Week #9 in Chemnitz (April 22, 2013 Letter).  No photos this week but here are a few things from Reese's letter to us:  "This week was a pretty solid one. We had some solid lessons, and set up some good stuff for next week. . . .  On Tuesday we . . . went with the ZL`s to Schwester Hartig's. We ate lunch and did service.  She made the best schnitzel I have ever had.  It was delicious. Then we cut down trees and bushes for her. She worked with us. She is 82, has a 9 year old great-grandson, but she works crazy hard.  Also she drives like a 16 year old boy.  It is awesome.  All the missionaries love her, including me. . . .  On Wednesday we had districts meeting, as usual.  After that though, we went on a tausch, and Elder Haas stayed with me in Chemnitz.  He is in the same Golden group as me, so we were scared about our language abilities. We still champed it though. . . . On Thursday, we did some street contacting and had not much luck.  Then we did a street display and tausched back. I was able to give out 3 Books of Mormon. They weren`t full lessons or anything, but it was still really fun.  We taught English class later, and taught about checking into a hotel.  It is always fun to teach English, because the environment is super relaxed. . . .  On Friday, we went to the Tierpark to do service again. We raked a lot of leaves. Then, with the ZL`s, we had lunch. We had these Quark Brötchen things, that were super delicious.  Like Bagel Bites, but better.  We then went to the Uni as per usual. Our 4 appointments fell out, but we were able to teach two other potential guys. It was fun that we got lucky enough to find some other teachable guys.  At the end of the night President called us, which is always freaky.  He asked for Elder Pack and then told him that he was going to be able to go to the baptism in Nienburg, which is across the mission.  It was in 2 days, and he needed to leave on Saturday, the next day.  Elder Pack was super excited.  We had to drastically change our plans. President told me that I was to work with the ZL`s in a dritt for the weekend.. . . On Saturday, we had to cancel a lot of appointments, and we tried to move everything around, but it didn`t all work out. We went and got Elder Pack`s ticket and then went to the Uni. We talked to everyone that we could to move appointments. In the end we taught one guy we didn`t expect to teach, and then had 2 really good lessons. . . .   After the lessons, we went to HauptBahnHof and watched Elder Pack get on a Train. Then I went off with Elder Fuller and Elder Ashby, the zone leaders. We tried by on a bunch of contacts, but didn`t have too much luck. Still it was really fun to be in a dritt, and to stay the night at their place.  On Sunday we woke up and went to church. The bishop gave a great talk about the ward needing to help the missionaries.  It was way good.  I spent one more night with the ZLs, because Elder Pack came back today. All in all, it was a really cool week. We didn`t necessarily have the best luck, but we did give some really good lessons. It was really fun to work with the ZL`s though. . . . I am really excited for our baptismal candidates, and I really hope that they go through."

Week #8 in Chemnitz (April 15, 2013 Letter).  Reese had a zone training meeting that he enjoyed.   A picture of the Chemnitz Zone was posted on the mission blog:

Reese and Elder Pack continue to work steadily, although this week a large number of appointments fell through.  Reese reported a bit about how Fast Sunday works and the power of fasting:  "So after all of our other appointments started falling through, I was getting down.  I was hungry, because I had started fasting.  In Germany, you skip Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast.  I said a prayer that everything would change, and then things started turning around.  We went to see if a inactive member was there, and he finally was.  We set up an appointment for the next day."  They were also able to give someone a Book of Mormon.
     On Sunday, they had sacrament meeting early and then watched general conference.  Reese reported:  "It was only in German. If I really concentrated, I could understand about 70% of it."  Later in his letter he said:  "I am excited to be getting better at German. I am actually starting to really like Sächsich now. It is funny.  Most of the people that start in Sachsony love Sächsich, but everyone else hates it."

Week #7 in Chemnitz (April 8, 2013 Letter).  Reese sent us this picture of him at the Freiberg Temple:

Interestingly, Mary later received an email from a couple from Orem (Stephen and Ursula Timothy) who had been visiting Germany and had run into Reese and his district at the Freiberg temple.  They sent us the following picture:

Back Row, left-to-right:  Elder Ruckaure, Reese, Elder Ashby, Elder Haas, and Elder Pack.  Front Row, left-to-right: Sister Warncke, the Timothys, and Sister Schmidt. 

Reese later sent us two more photos of his Chemnitz district at the Freiberg temple.  These include Elder Fuller.  It sounds like his district does a lot together because they all attend the same ward.  Here are the two photos:

Here's a bit more of what Reese said in his letter:  "Today we woke up and went to the Bahnhof to go to Freiberg. We got there for the 10:30 session. I did it in German, even though I needed a lot of help with certain parts. It is direct translated on the video, so that was pretty funny.  I really liked how small the temple was.  The celestial room was really small, but really nice. Maybe one day you can visit there. W e missed our train back and had to wait a little bit.  Anyways, this week was a really good one. We didn't really do any finding, but made some good progress with our current investigators. conference is cool, but it kind of makes the weekend difficult to teach people. Oh well.  My German is coming along pretty well. I can't understand everything, but I can say just about everything I want. Most of it is probably not perfect grammar, and talks around words, but I am excited. It is fun to look at conversation you just had and realize you answered every question right and stuff. I like that a lot. I get better everyday, but this week was particularly good. We are supposed to speak German from 9-9 and this week we did really well at it. I kind of want a German that can't speak English for a companion.  That would hard, but really good for my German. I am excited I am getting better."  He concluded with a bit about General Conference and said:  "I am thankful for the opportunity to listen to prophets.  I love everything that we are doing out here, even if it is tough a lot of the time. Love you both a lot."

Week #6 in Chemnitz.  Reese is settling in in Chemnitz.  Here is a photo of Reese and Elder Pack studying in their apartment:

Reese also said that the prior week he had gone to a zone conference in Dresden.  He enjoyed the talks by President and Sister Kosak.  Here is a picture of Reese along with the rest of the Elders and Sisters in the Chemnitz zone.  It's copied it from the mission blog.