Tutto nel mondo è burla

"Everything in the world is a jest!" With these words Giuseppe Verdi began the colossal final fugue of his only comedy, Falstaff. It was this monumental work which I had the pleasure of seeing this Thursday produced by Utah Vocal Arts Academy and Utah Lyric Opera for their Principle Artist Summer Program. I had attended their performance of Gianni Schicchi two years ago and certainly enjoyed it, but was absolutely blown away by the professional nature of their current program. Falstaff is the tale of the great "fat knight" of Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV. Not exactly Spring chicken, the rotund and reprobate Falstaff has become interested (well, maybe more than just interested) in the fair Alice (in Italian pronounced ah-lee-chay) and her friend Meg. After sending the same note of solicitation to both, scheming ensues (what else in an opera?) to bring down the proud cavalier.
Anyone can read a Wikipedia article, so I won't recount the entire story. However, the opera goer is constantly entertained by this never slow plot. The quick pace of the opera is aided by seemingly endless strings of text in the ensemble numbers which were expertly navigated by the large cast of principles. The cast consists of small groupings of two or three characters whose music is complimentary and they spend most of the opera together.
First, I must mention the comic duo of Bardolfo and Pistola played by Bjorn Eriksson and Spicer Carr. Their performances as the two cronies of Falstaff provided an extra measure of levity to the already comic opera in excellently timed slap-stick interactions.
Next, the pairing of the young couple Nannetta and Fenton. Jenny Smith as Nannetta played the reserved but playful daughter of Alice and Ford. Her rendering of the character was wonderfully youthful and she sported a rich voice to match. One of my personal favorites of the night was Jonah Hoskins. The quality of his voice is unmatched by any tenor of his age in the state of Utah and was perfectly matched to the music of the enthusiastic Fenton.
Dr. Caius and Ford, the latter trying to marry off his daughter Nannetta to the former, present an interesting twist in the plot. Dr. Caius was played by a confident Jordan Reynolds. In his first tenor role (audiences in Utah have seen him as Belcore and Count Almaviva) he immediately commanded the stage upon the opening lines of the opera. Baritone Christopher Clayton was an excellent Ford, a role full of outbursts of anger but also reserved calm. In his oration "È sogno? o realtà" he established the conflicted character who both mistrusts women and swears vengeance on Falstaff.
The trio of women composed of Mistress Quickly, Meg and Alice are responsible for the bulk of the plotting against Falstaff. Mistress Quickly was wonderfully portrayed by Valerie Hart Nelson. Her silky contralto was a pleasure to experience, always very commanding and present in the sometimes dull acoustics of the Provo High theater. The constantly drinking and scheming Meg was played by the wonderful character actress Lennika Wright. Her ability to weave subtle humor into the many situations of Falstaff was admirable. Jennifer McKay absolutely embodied the role of Alice, knowing how to string Falstaff along and yet providing the right amount of rejection to his advances. Alice is a bit of a thankless role having no aria, and yet she has many wonderful moments as the Prima Donna. McKay perfectly navigated this difficult role.
The sole character with no single partner in the opera is of course Falstaff. In his late years he has become quite proud of his size and deludes himself with respect to his ability to seduce women. The Don Giovanni who never was, his character is one of the most complex and perhaps also the most simple-minded. His role is full of wonderful music including but not limited to his first act lecture on "honor," the scenes with Quickly and Ford, and of course the final fugue. Well equipped both in body and voice was baritone Gregory Watts. His portrayal was spot on in characterization as he moved about the stage with pride and sang with a gruff yet richly colorful voice both comic and commanding. He was truly a magnificent Falstaff.
A word must be said for the stage direction of Marc Reynolds, whose productions have proven to be quite well received here in Provo. His direction is beautifully musical coming from one who understands the role of music in the drama, a trait that is often severely lacking in modern opera theaters. Maestro Nicolas Giusti led a slightly reduced and yet fully present orchestra. His understanding of Italian stylistic elements in Verdi's score helped to bring out all the most important colors in the orchestra.
This production was the wonderful product of UVAA's summer program headed by Dr. Isaac Hurtado. They will also feature performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers. Performances of both operas will run on Saturday the 18th of July and should not be missed. Information can be found at http://www.utahvocalartsacademy.com/

Bring on the Baritones #1: Figaro

This is going to be the first of a new series of posts on my blog where I work my way through the baritone repertoire highlighting a certain baritone role from a well (or maybe lesser) known opera. It helps me keep all the roles straight in my head....there's a lot up there and sometimes I just need to dump it all somewhere, but that's why I created this blog anyway...right?
I figured I would start with the most iconic of baritones. Anyone who grew up with Looney Tunes can tell you a little something about opera. And one of those things is that there's this really cool aria that's really hard and the singer says FIGARO FIGARO FIGARO a bunch of times. For those of you who don't know, Figaro is in fact the title character of Gioachino Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia better known in the English speaking world as the Barber of Seville. Yes, he is a barber but as he explains in his entrance aria, he is in fact much more than that. He actually spends his days running around conducting the business that it seems no one else wants too do. Of course his services come at a certain price, but he's such a charming person, who could say no?
I think it's time for a little example of one of the finest renditions of Figaro's "Largo al factotum" by the incomparable Thomas Hampson in a gala performance at the Met when he was a rising star in the opera world.

Any baritone will tell you that if you can make it through this aria without dying (let alone sing it well) you can win any competition. It has a well earned reputation for showing off the baritone voice. And how? The tessitura (the general part of the voice where you sing most of the notes in a song) of this aria is rather high and coupled with the patter speech typical of the bel canto period makes for a really tough aria.
Another highlight of Figaro's role is his duet scheming with Almaviva about how to get him into Rosina's house. I want to share my favorite version of this duet. A lot of people are opposed to this version because it is in German, clearly unaware of the fact that the opera world didn't really begin the whole original language fad until the second half of the 20th century. I, on the other hand, fully appreciate this rendition for it's wonderful recitative which actually sounds like real dialogue and the wonderful tempo at which they take this difficult duet. Here is Hermann Prey as Figaro and Fritz Wunderlich as Almaviva.

