot about preaching the Gospel with power and keeping the Spirit and being the best companions we could be and perfecting the language and all sorts of stuff. I'll share my notes with you when I get home :)

So that was way sweet. It DID feel a bit like a vacation heading up to Berlin and getting to see all of my mission buddies and seeing some sights in Berlin with the Ms afterwards and whatnot. Got some good photos. If ye treasure up those photos which ye have already received, ye may yet receive more added unto them....we'll see though, ay? ;)

Yeah, I hear from Danny. Every couple months. I'm a bit behind in replying to him, but he just has to deal with that. Life is busy here. Did you hear that J got called to Wisconsin or someplace like that on his mission??? Any idea where they are, those Langfords? A F told me about J. She must have some way to find them...

We hear stories now and then from members about the War, but mostly old ornry dudes on the street who use it as an excuse as to why there cannot be a God. Man, sometimes I wonder if the DDR stamped out everybody's ability to think reasonably...it certainly stamped out faith in a lot of people, that's for sure...

that man who resurfaced didn't show to the appt. we set with him. Shrug. Like that never happens :/ I shouldn't treat it lightly but let's be honest: one can only get SO down when appts fall out. about 1 in 30 go through, I'd say. That is the revised statistic I am working on. Outlying data suggests it is closer to 1 in 45, but I need more precise calculations to really get some precise measurements....stay tuned...but in any case, when appts do go through it a glorious day.

Looking forward to those pages, family...

Glad to hear things are going well, sisters. How is driving that new car there, Taylor? And how did midterms end up, Emma?...........you had a......pillowfight? Did you...uh......survive?

Well. Not much happened this past week, 'cept we were over at a member's house and she went into diabetic shock and fainted like 5 times in 45 minutes! We kept waking her up and forcing her to drink some juice, but she didn't really get stabilized until about 11:40.So it was a late night. I'll have to describe that one with pictures when I get home....man....but we went by again last night and she's doing fine. So. D S and S L are still doing great, and D's wife E is coming along as well. getting to that VERY pregnant stage. She'll be baptized, no worries. And they are teaching their daughters reverence and stories outta the Bible and the BoM! Cool cool.

Well I am outta change, and my time is dangerously low. I outta wrap this one up. Thanks so much for your love and support, and prayers, I have some Elders in the district here who are not getting along and I could use your prayers this week especially as I try and sort things out. That would be much appreciated. Love you all, be safe, and know that the Church is true. Be good! Tschüß!

---Elder Sterling Mason

P.S. Emma, if my Nordhausen address could get up on Facebook, that'd be wonderful.

Also, btw, I look really good in a nice suit... :D JK jk...

Arrived 2/15/10

Hi!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh thank the Maker! I was worrying about those SD cards like none other...so it all worked out then. Haha, yeah, that district in Halle where Elder R mooned the cameras was just crazy. Lot of dead missionaries, lot of good memories...

I do like landscapes. And clouds, especially dark storm clouds...there's not THAT many pictures of sandwiches, c'mon...and certainly none with sauerkraut in them. For all my hatred of sauerkraut, I have only eaten it like maybe 5 times on my mission, and it's good here in the Fatherland. Germans eat a ton more rotkohl than sauerkraut, i think i can safely say...

Well, Taylor is getting her license....congrats, sis! Elder D and I should be getting our German licenses here at the end of Feb. or so. That only costed 55€... :P But it'll be good for life. Woot!

So THIS coming Saturday is the conference with Dieter. I'll be sure not to call him that when he's here :) We're driving up on Friday morning, and the Ms will drop us in Brandenburg cuz we are not allowed into Berlin itself until Saturday morning. So we'll spend the night there in my old city and have a nice evening with the good Elders there, and then on Saturday morning we'll ride up to Berlin! It will be exciting, man...I'll get some good pictures, don't you worry...

So you went through 'a few' of my pics? What does that mean? 9 GBs a little too much to handle in one go? :)

Oh man, I miss the old gang from back home. Was Brandon doing well? He is a good kid. I hope nothing happens to him in the Army. Was he starting to fill out? :) Be sure to let him know, though I don't even know how that 'week' before school will even work out...

Next transfer call is the 6th of March or so, that Saturday...and there is almost no chance that Elder D will stick around. It was unlikely this last time, and this next time, well, we are having our fun now cuz it is 95% likely he'll be gone. This one right now is his 4th here and our 3rd together overall...lot of time together. I'll prolly have one or two more here after this one ends, and then get bumped off someplace else for my last 2 or 3...and thereby ditch getting shipped off to Frankfurt mission.

Did you guys catch that part of my last letter? About the mission boundary changes? Big news, right? Any comments....? Hehe...

Well, yesterday D S blessed the sacrament and S L pased it, and they both did a great job and are really makin' good progress. I am way proud of them. They will be running the branch here one day...

Other than that, this past week we had a lot of appointments fall out, and that is always a bummer. we heard so much about German dependability and all that jazz and man maybe 1 in 25 appointments you make out actually goes through. It's quite a funnel...but this week we have some great stuff lined up and some neat people who will hopefully come to their appointments! ;) So it should be good. And then to cap it off with Präs Uchtdorf, my, what a week it will be...

The Lord truly does bless us though. Zum Beispiel: a man just showed up to church yesterday, and we had no idea who he was. turns out he used to come to church sometimes back like 5 years ago, but then the church moved location recently (like last September or so) and he couldn't find the building anymore. Well we talked to his son on the street at some point the past few weeks and gave his son a card, and the son gave the card to his father, and then the father was able to come again cuz he then had the new address. So he came and we talked to him a bit a made out an appt. for Wed! Good stuff. The Lord will always prepare a way :)

I know the Church is true. Thought you ought to know :D You all have a great week, don't wreck the new car, I'll do my best out here.

Just a few requests: could I get the application info to the school of fine art at BYU, parents? I'd like to know what is involved in that before it gets to much closer to registration.

Also, Emma, Elder C has a website from his past where he has some of his old stories up, and if you'd like to check them out, he said it's fair game. Reading, I mean, not stealing his story ideas :P :) I'll get you the link in a seperate mail. He has some very cool stuff. He also requests the next part of that little bit you did about Emmanuel visiting that angel on the beach as the baby turtles come out...I told him it was prolly just a one-off there but if there's more to that stroy feel free to mail that out here, we'd love to see it. Or anything else too. So yeah :)

Well. I think that is all. Love you all, pray for you, thank you for your support. Please don't lose my SD cards! Hee hee! Thanks for everything! Tschüß!

Elder Sterling Mason, Nordhausen

Arrived 2/8/10

Well hello there!

So the pyramide came but not the other box yet???? That troubles me. I sent the other box a week earlier.....and it has my SD cards in it, so it really needs to get there ok...

Na ja. Hope and pray, right? yeah...

Yes, Uchtdorf will be the bomb. It will be extra cool getting back to Berlin as well. We are driving up there with the M's Friday evening, tho we are not allowed to be in Berlin til Saturday morning, so they will leave us in Brandenburg to sleep over there and then we will ride the train in that Saturday morning with those Elders. That train we'd take all the time when I was there not too long ago...Man that'll be fun. We'll see if I can get a pic with him! Na ja, a handshake would suffice, I think...

Wooo! Go Saints! I like the Saints. They have never gottn enough respect. Now they have to get some. I guess it is more that i just do not like the Colts so much. They fight the Patriots too much. Though i guess honestly i don't know if i can be a Pats fan anymore; i dont think Tom Brady is playing right now, and the old hero team is gettin taken apart and we'll see what happens. But if they got Brady back playing...

Well, now, what do you classify as best driver now, Mother dear? That's quite a broad term there............I see. So THAT'S why you went out and bought her a new car.... :D

There's a good article in the new Liahona/Ensign from Elder Holland that talks about the sin of Lot's wife and avoiding that in our day...very good article, just read it in a member's copy cuz ours don't come so regularly/on time...

P.S. there was no baby Jesus on there to begin with. Thought it a bit strange myself...just the empty space where there could be one...but I will not complain for the price i got it for...hey! you could make one with all you garage supplies! Yeah...

How'd you like my wrapping job there, eh? Hahaha Did my best with what I had...packaging from Post here costs 20 €...psssshhhh yeah right....

Cow tongue tacos are pretty strange. I have eaten some pretty weird things though: raw meat mashed up with onions and mayo...it's called hakepeter or somesuch. GROSS. or Blutwurst. It wasn't quite so gross as i expected but not my fav to be sure. Na ja, aside from eating that cow's intestine stuff at that one mutual activity back home (manudo?) things are fairly regular out here...

Hope this week goes well for you all! It has been a good week for us. We have really been blessed to see D S grow into his new priesthood responisibilites--he is making such progress and is doing so well. It is awesome to see. And he knows that now it's on to the next big goal: the temple. Gotta get his wife baptized and then in a year, to the House of the Lord! They'll make it, of that i am sure. And S L is still doing well. He blessed the Sacrament on Sunday and did a great job. He will do grea things as well :)

Wellllllll..........................................so we went into C&A last monday, checking out the sales......and they were having a suit sale...................and it was a very good sale.............ok enough of this. They had a beautiful Westbury business suit, the one i have kinda been eyeing for a month or so now, and it was marked down from 160€ to 99€. There were 5 left, it was a ''clearing out for the new spring shipment'' sale...and well, I bought me a new suit. I really look good in a nice trim suit :P :D So I am gonna hold onto it, wear it like once a tranfer maybe, and bring it home. It'll be my business suit for the future. I'll see if i can print you out a pic of it or something. Yeah. So. My bad. But it was a deal i did not want to pass up. shrug. yeah.

