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
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