One last example of the awesomeness that is Figaro. He later sings a duet with Rosina which is simply charming. Once again he is scheming, this time with Rosina, to bring a letter to Almaviva who Rosina thinks is the poor student Lindoro.

I share this production more for Joyce DiDonato than for Peter Mattei, but they are really great in their roles. I think that most baritones hold Figaro as one of their dream roles, and rightfully so. Though there are many operas based on the orignal Beaumarchais trilogy of plays about Figaro, three have stood out as the best. These are the Barber of Seville (by Rossini of course), the Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), and the Ghosts of Versailles (Corigliano) and for a baritone to perform all three Figari is quite the accomplishment. I can't wait to tackle at least the first two (we'll see about the third) because the music is so wonderful. These roles are what makes Being a Baritone so wonderful!

Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera: Musicals....with opera singers?

Ok, let me start out by saying that it is really hard for me to write something like this because I just have a hard time in general making up my mind. However, I've thought about this for a long time, basically since I've started listening to opera. It doesn't take an opera singer to come to the conclusion that both Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera are very operatically driven musicals. Surely when you are writing a musical on the subject of a 19th century French novel (two of the greatest, by the way) and you are trying to decide which style of music you are going to choose to underscore the drama, romantic era opera music is probably going to be your first source for inspiration. We'll not talk about some of the stranger exceptions to this rule....ahem Notre-Dame de Paris. Anyway, reports of Lloyd Webber's desire to portray late romantic opera in his blockbuster musical range from parody to imitation to downright plagiary (I'll let you decide for yourself on this last one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64wUWdKgKU4) but it is certain that he was masterful at creating an entire generation of people who wholeheartedly believe that Phantom is an opera. Many have also realized that Les Miserables is also "through-composed", more so even than Phantom. This leads to the notion that maybe Les Mis is in fact an opera. It's not, but that's a reasonable conclusion to draw. Like I said, since I've been singing opera I have asked myself, "How would I cast a production of Les Mis/Phantom with only opera singers?" Now I know what you're thinking, "That would sound awful because opera singers don't know how to switch into musical theater voices." I've thought about that, and I think you'll just have to bear with me on this one because that's just something I can't compensate for. Surely music is allowed to be sung in multiple styles. Just look at what the crooners did to all those songs written for musical theater. Mack the Knife: written in German to be sung in a classical-jazz mix, ends up being a big-band crooner song. Anyway, I digress. Now to the real reason why I brought you here: my cast lists. We'll start with the more difficult one.

Coming to an opera house near you: Phantom of the Opera!
Starring:
Phantom- Thomas Hampson
Christine Daae- this is a hard one because of her range, but maybe Joyce DiDonato
Raoul de Chagny- Roberto Alagna or maybe Rolando Villazon
Carlotta- Diana Damrau

I won't try to cast every role, but those who are the most important make it to the list. The next list will be a little more extensive, but there are more roles in Les Mis.

Les Miserables
Starring:
Jean Valjean- Placido Domingo
Javert- Eric Owens or Erwin Schrott
Fantine- Renee Fleming (because I figured she should be in there somewhere)
Thenardier- Bryn Terfel
Madame Thenardier- I had trouble on this one, so if anyone can think of someone, I'm open.
Eponine- Elina Garanca
Cosette- Olga Peretyatko (I just wanted someone relatively young)
Marius- Nathan Gunn (because I like him and he has actually done musical theater)
Enjolras- Jonas Kaufmann

Now of course these casts may not work all that well together, but they're mostly people that I think would be interesting to see in each of the roles. Thanks for going down this path of opera fandom with me. Since this is a baritone blog above all things, I leave you with some wonderful clips of baritones singing musical theater. I told you he was good. Just Bryn being Bryn. But really, can we get this man in a mask?!?!

Modern Opera in Provo....

Now, don't go running away just yet. This is important. I believe that opera can and will thrive where people are willing to accept it and they are given the opportunity to experience it. Even modern opera. So what is this all about? A Parking Lot for Hyacinths, an experimental opera by Logan Hone and Jesse Nicholas Quebbeman-Turley. Many an epic quest has been embarked upon by the hero (tenor) of an opera. If we but look back upon the great epics of the operatic tradition we find Orpheus ever in search of his Eurydice, Siegfried in search of something to fear (failing miserably, I might add), Papageno in search of something to eat (I had to get a baritone in there somewhere). Well, when a Star Queen comes to you in a dream and bestows upon you silver acorns, you have to go out and figure out how to plant them. This is exactly the situation in which James Jeremiah Johnson finds himself. He's a student of city planning who's fed up with the the lack of respect for nature and dadgummit he's going to change that. He's going to restore nature to the city even if he has to travel out to the desert (?) to find out how. I'll admit, the premise of the opera is a little strange, but this is modern opera. What did you expect? I won't tell you the whole story in the interest of avoiding a spoiler.
Let's talk a little about the cast of this opera. First of all, I have to praise the wonderful usage of chorus as both narrative body and as passive onlookers in certain scenes. Their part, though musically minimalist, was finely woven into the fabric of the opera. The hero of the opera was performed by tenor Elijah Hancock. I feel bad for performers of the role because of the strange tessitura in which it forces the tenor to sing. Hancock's voice was, though not overtly operatic, well suited to the role and made the character very endearing. Carli Hansen was Professor Hauptmann, the minimalist city planning professor who desires no connection to nature and thrives off of getting to the point. Minimalist in both stage business and musical line, this role was really nothing to smirk at, giving life to a character with so little vibrancy. The girlfriend Natalie, my favorite character of the evening, was powerfully portrayed by Michelle Alexander. As a struggling artist, her character spoke to many of us in the audience, whether we are actually struggling or not. Her aria was my favorite part of the composition. Alexander's voice lent a perfect amount of power to the character. One last singer who made an impression was Olivia Custodio who played three different characters in the course of the opera. She was certainly the busiest singer and yet brought life to all three roles making them equally interesting.
My biggest beef with the opera: Where are the baritones? I have to admit, I was hoping that the tree in the desert scene would end up being a baritone or a bass. It only seemed right. He ended up being a spoken role. That's just me though....
Well, I hope that A Parking Lot for Hyacinths continues to be performed. I enjoyed it and would even go see it again, something that I can't say of all modern compositions that I have heard. I congratulate the cast and production crew on an opera well done. Keep doing what you're doing.

Where have I been all summer?

You know, I don't think I'll ever be good at this whole blogging thing. I do want to wrap up the summer since I wrote last. There have been some fun things. I went home to California instead of going to Spring term at BYU. I hadn't been at home for more than a week since 2009. It was time to just chill for a while. It started out pretty good and I got to hang out with my best friends from home and I had all day long to sing to my heart's content. Unfortunately, that gets old REALLY fast. It didn't take too long to learn the role of Frank for Die Fledermaus, so I turned my musical attentions elsewhere. Needless to say, there was a lot of musical theater and even (gasp) Disney songs. May I just say, those two genres in particular are not very friendly to baritones. But it's just so fun to sing!

I celebrated Richard Wagner's birthday by having an all-day Wagner Fest where I did nothing but sing the great Wagner baritone roles: Wolfram, Wotan, Dutchman, Hans Sachs. It's really fun, but at some point your voice is not going to think so. At that point I turned to just listening to the Ring. My Ring has the great Theo Adam as Wotan and boy does he do the role justice. When my mom got home that day, this is what she saw.

I also went home for a more specific purpose, namely to get my driver's license. This is one of those secrets that should probably have remained so, but I don't really care as much any more. I had never really run into any huge problems not having a license, so I never got one. I now have it and I drive my (sister's) car all over the place as if I've always had a license. Following that lovely ordeal it was time for me to bid farewell to my beloved homeland and return to the fair state of Deseret...I mean Utah. I brought a few friends/colleagues along on the trip. One is a wonderful pianist and the other is an excellent tenor. Over the break I helped organize one of the most fun gatherings I've attended at BYU. We got together everyone that was around for that weekend and had a salon/soiree up at a cabin near Sundance. We ate food, we sang, we got to know each other better. It was really great. I can see us doing it again. This semester has been mostly me trying to learn all the music that I have been assigned/hired to learn in the short amount of time that I have. I've been singing three Italian pieces. Dolente immagine by Bellini, O cessate di piagarmi by Scarlatti, and Ah! Per sempre io ti perdei also by Bellini. They are fun and I'm learning a lot about "bel canto" style, especially how it works in my voice. It's been fun. I have also been involved in a production of Gianni Schicchi with the Utah-Idaho Performing Arts Company. We will be performing on the 23rd and 24th of this month and it promises to be a great show. I love all the people I'm working with and their awesome voices. I'm singing the role of Marco by the way, for all of you who care. This has been a really long blog post so thanks to all of you who stuck through it just to know what I've been doing with my life. I'm going to try doing more frequent, shorter posts. Thanks for reading, until next time I'll keep loving Being a Baritone.

When life gives you a blog....you should write on it.

So I know that I've been slacking since getting back from my mission. It has been a pretty crazy 2 1/2 months, but I've done a ton. We had an awesome opera scenes concert where I sang in a lot of scenes (mostly to justify taking the class for three credits) and I even did the translations for the supertitles, since it was in German it wasn't hard. I had a great time getting to know some of my fellow students of voice that are new since I left. If there's anything that I've learned however, it is that one should not wait until the last minute to learn music for something. After opera scenes was over I had all of a few weeks to learn all of the music for the opera chorus concert. That included some awesome choruses from Tenderland, Die Meistersinger, some other operas and a huge scene from the end of the third act of Otello where I sang the role of Jago. This was my first time singing a role by Verdi and I loved it. This is where that thing that I learned comes into play. I realized very quickly that music is not simply learned in an afternoon at the piano. Honestly, I didn't know the music at all to the extent that I should have. In the concert I made up several parts where Jago is just conversing with Otello. I just threw in some lines here and there where they sounded like they belonged. In my defense, the solo lines where I was the only one singing were awesome. I did really well on those parts. I got to be menacing and evil like I've always wanted to be and I loved it. my teacher liked it too because he says that the music made me really sing like I should. It was a great experience, but I need to learn to focus and commit myself to learning music better. Speaking of learning music, I really need to get around to learning my own music for juries at the end of the year. It's been a wonderful adventure this year so far. I'm grateful for all the friends that I have made and for all the friendships I've been able to reform with people that are still around. Friends make it so much easier to get through college. I'm looking forward to all the performing opportunities next year and experiencing post-mission college life with all my friends because Being a Baritone in college is awesome!

Back into the swing of things

I have to start off by saying thank you to all the people that wrote to me while I was in Europe. Those letters really were a great help to just keep me going. If you didn't write me, I forgive you. That's a joke. As the title would suggest, I am back at my beloved Brigham Young University and this Californian Baritone is loving every bit of it. I went back the Monday after I got home and it was pretty crazy getting readjusted to college life, but you know I think it was better that way than if I had just waited and sat at home doing nothing for a semester. So I'm right back in the thick of it singing in opera scenes. The best of it all, we're doing Wiener Operetten!!!!!! That's Viennese operettas in case you didn't catch that. I will be playing Populescu in a scene from Kalman's Gräfin Mariza. This is a typical place for a baritone to complain. It is really simple music, but all of a sudden Kalman expects me to sing Gs and Fs all over the place. What's up with that? The other scene is the trio from the first act of Die Fledermaus where I will be singing the role of the prison director Frank. I even get to slide a little bit of Wienerisch into the mix. Leiwand, ge? Later on in the opera scenes I'll also be singing Falke in the Fledermaus chorus scenes. Brüderlein, Brüderlein und Schwesterlein. I'm so excited. We're also doing Die Fledermaus for the Fall opera next year, so I'm just way excited. If you really want to hear a good recording of Fledermaus, there is an excellent one from EMI with Hilde Güden, Erika Köth, and Walter Berry. Walter is my favorite Falke. He just brings so much Viennese charm and awesomeness into the role. I hope you're all ready for me to get back to making posts on all things Baritone. There's a lot to be said.

Einen Guten Rutsch!

