Elder Grow: Late Post - July 5th

Hi Everyone,

I am sorry mom got sick and then immediately threw out your back. That sucks! I know what you mean when you said that it is hard to teach something that you have not had much experience with.

All you do in that situation is teach the basic truths of the topic and bear testimony. You then answer questions along the way. 'I was already baptized in my church.' That is somewhat of a sensitive topic for people. It is extremely important not to sound like you are insulting their religion and saying that their church is wrong. Usually, what happens here is we invite the person to be baptized after the 1st or 2nd lesson. Because of that, we have already gone through the Restoration, which includes Christ's Ministry, the Great Apostasy, and the Restoration. Because of the Great Apostasy, doctrine has been changed over time and the authority to act in God's name (the Priesthood) was taken from the earth. Because this has already been brought up, we normally say something like, "That is great that you have chosen to follow Christ and have been baptized! I know that God was proud of you for desiring to follow in Jesus' footsteps. As we said earlier, because of the Great Apostasy which happened after Christ and his Apostles were martyred, the Priesthood, or the authority and power to act in God's name, was taken from the Earth. I know that you and the people involved in your baptism were excited for the event and you all had a great desire for this ordinance to take place, but desire does not create authority. You can know for yourself if what we say is true if you will ask God about it and read in the Book of Mormon. When you get a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, you will then know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God and that through him, the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth with the Priesthood of God."

So yeah, that is the general idea of our response.

Free schooling in Germany? Oh cool! I honestly do not know what I will do for school. I am completely lost when it comes to that. I have not applied to anything and I have nothing going for me. I think that studying here in Germany would be way cool. I just hate the porn, smoke, alcohol, and poop. Then again, I have only been in the place of Germany called the Rupot. This is a huge place of Germany that is just tons of Cities smashed together. I have not been anywhere beautiful yet. I think that studying in Germany would be pretty neat. I know that some degrees acquired here in Germany do not match up with the similar ones in America. But hey! Maybe I could find a German wife? That would be awesome! My only opposition to that is the fact that one of us has to leave our family, and I am sure as heck not going to live here in Germany. I simply could not. I would be bringing her home for sure ;) Anyway, that is good information for the future! I will have to look into that someday. Free and quality schooling is something to take into consideration.

Oh man, so this week was absolutely miserable. Not because of events, but rather the weather. This last week has been a steady 36°C (96.8 F) or so, sometimes making it as high as 39°C (102.2 F). It is also really humid here. About 40-50% humidity. Do you want to know the best part about this? We do not have a working fan. It literally feels as hot as hell. Walking around in a white shirt and tie with slacks is a nightmare. There was one morning that was really bad. I woke up at about 4:am and my back and face were just soaked. I got up to go get a drink of water and then I look at the thermostat. Already 29°C (84.2 F). I could already tell that the day was going to be long. I had the windows open that night, but there was no breeze to be had. Luckily, Sunday was a lot cooler!

So last Monday, for PDay, we went to Duisburg and we played some Soccer and Football. Football was a lot of fun! It made me wish that I did it in High School, but at the same time, I am grateful for the free time I had. While we were playing, one Elder had the ball and he was running right along the boundaries of the small field. I was making a B-Line right for him but I was not fast enough. I ended up prancing through a bunch of waist high Stinging Nettle. Nothing like a dose of leg spikes. Anyway, that afternoon was a blast! We then headed back to Krefeld and we met up with Bishop Spence at the Church. We all went to a member's place for a BBQ. Sadly, we wasted about 4 Euros on a Döner Kabab.

We had no idea that we were going to go and eat more food. We thought we were just all going to talk about home teaching and make a plan about how to help the ward members get it done. Nope, we went over and just ate tons and tons of meat. It was so good! I loved it. Poor Elder Kay to my right was just dying because he has already a stomach the size of a 10 year old. It is ok though, he has only been in Germany for about 4 months. He has time to learn how to pack away food.

Tuesday, I was on a split with Elder Leppert. We had an appointment with a lady from Albania. She has been an investigator for a while and wants to be baptized but can't because she is not married yet (She's Co-Habituating). She is super great though! She lives in a place where there are a couple of other apartments in a yard and they all speak Albanian and they always have their doors open and people are just hanging around outside and listening to music. We just walked into her house no problem and no one cared. It apparently is just super normal. It was way cool! She does not know German very well, so sometimes we have to sacrifice grammar so that she understands. We read in the Book of Mormon with her. She pretty much reads out loud in Albanian and we follow along in German. She then asks questions if she has any and we clarify. It went really well! The Spirit was strong.

Saturday was also pretty good. We were on our way to an appointment and we were traveling by train and it is crowded. We wait for the next couple stops and then we see that some people got up to leave. Elder Niebergall and I walk over and took a seat for the remainder of our 1 hour ride. As we sit down, a lady behind us starts to talk to us. "Are you guys from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?" she asks, saying the name of the Church in English. We talk with her some more and she says that she did not know that there were Mormons in Germany. She only saw them in Zimbabwe. I asked if she was a member and I could not understand her answer. She said kinda. She said that she used to be more involved but not anymore. I am assuming that she is inactive. She then asked where the church was. We listed off a couple cities with Churches and then we asked where she lived and we gave her the phone number of the Sister Missionaries who live in her area. I hope she made it to church the next day!

Later this evening, we got permission to go buy a fan and get the purchase reimbursed. We went to the store and they said that they were sold out and that they would not be getting any more. What the heck!? If you are sold out you should probably buy more because that means that people are dying and that they will pay good money for a fan to keep them cool at night while they sleep! It makes no sense to me why someone would not buy more of a product if they sold out. People will continue to buy fans in the summer. Hmmmm.....

Sunday rolled along and it rained like mad! Later that day, we started to prepare some dinner and the rain also stopped. There was a parade that came through our street too! It was really neat! I got videos of the entire thing. They then came back the other way and I was able to get photos. Double Win!