Transfers and Zone Conference

This past week has been incredibly busy! Tuesday we had Zone Conference, which was absolutely fantastic! Then after an excruciatingly long week, we finally got "the phone call". No surprises on my part, I will remain here in Esslingen ( I am still in the process of getting a German Visa, so there was no way that I was going anywhere) however Elder Heinrich will go to Salzburg Austria. I wish I had a picture of his face when he found out... it was priceless! Which brings me to my next point, my new companion will be Elder Stokes, who is from Australia. He speaks German with an Australian accent, which, as some of you can probably imagine is a rather interesting combination. :-) Haha I feel bad for Elder Stokes though, he is from Tübingen, which is the area right next to mine, in my same district as well... he doesn't get much of an exciting transfer, especially since he has already been in Tübingen for 5 transfers... But he seemed rather "stoked" to come here none the less :-)

Elder Heinrich is both excited and sad to go to Salzburg, sad to leave Esslingen, because the ward is incredible, but excited because IT'S SALZBURG AUSTRIA! That will be neat for him. But I am very much so glad to stay here in Esslingen, hopefully that will allow me to see more progression with some of our investigators. Speaking of investigators I had my first one drop me yesterday. It totally caught me off guard. Frau Baumann. Yes, the lady who read the entire Book of Mormon in three weeks dropped us yesterday. She said she was baptized into the Russian Orthodox church, and she was going to remain Russian Orthodox. She didn't like how we asked her to be baptized again. And she had a few other concerns, such as the name of the church including the phrase "Der Heiligen der letzten Tage" (directly translated it means "the Saints of the Last Days") she didn't like how it said "last days". We wanted to explain it, but she didn't let us, instead she told us that she didn't want us wasting our time teaching her, and that she really appreciated the few lessons we taught. She said despite the age difference we were the best teachers that she's had ( at this point I was asking myself the question " then why are you are you dropping us?!"). But yeah, she did, and that was that. It really taught me the importance of pondering and praying about the Book of Mormon. This really showed me that it was truly possible read the entire Book of Mormon and still not gain a testimony of it. And a testimony is INCREDIBLY important. Especially when two 19/20 year old boys are essentially telling you that you need to be baptized again, because the first time wasn't valid... 

But yeah, the rest of the week pales in comparison to Transfer calls. That and Zone Conference. It was awesome to President and Sister Miles again. And the AP's who I seem to have gained eternal fame with. So back on my first day here, we spent the entire day being taught by the AP's. Nothing like sitting in a class for hours on end while suffering from Jet Lag... Well we were all really tired and doing everything in our power to remain awake. The AP's seeing our struggle to remain awake, said that they would allow us all to take a "20 minute power nap". Now keep in mind that the night before leaving Utah, I got roughly 4 hours of sleep, and wasn't able to sleep on the plane. So I by this time had been up 28 hours or so with 4 hours of sleep preceding. And after the 20 minutes were up, everyone else was able to wake up. Except me. I was out cold, and despite them yelling my name and shaking me, I wasn't waking up... Anyway, long story short I somehow woke up and was fine for the rest of the day. But upon seeing me at Zone Conference the AP's came up to me and said something to the effect of "Elder Christensen, its good to see you awake". Even the brand new AP seemed to know who I was... It was rather funny. But Zone Conference was awesome. President Miles is amazing and taught an awesome lesson on Faith and Obedience, and we broke off into smaller groups and worked on some aspects of teaching, This allowed President Miles to come around and give us individual tips on how to be better. I very thoroughly enjoyed it. :-)

The rest of this week was packed, but with the usual things, Teaching investigators, various eating appointments ( when members here that there is a transfer coming up, we get a ridiculous amount of eating appointment invitations). We have 2 eating appointments everyday for the rest of the week ( well till Wednesday, then on Thursday we transfer). Things are going well here. The Romanians moved, and changed telephone numbers ( we knew they were moving but didn't know when) so when we went to go say hi on Tuesday, someone else answered the door. That is a really strange feeling, when you knock on someones door, and someone completely different answers the door. We haven't been able to visit them for a week because both Danny and Thomas have worked, which means that its just Andrea, Datia, and Dannys mom at home. So evidently they moved between the time that we last visited them. But we found them this week!!! So we are continuing to teach them! Which I am very happy about! They are incredible! They were also incredibly happy to see us.. It's going to be hard for me when I get transferred out, I have really become good friends with them. Danny got a Job working construction in Böbling ( its on the complete opposite side of Stuttgart) but having to pay for a ticket there every day has left without enough money to come to church ( he gets paid for the first time this week so he said that they will be in church next week!) He has read all the way through first Nephi, and seems to be really liking it. I asked him if there was anything that we can do for him and his family, and he asked me for Church music, because it gave them feelings of peace when they listened to it. I am glad to see, whether they recognize it or not, that they are feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost.

So things are continuing to go well here. And as evident with the story above, the Lord continues to hear and answer my prayers, even the smallest of things he seems to care about. Its been a great testimony builder to me. The Lord is always there for us, all He is waiting for us to do is to ask Him for help.

Thanks for the e-mails/letters! I really appreciate them. Bis nächste Woche! (Until next week!)

Love,

Elder Ryan Christensen