Email - September 29, 2014

 Ich bin neidig dass ihr den Film angeschaut habt, und ich nicht. (I am envious that you have watched the movie and I have not.)

 But really though, it sounds and looks so good! There's a new senior couple in our mission, the Gublers, and Elder Gubler has worked in the MTC for the last five years as the executive secretary, and he told us that now in the MTC the missionaries will be able to see Meet the Mormons on Sunday nights when they get to go watch different church films! Lucky punks. Since Elder Gubler has good ties with the MTC, we're hoping he gets something set up for us over here. :) Are a lot of people going to see it??? Also, you all are looking like movie stars in that picture! Honestly though. Lookin like a million bucks, fam!

 Alright, I see how it is, just throwing in that "iPhone 6" kidney jab in there, all nonchalantly. I'm pretty sure President Stoddard is getting one of those as well, and it's coming over from the States right now! So we'll see if it's all it's talked up to be!

 Well fam, we're short on time, and Elder Lindsey is baking zucchini bread as I type so that we can finish up and head straight to an appointment, so I apologize if this email isn't as long as you would like, but I'll do my best! We've got hearts to soften and lessons to teach!

 Overall a solid week. On Monday we had the opportunity to have an appointment at the Leimer's home, the Area General Authority! They live in our ward, and are such a cool family. I told their 18 year old son that I doubted his burrito making abilities, and before you know it, we were over there that night eating burritos. We had a great lesson, and also a super productive time being able to sit with Elder Leimer at the dinner table and discuss what is going on in the Area and what needs to improve and just being able to brainstorm together! Definitely not an appointment you get every day out here.

 I also had the chance to go this week on a split with Elder Anderson, the elder I trained over a year ago in Erlangen! It was awesome to be with him again. Speaking of how missions can make an elder grow....wow. He is a whole different person… Such an awesome elder. We had a good time, and were able to teach some solid appointments out in Wiesbaden. It was overall just a great time.

 Elder Lindsey and I also went this week to visit some hospitals and do visits there to patients who had a desire to hear a hopeful and uplifting message. It was going pretty well, but not the best when we thought about leaving and going to do something else. We were on the brink of leaving when we decided to try just one more room. When we walked in, the woman on the hospital bed was tatooed as far as the eye could see, literally just covered, and I thought "awesome… great note to end on.", but boy was I wrong and completely judged the book by its cover. This woman, Frau Hänzel, is probably in her young 40's, and has had 4 weeks at home this whole year, and she's really tired of hospitals. She was really downbeat, and when we said we had a message of hope and encouragement, she said "well nothing could hurt at this point, why not." So we began to teach her about the Plan of Salvation and about the Book of Mormon, and after about 30 minutes, she asked if she could buy the Book of Mormon from us. She didn't know what to say when we told her it was free, and she didn't set it down for the rest of the time we were there up until we left her room. It was a great little lesson in which we and she learned a lot about and from each other, and we're so excited to go back this week and hopefully find her again. Who knows where it will go, but we definitely know never to judge her or anyone else again, and to always try just "one more door". That last door is almost always where the miracle is waiting. So I'll let you know how things go with her this next week!

 We also had MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) this week, which went well as well. All of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders were in Frankfurt for the day, and it was a good meeting where we learned a lot from Pres. Stoddard. The missionary work is honestly taking off in this country and in this mission, we could all barely believe it! We're excited for things to come in the near future!

 We got to meet with the Fabres again as well, right after they had just gotten back from their son's swim meet, in which he won 3 gold medals! Sister Fabre was so happy and so tired from yelling all day. It reminded me of hearing mom scream from the bleachers at my track meets. :) They are doing great, and we have another appointment set out for this week.

 We had another appointment this week at which Elder Lindsey ate so much food that he threw up, but that's a story for another time! Haha

Well we've really gotta run, but I love you all! Sorry for the lame email, but thank you for all of your awesome ones! I'll get back to you all next week, and I hope you all have an awesome week! I can't wait to hear about it next week! If I've got to keep smiling, laughing, behaving ,and just going, you all do too! Haha never give up, and never stop smiling! It's never worth it.

 You all are great! Ich hab euch alle lieb!

 -- Elder McGinn