Zone P-day and Stake Conference

Sorry this is late, The Zone leaders decided to have a Zone p-day last minute. Things are going well here, there are hard days when no one wants to listen. Its rather interesting, I don't exactly know how this happened but we meet with all 8 of our investigators once a week, all on saturday. Which means that the rest of the week is pretty dry... Me and Elder Heinrich have been knocking down refferals like crazy though, we have been picking a town to go to, and then spend all day there, visiting all members both active and less active, and getting refferals then going and contacting all that we receive. Its been pretty cool, we hope to continue to do this till we meet and get referrals from everyone in the ward. It takes a ridiculous amount of planning though. And a lot of running/walking. Because down in the small towns there aren't as many buses, if at all. So in order to do everything we want and be back in time we have to plan out all bus times, locations everything. And if we are running late it means sprinting to catch a bus. ( I have lost 15 pounds so far from all of the running!) I have been rather amazed many times I thought that we would be to far away to catch a bus, but surprisingly we have yet to miss one. Even when we are 2 minutes away from the stop and the bus is right around the corner from it, It will get stuck at the light for the exact amount of time we need to get there. Its crazy!

As far as my ankle is concerned, it is much better, there are days that it causes me some pain, but over all its not too bad. I am loving the weather, I think it was saturday, but in the sunshine it got up to 80 degrees ( or so it said on our thermometer ( again I would like to emphasize that it was IN THE SUN)) but even not in the shade it was 12 Grad, which is roughly 54 degrees Fahrenheit. Still can't understand Schäbisch (a local dialect of German), but my ability to understand Hoch Deutsch (high German) has improved dramatically. Lucky for me Church is in all Hoch Deutsch, so its easy to understand.

Speaking of Church, yesterday was Pfahlkonferenz (stake conference). It was broadcasted from Salt Lake City, Elder Russel M. Nelson spoke, and President Eyring as well! Haha Elder Nelson blew a kiss to his daughter and son in law ( President and Sister Miles) as well as to his grandson who was in Berlin ( this was broadcast to all of Germany, Austria and Switzerland ( and I dearly hope that it wasn't truly live, like everyone said it was. Because that means that it took place a 2 am in Salt Lake City)). I must say, it was a bit interesting to see an apostle of the Lord blow a kiss on a program which was being broadcasted in 3 different countries, but it was sweet to see, I wish I could have seen the l their facial expressions however. The conference was spectacular! President Eyrings talk was amazing. He talked about where his family comes from; His Grandpa came from a weathly aristocratic German backround while his grandma came from a small cottage in the mountains in Switzerland. It was amazing. His Grandpa was Henry Eyring, which I think is the same Henry Eyring that is spoken about in the book Mormon Scientist if so that means that amoung other things, he was a world renound chemist. And as I discovered yesterday, he translated the Doctorine and Covenants into German! That was cool to hear. 

I know, I am a nerd for getting excited about a chemist translating the Doctorine and Covenants into German, but would you really expect anything less from me? :-) I am not sure if it was the same Henry Eyring though, the timeline doesn't quite add up. But none the less its still cool!

I think it was Cassie who asked me where we normally do e-mails, and I don't remember if I said or not, so I  will say it again. Normally on P-days we go shopping from 11 to 12 then catch a bus to Sirinau, which is where our church is, we bring a Lasagna mit and cook it while e-mailing their. Then we can eat lunch and e-mail for a couple hours. It works out well. Right now however, we didn't have time to go to Sirinau ( we have a dinner appointment, and we had the Zone P-day) so I am at an internet cafe´around the corner from my apartment. Last week after we e-mailed, we went and visited the Esslingen Burg ( fortress) I took a ton of pictures which you can see when you get my memory card in a few days. It was beautiful! It was originally built in the year 1200, its nearly 600 years older than our country! Its high up on the mountain so I shot a few pictures of the surrounding areas. I got a picture of both the Protestant Cathedral, the Catholic Cathedral, and a not so good picture of the Mosque ( it was really far away.) Anyway it turns out it was never used as a refuge in times of attack, rather it was a gathering place for the town during celebrations. 

Speaking of Celebrations Easter Celebrations have begun, A lot of Fasching, which is essentially a carnival. As you can imagine, we have seen some incredibly drunk people. I find it weird that they celebrate the ressurection of Jesus Christ, by consuming large amounts of alcohol. And then there is Schmutzige Donnerstag, ( Dirty Thursday) A really weird tradition in which girls walk around with pairs of scissors and cut off the mens ties ( its also accompanied with fasching and other celebrations ( apparently it gets so bad, that there are certain cities in which the missionaries aren't allowed to go out after a certain time)). ( I really want to meet the person that came up with this) I don't get the purpose of it, but I was lucky enough to survive unscathed ( good thing too, because I happened to be wearing one of my really nice ties...)

Anyway I hope all is well at home, things are well here. I hope you will excuse my spelling, I don't get to use English all that often, and there is no spell checker... But yeah. Well, I will talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Ryan Christensen