Found some nice sunglassesThe German family came to church! And so did our friend Bashar, and so did Laila! The way we met Bashar is a cool success story for technology. We were waiting for our Straßenbahn one day, and I talked to a guy. He said he was not interested, and I quatsched (small-talked) with him a little bit anyway. I asked him if he would have any family members who would be interested, and he said that his son would be! It's funny, we ask people if they know anyone who would be interested so often that it took me off guard when he said yes! I asked the man for his son's WhatsApp number, and he gave it to me. WhatsApp is not popular in America, but here in Germany it is HUGE. Everyone has WhatsApp. We've had it since we got smartphones back in December, and it has been even more useful than Facebook. It's basically an app that lets you do voice and video calls and send messages over the internet. So anyway, we messaged the man's son, whose name is Bashar. Bashar said he would be interested in coming to church. A few days later, we video called him (we had never met him in person at this point) and told him about the Book of Mormon. Then he came to church! He is from Syria and speaks Arabic, so he didn't understand a lot, but he liked it still. We met with him again on Monday. Bashar's brother Bassil was there, and at one point Bashar said something to his brother and then he left the room. Bassil came back with all this food for us, and drinks. People from the Middle East that I have met on my mission have always been very hospitable. Sometimes we will door into them and they will say right off the bat that they are not interested, but then invite us in so they can feed us. Essener DomSo that's Bashar's story. The German family who came was the family of the exchange student who we taught last week. The father and mother are Joachim and Ulrike and their daughter is named Charlotte. Joachim is this tall German man with a booming and deep voice. He would be intimidating if he wasn't so friendly. His wife is very bubbly (in a German kind of way, it's hard to describe) and loved to ask questions. Charlotte had been pretty quiet so far. She is going to Utah this year for her friend's wedding. She can't go in the temple, but I think her plan is to just be there when she walks out of the temple and surprise her. The Essen Gemeinde of course loves them. One member invited them to an activity and got them signed up for the Gemeindebrief (ward newsletter), and our Ward Mission Leader Bruder Frömmling-Gabriel invited them to meet with us again. Unfortunately they said no for now, but I think that really was because they are busy. The past few days have been pretty packed. We've been blessed with lots of appointments, with members and investigators. Yesterday we met with Caterina. She invited us to have lunch with her at her business. Where she works, no one is allowed to show any sign of religion. Apparently it helps them focus on their work. For Muslims, that means no head coverings, and for us, it meant no name tags. When she told us this, we sort of looked at each other for a second. There is no rule that we have to wear our name tags always, we just do... If it is between teaching an investigator or not, I thought that it would be alright. It was kinda weird though. She bought us lunch at the cafeteria at her work, and did took off my coat and had another name tag on my shirt anyway. We taught Caterina the Plan of Salvation and she liked it a lot! At the end she said, "So what's the next step for me? I need to read the book, don't I?" Caterina is from Italy, but she speaks great English and so we taught her in English. Random side note: does anyone know of a talk called Don't Steady the Ark? I remember hearing this talk a while ago. I really liked it, and I wanted to look it up to read during personal study. Somehow I haven't been able to find it. It's about a story in the Old Testament where only specific people where supposed to carry the Ark of the Covenant, and what we can learn from that. I think it was given by Elder Uchtdorf or by President Eyring. If anyone knows what I am talking about, please email me where I can find it! Limbecker Platz MallWe ate at Five Guys today!Today we walked around in a huge mall, and last week we went to was supposed to be the largest mall in Europe. A nickname for Essen is Die Einkaufsstadt, or the shopping city. We also went to the Essen cathedral and saw one of the oldest Madonnas.
That's about it! Have a fantastic week! Elder Kimball Germany Frankfurt Mission Alma 34:32 DönerFirst off, a little background about Essen. Essen has an U-Bahn (subway), a Straßenbahn (street car or tram), S-Bahn (local train or commuter train), and buses. I have been confused most of this week. Sometimes the U-Bahn goes above the ground, and sometimes the Straßenbahn goes underground, but they are separate things. Sister Swain, who just got transferred here as well, compared it to being trained again. That's how I feel. And being trained takes a lot of humility. There is a lot going on in this area with new converts, and there are about 100 members at church every week. So I have been trying to get to know everybody and get some idea of what it going on. With Bruder HuhnThis Monday was Rosenmontag, which is the biggest day of Carnival. In Germany that means lots of partying, people wearing costumes, and lots of drunk people. The members thought it was a really bad idea for us to be out on the streets that night, so the Linnemanns hosted an FHE at the church. One of the funniest parts was playing Kicker (foosball) with Bruder Huhn, who was also there. He was dressed as some sort of Mozart character, with a wig and everything. He is really good at Kicker, and so it was just the funniest thing watching him destroying all of us while giggling and wearing a Mozart wig. With Ben, Sister Haag, Sister Swain, Elder McBride, and Bruder HuhnWe also had a member split this week. That was definitely an adventure. I was with Bishop Tewes. He went to Canada on his mission, and loves singing and even sang for the German EFY songs. He likes English a lot and even when he speaks German, there is an English word mixed in every sentence. We visited two members of the ward and barely made it back. His phone, which we were using to navigate, ran out of battery. We prayed, and then immediately after realized that we could use my tablet, which also had maps on it but couldn't give us directions. We were late, but we made it! Cool church right by our apartmentWe also met with the Köhler family, whose daughter lived in Moab for a year as an exchange student. My mother asked me a while ago how members in Utah can do missionary work, and something that is a really great opportunity is host an exchange student! I have had some awesome German investigators (and their families) who have gotten interested in the church that way. Anyway, the Köhlers are a GERMAN FAMILY which is awesome. I've never taught a German family before. So you can guess that I'm really excited about them.
We also taught Laila twice this week! She is so humble and so nice. We moved her baptismal date to March 10 so we can get all the lessons in. Other than that, I wanted to share two random quotes from investigators/members with you. These are great examples of the struggles of dealing with language barriers as a missionary. Du bist eine Persische Sprache? (You are a Persian language?) Now I'm just looking for a German language to sing in. (I have no idea what this means.) Well, have a great week! Ich hab euch Lieb! Tschau! Elder Kimball Germany Frankfurt Mission Tabata! One of my favorite investigators ever and a good friend! I've been transferred! I'm in Essen now, which is not far from Wuppertal! I was really sad to leave Regensburg. Tabata came to church again on Sunday and we had another awesome Gospel Principles class. She read the Book of Mormon every day last week, and she is going to meet with the missionaries for the first time outside of church this week! I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but Tabata stayed with my friend Joey Buck when she was in America! It's crazy that we have that connection! Mitch and his girlfriend Rachel. Mitch is from Texas and Rachel is from Berlin but she has incredible English, just like TabataTabata also came to Familienheimabend on Monday and so did Mitch and his girlfriend Rachel. Balázs was there as always. Tabata fit right in while we were playing games and talking. I shared a spiritual thought about my favorite scripture in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 4:29, which I will include at the end. It was after that awesome FHE that I realized how sad it is that I am being transferred, and how much I would miss the members, my district, our investigators and just the whole deal in Regensburg. The Welches/ awesome American family, super funnyBut yeah. No one likes that guy who lives in the past. My new companion is Elder McBride, he is from Ogden and this is his fifth transfer on a mission. He has really good German, dislikes wasting time, and has done some great work in this area. I'm excited to get to to know all the German members, and to bombard them with German questions. We also have a German in our district, Elder Graf. I'm way excited for that, it always brings the German level of the whole district up. Overall I have experienced a lot more immersion in the German culture and language since I arrived here in Essen. It's great! The Bowsers/ Brother Bowser is the first counselor in the branch presidency and they had us over a lotScripture Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. Wenn du aber daselbst den HERRN, deinen Gott, suchen wirst, so wirst du ihn finden, wo du ihn wirst von ganzem Herzen und von ganzer Seele suchen. Elder Kimball Germany Frankfurt Mission Raffaelstraße 12 Essen 45147 Alma 34:32 The Blacks! I love this family and will miss them a lot. Visiting them every Tuesday was one of the highlights of every week for me.Roxana, from RomaniaThe new district in EssenWalking to church in Herne with new districtAnother pic of the Dom!It's miracle time! Remember how awesome last Sunday was? Well, we're on a roll! It's miracle time! First, we saw Sebastian outside of our branch building as we were coming in. He was coming home after working all night. Elder Yorgason told Sebastian that he was giving a talk, and he said he would come! And he did come! So I was quatsching with Sebastian before the meeting started, and someone came in who I didn't recognize. Elder Yorgason went and sat by her. I found out after the meeting that her name was Tabata, and she decided to come to church because she spent a year in Utah as a foreign exchange student! I didn't recognize her at first, but then I realized that we had had a 30-second interaction with her at a bus stop. I remember her telling us that she had lived in Utah and that she knew the Mormons. We invited her to church, and she had to catch her bus. Then she just showed up a few weeks later! She is a student at the Uni in Regensburg and is a native German--WHICH MEANS WE HAD TWO YOUNG, AWESOME, GERMAN INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH! I was so excited. That is what I have been praying for, to be able to teach more Germans. Tabata stayed for all three hours and loved them. The Blacks taught an awesome Gospel Principles lesson, one of the most spiritual I have ever been in. They shared personal experiences and lovingly invited Tabata to read the Book of Mormon. District transfer predictionsTransfer calls are on Saturday! It will be interesting to see what happens this time, because last transfer our district stayed exactly the same. This man we talked to on a train had a bird in a cage!It's so cool to see the blessings of obedience. We always try our hardest to find investigators and follow the rules and do what we are supposed to, but it doesn't always lead to direct results. With these two investigators, I feel like they were handed to us without us doing anything. With Tabata, all we did was talk to her for one minute, after God had prepared her for YEARS. I know that these miracles came because of obedience. And because God is awesome. Have a good week, have fun storming the castle, and Servus (it means hello and goodbye)! Elder Kimball Germany Frankfurt Mission 93053 Regensburg Prinz-Rupprecht-Straße 34 Alma 34:32 Elder Wallentine (Zone Leader) drew some Book of Mormon characters compared with video game charactersThis is from a while ago, but I don't think I sent it yet.Indian restaurant we ate at today |