Playing Football on the Border

Well another week down. Me and Elder King had a pretty fun P day. We went the a town called Konstantz which is right on the border of Switzerland and Germany. In fact I think this field we played football on was in fact the border line which is kinda cool I guess. We met up with 4 other companion ships and went to go play some american football down on the field I just talked about. Nothing too special about the game itself but I did break/dis-locate my thumb.
I didn't really notice it at the time though just thought I jammed it. After about two hours of football with me messing up my finger and another elder messing up his knee we ended up going to a mall. The mall didn't really have anything cool so we only stayed in there for a few minutes. We ended up heading to some shop we heard was supposed to have some world war two stuff but when we got there the guy told us he didn't have anything that was disappointing. After everything was said and done we ended up all meeting up in another city called Singen.
They had all you can eat ribs for 7 euro's. Oh man that is an amazing deal out here but I think they didn't expect us to be able to eat as much as we did. 10 very hungry missionaries each paying about 10 euro's for ribs and something to drink. They brought us out the ribs one plate at a time. I ended up eating about 4 plates, some people ate around 5 plates. Elder Tavackai, a huge Tongan dude, ate about 7 or 8 plates, I'm not sure, either way I think we made the people mad cause we ate so much. But hey that is what all you can eat is all about.
On Tuesday we had zone conference. Me and Elder King had the final workshop that we had to present to the zone for about 30 minutes about "love of them" work. Since the zone leaders had only called us about two days in advance we kind of made a real quick workshop that consisted mainly of a 15 minute scavenger hunt. Everyone liked it and I had bought candy for everyone that participated so everyone was way happy about it in the end.
After that we went to Freiburg and got to play volleyball with the young single adults and friends of the yound single adults. That is when I realized, after hitting the volleyball, that my thumb was not right and about two serves afterward my thumb dis-located so I went in the bathroom and pulled on it till it slid back into place.
On Wednesday we stayed in Offenburg and went around trying to visit a bunch of old investigators and less actives. Only one person let us in and it was this less active lady who came to church and has asked us to come over twice to help move some stuff real quick so we are thinking she should start coming back to church now. She is really open and just says everything she is thinking. She even called us to ask us what we wanted to do when we got home and how long we had been on our missions and how much we liked our mission. She is a little funny but way cool.
I also stopped by some apotheke (pharamcys) and tried to find a hand brace, I finally settled for some bandageing wrap stuff and tried asking the lady for a hand brace and she was like "oh you want some lotion not a handbrace." I was pretty sure it was a stupid idea but it wasn't until after I was dumb enough to buy the lotion and leave that I realized how stupid it was.
On Thursday we went to Kehl which is our city that borders France. We got to meet a member who has an 8 year old daughter who can't get baptized yet since her father thinks she should wait till she's 18 so it's her decision. We tried explaining that no one is forcing her and she chooses if she wants to do it or not now but no dice. We did play a quick game of parcheese with them too that was kind of fun. Not a lot else got to happen in Kehl that day and pretty soon the day was done.
On Friday after our study we met up with the Freiburg elders and did an exchange. I got Elder Griffes who is only about 3 weeks old in the mission. We went to a larger city called Lahr and tried to meet one of our investigators and members. Yet again everything fell through except some members who we called while we were there to see if they had time for us to come by and give a short message. It took us about 3 hours of walking around to find their house and after our 10 minutes short thought for their kids we left. We caught a bus to near the train station and went and got a yufka döner from this place me and Elder King found last time when we were in Lahr it was amazing for the second time in a row. So I think it will now officially be a weekly ritual to go to Lahr and get a yuka döner from this place before we leave.
On Saturday Elder Griffes and i went to a little town called Herbolzheim which is right on the border of our area and Freiburg's. We met this older man me and Elder King met on the train on day. He let us in and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and he said we could come back. We also did about 5 or 6 hours of doors and got about 5 people that said we could try again some other time which is actually really good out here for 5 or 6 hours even though they most likely all didn't really have interest. But that is ok someone soon will have interest.
On Saturday night we went to exchange back and met the new senior couple missionaries that just got here and now are our third companionship in our district. On Sunday I got to give an opening prayer for every meeting I was in. Even though there were only about 14 people at church we still went over our time in fast and testimony meeting. I guess the good thing about it being so small is if you want to go off and tell some story it isn't necessarily a bad thing since everyone has about 5 or 6 minutes that goes up or longer if you want. After church we finally did some weekly planning and just stayed at the church and looked some addresses and stuff up on the computers while we were here. I went to bed as soon as we got home and then woke up today and we went to go help a member move some stuff and then we came here so that is about it for me.
So far in 4 transfers I've averaged three members have died and three bones (or maybe only two) have broken. I am without a doubt the unluckiest missionary I know. Dad, that poster is for you but I didn't quite know why I got it wasn't sure if you would ever really hang it up.  But if you want to go ahead and if not, put it in my room and I'll do something with it when I get home.  Hope that chocolate was ok it wasn't the super high quality swiss brand (called Lindt) but it is supposed to still be pretty good. Germans and Swiss use animal fat in their chocolate, I've heard it's what makes it better.
Right after I left Ellwangen two of our investigators me and Elder Middleton found in Ellwangen that we commited to baptism got baptized.  So if nothing else I'm going to count those two as baptisms if anyone ever asks me if I got any.  One was Frau Loske, the lady who lived with her boyfriend.  He got sick and had to be put in a nursing home and the other was a girl name Sonja who we found by accident one day.  It was such great news to hear that they both were baptised.
About your question if it is cold, the weather out here sucks it has been cold and windy every day.  Yestday we had to stop doing doors just cause it was just way toooo ridiculously cold like i mean easily in the single digits or lower.  I did get my missionary coat, gloves, scarf and the hat Kimberly made me back when I got here.  They all help but the wind just whips through everything and pretty soon you are frozen.
I've been working out every morning and only eating like high protein low carb and fat foods and I've been getting back into shape. I've only lost 7 pounds but Im pretty sure I've converted a good amount of fat back into muscle. 
Mom, I will look on a p-day for a cuckoo clock for you, I honestly don't know where they would sell them here so if you can look it up online and send me information, that would help.  I don't have a lot of time to do stuff like that so I need to know exactly where to go.  Can you also look up stores that sell WWII memorbilia for me?  Look in Ottenburg, Frieburg and Stuggart.  Elder King got some stuff that is pretty cool and I"d like to get a few things while I'm over here too.  I got the pants and I also took the shoulder stuffing crap out of the black suit jacket one that I left here and now it fits perfectly and doesn't look stupid. So it is my new favorite jacket. I do need a couple pairs of contacts sent since somehow my contacts got messed up on the trip over here.  Also could you send me Elder Leishmans and Elder Kunzlers email adresses? I know they got new ones with the new myldsmail thing so I would like to write them so  if you can that would be cool.
Everything is going great and I'm glad to be out here. Love to everyone.  Elder Hargett