Received December 31, 2012 Here in the German speaking lands the people wish each other "einen guten Rutsch" for the New Year. That means that they hope you "slide well" into the New Year. It sounds really dumb to someone who's not too familiar with the custom, however they say it just like we say "Happy New Year". What the majority of Germans don't know is where the phrase comes from. It's a Jewish (Yiddish) phrase that wishes a good beginning to the new year. I like that better. The idea of people sliding down the street into the new year may seem a little bit humorous, but it would probably end with people just hurting themselves. For that reason, I wish everyone a god rosch to get the year started off right. Hopefully that's with family and friends. I will be too, a little belated but it still counts. For those who read my blog, I am sad that I will no longer be able to report on the miscellaneous happenings of a Baritone on the loose in the German-speaking lands and I hope that you have been able to get a little glimpse into the world of a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have grown so much in this time and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve these wonderful people. I know that my Heavenly Father has blessed me and my family because I have seen the tangible blessings that have come from my service. I must say that my blog won't really change much since the gospel is still a major part of my life, however you can look forward to plenty of musings from the "Baritone". My mission coming to an end also brings with it the unfortunate end of my time in Ravensburg. Elder Pope (also Elder Hustead) and I have really had a wonderful time here in the great City of Games. We've experienced a lot and we have come to really know all the members well. They were really sad to see me go but I look forward to seeing them again sometime in the future. We spent Christmas Eve with the Trautmann family and the Sampsons. We listened to music, sang songs, and ate a wonderful and very German meal from one of the finest cooks in all of Germany. We had dinner with the Sampsons on the next night and I got to call my family which, despite the superfluity associated with a call only two weeks before I go home, was very nice. We then spent the next day with the Kiefers and we ate a Russian meal called Plov. It was really good. I think I may come home fatter that I left. Depressing, I know. Well I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and like my good friend the former Elder Sills I leave you with this scripture: 3 John 1:13-14 Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß!!!!!!!

Frohe Weihnachten!

Received December 24, 2012 Morgen Kinder wird's was geben Morgen werden wir uns freu'n Welch ein Jubel welch ein Leben Wird in unser'm Hause sein Einmal werden wir nun wach Heißa dann ist Weihnachtstag! Merry Christmas everybody. If you are reading this it means that you have made it a long way with me and my mission history. We've experienced a lot of things and it's (sad to say) almost over. I'm glad that I am able to spend one more Christmas in Germany. It probably won't happen again. It's wonderful and everybody is smiling and happy, a sight which those of you who are familiar with the culture here would know is quite uncommon. Maybe it's because the world didn't end on the 21st. Maybe they're just happy to have work off. Maybe they're going to eat a Döner right now. There could be lots of reasons, but I think foremost there is a spirit to Christmas that no one can really explain. It surpasses all barriers of life and all differences that people have. Rich or poor, single or married, old or young, Turkish or German it doesn't matter. Everyone wishes each other happy holidays and the are happy. And you know what? I can't ask for anything more. That's a lovely way to finish my mission. I only have until next Thursday the 3rd to soak in all the goodness of Southern Germany before I depart for my sunny Southern California. I hope that you all have a wonderful time with your families and I look forward to seeing everyone soon. Until next time, Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß!!!!!!!!

Aufersteh'n, ja aufersten'n wirst du mein Herz

Received December 17, 2012 "In einem Nu" is what it says in Gustav Mahler's continuation of Friedrich Klopstock's poem about the Resurrection. I am above all glad that Grandma Kennedy has passed through the veil and that she could go peacefully. It seems fitting that she leave this life on the wings of that great psalm number 23. Those words give hope to all people who believe in God and I know that if anyone did it was she. I know she doesn't know German, but I have received a lot of joy on my mission by listening to the wonderful words of the poem that I just mentioned, set to music and embellished upon by the great Gustav Mahler. He wrote: Sterben werd' ich um zu leben! Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n Wirst du mein Herz, in einem Nu! Was du geschlagen zu Gott wird es dich tragen! That translates to, "I will die that I might live. You will resurrect, my heart, in but a moment. That which you have suffered will bring you unto God." Not to wax poetic or anything, but I just really like those words. This week went by so fast. As with all weeks for the past few transfers, I can't even remember what we do from day to day. We had a great party with the whole Zone in St. Gallen on Monday and that brought a little bit more Christmas cheer into our weekly activities. On Thursday we were invited over for dinner by a family who are not members of the church. Way back when we had the concert a lady who attended mentioned that they had at one time invited the missionaries over all the time to eat at their house and to talk in english to their kids. Eventually the missionaries just stopped coming for some reason and they never heard from them again. Coming to the concert brought them back in contact with us and they said that we could call them up and set up a time to have a meal with them and their grandkids who are now around the same age. We called up and they invited us over for Thursday last week and we had a great time with them. The husband and the oldest grandson asked some really good questions and we were ready to answer them. It was an awesome opportunity to share the gospel in a very casual way over a few sandwiches. On Sunday we had a great opportunity to go administer the sacrament to a lady who is really a pioneer of the church in Germany. Her husband was the first stake president in the Stuttgart Stake and they saw a good amount of the beginnings of the church in the post war era in Germany. Her husband died a few years ago and she now lives in an assisted living home in Aulendorf which is too far away for her to get to church in the morning and every few months we have a little sacrament meeting with her. Her daughter also comes who is less active. It was really awesome to see this woman and her love for the church. Well I think that will be all for this week. I only have a few more of these left and it's crazy! Until next time, Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßßßßßßß!!!!!!!!!

Go Down Moses? In A Christmas Concert?

