Another Week Flew By!

Hey Guys,

This week flew by. I can't really think of anything super amazing that happened this week. Probably the coolest thing this week was a street display that we helped out with in Bayreuth. It was a lot of fun. There were six of us there. We set up a little pavilion thing and had a table on two sides. We drew out the entire Plan of Salvation on the ground with chalk. It actually turned out a lot better than I thought it would! Erlangen has some artistic abilities. People were so confused at what we were doing and it was a great way to talk with people. Our stand also looked so out of place that people couldn't help but wonder what was going on. 

We were able to get several potentials for the Elders there. We gave out Book of Mormons to 19 different people and had some great talks and fun experiences. There were times where one of the elders or I would talk to one person in a big group walking by and the entire group would stop and practically surround the individual as they listened. It was pretty fun!

For example, I stopped one guy who was walking with his family and another family and a couple of their friends. They were all Muslim. I asked the first guy, "Hey! Why are you here on the earth? What are you doing?" He thinks about it and another guy comes in and says something. He seemed kinda defensive and was talking in a tone of voice that was as if he was trying to say, This is what is right and you can't tell me otherwise. I can't remember exactly what he said to me, but I just nodded my head and smiled real big and said, "Yeah! That's what we believe too!" He then was taken off guard and was all like, "Oh, well it looks like we have similar beliefs!" "Yeah we do!" "What church are you guys?" I then proceed to tell him the full name of the church. They were kinda like, Ok, I've never heard of them before. I then asked them if they have heard of the Mormons. The first guy and the former defensive guy and a couple other dudes exclaimed, "Oh the Mormons! Yeah yeah!  Is that you guys? We love Mormons, man! They are all such nice people!" "Eh, not all." I reply. "What do you mean?" they ask. "Well, nobody is perfect. There are naturally going to be some who have trouble with being nice." They laughed at that and agreed. We then talked a little bit longer but they were kinda in a rush. I gave them a card for later of they had questions or wanted to learn more about us. They gladly took it and went along their way. One word: Homies.

Other events like this happened for other people. A group of Indian exchange students, Korean students, random people who happened to hear one of us talking to someone and decided to join the group and listen. It was really fun! We started the street display at 10am and went until 3:30pm or so. Time flew by. We then were picked up by the Senior Missionaries who live kinda nearby and we cleaned up our stuff and ate chips and dip at the Church building.

Hmmm. Some other highlights... It's been getting warmer here! That has been nice! Hopefully it will continue to do so! Hmm. Other than that, we are still working on finding more people in our area and we are helping the bishop and his secretary to clean up the ward list and figure out if the less actives still live where it says, and if they do, to help bring them back to activity.

Yeah, sorry for the short email. I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Grow

Servus = Hello

Hey again,

This last week was pretty fun. We met with a couple members and I also went on a split up to a city called Bayreuth. We also had a street display on Saturday that went for 6 hours. Boy was that long! All in all, the week was pretty good.

Monday evening was when I went up to Bayreuth (said like 'buy-royt'). I went on a split with an Australian named Elder Butler. It was a ton of fun! I was with him until Wednesday morning. We had a lesson that Monday with a new investigator of theirs. He was from Africa and we taught in English because we didn't know French. We also had a member, Shannon, who came with. She is a student in the area who is from Scotland. It was really fun to have 4 different types of English going on. It was fun to realize that I was being looked at as someone who had a different accent as the rest. I am so used to having an American companion that I sometimes forget that we sound weird too. It would be cool to someday have a comp who is not from the USA. Tuesday we had another appointment. It went really well too. The investigator's name was Princess. She was from Africa too. Her friend is a member and got her to investigate the church. His name is Prosper. He too is from Africa. He is the coolest!  He's a new convert and is fired up for missionary work. Princess can speak decent English, but sometimes she doesn't understand. She speaks something that is called 'Pidgin' English. It's essentially super simplified English. Prosper speaks it as well and was there to help out. That evening we had a member appointment which Shannon and Prosper came too. The member said that they are only going to be speaking 100% German that night. Butler and I were cool with that, and the other two were about to get thrown into the deep end. The evening was a lot of fun though. We all had a good time. We then went home for the night and split back the next morning.

Something new this week was a street display that we did. We started at 10:00 and ended at 16:00. It was really long but it was pretty cool. The main thing that we were talking to people about was Genealogy. We had Elder Butler here in Erlangen (yeah there are two of them) draw out his Family tree back to his great grandparents on the sidewalk with chalk. It would catch people's attention and they would wonder what it was. It was pretty cool. We were able to talk with a lot of cool people and a lot of crazy and angry people. It was fun. Sadly, we were unable to even get one potential. Later that evening, we went to go visit a less active family. Their last name is Schlegel. It's pretty cool because it is said just like your maiden name, Mom. There's just a 'Sh' sound at first instead of your 'S' sound. They were way cool though! I really liked them a lot. We will be meeting with them again next week. They were glad to have us over.

