Week #23 in Hannover (28 July 2014).  In a surprise, Reese learned that he was being transferred to Oldenburg.  He will be a zone leader there with Elder Savage, who Elder Mitchell trained. Together they will be "white-washing" Oldenburg.  Reese's Hannover area is also being white-washed.   It sounds like there were some health issues in Oldenburg that necessitated the transfer.  Reese will have a car in Oldenburg, which is a fairly large zone.  Here is a map with the Oldenburg zone in green in the western part of the mission.  (Notice that Hannover has now been combined into a single zone.) 

The Oldenburg zone, which they refer to as the "O-Zone," includes Reese's old district in Osnabruck, toward the south part of the zone.  In other news, Reese was excited to report that his golden, Elder Karlen, will be coming to Hannover to work as a zone leader with Elder Davis. Elder Mitchell will be a district leader in Reese's zone.  It sounded like Reese and Elder Atkinson had a productive last week. They had a couple of taushes, found a couple of new investigators, and one investigator expressed a desire to be baptized, about which they were excited.  They also had a Summer Fest at their ward and four investigators came and had a lot of fun.  Sunday was a bit sad saying good-bye to the ward and others whom he has taught.  One of their investigators who came to church told Reese about a friend in Oldenburg who he believes will want to hear the gospel.  Reese and Elder Atkinson are working hard to make sure that all of the information about their investigators, friends and contacts is recorded in detail for the new missionaries who will take over their area.  With three investigators with plans to be baptized, they are eager that the area not lose momentum.  Here are a few last photos from Hannover:

Week #22 in Hannover (21 July 2014).  Reese continues to sound joyful about missionary work.  Two children were baptized this week, including the child of one new member they had baptized a couple of months ago.  Reese was able to do the confirmation.  After his usual day-by-day description, Reese said:  "Mostly just a great week - I am excited for everything that is going on here. We didn't actually meet with too many people from our teaching pool last week so we are getting on top of that. We are going to work hard for Elder Atke's last week. It will be great."  Reese and Elder Atkinson have reason to be proud for working so hard right up until the end of Elder Atkinson's mission.  On p-day on their way to Marienburg Castle, they took these photos in a wheat field.  The D&C 4 image is powerful:

 

Here are a few photos of the castle:

 

Week #21 in Hannover (14 July 2014).  Reese's letter was titled:  "GERMANY WORLD CHAMPS" and appropriately so because Germany beat Argentina 1-0 to win the world cup final.  The missionaries were allowed to watch two games:  USA v. Germany in group play and then the final, which turned out to involve Germany, which has a powerhouse team.  Emailing the morning after the world cup final, Reese wrote:  "That was a pretty good game last night - or at least from the highlights I saw. Pretty crazy that Götze was able to get his foot to the ball. There was a bunch of screaming and fireworks and I couldn't really sleep until midnight, but that's okay."  Hard to believe that Reese only saw the highlights.  When he put in his mission papers, he was most eager to go to a "soccer mission," and most prominently Brazil because that is where the world cup was to be held.  It turns out that he worked his way through the World Cup without even watching much, including much of the final, which he was permitted to watch.  Still, it was thrilling to be in Germany when the national team--Die Mannschaft--won the World Cup.  It is a soccer nation and their team deserved to win it.  They were the class of the tournament.  Reese also said that the prior p-day they went to "Schützen Fest, which happens apparently once a year since 500 years ago. We rode some cool rides and then came home to write a couple letters. It was really fun - I haven't ridden a thrill ride for a while."  Here are a couple of photos:

 

The missionary work moved ahead.  One of their investigators has put off baptism but Reese felt good about the decision so that she could take more time to develop a testimony.  He said that their Leadership Training Meeting in Hamburg had been good, although mostly a review of the last mission leadership council.  Here is a photo from the leadership training meeting:

Friday was Elder Atkinson's birthday and they had steaks and gave him a DFB scarf.  Here's a couple of photos:

Reese closed saying "great stuff is going on here...we are super excited."