Received December 10, 2012 So we had another "concert" this week. It was actually the Branch Christmas party, but we formed it around a large number of Christmas songs which were all very well received. Even "Go down Moses". We had some Nigerians there and they were rocking out in the back. I have to say that I have had some of the most fun in this little branch that I have had on my whole mission because I really do know everybody pretty well and I'm not always running around to talk to everybody all the time. That's something that really gets lost in a large ward. I am really grateful for the call to serve in the Ravensburg Branch because it has helped me to see that people are individuals and that every person has their own personal conversion to the gospel which keeps them coming every week and keeps them firm in their testimony. This week I also had the opportunity to go out to Winterthur where we had a Zone finding day. Everyone split up into different companionships and went out into the city in different predetermined areas and looked for people. Once again everyone got completely destroyed by the Sisters from St. Gallen. We Elders are just not as charismatic as the Sisters. They had lots of people talk to them compared to Elder Rosenvall and I out in Oberwinterthur. Afterward we all got back together and sang some Christmas songs in the city center. That was fun, but it was not too successful since people were so busy walking "somewhere". An old man did stop and listen. He tried to give us money but a member from the Winterthur Ward explained how we aren't there to take money, we just want to make people happy. (On a side note: It is illegal to do so under the stipulations of our agreement with the city which also excludes the handing out of cards during the singing. Switzerland is a special place.) My Trachtenanzug made it's debut at the party on Saturday and everyone loved it. They thought it was really fitting and said I looked good in it. I guess I don't have a ton to talk about this week. We are still trying to find some people to teach and they're out there. Pray that we will find them. Until next week, Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßßßßß!!!!!

Alle Jahre Wieder

Received December 3, 3012 I just want to say how much I love the German Christmas carols. There are many songs that we know in America too: O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree), Es ist ein Ros entsprungen (Lo how a rose er blooming), Stille Nacht (Silent Night). However, there are so many that I have learned this week. Since I bought a book of songs for the Christmas party (which is on Saturday) I have spent a little bit of time everyday not just learning the songs that I need to sing in the party, but also just exploring the world of song that has opened up to me. O Jesulein zart, Es kommt ein Schiff geladen, Macht hoch die Tür, Es wird scho glei dumpa, Leise rieselt der Schnee, etc. I think that it is amazing how many songs have been written in memory of the birth of Christ. The German people were then and still are (at least partially) a people that know how to celebrate Christmas and it all stems from their love for God and His Son. With the breaking of the dawn of the Christmas season we received more snow....yay. I woke up one morning and looked outside to see a nice thick coat of that white stuff from heaven laying neatly spread across the ground. Looking out at the snow from the inside is wonderful. Then you go out and it's freezing! It will get worse though. It's only been a few degrees (celcius) below zero so far, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens. It's just time to break out the coats, sweaters, long underwear, extra socks, scarves, and anything that gets you warm. It's too bad my ninja-like reflexes are slowed down by all this clothing. This week I really wanted to go to the Christmas market in Ravensburg for some reason. It was really cold already and pretty late and dark and we had planned to just eat dinner, but we went out just to check it out real quickly. I happened that there was a group of German Scouts (Pfadfinder) who had a booth there. As we were walking by a girl in the troop stopped us and we talked to her for a little while. I told her about how I did scouting in America and she recognized us from the bus the other day. I guess she had seen us and wondered what we were doing in Germany. We told her about the church and she seemed genuinely interested in finding out more. She took a card and said that she would look at the website for the church. I'm glad that things like that happen so often in Ravensburg. We can knock on a million doors and we don't find anybody that has interest but random instances like that happen to us all the time. Heavenly Father looks out for us to make sure that we don't get too discouraged. Well, that's all for now folks. We'll have plenty of time to talk about this stuff in a few weeks and I don't want to spend forever on the computer. Have a great week and smile, it does wonders. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßßß!!!!!

Es weihnachtet scho ond i han nonet was kriegt...

Received November 26, 2012 All around one can see the hints of the holiday of holidays. Lights are being strung in the trees, a 16 m tall Christmas tree was flown by helicopter into St. Gallen the other day, all the shops are advertising their Christmas season specials, the list goes on. No one in the world takes Christmas so seriously as does the German-speaking world. Let's not forget though what the whole season is about: Christ. We as a mission have decided to read the gospels by the end of the year and it is an excellent way of remembering what this season is all about. This week we began to organize the Christmas party in Ravensburg. It will be mostly Christmas themed stories interspersed among musical numbers. They're using me to the fullest before I go, that's for sure. The coolest part is that I will be singing a number of songs that are straight up GERMAN songs that we never hear in America. Sis. Trautmann has enough faith in me that I will learn them though. Last P-day we were in a train that took us to Friedrichshafen and what should have taken only about 20 minutes lasted almost 2 hours. About a mile outside of Meckenbeuren we stopped in the woods and the driver came on the intercom to say that we "ran over" a kid. Everyone was wondering if they heard that right and we weren't sure what was going on. We sat there as it got darker and as the police and fire department showed up. In the end we started back up and got to Friedrichshafen. We found out later that the kid had laid down in between the tracks and then ran away after the train was gone. They couldn't find him until way later that night. He apparently wasn't really hurt or at least not badly. That goes into the book of craziest experiences on a train in Germany. It's already pretty big for me. Maybe I should publish it.... We had another finding day blitz in Ravensburg and we found a lady from Kenya who is married to a German. She and her husband sounded pretty interested in the Book of Mormon when we brought it to them on Sunday. We couldn't make out another appointment, but we expect to be hearing from them again. The Sampsons took us to dinner at McDonalds on Thanksgiving a little bit spontaneously and I got chicken nuggets (that's like turkey.....right.....?). As Elder Sampson always says, "It's not about the food, it's the association." I agree. This was a good week and it flew by like dust in the wind. It's hard to even remember sometimes what I did earlier that day. Aber, wir schreiten voran! Gel? Habt eine schöne Woche und haltet stets in Erinnerung einfach glücklich zu sein. Schaut mal was daraus wird. Bis zum nächsten mal, tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßßßßßßß!!!!

Lass mich in Ravensburg sterben...

Received November 19, 2012 This week was pretty crazy. We went all the way to St. Gallen to have a Zone Training meeting with the Zone Leaders. That was fun because we got to ride the ferry across Bodensee. It is a pretty long ride (40 minutes) and when we got to the other side you could tell that we were in Switzerland. Luckily we saw our friends the Kreuzlingen Elders there and we rode our train together to St. Gallen. One of the Elders who is German actually asked me where I come from when I was speaking German with them. He couldn't tell that I was an American because I don't speak with an American accent. It's important to note that I don't speak like a German and everyone can hear that, but I am proud of my accent-free German. Yes! The meeting was great but after it was over we got to all separate into companionships with other Elders and contact in St. Gallen. I was with Elder Nielsen of Denmark and we found a guy that took a Book of Mormon and gave us his information. It was a successful 50 minutes. Of course, the highlight of this week was our concert on Saturday. We needed to practice on Friday and everything went really well. We had to get the piano up on the stage in the chapel, but that wasn't too difficult with me and my Tongan companion. Pianos are never easy to move, but it made it up there. The actual concert on Saturday was really fun. There were 27 people there and 7 of them were non-members; you can't beat that kind of percentage. The best part was that the members instantly started talking to the guests before and after the concert. All the songs went pretty well and we all had a great time. The highlight of the concert was the "spirituals" section where everyone was moving along and having fun. It was awesome. The concert accomplished it's purpose and it brought people into the church and they had a good time too. I can't ask for more than that. I will be staying in Ravensburg until the bitter end (hence the subject line) and I'm excited to be here. We've even already been invited over to members for Christmas Eve. I love it here. Well, that's all for now folks. Habt eine gute Woche gel'! Bisch zum nächschte mol! Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßßßle!

Surprising?, Not Really...

Received November 12, 2012 This week we began a little campaign to find go visit several members of the church with whom there is pretty much no contact. They live in many different places in our area and there was a bit of travelling involved. We found out that many of these people don't even live there anymore. Surprising? Not really. We did find that there are several that do still live where the Branch List says that they do, but we haven't been able to get in and talk to any of them yet. Moral of the story is: Check your ward lists once in a while. If you haven't heard from some people in a while, you might want to go check on them. These are our friends and also children of Heavenly Father. On a more interesting note, we had Stake Conference this week in a large conference center in Weinfelden Switzerland. The way there for us was pretty crazy. We took the ferry across Bodensee and then drove in the direction of Weinfelden. It's a pretty obscure little place, although not too small. Our way there took us quite literally over the river and through the woods. It was pretty fun, but we took some crazy little roads through people's farms and saw lots of crops and cows. Once in Weinfelden we got to the conference and saw all of the people there. There were a lot of people at the conference. Swiss people are just in general very well put together and always look good. The music was provided by a youth choir and they had soloists and even two violinists. That's quite an accomplishment for a european stake to be able to put together that many young people for a choir especially when they all live so far from each other. There were some great speakers. I also had the opportunity to speak with some returned missionaries from Switzerland that used to serve in my mission who I haven't seen in a while. They're doing great. I don't really have a lot more to say about this week. The work keeps moving forward slowly but surely. Pray for the missionaries here and in all the world that we can find the people that are searching for the truth. Have a great week. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßß!!!!!

Alle Seelen ruhn in Frieden

Received November 5, 2012 So this week...not too shabby. In case anyone is wondering, Halloween is nowhere near as popular here in Germany as it is in America. Their "scary" night is Walpurgisnacht and their dress up day is Fasching (or Fassnet) both of which are in Spring and so there really wasn't a ton going on for Halloween. We did go home a little early because it didn't make sense anymore to be outside and people were starting to look at us weirdly (more so than normal). There are some people that go trick or treating, but relatively few and the rest are just party animals looking for any reason to go out and drink. Maybe some were going to the Zombie Rave that had been advertised the whole week. The big holiday is actually the 1st of November where they celebrate Allerheiligen. That meant that there was NOTHING going on all day on Thursday. Everything was closed and there was nobody on the street. They don' t mess around with their holidays here. Of course the day after Allerheiligen is Allerseelen. Schubert fans have this holiday to thank for the stunningly beautiful and yet simple song Litanei(hence the subject line). The whole point of me writing this is that we have finally made up the list of songs that we will be singing in the concert on the 17th. I will be singing a bunch of songs. Here they are: This is the Christ Jesus is my Shepherd Der Tod und das Mädchen Litanei Ich grolle nicht O Isis und Osiris Go down Moses and last but not least Old Man River Pretty crazy selection, eh? Well, those were the ones we decided on. They're all things that sit well in my voice and like I said before, the whole purpose is to just get people to bring their friends so that they can see the church. I'm no headliner. I'm just the voice with a name tag. It will be a ton of fun and I'm really looking forward to it. On the investigator front things are starting to look up. On Wednesday we had another finding day. We had planned to just stay in Ravensburg, but on a whim we decided to go to Friedrichshafen. We exchanged companions for the couple of hours and Elder Robins and I at first just talked to people on the street. It didn't take too long to realize that it wasn't really bringing anything, so we went and found the first apartments that we could find. I decided to go to the ones behind the building right on the street and in that building we found two couples who had interest in talking with us. We taught one couple right there and then set up an appointment for today for the other. Today we went to that couple and they took two Books of Mormon, one in Arabic and the other in German. On Friday I wasn't feeling too awesome after planning for the next week and I wasn't really excited to go out. I then told myself that we would just go and contact this guy that we found on the first finding day and then we could go home and I could just rest. Well, that's when the Lord likes to do funny stuff to you. We ended up getting there and it had just barely started raining and I'm thinking, "That's just what we needed." We rang the doorbell and the wife of the man came to the door. She called her husband and he let us into their kitchen. She joined us too and they said at the end that we could come back. This week was great to say the least. Well, I think that's enough for right now. It's going great right now and I hope that it's going great for all of you too. Have a fun week. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßßßß!!!!!

Ok, who ordered the snow????

Received October 29, 2012 Yes friends, I am ever so joyful to announce that the first snow of the year landed on Saturday in the morning. (Can't you just smell the sarcasm dripping off of that statement?) We were off helping a family on Saturday with their warehouse and then the snow just started coming down. It was pretty much freezing cold all day (duh, it was snowing) and it was no warmer in the warehouse. We got a lot done though. It snowed a lot on Sunday too and it was really not fun. After church on Sunday we were invited with the Sampsons to go to the Trautmann family. Sis. Trautmann also studied voice when she was younger and we have been asked to put together a "little" program of mostly classical music for a concert in November. The music will include all kinds of things. There will be piano solos from Sis. Sampson interspersed throughout the program and Sis. Trautmann and I will be singing a few songs together but mostly solos ranging from church music and spirituals to the works of the great Germanic masters Mozart, Händel, Schubert, Schumann, and Mendelssohn. It should be a pretty cool concert as long as my voice is in shape on that day. I can say that it all sounded really awesome yesterday as we were going through it all. It is all for a good cause, because we are trying to use this as an opportunity to invite people to come to the church and see what we are all about. There's a good chance that there will be several non-members that will attend and it's always great to see people come to the church who are friends of the members. We had another blitz in Dornbirn this week. We separated after interviews with the President in Winterthur on Wednesday and I went off to Dornbirn with Elder Robins. Much to our dismay, as the bus pulled away from the church that would take us to the train station, we discovered that Elder Robins did not have the cell phone. It was safely in the pocket of Elder Tanner who was well on his way back to Ravensburg with Elder Pope and the Sampsons. So there we were on our way back to Dornbirn with no way of contacting anyone. We survived and we eventually got back together the next day, but it sure would have been nice for us to be able to communicate with people on that day. We ended up using a land line at the church to call them and decide when we would get back together and how on the next day. We went and contacted a little that night and even found a couple potential investigators in only about an hour and a half one of which I believe became a new investigator yesterday when they met with him. This week will be here in Ravensburg again and we look forward to finding some new people. I've realized that I haven't said too much about Elder Pope. He is fairly new on his mission. Ravensburg is his second area after spending his first three transfers in Ingolstadt. He is part Tongan and he and I get along really well. We understand each other pretty well too. He comes from Missouri near Independence. He already wants to meet my family, which seems to be a common thread with all of my companions so far. I told him that he needs to come visit and then he can eat some of mom's cooking. He's excited. I think that is all for this week. I hope that everyone has a great time this week in all that they do. I also hope that it's nowhere near as cold where you are as it is where I am. Until next time, Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß!!!!!!!!!!!

Elijah!, Get Thee Hence Elijah!!

Received October 22, 2012 Sometimes on a mission one is tempted to feel as did Elijah when he said, "It is enough!" Not that your desire is to die as was his, but the thought of going home is ever present in your mind. I love listening to Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Elijah (Elias in German) because sometimes I can relate; not to mention it has a wonderful bass-baritone part which I will someday be able to sing. The oratorio relates the story of the prophet Elijah from the Book of Kings in the Bible and Mendelssohn put amazing music to the text which is pulled (with few exceptions) directly from the Bible with passages from both the Old and New Testaments. Who couldn't like the two magnificent tenor arias "If with all your hearts" and "Then shall the righteous shine forth" (my personal favorite) and the lovely mezzo soprano aria "Oh rest in the Lord". These songs have given me a lot of comfort on my mission and sometimes just play through my head all day long (maybe because of their catchiness, Felix wrote them that way) and in any case sometimes, like I said before, I find myself relating a little to Elijah. Luckily though, he knows what's up. "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but thy kindness shall not depart from me, neither shall the covenant of thy peace be removed." Such are the character Elijah's words (quoting Isaiah 54:10) just before he is taken away into heaven. I know that it is true. I've been wondering when something would start happening in Ravensburg, and this week seemed to show us that it is possible. It all started on Monday evening. We were invited by our landlord to speak at a meeting of a group of which he is a part. Don't laugh when I say that it was a meeting of the Druid Order. Nothing crazy, just a bunch of old men. We had the opportunity to talk to them about the church and what we believe. It was really well received. We were asked a relatively difficult question which dealt with the Official Declaration 2 for those who know what that is. For those that don't, it deals with the announcement that all worthy male members of the church could recieve the priesthood. I answered as well as I could and I was not "confounded" for which I am very grateful. I think that the presentation really opened the eyes of some of the members of the group. On Wednesday we had our first "blitz" and we decided to do tracting in an area that we had never been to before. It ended up being very fruitful and we found 9 potential investigators and gave out three copies of the Book of Mormon in just two hours. We never would have been able to cover that much ground in two hours by ourselves so it really was a success. As the aria mentioned above by the mezzo states, "Wait patiently for Him and he shall give thee thy heart's desire." It's true. Later on in the week we even got a self referral from mormon.org and we will be contacting it soon. On Saturday and Sunday we went on over to Augsburg because an investigator got baptized from Ingolstadt who Elder Pope taught. Sunday morning was a broadcast of President Monson who was in Germany for the past couple weeks. He was actually in Munich the day before but we couldn't get there in time. The meeting in Munich was held in the Herkulessaal which is known by classical music lovers as one of Deutsche Grammophon's favorite recording locations. I found that out later on and I was a little sad that I couldn't go, but ok. This was a really good week, but we really need to get some more investigators. Pray for the missionaries. I hope that everyone has a great week. If anyone should have a special request for something from Germany, I will be considering requests. Bis zum nächste mol, gua! Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßß!!!!!!

