Another week has gone by already?! Exploding from Excitement!

Its been quite the week here in Dornbirn. And I am about to Explode from excitement! We have been so blessed! We have been finding people in the most unplanned of ways! (If you recall the letter from last week, they were focused on fasting and finding people.  The following stories are the successes that came from those efforts and faith.)   We were waiting at a bus stop to take us to Bahnhof to catch a train somewhere ( I don't really remember where or why) but there was another lady sitting at the bus stop with us. The bus didn't come, which almost NEVER happens, buses can be late, but rarely to they just flat out not come. So we started talking to her, and she wants us to bring her and her friend 2 Copies of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. By that time, the next bus arrived, we went to Bahnhof, and caught a later train ( we missed the first one, but we are the Lords servants, so I guess he is entitled to change our plans as He pleases ;-)).

Another time we were coming from an appointment in Schlins-Beschlingen, The plan was to catch a train, grab a quick Döner, then go try to find a turkish lady who we had met the day before, to give her a Book of Mormon. We were in a bit of a hurry to catch the train ( the train station was a 20 minute walk from where we were, and we had about 17 minutes or so). Anyway on the way there, I see a man walking down the street, and right then I knew that we weren't meant to catch our intended train. Sure enough he called out to us ,,Seid ihr Zeugen Jehova?" " are you Jehovas Witnesses?". No, we are from the church of Jesus Christ... Long story short he was interested in Reading the Book of Mormon, we gave him a copy and he gave us his address to come back and explain where the book came from/why its important. We missed our train, and the next one didn't for 30 minutes. So we ate down in Schlins, and caught the next train. Which Yilmaz was on :-) Yilmaz is a security guard for ÖBB ( The train system in Austria) and he has always been full of questions for us. I don't know if I would call him an investigator, but a good friend. We don't get to meet with him very often, but he always comes up and talks to us if we see him on the trains. We talked to him, and he kind of opened up to us right then, it was really cool, a step up in the trust he has in us.

We got back, and immediately caught a bus that was to take us to the turkish lady. We find the address she gave us, but its a bar. Maybe she works there? We don't know, we didn't go in, because there was an apartment building right next to it (the number she gave us was 2, the apartment was 2a so we decided to try there). No Luck. We started to ring the doorbells, and were buzzed in right on the first one, top floor. They had no interest, but this allowed us to go and knock on all the doors from the inside (which is better because then it is face to face communication, not just through an intercom). We did so and came across a family, to whom we gave a book, and they told us that we could come back and teach them. And then we came across someone else, named Niklaus, who was busy at the moment, but said we could come back another time. We did Last night, and were able to teach him, and he is now a new investigator. :-) False address, but it results in more potential investigators, and a new investigator. 

Another time, this one happened on Saturday, we had made a plan to visit an older sister in the ward who lived clear in Feldkirch  RIGHT on the border of Liechtenstien ( The border was about 30 yards from her front door, we got there a bit early, so yes, I have now officially been in Liechenstein, and have pictures (WITH ME IN THEM, for the sake of my poor mom ;-)) but sadly, my camera is dead, so I can't post them just yet). Anyway, we had planned for a priest who lived in Feldkirch to be a Joint teach for us. The problem was, he lived clear on the other side of Feldkirch. So the plan was to meet him at his house an hour before the appointment, then catch a ride from one of his parents to the appointment. In order to make it to him by 5, we arrived at 4:30 to catch a bus that left at 4:40 to get us to him by 5. Well upon arriving, he tells us that he will just meet us at her house ( which wasn't a problem for us, because we knew where she lived). But with the change in plan, we now had an unplanned hour and a half. So we went and started talking to people on the streets. We met Thomas. Who actually lives in Dornbirn, but was visiting someone in Feldkirch. He already had received a Book of Mormon, but had never met with the missionaries. We were able to make an appointment with him on the spot for this Thursday! Had we not arrived in Feldkirch when we did having that extra time, we would probably never have met him.

Walking on the street one day, a man who owns a small shop, calls out to us on the street asking us if we want a few sodas, we say that we were fine, but he insisted. So we come in, and start talking to the lady behind the counter (she is Thai by the way :-) ) We told her about the book of Mormon and she is interested in learning more. I could go on and on with these stories. They happen every day. I am sure you remember ( or now can go read) my letters from the start of this area. 0 Investigators, 0 Potentials. At the start it was INCREDIBLY difficult  to give out a single Book of Mormon every day, much less find someone who wanted to meet with us. Elder Esplin a few days ago was telling me that before I came, they had a district meeting in which they talked about the goal of giving out at least one Book of Mormon per day. He said that there was a lot of doubt about it being possible.

Possible? I have been here about 25 days now, in which time we have been able to give out over 30 copies of the Book of Mormon. A few weeks ago, the Zone Leaders announced a goal of trying to find at least 2 new potentials every day. Possible? On Friday we found 5 people who were interested in meeting with us. The Lord works in ways which we can't really understand. He gives goals and commandments which we may or may not think possible. The first two weeks here, nearly everyone said no. But now its changed. The Lord has tested our faith, and is now helping us be led to find those who are ready to receive the gospel. I can't tell you how grateful I am to be here right now. To be one of the instruments in the hand of the Lord to get this area going again. The changes that have taken place are nothing short of Miracles. Transfers calls are next Friday, whether I stay here or not, it doesn't matter. I am grateful to have seen what I have seen already :-). 

Everything else pretty much pails in Comparison to that. I had a rather interesting time getting to Winterthur on Tuesday... Normally what would happen is that we call the office Elders, and ask them to order us tickets for our trip, then the day before they call with the codes to print the tickets. Then we go to a machine, put in the code, and the ticket prints. No worrying about money, or anything really, except catching the train. As I have said previously, to save money and time, we have been authorized to travel alone on exchanges. Which means that I don't have a cell phone, or really anyway to call and figure things our with anyone. That being said, I will continue with the story: the plan was, I would catch the 9:20 bus from the apartment, get to Bahnhof, and catch the 9:39 train to Bregenz. I would have about 9 minutes to print off the ticket, and grab something to eat. No problem right? Well I get to Bahnhof, and go to the machine, put in the code and the ticket prints. BUT it was a one way ticket from RAVENSBURG to Winterthur, not a two way from Dornbirn to Winterthur. My train leaves in 8 minutes, and I don't have the right ticket. Brilliant.

If I was in Germany, the solution would be very simple, I would just type in my destination, and pay for the ticket at the machine. But I am not in Germany, Austrian Ticket machines don't have that function. So I go running into the Ticket office, praying that there isn't a line. There wasn't and I order my ticket, making sure to specify it being a 2 way ticket. It prints I pay for it, it was roughly 1/2 as expensive as I thought it was going to be. Then I realize, that is only a one way ticket ( at which point the 1/2 price thing made sense ;-) ) But I don't have to time right then, I would have to try and take care of it in Bregenz on my 10 minute layover. ( I wanted to buy it in Austria because I have a discount card, which gets me 15% off tickets.) Everything went well I payed for the ticket, visited the bakery, and caught my train without a problem. Upon arriving in Winterthur I realized that I had no idea where Elder Jacklin was going to meet me... Dream come true, wandering around completely lost in Winterthur without anyway to communicate. I wait at what I thought was the main entrance to the Bahnhof for about 10 minutes then decided to head toward the buses. That is where Elder Jacklin met me. RELIEF! ;-) Everything else went well, it was just an adventure trying to figure out what to do in the mean time. :-)

Anyway, that is all for now. I hope all is well at home! 

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen