I decided to tell more stories this week, because I think when I just give main ideas, things get boring.
So we started off our week with a lesson with Andre and his mother, Frau L. It was going fairly normally. We asked Andre (14 years old) what he remembers from what he has read in the Book of Mormon. He gave us a re-telling of the first few chapters of the Book of Mormon, the main ideas were right but a few details were off. Then Bishop Franke, who was with us, said, "Should I summarize it for you?" He then proceeded to tell the story of 1 Nephi, with added historical details and side comments. He went further than what Andre read, and we would have let him tell the story of the whole book! It was very entertaining. Elder Webster and I are quite sure he would have gone through the whole book, if he wasn't interrupted. Then Frau L. basically threw an adult temper tantrum because she was getting really frustrated by her little daughter Maria. She started throwing Maria's toys aggressively into a basket, presumably to throw them away. It was pretty intense stuff. I knew there wasn't anything we could do for her in that state, so we stopped the lesson and went and did the dishes like we did in our lesson about six weeks ago. Bishop stayed in the room and somehow calmed her down. He is basically already their Bishop even though they aren't members. They are dealing with lots of rough stuff because of being new in Germany and being a single-parent family. On Sunday we had a lesson with a member planned for a Frau we had found a week ago. I had given us tons of time to get there (I thought). We got to the Busbahnhof and I asked a bus driver which bus would get us to our stop, Neviandtstraße. He gave us a bus number and we took it. Well, I watched our map and the bus took us right past our stop. Now we were down south were there aren't many buses, and we had 20 minutes to get there. My map app gave us a walking route to get there. By the time we had gotten to this forest trail, we had 10 minutes of time and 20 minutes of walking to do. That equals: you guessed it! Missionaries running through the forest! We started running, but the thing is, my map did not show us that it was straight uphill! We finally got through the forest, looked back and realized we had just run up the mountain that the Bergmanns live on! Then we met up with Bruder Löhrmann (Bruder Bergmann's son-in-law) and klingeled the Frau, but she didn't answer. It was okay because we all went and visited Bruder Kramer together! Oh and on Saturday we did service for the whole day! It was awesome but way tiring. We ripped a plant out of the wall at Schwester Groß's place, and then chopped the Great Wall of Hedge for Sabine, a referral from the Sandners. I'm telling you, that hedge was massive. I guess there's a reason she couldn't do it alone. She didn't end up having interest in hearing our message, but we had a good discussion and we made a friend! But back to the stories. We got to Tom's house early for his lesson, and his roommate let us in. We didn't know who he was, but he sat us down and asked us what we were about and what makes us different. He asked us to tell him thr story behind the Book of Mormon, which we were naturally totally okay with doing! We taught him most of the Restoration before Tom got home. Tom's friend's name is Lars (if you want to know how it is pronounced, say "lass" with a British accent). It turns out Tom had invited Lars, and Lars had already read the Restoration pamphlet we left behind with Tom! Thanks for reading! I hope it was entertaining! Elder Kimball Germany Frankfurt Mission Alma 34:32 So, there is a brother in our ward who we often visit to bring the sacrament. He is confined to a care home, but can get around in a wheelchair if someone pushes him. Last week we were visiting him and he told us it would be nice if sometime in the future he could get to church. He said we probably don't have time, because on Sundays we are usually picking up investigators and leading them to church. But we were not expecting anyone this Sunday, so we told Bruder Kramer we would bring him! I was pretty nervous about how it would all work out. But when you have a rugby player as your companion and the Lord on your side, things go pretty smoothly! At least when it comes to pushing wheelchairs around. Elder Webster had to do some manuvering to get the wheelchair onto the Schwebebahn (Elder Webster wanted to push the wheelchair and I didn't want to slow him down) but it all worked out! So here is the funny story of the week. We met this man named Maldo while visiting a contact from a Straßenausstellung (street display). He walked with us to the Schwebebahn once and we talked with him a bit and got his number. We invited him to church, he didn't come, and we didn't see him for a while. Then we were on our way to the church and we saw Maldo in the Schwebebahn! We asked him if he had time right then and he did, so we got out at the Schwebebahn station for the church and lead him to it. We were expecting to have a meeting with the Zarubas, who are members, in a half hour, also in the church. We got to the church, and Schwester Zaruba was already there, and without her Mann (husband)! We aren't allowed to meet with a woman without another man with us, so we just taught Maldo a lesson and had Schwester Zaruba be the member there. We were planning on only giving Maldo a church tour and giving the Zarubas a separate lesson, but we had to make a quick decision! I have no idea what we would have done without Maldo, I am just grateful that God had us meet up with Maldo so the whole situation solved itself! We had an incredible day yesterday. We had a lesson with a new investigator named Maria! She surprised us and showed up to the church for our appointment! We met her right outside the church about a week ago. She goes to a Neue Apostolische church, and she is disturbed by how the apostles in her church are more administrators than spiritual leaders. The other lesson was with Tom! He got back from Urlaub! He loves talking with us and we just had a great time. He readily accepted the Plan of Salvation and he is thinking about being baptized.
We also had a lesson with the Andre and his mom! That was my spiritual hgihlight of this week. Bishop Franke was there with us, and we were talking about our baptisms. I shared something that my Grandpa Haddock shared with our family--that since we are baptized, we don't need to decide if we will follow the commandments. We don't need to decide if we will go on missions. We already made that decision! This covenant that we made can motivate us and make things simpler. I felt the Spirit so strongly as I said, "I have promised God that I will follow him." I don't know if anyone felt the Spirit as strongly as I did, but I definitely learned from that experience. I want to testify that covenants do not restrain us, instead they motivate us. I love God and I feel happy about my decision to follow Him. TL;DR -Wheelin' with Bruder Kramer -It's Maldo time -Maria, we just taught a girl named Maria -Don't make decisions Elder Kimball Germany Frankfurt Mission Alma 34:32 So this week started with a bang, like a lot of weeks do. We were in Solingen for P-Day to play some Fußball, and we spent bit more time there than I had planned, but I was sure we would still make our member appointment that night back in the Wupp. Well, we got to the Busbahnhof (bus station, where there are lots of buses to different places) and the next bus left late enough that we would be so late to our appointment that we would immediately have to head home. I called the member and asked if he could give us a ride, but it was the same deal--we would end up having only a few minutes to eat dinner. He said they would have some extra food, and it was sad because they had brought a friend, but that it was okay. So we completely missed a member appointment. Which, as a missionary, is a cardinal sin, punishable by losing the trust of the members for 1000 years or life, whichever comes last. Then word somehow got around to Bruder Bergmann, our GML, and he chewed us out a bit. I'm not sure how he got word, but that happens sometimes when we accidentally do something stupid. It wasn't great, but it wasn't unexpected. AND THEN word got around to the Zone Leaders! Don't ask me how, because I don't know. They called us and were not happy, because they have asked us to set goals for punctuality and dependability this transfer, and here we are missing member appointments. After that, I would not have been surprised if we got more calls from the Assistants to the President and then President Boyer. I half expected to get released as Distriktsleiter right then. But that was the end of the getting roasted. We will definitely bring those members some chocolate. I feel like I might come across as negative in these emails/blog entries, but please understand that my mission is overall a positive experience. I feel like I would be robbing you of some entertainment if I didn't tell you about some of our misadventures. That being said, here we go with noch ein (yet another) misadventure from this week.
Here we go! We contacted this referral from other missionaries, his name is Gordon. He really didn't want us to come to his house, he just wanted to come to our church. I try my best to avoid first lessons at our Kirche, because for whatever reason they just so selten (seldom) go through. But he insisted, and we just wanted to meet with him, so I agreed that he could meet us at the church. We arrived at the church at the appointed time, and waited. He didn't answer his phone. We waited. He called us and said he was on his way from Elberfeld. Now, to illustrate this story, I will need a small graph. Oberbarmen------------------------------Loher Brücke----------------------------------Elberfeld <--30 min--> (church is here) <--30 min--> This is a rough, simplified map of a section of Wuppertal. So Gordon called us and said he was on his way to the church from Elberfeld. We waited, and it had been longer than 30 minutes. If he had taken the Schwebebahn, he would have already been at the stop for our church, Loher Brücke. We called him again, and he said he was at Oberbarmen. By this point I was suspicious he was pulling my leg, but we schwebbed to Oberbarmen. We looked all over for him in Oberbarmen Bahnhof, but we didnt know what he looked like, and he was not answering his phone. While we were looking, Elder Webster said, "What if he told us he is in Loher Brücke?" And sure enough! He finally answered, and said he was in Loher Brücke! We dragged ourselves back to the church, and he was not in the station or at the church, and would not answer his phone. If that wasn't a wild goose chase, I don't know what is! I am glad that Elder Webster is more patient than I am, because after that I would have dropped him and assumed that he didnt want to meet. But we need to give him a chance to hear the Gospel, and maybe he really was that confused. People who aren't from Wuppertal tend to get really confused by the Schwebebahn. So there you have it, a few misadventures from this week. A few of our less-actives and investigators are still in Urlaub. We have gotten to do some finding on the Uni (university), and Mensch, I have never met so many nice, open people. We are encouraged to seek out JAEs (Junge Alleine Erwachsene or young single adults) because: 1. They are more open and thus more prepared for the gospel 2. We are supposed to bring families into the church, and JAEs are about to start families! I haven't been having a hard time following that counsel from our mission president! I love young people! I feel like I can relate to them well. I don't know if I wrote about Ali and Delara last week, but they are two Uni students I am really excited about. They are such nice people! They have lots of questions about how a God can exist where in their home county there are brutal wars going on. For my spiritual thought this week I wanted to share something about faith. Faith is essential. Alma 32 from the Book of Mormon clarifies what faith is, that when you have faith you "hope for things which are not seen, which are true." It makes so much sense when explained in this way. There can be things that are true that you don't have a knowledge of yet. But you can hope for them, and your hope will grow into faith, and your faith will give you knowledge! It came into my mind strongly to read in Alma 32 with John, Solingen's new convert. I was on a split with Elder Heller there. John is confident in his knowledge of God and of the gospel, but I know he has a lot ahead of him. He needs faith, just like every one of us does. I love the doctrine of faith and I hope that you can find a way to exercise faith this week! TL;DR -We commit the cardinal sin -Geese? What? -The Wuppertal Elders go to college -I hope you can have the faith to read my spiritual thought Alma 32 21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. Und wie ich nun vom Glauben gesagt habe—Glaube heißt nicht, daß man eine vollkommene Kenntnis von etwas hat; wenn ihr darum Glauben habt, so hofft ihr auf etwas, was man nicht sieht, was aber wahr ist. Ciao ciao! Elder Kimball Germany Frankfurt Mission Alma 34:32 Elder Webster and I with Joey |