Week #13 in Chemnitz (May 20, 2013 Letter).  Before I turn to Reese's letter, I thought I would post two photos of Reese's Chemnitz zone.  They had a zone training meeting this week.  Reese said he enjoyed his interview with President Kosak and that the President "loved" his planner, which was pleasing to him.   Sister Kosak posted two photos from the zone training meeting.  Reese, and the rest of the missionaries seems quite happy.  The first photo is a standard zone picture.  The second is the jovial zone picture.

Here is another picture of Reese, Elder Pack and an investigator at SchlossTeich Lake in Chemnitz:

Reese also sent these two photos.  I'm not sure where they were taken.

Reese's letter this week sounded cheerful.  They had stake conference this weekend.  Chemnitz is part of the Dresden stake.  Sixty missionaries sang at the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference.  The following photo was posted on the mission blog of the missionaries singing.  We can't see Reese but he was part of the group. 

Reese had the chance to go on splits with the APs after the zone training meeting.  They visited a less active member who Elder Bangerter had baptized earlier in his mission and so it sounds like Elder Bangerter served in Chemnitz.  They had a couple of very good "joint teaches" of investigators with members of the Chemnitz ward that Reese seemed pleased by.  Overall, it sounded like a good week.

Week #12 in Chemnitz (May 13, 2013 Letter).  Before I get to the letter, I have to mention that we had the chance to talk with Reese via Skype for Mother's Day on Saturday, May 12.  The technology actually worked quite well.  We were able to patch in Rachel and Blake (although we didn't have a video link to them because they don't have a "Premium" account.  On our end, Mom, Dad, Jimmy (and for part of it, Grandy and Papa) participated.  Even Noosa made a quick appearance.  It was great to see Reese.  He was in a private booth at an internet café.  We also had the chance to say a quick "hi" to his companion, Elder Pack and also to the zone leaders, who were calling home from the same place--Elder Ashby and Elder Dzierzon.  Both of the zone leaders made nice comments about Reese.  It was evident that they were all getting along well.  Here is a photo of Elder Ashby and Elder Dzierzon on a bus:

Reese looked good.  It made us miss him more, particularly when he said that the next Skype conversation would occur at Christmas.  Reese, however, seemed unfazed. In his letter on the following Monday, he said the call had spurred him forward.

As far as the letter, Reese said that although it wasn't a great "numbers" week, they actually accomplished a lot.  The highlight of the week was that Reese had four investigators come to Church.  They really seemed to enjoy the Mother's Day sacrament meeting.  On Wednesday, Reese said that their finding efforts had been somewhat limited because of "himmelfahrt" (Heaven Travel), which he said was "pretty crazy" with a "lot of people [who] were really drunk."  Overall, though, Reese said it had been a fun week that was uplifting for him.

Week #11 in Chemnitz (May 6, 2013 Letter).  Reese's letter this week was cheerful and it sounds like they've been quite busy with missionary work.  They continue to conduct a FHE for investigators, teach an English class and do service every week at the Zoo.  Interestingly, he mentioned that at the end of one discussion, the investigator had a guitar and Reese "played him a song I learned on it. I think he liked that, because he doesn't know how to play it. Did I mention yet that I am sort of learning to play some guitar from other Elders?  I can play 2 pretty cool songs, and it is pretty fun. I can play all right because of the experience with the bass."  (If you are wondering, no, he hadn't mentioned it.  Interesting.)

It sounded like Sunday went very well.  One of their investigators came to Church and had a good experience.  They had a nice dinner with the bishop.  Reese also had a nice compliment from one of the Zone Leaders, who is from the German state of Bayern, about his German being "already way good."  It made Reese's day.  Here is one funny picture that Reese sent of his body with a Karl Marx bust.  I assume this was taken in the City Center.  During the East German era, Chemnitz was known as Karl Marx Stadt.

Week #10 in Chemnitz (April 29, 2013 Letter).   Reese said that his "German is coming along little by little, I think. As they say here, schritt für schritt." They did quite a bit of street contacting this week and had some success--at least they had a number of good conversations about the Church.  A couple of his investigators came to sacrament meeting and had a good experience.  Transfer calls came this week and Reese will be staying with Elder Pack for another six weeks.  He also said that they were splitting the Hanover zone into east and west.  Here is a mission map with the new zones:

Reese also sent a couple of photos.  The first is with him and a brother in the Chemnitz Ward who they visit every week and for whom they buy groceries.  The second is a random picture of Reese with a bouquet of flowers.  I'm not quite sure where the flowers came from but at least it is a picture of Reese.