This week flew by even faster!

I don't know what is happening, but time seems to be speeding up. These last three weeks or so have just zipped by. It's unreal. I also realized that I have been with other missionaries this week more than I have been with Elder Hales, my companion, because we have had so many splits this week. Pretty crazy! But yeah, this week was pretty good.

For Pday, we discovered that Erlangen is where Adidas and Puma have their headquarters. This is where it's all based at.  So, we went there. It was super secluded and we had to walk quite a ways through a downpour of rain to get there. It was pretty neat though. They had all of their ridiculously overpriced merchandise on sale. The cool thing about these places was simply to be able to say that I have been there. I was told that there are some people who will fly over here just to go to these Puma and Adidas headquarters and buy stuff. Why? I don't know. There are just some questions that go unanswered. Afterwards, we went to Nürnberg to travel up to Bayreuth to go on a split. I dropped off Hales and picked up a guy named Elder Butler. He is way cool. He is from Australia. It was funny, Australians have their own words that Americans don't use, and vice versa, but I could still understand what he was talking about. For example, we were telling stories about members who feed you too much and tell you to finish the rest.  He was talking about how he was so full, that he could feel it in his throat still. He said, "I tried to let out a little burp but then I would choke on my chuck." It's pretty cool how languages evolve.

Tuesday, we ended up going by some previous investigators and also a referral. We went up to a city called Forchheim to find the referral and then wandered around the city contacting people. As we were wandering, we found some really pretty parts of the city.  There was some cool moats running down the middle of the town center and there were some super German buildings there. We then kept walking around and we ran into a giant chunk of wall. This wall was in decent condition and had a kind of garden on top. We took some stairs to the top and walked around the pathway that led around the top of the wall. There were cool little towers at the corners of it. It was only able to fit 1 or 2 people inside, and it seemed like it was used back in the day for crossbowmen to shoot bolts at people. You will be able to see what I mean once you look at the pictures. Is also kinda looks like a medieval outhouse. It was really neat. We sadly did not get any contact info from anyone. We then met with our investigator that night.

Wednesday we split back. That night we had ward council.  After we were done talking about our work and giving an update on things, the Bishop asks us, "Elders, is there anything that the ward council can do for you guys?' We replied, "Yes. We have not been successful these past three weeks or so at finding more people to teach. Tomorrow, at 13:00-15:00, we are going to focus all of our energy on contacting everybody we come across on the street. Will you all please pray for us at 13:00 and ask that we might find success?" Everybody who was present wrote it down. That was all we had to say, so we were then excused so that we could head home for the night.

The next day we did what we promised. We walked around the city for a good two hours. We noticed a huge difference. People actually stopped and talked to us; Even though, everyone, but one, eventually said no. Usually in Erlangen, I've noticed that people generally do not give us much time. This day, they actually stopped and let us talk with them.  We only had 10% of people flat out ignore or deny automatically. It was way cool! About 20 minutes before 15:00, we ran into a guy named Yaman. We communicated through Google Translate and that was rough. He only speaks Arabic and the only thing I know is how to call somebody 'sweety/honey', so that's not very helpful. We were able to swap info with him and make an appointment for Sunday. Thursday was more successful than the last two or three weeks.  People at least listened and we got a potential. We reported back to the members who prayed for us and they were excited for us.

But then, throughout the week, Aunt Lisa and I planed to meet up. She lives over in Göttingen. I am a lot closer here in Erlangen than in my previous areas. We met up on Saturday in front of the train station here. We decided to take a little back route and sneak up on her and Uncle Holk. It was so much fun to see them! We decided to go and get some food because nobody ate yet. We went to 3 different places just to find out that they were closed on Saturday. We finally found some place and we ate some good food. It was great to catch up!  Holk has amazingly good English and Lisa's German is also flawless sounding. I hope to get to that point with my German sometime. I feel like I do pretty well, but I definitely have lots of room for improvement. It was really cool though! We are hoping to go and do something fun in the future sometime when we all have more time. The cool thing is that Holk lives in Nürnberg, so maybe I might be able to try to stop by him and say what's up.

Sunday was also pretty neat. We met with our potential investigator, Yaman. He lives in a refugee home. It is actually not too bad there. They have some pretty nice quarters. We went to his room where he shares the place with two others.  He apparently told one of his buddies who rooms with him that we would be coming.  His name is Mohammed.  The two of them know a little German. Only Yaman can speak a little English. We had a google translate lesson. We brought a Book of Mormon in Arabic for Yaman and we will get another next time for Mohammed. He told us in his broken English, "I looked book on Internet. This is good book." The two of them are Muslim and are super excited to learn more. They are both excited for the Book of Mormon. We are also going to be helping them out with their German when we visit so that they can learn the language better.  I am excited to work with the two of them. They are super nice people. I love working with Muslims. We will be meeting with them again on Sunday.

