So this week was pretty...good...bad...odd? I don't know. It
had some of each. On Tuesday, we had our district meeting. A district has about 8 or so missionaries who
come from 2 cities. There are 4 Elders
in my city and 2 Elders and 2 Sisters in Herna, the other city. We did a gift exchange thing. It was more like
a white Elephant gift exchange. I
brought a box of chocolates. But hang
on, it gets better. We surgically cut
open the bottom flaps of the box and pulled out the tray. We then
carefully cut the plastic that was around the tray. We got the tray out and took out all the
chocolate and replaced it with rocks, peanuts, lint, coins, sticks, and KinderEgg toys. We cut a thin piece of
cardboard and put it white side up on top of the tray so that they wouldn't see
the stuff right away. We put it back in
the bag, taped it up, and for the back in the box we glued it. Elder Heil bought a Döner and wrapped it up
and made it look nice inside a gift bag with decorative paper coming out. If you don't know what a Döner is, here's a
link to look it up. They are gross but
good. I also bought a toy gun and bow
with arrows from a dollar store as a side gift. While there, they were selling a Mankini. It's a one piece swimsuit for dudes. Try not to envision that too much. It was super funny and I wanted to gift that
instead. It's probably best that I did
not because one of the sisters got my gift. At the end of the gift exchange, I said that
I brought treats for everyone. I then proceed to take out a bag of chocolate
from my backpack. It was the stuff from
the chocolate box. The sister proceeded to open up her box because she was way
confused. She discovered the rocks inside.
On Wednesday we had an appointment with a 28 year old Jewish
girl from Israel. She cancelled and we
met the next day. We had a member with
us, Karlheinz. He is way cool. Beside the point, we meet the girl at the bus
stop and walk back to the church. She
seemed cool and nice. We then toured
the church and then we start to talk to her about what we believe. She disregards all of it and asks about
Chastity. Oh shoot! I don't want to share details cause I don't
want to rethink any of this. Long story
short, there were a lot of sketchy questions and we tried to end the lesson as
soon as we could. It was the worst. Nothing bad happened, but I had the worst
feeling inside. I don't even know how
to describe it. It went well in the
beginning, I could feel the spirit and understand and stuff. Then something was said and I was like,
"Oh Man, something bad was just said." I suddenly was not able to understand
anything. I ended up getting an idea
about what was going on. It was way bad.
Anyway, to happier thoughts, we ate at a member's house on Saturday
night. We just got out of another eating
appointment an hour before so I was stuffed already. This family that we were at now, usually
makes large portions of food. Elder
Heil ended up saying that I was really hungry all day and that I was excited to
eat a lot. I thought, "Oh no. I
can't just say no because that would come off bad." I ate two huge plates of rice and other toppings,
along with half a liter of ice cream. My
companion knew what he was doing. He was
getting me used to eating when I can't eat anymore. It sucked. I was about to explode and could hardly stand
up straight.
Sunday was really nice though! We went to church and I taught the investigator
class. I was scared as heck. The only thing I had to help me plan was a
German Gospel Principles book. We
didn't have any English books to help me get an idea on how to teach this. So, I had to learn what it said in
German. I did better than I though. The German flowed nicely and the other 3
missionaries backed me up. In sacrament
meeting, the ward ended up singing the song "Families can be TogetherForever." Even though it was all in German, I understood
exactly what it said. I got way homesick
for about 5 minutes after that. Then
Bruder Holtz, who is very cool (they are all cool, but he is one of the coolest)
asked me to come with him. I followed
and we went upstairs to a room. I was up
there with him and Bruder Ziegner. Holtz
needed a blessing and he wanted me to join in.
I was able to do the anointing part in English. It was a really nice blessing. I didn't understand what was said, but it was
way good. We then went to the Ziegner's
house for lunch/dinner. We get there
and then got word that we were needed at the Hospital to visit a ward member
who was there. She needed a blessing
too. We went there with Fabian Ziegner,
our Ward Mission Leader and a fresh Returned Missionary. It too was way good. I was able to do the anointing again. We got
back and ate some great food and had a lot of fun talking. It was in German for about 60%, but I was able
to understand just about all of it. It
was really nice to feel like I could contribute to a conversation instead of
just sitting there nodding like I normally do. The Ziegner family is my favorite. I want my family to be like theirs. They're strong in the Gospel, super close
with each other, fun, and just good people in general.
That's pretty much it for the week. Some crazy wind and rain recently and lots of
rejection. Fun stuff! I love you all and I will write again next
week!
*Photos for the kids. I thought they would laugh at this.*
Elder Grow
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