Church was really cool. During the sacrament meeting someone was giving a talk and the spirit was really there. I ended up understanding what people mean when they say that you can be listening to someone and be taught by the Spirit yet not remember anything of what the speaker is saying. Like, the lady was talking, but my thoughts got carried away to different ideas and random tangents that all prices together and taught me something new. The lady mentioned the story in the Bible where the lady with the Issue of blood, who was sick for several years, touched the hem of Jesus's robe and she was healed. Jesus then asked, "Who touched me?" His apostles replied with something along the lines of, "Lord, you are walking around with a crowd of people about you and you ask 'Who touched me?'. What kind of a question is that?" I then got carried away with the fact that Jesus asked who touched him. He didn't know. I've spoken with some people who have told me that Christ cannot be perfect because he says that 'neither [he] nor the Angels in heaven' know of the time of his second coming, thus making him not the Son of God like he said he was. "If he was really perfect, he would know when he is coming again," they would tell me. I was reminded of that during the talk the lady was giving and I kept thinking. (Sorry if this doesn't make sense for you guys. It makes sense in my head, it is just hard to put it into writing.) I then realized that Jesus probably wasn't perfect in the sense of knowing things. Could he do trigonometry or tell you how many gallons of water are in the ocean? Probably not back then. He was perfect in the fact that he lead a perfect example and was perfectly clean and sinless. He was perfectly obedient to the Father and did that which was good in the sight of him. We don't worship or praise Jesus because he was a mastermind or a know-it-all. We worship him because he was perfect in every way necessary to be able to successfully fulfill the Atonement so that we all can one day live with him. He gave us the perfect example so that we might know how we should live (3 Nephi 12:48). His perfect love and guidance is there for everyone who searches sincerely after it. Just a pretty cool little thought that popped into my head during church.

That is about it for the week! I hope you guys have a good one!

Elder Grow

Playing with Other Missionaries!

Hi Guys,

This week was pretty fun. It was filled with contacting, trying to get in contact with less actives and stealing a door. 

On Tuesday, we had a meeting with the other Erlangen Elders at their place so we could figure out how to work together in the area and focus our efforts. We had to end a little early because the other guys had to leave for an appointment. As they were about to leave, we told them we would be leaving in a moment and that we just had to finish some notes and go to the bathroom. They left. We then proceeded to move everything in the apartment 3 inches to the left. Now the other guys will stub their toes on stuff because they won't be used to the slight change. Something will also feel a little off and they won't know what it is. They will only know that something is different. We then took their bathroom door off the hinges and stuck it in a closet of theirs. We then changed our mind. We ended up taking it to our apartment. We somehow got it to fit in the elevator and then we talked it home through the rain. The other guys were so confused. They took it back later that night. They got a good laugh out of it. I am still waiting for them to get us back. We have no idea if or when they will strike. We don't know if they are just going to go on with life or get us back eventually.

So yeah. The rest of the week was filled with contacting and go bys. We have been asked to try getting in contact with the less active members and try to bring them back and to also see if they still live where it says they do. We have been talking with lots of people along the way and have gotten 5 potentials this week. It's about time! Two of these potentials were these guys from Iran. One of which could only speak Persian and the other could speak 'ok' German and English. The one who I could talk with had a guitar on his back. We were both waiting for the same bus so I asked him if he played the guitar. He said he's been playing for about 2 years. He plays for Evangelical churches when they ask him to. He plays and sings along to their songs. It's pretty cool!

The bus came by and we continued to talk in the back of the bus. It was in the bus that we found out that he was from Iran. We then told him that we were from America. He was surprised. He was all like, "No way? That's so cool!" He then fist bumped me and proceeds to say, "I love America! I would love to live there someday. It is my dream. America would be a lot better than Germany!" He then was like, "Can I show you guys what I play?" "Of course!" we reply. He then proceeds to pull out his guitar and play on the bus for us. It was so awesome! Luckily, Elder Hales was able to get a small video of it. The guy then pulled out his phone and asked me what our number is. I told him it and he put us in his contacts as "USA Grow und Hale". 

Yeah, this week rained a ton and my shoes have never gotten more soaked than they did on Saturday. Some pretty relentless rain. It was fun though. We traveled everywhere this last week. We still have a ton more less actives to go and find. Hopefully we will be able to reactivate some of them. It's sad to see them miss out on the blessings of being active in the church. It was nice to get a couple of potential investigators though. I really hope that they turn into investigators. It would be nice to actually see something come out of our efforts.

That is about it though! Not too much happened this week. Just lots of finding. I hope you guys have a good week!

Elder Grow

 

Transfer 12 of 16

Another transfer passes by. It's pretty crazy how fast it went. I still feel like I just got here. Elder Hales and I are staying together. There are actually not many changes going on in our eight-elder District. There is only one person leaving. Luckily, the Erlangen Crew is staying the same!

This last week was the first week where we did not have to deal with splits. It was weird. Instead, we did lots of finding. It was pretty exhausting. We decided to explore some cities that we did not know and talk with people we see along the way. Earlier in the week we had a couple appointments with people. We taught our investigator about tithing and she did not like that one too much. It pretty came down to trusting the Lord that he will take care of you and won't just leave you hanging. We talked about it for a while. We told her to just pray about it and she replied with, "I'll make some serious thoughts about it." Kinda a bummer because you need to have prayer in there along with your own thoughts so that you can get a correct answer. She is flying over to Utah next week so we won't see her for a bit sadly.

This week has also been really chilly. It has been fun to ride our bikes around in the rain and cold. There was actually one day this week where is was snowing a lot and the wind was blowing so hard that it was snowing sideways and you had to lean into the wind in your bike or else you would drift to the side. Once we got to our destination, my face was half frozen and half normal because the wind was blowing on one side the entire time.

Well, that seems to be about it. Not too much to report on this week.  We are just trying to get this area going during the day, then during the night once all is said and done we make homemade videos for giggles.

Sorry for the boring email! Hopefully it will be a better one next week! Have a good one.

Elder Grow

 After a meeting with the other Elders, they took their bathroom door home.