Today we just barely were at a school with a bunch of 18-19 year olds. We were asked a couple weeks ago by a teacher if we could come and answer some questions about Mormons and our church for her students. They are studying religions right now and the Mormons are up next. It went really well actually! They asked great questions and I feel like they got a good impression on Mormon Missionaries. The teacher was pretty shocked that our German was as good as it was.  All in all, it was real fun!

So yeah! That was the rundown of the week! I love you guys a ton!

Elder Kayl Grow

Fun Photo

It's a Small World

I can't believe that I am already writing you guys again. I feel like it was literally 3 days ago. That is probably because I was on two splits this week.  Time flies during splits.  Last Monday, for Pday, we went to the Doku Center here in Nürnberg. That was where the Nazi party was essentially organized. It also had a ton of stories about Nazi history and their gatherings and parades and things that they did during the war.  It was a really cool Museum! It showed some really cool photos, yet at the same time, there were places where the photos were extremely, well, messed up, for lack of a better term. Yeah. Photos of civilian shootings and dead people in camps who weren't only gassed, but also massacred and worked to death on construction projects. It was not that expensive to get inside. Only €5. I really liked learning about the history in the area.

Afterwards, I went on a split with an Elder in a place called Grafenwöhr. There's an American Military base there. The ward is also American.  This base is where the military does their weapon practice and testing. I literally heard gunshots and explosions throughout my time there. It was so cool! The basement, in which the Elders in Grafenwöhr stay, is quite a distance away; But, we could still hear stuff pretty well. There were some shells which caused our house to shake a little. That apparently does not happen that often, so they must've been shooting the big guns, like artillery and tanks.

Monday night, we went to dinner for all the empty nesters in the ward. It was so weird to be speaking English with Americans who haven't been exposed to enough German to have gotten a diluted American accent. They were from all over the states, yet they all sounded like hicks. It was a culture shock that's for sure. It was really cool though! One lady there was of a Korean background but she had perfect English. She saw my name tag said 'Elder Grow' on it.  She then asked if Kate Grow was my mother. I was taken super off guard and said, "No, but she's my aunt!" She knew Kate back in the day when Kate was in Korea for a bit, I guess?  I believe she said that her daughter and Kate were good friends and that she knew Grandma and Grandpa Bailey pretty well.  Her name is Cristina Colby.  It was really cool to meet her! I meant to take a photo with her, but I forgot to do that when I left.  Maybe I'll go on another split up there and I can try to find her again.

Tuesday, we met with some people in Grafenwöhr and then the married couple serving a mission there took me onto the military base. It was my first time being on a military base. It was pretty new and very cool!  Once you got through the gate, it opened up and it was just like a normal city. Streets, highways, fast food, big shopping centers.  Americans everywhere.  Again, it was super new. I was taken back at how big Walmart was.  I was pretty much slapped in the face by the realization that I miss the things of home. Cereal, pop tarts, Jerky, Mountain Dew, Resse's, and so forth.  I just couldn't handle that in addition to the amount of Americans who were there, I was thrown into the deep end of America. It was overwhelmingly weird but really cool!  We then drove by some Back Hawks and some tanks and jeeps and artillery.  Oh man was that cool!  We went to a parking lot that was near by and they had two WWII tanks out for display, along with a board of their stats. One of them was the Sherman, and the other one was The Priest. I took some photos with them. I don't have a computer, so I cannot send over a photo because they are on my camera and not my iPad. It was amazing though! We then ate dinner at the couple's place.

Wednesday we split back at the church in Nürnberg. We called them to see where they were because they were super late. We found out that my comp, Elder Hates, went to the hospital that morning. They went jogging in the morning to go pick up our bikes and then as they were on their way back home, Hales started to get some really bad pain in his right lung, so bad, that he could not inhale all the way without it hurting like mad. He almost passed out right before they got to the apartment. He took some Ibuprofen but the pain and difficulty breathing persisted. He called the mission nurse, who referred him to President, who pretty much listened to the situation and told him to call an ambulance and get to the nearest hospital. Nurse thought it could be a blood blot, Pres though that he could've gotten a little hole in his lung, the doctors took 7 blood samples and heart reading tests and found nothing. The Zone Leaders picked him up from the hospital and we all met up to split back. It really hurt for Hales to walk because he couldn't breath good. He would be winded and light headed 'cause he couldn't breath a lot. We went home and he lied down a lot of the day. He was a trooper and was willing to get up for a bit to go places that we needed to go. Poor guy was dying. The next day, it was not much better. We had to take it easy too, but we had some places we had to be at. That evening we went on another split.  During the split, I stayed in Erlangen and I was with another Elder from Erlangen, Elder Butler. We pretty much went by some previous investigators and did some contacting. No contact info that day and nobody was home. We did, however, see some beautiful countryside and find a cat. Elder Butler is a pretty cool guy. We had fun talking and working. That night, we split back and Elder Hales was doing a ton better. Turns out he somehow tore some muscles in his chest. Well, the muscles between the ribs. The breathing would cause the damaged tissue to get irritated and inflame. 

Well, I was trying to think of a spiritual experience or some cool experience where I learned something, but I can't think of anything for this week. One thing that I guess I could share is that there is one thing that I have noticed in myself that is new or different. This is gonna sound really girly, but I have noticed that I have a bigger heart than before. I feel like I have an increased capacity to love people. I think I have developed that in my last area, and here I have been able to add people to 'the pool of people I really care about' a lot easier. Moroni 7:46-47 popped into my head.

It says: 
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail--

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. 

I just realized that I gave my farewell talk on Charity, hahaha! I think one thing that has really helped me develop charity is to listen to people and to care about them and what is important to them. Be genuine. People can see when you are just smiling and nodding your head I feel like. At least I can. A good friendship is one of the greatest things that one can build in this life. It will last longer than gold or styrofoam.Y'all are great! Keep on keeping on! 

Elder Grow

                                                               Additional Photos

 

Another week bites the dust.

Hi Guys!

This letter is going to be a shorty because there is really not too much to report on. We have virtually nothing going on right now. We had all of our appointments for this last week fall out. We have been doing a lot of finding lately. We're also doing go-bys on previous investigators who look promising. We were able to make out an appointment with one guy for next week. He was the only person we actually got face to face contact with. I was also on a split in a city called Bayreuth (said like bye-royt). It is such a cool place. We split Monday after Pday and we went by on a member who was sick. On our way there and back, we talked with some people on busses. It's a place with tons of college students and they are all super chill. It was fun to contact them on the bus. We just talk with them like normal people and then they eventually ask what we are doing and where we are from. It is always super casual conversation and they are just super cool people. There are no walls put up at the beginning because they don't feel like they were being randomly pushed into something that they were not ready for. One guy was standing near us by the bus stop and we asked him in German when the bus came.  He told us.  My split comp and I continued talking about whatever we were talking about in English.  No doubt this guy heard it.  It's late at night and we get on the bus.  We go straight to the back because that is the best spot. All the chairs are facing at each other like a 'U'. The entire bus was open and this guy could've sat anywhere, but he came to the back too.  No doubt he wanted to listen to our English.  We then spoke to him in English and asked if he could speak English.  We had a great chat. It was sick! 

That evening, I witnessed one of the quickest responses to a prayer that I have ever prayed. As we were in the apartment, Elder Tishner, my split comp, was feeling really sick.  It hit him pretty suddenly.  He was having intense stomach pains and sweating and chills and stuff.  As we were going to bed that night at like 11, we both did our normal night time prayers as usual. I've been learning recently that praying specifically is important because then you get specific blessings.  In my prayer, I said, "Help Elder Tishner become better so that he can go to sleep, even if he needs to throw up whatever is messing him up." I lay down in bed and Tishner finishes up his prayer.  He lays down. Literally, 15 seconds later, he bolts to the toilet and drops to his knees.  He was there for a solid 2 minutes of puking.  It was so cool.  I counted 8 full pukes.  They were the fullest sounding pukes I have ever heard.  He said that it progressively changed colors as he puked. I am pretty sure they he puked up everything in his system, intestines included.  It was intense.  After that, he slept like a rock.  He never did puke again, but he was still sick for the entire next day.  He felt considerably better, but the nurse recommended we stay inside all day to let him recover.

Later, back in Erlangen, Elder Hales and I are on a bus coming home.  We get on the bus and it was relatively empty.  I decide to stand where the strollers go because I did not feel like sitting.  The bus stops at the next stop and some Asian looking guy, my age, gets on the bus with a super yummy looking hot dog.  He is also standing nearby.  

I asked him, "Hey, where did you get your hot dog?" 

"At the train station," he replies. 

"Was is expensive?" I Asked.

"Nah, man, it was like two Euros." he replies.

"Ok cool" I said.

"I'm Jackie."he said.

"Elder Grow." 

We shook hands. 

While there, he asked where I was going.  We kept talking and switching between English and German because he wanted to practice his English.  Later down the line, the bus gets packed all at once. I am now standing next to Jackie and some really tall black guy. I noticed him chuckle a little after I said something witty to Jackie in English.  I asked the black guy if he could speak English.  He said he could.  He was from Nigeria and has been is Germany for 4 months.  He also had surprisingly good German too!  So now I was talking to two people, at the same time, switching between German and English. It was so much fun!  At this point, most of the bus was looking my way because they just hear some American switching between two languages talking about who we are.  I did not notice it until I had to get off the bus.  Before I got off, I gave the two guys a card and invited them to check out the Church website.  I patted them on the shoulder as I was pushing through the crowd of people.  It was a heck of a lot of fun talking with the two of them. 

So yeah, my email turned out a heck of a lot longer than I expected. I hope you all have a great next week and enjoy life!

Elder Grow