We were both sick this week, which was, as the title states, furchtbar (awful). Especially when we went all the way to the Bergmanns to help the Löhrmanns move, and then they had already finished. We were both not feeling the best but we went anyway, and then it was all for nothing. We are both almost back to normal now though. Yesterday went well, we met with Freddy and Maria. Maria is this super cool young mother that we have met with once before. She is Neu Apostolisch, which as it turns out is really similar to what we believe. We taught her the whole Plan of Salvation, and then she said the only thing that was new to her was the pre-existence. It's interesting to me that not many Christians believe in a pre-earth life, even though they believe in an after-earth life. I didn't know that was unique about us. Maria is going to watch the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference! Which will happen at 6 pm on Saturday for us, it's weird. I will now unfold unto you The Legend of Seto, one of the most hilarious parts of my time with Elder Webster. Seto is an African woman we met about a month ago. She approached us on the street and tearfully explained that she is looking for a church that will accept her after so many had been rude to her and her family. We invited her to church, and she came the next week! The members were so nice to her, especially Schwester Rehnert, who sat with her in Relief Society. Well, we called Seto again and she got really angry about something. I assumed she thought we were one of the other churches she had visited. Then last week, we saw her in person at the Bahnhof! I was ready to calmly explain to her our misunderstanding, but it turns out she actually was angry at us. She kept talking about some lady named Frau Popo (which would mean Mrs. Bum) and how we worked together with Frau Popo to mess with her family. I tried to tell her that she must think we are some other church, but it was no use. She wished us viel Erfolg (much success) and we wish her the same.
Elder Kimball Germany Frankfurt Mission Alma 34:32 District Finding Activity! We did a short split with four of us knocking on doors in Solingen for two hoursThings are going well in Wuppertal with Elder Webster and I. One of us could get transferred next Saturday. We have been able to do some good work in these few months. We found Tom, set a baptismal date with Freddy, and became best friends with the Familie Sandner, among numerous other things. Elder Webster is good at not getting stressed out. He is also good a being a person with our investigators. A weakness of mine is that I tend to focus on diligence more than love, more on the work than in the people. Elder Webster has helped me with that when he takes time at the end of a lesson to tell our investigators that they are good people, and that we're thankful that they meet with us. Elder Kimball Germany Frankfurt Mission Alma 34:32 With our investigator Elton, who we had one lesson with before he went back to München!StudyingWhiteboardMy family sent me a package! I love this note and the drawing that went with it. There was a lot more stuff in the package, I'll send some more photos next week.Cool little churchy thing by the office where we go to apply for visas I want to start out with my spiritual thought this week. I was reading the story of Joseph who was sold by his brothers into Egypt, because it's awesome for a lot of reasons and I love it. I came across a scripture that is really funny. So we just get finished hearing about Joseph and how he is governer over all the land of Egypt. By this point we had almost forgotten about Jacob and his family, who are experiencing the famine just like Egypt. The scene changes to Jacob and his family, and we get these few verses: Genesis 42:1-2 Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die. Basically, "What are you all sitting around for!" I picture them all just sitting around in the sun and starving. First of all, these verses are hilarious. But they also show a principle I have been thinking about lately. God usually doesn't respond when we try to pray our problems away. He responds when we pray with faith and then do all we can to fix our own problems. First, because usually if God responded to your idle prayer it would tamper with someone else's agency. Second, because if we are really seeking, searching for a solution, we will do all we can, even if what we have to do is uncomfortable. For instance, Joseph's brothers had to travel to Egypt and be questioned by an angry guy who turned out to be their brother. For me as a missionary, it involves being assertive in a lesson instead of praying that it will go well, or talking to my companion about a problem instead of just praying for it to go away. The principle is universal and I want to bear my testimony that when we trust in Jesus Christ and then act, things will work out! We had a crazy Sunday. I played the organ, we prepared the sacrament, we brought a new investigator to church named Ali, and Freddy, our investigator who we met dooring at the Uni, just showed up! He had told us he wanted to talk with us more before he came, but he just showed up! We don't know how he even got the address of the church! The way we do things in Wuppertal (at least the way we have done them the past two weeks) is we bring a new investigator to church, I play prelude on the organ, Elder Webster sits with the investigator before church starts and teaches them the Restoration, and then they ask for a Book of Mormon! Freddy is progressing really well! He reads in the Book of Mormon and understands and accepts what we teach him! We hope to set a Taufdatum (baptismal date) with him tonight. These two girls we street contacted and saw again in the mallWe did a service project for the Sandners in the rain! We were going to help them with their yard, and they called us and told us we didn't need to come, but I told them it wasn't a problem. You know Elder Webster, it wasn't a problem for him either. We finished early and hung out in their shed for a little bit and called some potential investigators and then ate dinner with the Sandners. I love their family, we are such good friends with them. Eliza, who is nine years old, gives us hugs every time we leave. Before and after from the service project at the Sandner'sThe Sandner's shedStreet where the Sandners liveWe have Zone Conference next week, which will be like Christmas in the fall. We are expecting to get all our materials we need, along with two packages for me and maybe, by some miracle, Elder Webster's birthday package which was sent to our apartment address and didn't get there. The German words for the fall season and for Christmas are "Herbst" and "Weinachten," which means on Wednesday we will be celebrating Herbstnachten! Oh and a little story. We klingeled this man named J Butt at the Uni purely because of how funny his name was. It turns out we have klingeled him before and we had a good talk with him! He is too busy to meet with us, but hey, the more contact with missionaries the better, right? It turns out his last name is pronounced like "boot." Genesis 42:1-2 Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do ye look one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die. Als aber Jakob sah, daß in Ägypten Korn feil war, sprach er zu seinen Söhnen: Was schaut ihr einander an? Ich höre doch, sprach er, daß es in Ägypten Korn feil ist. Ziet hinab und kauft uns dort Getreide, daß wir zu leben haben und nicht sterben. Elder Kimball
Germany Frankfurt Mission Alma 34:32 Mein Mitarbeiterchen (my little companion) after a haircut at this awesome Turkish place that we love!Ackerstraße, the dirtiest Straße in the world.View from the top of an apartment at the Uni that we doored all the way though!Bruder Sandner gave us sunglasses for the ride home in his convertible!Elder Koch and I ate at Wonder Waffle! The guy at the cashier forced my first name out of me because somehow he knew that Kimball isn't my first name. Typical train rideAfter another service project for Schwester GroßA hilarious children's book description of how Joseph Smith received the plates: first he found a big rock!Thank you for your prayers! And to quote the broken English of a guy we met under the train station this week, God loves we!
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