Week #20 in Hannover (7 July 2014).  Another productive and fun week of missionary work.  As he does every week, Reese described their work day-by-day...and there was plenty.  They had a zone training meeting, which Reese said "was awesome. We told everyone to wear red white and blue and we also sang the Star Spangled Banner in the middle of the meeting. Everyone was stoked....  We had good lessons too from Elders Loitz and Bankhead and Elders Poch and Eggli. It was just a great meeting."  Here are three photos:

After the ZTM, Reese went to Celle for a tausch.  He was excited that they found three new investigators, which is the most the other elder had ever found in a day.  I think it made Reese feel good to help.  On Friday, they went to an American member's home to celebrate the 4th of July.  They had a great time and, Reese said, "even had root beer."  Reese noted that the Germany v. France world cup game was playing in the background:  "I sneaked peeks every now and again. I miss soccer a lot, but I guess everyone has to give up something, right?"  Here is a photo of Elder Atkinson with a sandwich:

Finally, here are a couple of photos of a day at the spa in their Hannover apartment.  Apparently, Elder Atkinson won some facial product at a street spin-the-wheel contest.  They had a laugh trying it out.  Lots of missionary work, but clearly some silliness and fun too:

Week #19 in Hannover (30 June 2014). Reese and his Mom emailed back and forth a few times as Reese was trying to work out when he should return from his mission to start at BYU.  It looks like he will come home one week early on January 7 and start BYU classes a few days late. There was a mission leadership council in Berlin this week.  Here is a photo of the MLC:

For his birthday back in March we gave Reese money to buy a German national football team jersey.  The World Cup having started, and Germany being aflame with footbal interest, Reese bought his jersey.  Here are some photos of Reese and Elder Smith modeling (and that seems to be the right word) the two national team jerseys designed for the World Cup:

Week #18 in Hannover (23 June 2014).  Reese's email was titled "Smoovies."  He said:  "We bought a blender last week, and it is glorious! I think we ate together 30 bananas, 1 kilo apples, 1 kilo of oranges, peaches, carrots, and a bunch of frozen strawberries. Best purchase of the mission so far."  The week was otherwise full of missionary work and a tausch in Hildensheim.  The most exciting news of the week was that an investigator committed to baptism and has made great progress in stopping smoking.  They are hoping he can be baptized before Elder Atkinson goes home.  Reese thought is was a "great week."  Here is a photo of Reese and Elder Atkinson on a train.  I'm not sure of the destination:

Week #17 in Hannover (16 June 2014).  Reese's email was titled "Round 4," and conveyed the happy news that he will be staying with Elder Atkinson for a fourth transfer and sending him home.  This has been a remarkable companionship.  Reese noted that, after transfers, he would be "the 3rd oldest ZL and our compschaft is the oldest. Pretty funny how fast every ZL has changed."  On Monday, they spent some of their p-day cleaning up the elevator in their building and removing some graffiti.  On Wednesday, he and Elder Atkinson traveled to Braunschweig to do a baptismal interview. On Tuesday they had a good district meeting and Reese sent these photos:

Week #16 in Hannover (9 June 2014).  Said Reese:  "This week was not too shabby."   Elder Dyches was conducting a mission tour and spoke to the missionaries in Hamburg.  Reese was impressed by his enthusiasm for the work.  Here are a couple of photos from Hamburg:
 

As usual, Reese enjoyed seeing old companions, district-mates, etc.  Here is a photo of Reese and Elder Karlen, his former Golden:

That evening, they did a tausch with the elders in Kassel, although Reese came back to Hannover.  He said that they "went with [the stake president] to do some home teaching to a less active. That was solid because the president is a Physicist and we geeked out about the laser facility in Livermore."  The next morning they tausched back in Göttingen, which was the half-way point and then came back to Hannover.  On Saturday, they helped a sister in her garden and Reese remarked:  "Gardens in Germany are super cool. Kind of like a separate plot of land with a little cabin thing."  For Sunday, Reese said:   "Church was good, although none of our investigators came. We just want to find some more progressing investigators.... We'll figure it out :)"  Here are a few photos of Reese at a more formal garden on p-day:

Week #15 in Hannover (2 June 2014). Reese said the week was okay but the work went forward a bit slowly.  They had a district meeting at which they worked on their Family History packets, which he said was quite fun.  They also attended the district meeting in Braunschweig and then had a mission leadership council in Berlin, which was focused on obedience and inspiring other missionaries by teaching through Joseph Smith's First Vision.  Here are a couple of photos (with Sister Schoepf, Elder Smith and Elder Atkinson) at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin:

Apparently, they usually play soccer in the church gym for a break during the missionary leadership council.  Here is a photo:

 

Reese and Elder Atkinson also had a chance to drop by Mel's Diner and enjoy an American hamburger:

And one more random photo of Reese and Elder Atkinson after a morning workout, presumably in the rain: