No Karnival for Missionaries

Hey Mom, Happy Birthday!!!!! I did not send anything, and I am sorry about that, but I love you :) Did dad play the Beatles Happy Birthday song for you, I hope he did. It's tradition! That is great stuff to hear about all those temples being built in Arizona, and the stake at home. Elder Eddy is leaving me tomorrow and will be home the next day. My new companion is Elder Kramer, and I am staying in Wuppertal, at the same address, for at least another 6 weeks. Not too much happened this week, because we couldn't do too much. There is this celebration here called Karnival, and it is like Halloween and a super big parade and party all put together, and the streets get way crazy, so we aren´t supposed to go outside for any of it. 2 Elders came up to our place from Köln, and spent the week with us there, so that was fun. I do e-mail Brad, but he can't e-mail back,so its kinda lame, Ed sent me a letter yesterday, so I will write him too. What is up with that bank account I have, I get more money? That's cool. Just keep it there for me, and occasionally I will probably get some out from the ATM here, so just watch for that too. Good stuff to hear about Steve and Tausha and how they are finishing up with school. Before you send the camera card back, make sure that there are at least copies of all the pictures on our computer at home, cause I don't want to lose them forever. Lesson learned. Thanks so much, I love you all, Love Elder Bentz aka Mooker

Elder Dallin H. Oaks visits Europe

Yeah, I did get the valentine card, thank you, I forgot to write it last week, sorry. Not too much happened here last week again, this is the last full week that Elder Eddy is here, and I am a little jealous, but I have to do my time too, before I get to go home. Elder Dallin H. Oaks is coming to our mission too, on the last week in february, so he must be doing a european mission tour or something if he's in France by Matt this week, I´ll tell how it goes, Sweet stuff about the tax refund, thanks dad, for doing the taxes for me, and great job on the audit thing for the Church. I bought a nice jacket, for 40 € down from 70€ it´s light and will be better for the spring time and summer. The weather is the same as always in Wuppertal, it has been raining for a total of 36 hours now, and I have also almost forgotten what the Sun looks like, oh well, There is plenty of that where I come from. :) No one new to pray for leider (german?), but we will hopefully find some people tonight, and later, we are going on splits with the young men from the ward to do doors, we'll see how that goes:) Well, Only like 19 more fast sundays before I come home too, so, later tschüss, Love Elder Bentz aka Mooker

Change is in the air?

FYI....Mooker's brother Matt, serving in France left his camera case at a Cafe' returning after 9 hours. It was gone, camera plus 2 full camera cards. I have been after Matt to send home camera cards for a year! Luckily, all of his former companions are still around and he might be able to get pictures from them. Fingers crossed!

Too bad about Matt's card, but I have heard that happening to a lot of missionaries actually, but not me! I hope... So this week, not too much happened, Our district leader dislocated his shoulder from that football game we had, which is kinda funny, but not. We have interviews this week, and my companion only has 2 weeks left in his mission. Elder Lange was there for a long time! He is cool, and I'm happy for him to be going home. Hopefully in 2 weeks I will be transferred to a new area. Wuppertal is ok, but I want a change, and it rains here a lot. That's cool about the room, I hope I have somewhere to sleep when I get back :) It is true what Elder Lange said about attitudes, and how we treat other people, all we can do is give them the message and the chance to say no, or yes hopefully. Well nothing more to say so far, and I am sorry to write so little. I am taking pictures, and will send this card home in probably another two months or so. Love Elder Bentz aka Mooker

Keep on Keepin' on

Well, that's too bad about the Cardinals, at least they didn't go totally defeated like the Lions, Lame! Hopefully we will start to see some decent seasons out of them from now on. The Suns sound like they're diving. The Vegas trip looks like it was really fun, and everyone looks great, tell Kayla gluckwunsch from me. We have a football game planned for today in Düsseldorf, so that will be fun. We had Zonekonference last week and had some good stuff taught to us, and I got to see my good bud from the MTC there too, so that was worth mentioning. I went on a split with the District Leader this week, he is a little...different, but we had a good time none the less. Nothing besides that stands out too much from the last week, we're just keepin' on keepin' on. I am going to get a new companion at the end of February, and probably moved somewhere else, so it will be a good change, I will miss Elder Eddy though. Good stuff about the stake and Pres. Tillman, tell him I said hi, and thanks for the christmas letter, that was really nice of him. Well, I can't think of anything else to say. I have officially been in Germany longer than I was in the MTC, so that's cool, and I am already 4 months into it all, just 20 more to go! Tell Steve and Tausha they looked great in those pictures, and hi from me. I will hopefully have something more to tell you the next time. I am sorry that I don't have too much to write. Tschüss! Love, Elder Bentz aka Mooker