Well. Onto bigger news......

This is crazy--get this: The Hamburg mission is being dissolved on July 1st. They are getting eaten up by our mission, the Berlin mission, and the frankfurt mission is getting like one of their zones. We lose a zone to Frankfurt, namely the Zone where I am now, Erfurt Zone, and then the Munich-Austria mission and the swiss mission get realigned so that in the end there will be three missions in the german-speaking world: Germany North (Berlin and Hamburg) Germany South (Frankfurt and Munich) and then the Austira swiss confederacy does something else down south. Names subject to having been made up by me :P Well ANYWAY. Nws is, that our mission will double in size come July 1st. Other news is, whoever is going to Erfurt Zone for that transfer will actually be transferred to FRANKFURT MISSION. Aggggg! So we will be sending 20 somethin missionaries to Frankfurt mission come july. At which point in my mission i would have like a month and a half left. We will see what happens, eh? I personally would prefer to stay in the Berlin mission, for a variety of reasons, but whatever the Lord has in store....right? He he he....sigh.

crazy. It'd be weird to have 3 different mission presidents...

but yeah. Things are good for me, we got a bit of a cold spell here the past few days, but come March Winter should be movin off a bit...or that's what they say...

So Emma IS running an Elder Mason blog then...is it...tasteful? Hahaha!

I am glad too that I have two wonderful sisters who can apparently drive better than me and are there for me. And have the Mason family brand of humor. And you parents do pretty well too :P :D Hee hee! Thanks for being my silly family. I love you all very much and look forward to sharing all these experiences with you in person. Thanks again for the food! And the spagetthios! Haha good stuff.

You all have a wonderful week and I will talk to you soon. Be good, eat your OWN vegetables, and I'll do my best. Seeya!

Tschüß!

---Elder Sterling J. Mason, Nordhausen

Arrived 2/1/10

Hello family!

First things first: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER! Wow, what are you now, 27, 28? Gettin' up there, soon it'll be the big 3-0! I hope it was a most fabulous birthday bash. What did you do for fun? Or was jabbing poor swiney people with needles all the fun you could handle for the weekend? Hee hee! Weeeelll I'd just like to thank you for all your years of nurture and love. I would not be the charming, humorous, finely-cultured dude I am now (haha yeah) had it not been for your constant support and encouragement and trying to read my MSN chats all these years. Thanks for being so persevering in love and for being diligent AND concerned at home. I certainly remember our righteous family traditions like prayer and FHE and watching Poirot (oh man i miss that...better have those ready for when i get home!) together. Good times, as they say. I am very grateful that you have been an example to me of living one's tesimony of the truth of the Gospel. It has been a powerful impact on me. So thank you. I love you Mom!

Love you too, Pops ;) P.S. I found a German model train catalog with lots of juicy stuff inside. I'll get it home to you somehow. Taylor can translate it all :D

Well we got D S ordained to the Priesthood on Sunday! e is now officially a Priest. And can start helping with the sacrament and stuff. WOOT! Man, finally gettin' some stuff done out here...it's nice to know you have actually accomplished something as a missionary...

Welllllll, Taylor can drive now.............I'll keep you all in my prayers more frequently :) HAHA! *dodges Taylor's swinging fist* Just kiddin'...

Wooooo, homework pileup! Love that feeling. Actually it makes me wanna die most of the time, Em. I hope i can find some way to better manage my time once i get back to school. Hopefully the mission will have left some sort of studying mark on me...

I believe latency in public opinion is an apathy or torpor (ooooh, check out that little word there! kinda just means apathy too so it is a bit redundant there, but...na ja, right?) towards an issue or whatever. Like the space program right now. Not so much national push to get anything really moving in THAT direction...too many people worrying more about the economy or war...yeah. Or i could be wrong. Seeing as I just made that definition up. But it seems right to me :P :D

I wish you all the best wishes on everything you have to accomplish up there though. College is fun tho, na? sorry I am boring this week too, almost everything we had fell out this past week, so we don't have much else cool to report. Met a dude from Pakistan, I think it was, who can speak Urdu and Hindi and English and a bit of German. Have an appointment for Tuesday morning. We found a lot of new people this past week so we have lots of appointments lined up for this week.

STILL NO PACKAGE?? Curse you Deutsche Post and your delivery estimations....I sent it on Wednesday two weeks ago. At least. Maybe it has been three weeks by now. Yeah, prolly has been. Hrmph. Well it better show up. Those pics on those SD cards are...precious to me...

Got the box!!! Thanks so much! Oh, fyi, those last socks you sent me were great. Are great. They are very nice. Good work. Thanks for all the stuff, I finally have Ami snacks again...and that round of Get Fuzzy is hilarious...!

So I got a cold on Friday. It has been loads of fun. Just the head mucus, fortunately, no phlucas...gettin over it by now tho. That sudafed has saved my life...

I have no idea if yaks can swim. Wonder if they ever encounter running water in their natural environs... :/ But specially trained Deutche Post yaks are trained to survive 20,000 foot HALO jumps from DP jets, so, like, if the chute failed, then i could see a DP yak landing on your car and...leaving a crater in the driveway too, prolly...

So. guess what. On Feb. 20th the entire mission is having a meeting in the stake center in Tiergarten in Berlin cuz guess who will be there to talk to us?? PRÄSIDENT UCHTDORF, BABY!!! WhaZham! All 120 somethin' missionaries in this mission together in one stake center with the left-hand man of the prophet. WOOT! We are all way stoked. Partly cuz we all get to get into Berlin. I love that city. Partly cuz we all get to see one another, all of us, every single one, and there are some photos i need to take :) And partly cuz it'S UCHTDORF!!! Hopefully he will speak some German to us...crazy. Later that day he will be presiding over a regional Priesthood conference there in Berlin, and on Sunday he will preside over the regional conference for all of at least East Germany, if not all of Germany...so it should be good. Read in the Church Handbook of Instructions (I AM in the branch presidency here, so we get bonuses) that we are not to ask GAs for autographs. Dang. Nix that idea. But a shaking of the hand is definitely in order! 8D

Well. Not sure there is too much else to cover. I am still hunting a suit. I am a very picky shopper, so i knew i outta start a bit early looking at what i want. went into a little shop last pday and tried stuff on but the lady there was very rude to us, prolly thought we weren't serious or something, and there's no way they're gettin my money now. But C&A always has good sales. So. I had a proposition. Instead of sending me a package next time you are thinking of sending me a package, you could just hold the money you would save on shipping and stuff and put it in my account? Would you be down with that? I don' know. I am a very hesitant buyer. But i do want to come home with a nice German suit. So I'm a-lookin'. well we'll see. in any case, I do really appreciate all you do for me, all y'all.
Thanks for the letters and boxes and stuff. Pops, if you could hit me with my account balance, that'd be great, and is Em or somebody really running a blog on me? What's it called? Other than that, I'm 'bout finished here. Good to talk to you all. Thanks once again, and know that i love and miss you very much. Take care, and know that the Gospel is true. Til next week, na?

Love! Tschüß!
---Elder Sterling Mason

Arrived 1/25/10

Well, Family, I had been typing an email for the past half hour to you when my computer just shut down. And pooooff there goes pages of email. I HATE that. And as though i have the stamina now to retype it all. GRRRR! :´-( That is me crying, see...and now we don't have much more time...

Well ds got baptized, it was wondeful, elder downing did the baptizing and i confirmed him on sunday and it was just great! he is solid. his wife will be baptized as soon as she has her baby in march. so that is wonderful.
Yeah, we know about Haiti. Germans left and right use it for an excuse as to why there is no God. Sad that they do not understand His eternal purposes...

Man this sucks so bad. I had a bunch of advice for you, Em, but the gist of it was, hold a meeting and lay groundrules and talk openly but kindly about all of it. set up some cleaning schedules and individual food rights and divy everything up fairly and then have everyone agree to it and then don't cave if they get weak! Na ja. Write me somemore about it next week and then i'll put together a more coherant reply. You can complain to me. What are older brothers there for aside from annoyance and to lean on in times of roommate woes :D

Temple is in Freiberg. unless i serve in Dresden zone i pry will not have the chance to go there. but maybe when i come back to interpret for Pops on business, we could swing through :)

Love you family. Thanks for everything, hope you get my first package this week and that the SD cards come through ok. Looking forward to next week and another shot to write a real email. sigh. Sorry this will be such a short crappy email. Love you though, take care this week, mom get better! Don't worry, I'm smiling. The members here even point it out, that I'm a joyous child. Happy Australia Day (tmrw)! Bust out the temporary Aussie tatoos...P.S. how do Brennbury apartments look? Ok, until next week! bye!

Love, Elder Sterling Mason