Why?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Received October 15, 2012 So I've realized this week that my whole mission has had a lot to do with testing the patience and willingness of Elder Neumayer to just do the things he's told to and hopefully not complain too much. See the thing is, the Lord has successfully kept me out of leadership positions for enough of my mission that I haven't really been able to make too much of a fuss with the "powers that be". Being that I really don't have too much say in "matters at hand", I just have to sit here and occasionally give my humble opinion and just do what they tell me. Needless to say, a lot happened this week. First of all I would like to begin with a little "shout out". This week I got a letter from a person that I will refer to as "Butterfly Girl" from California. You know who you are. Thank you for your letter. It is true that the mailbox is often quite empty (hint hint to others reading) and I was very grateful to get a letter from someone, even if it is from someone I don't know. I hope that you are doing well and I agree with what you wrote in your letter. I will say one thing though, the glitter won't go away and now my jacket is a bit reminiscent of a certain vampire novel character. Once again thanks for the letter. This week also brought me to Dornbirn in ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖÖsterreich where I did end up buying my very own Trachtenanzug. I must say, I really like it. I will have to wait until I get home to actually wear it though since it doesn't really lend the possibility of wearing a name tag. Photo posted. Sadly, I realized on Tuesday that Elder Root cannot get a visa in Ravensburg, he needs to get it somewhere else in Germany. I told the "powers that be" the situation and that night I got a phone call. It was President Miles telling me that Elder Root would not be coming to me. Instead Elder Pope would be coming from (where else) INGOLSTADT! We also had a little meeting with the Zone on that day where we got to hear a lot of what is going on in the mission and how we can work together to achieve our goal. There was a lot said, but one interesting new thing is that we will now be having District Blitzes. That means that now every week after District Meeting, much like Germany blitzing through Poland, we will catch the people of Ravensburg (or Dornbirn) unaware as we blitz the streets or doors or whatever we feel like four missionaries strong. The idea is to quickly find as many people as we can that will hear the message. Cool, huh? We're not quite sure how that will work with the people that are far away from each other, like us and Dornbirn. We'll see. The great adventure began on Thursday at 7 in the morning as we took off with all of Elder Hustead's things and walked on down to the train station. We noticed immediately upon printing the ticket that we would not be able to take the trains that our ticket man in the mission office told us to take because part of the trip was taking a ship across the Bodensee. The ticket didn't read "Schiff", so we had to find another way there. We went through Singen and Schaffhausen and ended up in Zürich just in time to "plauder" a little bit with the other missionaries before Elder Hustead had to take off to Stuttgart. Why did we have to go to Zürich first? You guess is as good as mine since Elder Hustead probably just ended up going back through Ravensburg to get up to Stuttgart ANYWAY! This is where the patience part comes in. I then had to stay in Zürich from 12 noon until 8:44.....yeah. Let's just say that Elder Neumayer was not too happy. I did get to talk to a bunch of other missionaries that I hadn't seen in a while who were also at the train station and that made some of the time past by. Eventually everyone had to leave and I still had a good 4 hours or so left. I went with the Zürich Zone Leaders who had a couple of lessons. I don't really understand a lot of Züritüütsch anyway, so I just listened most of the time trying to understand what in the world they were saying. After the appointments ran out there was still a couple of hours and we hit the streets to go by on a few people. Along the way we talked to quite a few people. The Zone Leaders decided to take advantage of the particular Elder that they had with them. You see, everyone knows that if Elder Neumayer is good at one thing it's singing. They (without asking me first) would begin a conversation and if it started failing they would then ask, "Do you like music?" That was when I began to think, "Oh no." Next thing I know I'm singing in the dark streets of Zürich to some person that I've never seen before. All the people that we did that with were then touched somehow and at least took a card and said that they would check out the internet site, or even as in the case of one man, they set up an appointment. So Elder Neumayer's patient, Heavenly Father really likes to do things like that to me just to show me that He knows exactly what is going on and I should just deal with it and be grateful. So Elder Pope did come eventually and we went off to Frauenfeld to spend the night with the Elders there. In the morning we got up and travelled back to Zürich and then on to Ravensburg. We got back at about 2 in the afternoon. I just love these (as mom calls them) whirlwind trips. Well, I think that's enough for this week. Have a good week everyone. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßßßßßß!!!!!!!

Now I feel WAY old!

Received October 8, 2012 As if it wasn't enough that this next transfer I will be in the top two oldest groups in the mission and that I turned 21 this week, just to add insult to injury the First Presidency now announces that 18 year old young men can go on missions. I feel old even if I'm not really. This week was great. On Tuesday we had an awesome District Meeting in Dornbirn. The Elders there even baked me a "cake" (more like brownies because there isn't really American cake here). We even had hats and noise makers. The actual meeting was great too. We talked about the Holy Ghost and the Light of Christ. Upon closing the meeting we went off to a Chinese buffet where Elder and Sister Sampson treated us to lunch. It was really nice of them. On Friday we got the nerve wracking call. Elder Hustead will be taking off to Ludwigsburg up near Stuttgart leaving me to take over the area. I will also be receiving a new companion who is coming from St. Pölten in Austria. This will be his third transfer and only his second companion (for those of you who know the term "greeny busting", that's what I am). His name is Elder Root and he comes from Santa Clara in Utah (yep another one of those "South"ern Utahns) and I've heard he's way excited for the work which is just what this old missionary needs. I will not be trunky! This will be a fun transfer. On Saturday we went on down to Dornbirn to watch conference. We happened to get there a little late and we walked in just in time to hear them announcing the new policy on missionaries. We were blown away! It was crazy to think that missionaries will be coming out soon that are still 18. Of course, not during my mission because I will be long gone before they start coming, Elder Hustead was excited though. We stayed the night and then watched the sessions on Sunday. Two of my favorite talks were from Elder Larry Echo Hawk about the Book of Mormon and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Who would not be moved by the words of a real descendant of the Native Americans bearing testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and if anyone was not moved by Elder Holland, I don't know what will move them. I heard Elder Holland give almost that exact same talk in the MTC and back then I thought to myself that it is a shame that the rest of the church would never hear and see how he explains that story of the Apostles when they had gone back fishing after the Resurrection of Christ. It was powerful back then in the MTC and it is still just as powerful of a witness that we have a work to do as members of the Church of Christ. Another great talk was given by Elder Nelson about the missionaries. He told us when he came to visit us that he would give a talk in conference that would address the members helping us out a little bit more. Apparently, the missionaries can help you with anything! And we really can. If you know someone that needs our help, send us to them! We can help! It was a great conference and I can't wait to read the last session in the Liahona. Ready for a little "Baritonal" musings? For anyone that wants to know my opinion of the music of the conference, here it is: It was great! My two favorites were Saturday Evening and Sunday Morning sessions. When you see a mixed youth choir you immediately begin to think, "Well, let's just see how it goes....." but that youth choir had a really good sound. That last song was an....interesting arrangement, but the choir sang together really well. Now for MoTab, I like my MoTab just like all the rest of us, but sometimes they just sing the same stuff over and over. Sunday Morning was amazing. They had a SOLOIST!!!!! I about died listening to his beautiful technique and how easily he sang through "Does the Journey Seem Long", an oft overlooked hymn in our English hymnbook. The last song in the session was also good. I don't remember what it was called, but it really was amazing. Also, the "How lovely is thy dwelling place" from the Brahms Requiem was a lovely addition to Music and the Spoken Word. From the Shadows of the Everlasting Hills I am coming to you from Dornbirn this morning since we spent another night due to not being able to get home on time. We will be going to a Trachten Fair of sorts here today and I will keep my eyes open for anything nice. I hope that everyone has a great week. Thanks for the many birthday well wishes. May peace be with you this day...and always. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!