Grützi mit 'n and!

Grützi mit 'n and! (Greetings Everyone)

For all those wondering what the title and greeting of this e-mail means, its a Swiss greeting for more than one person (singular is simply: Grützi!). I am starting to really like dialects, they are actually kind of cool, when you can understand and speak them that is. ;-)

Its been a crazy week, a lot of ups and downs. We had 3 investigators drop us for various reasons... :-( Thomas Bäck has no more time at all to meet with us, so he dropped us (despite the amazing lesson we had last time). We had an appointment with Nicole and Andi this week, but a few days before Nicole sent us a text saying that she decided that she doesn't want to meet with us and that she is just going to keep her religion because its easier. Then Herr Ritter, who we found last Sunday and met with on Wednesday, called us last night and said that he and his wife talked about it, and decided that they aren't interested in looking at other religions right now. Ugh... 

BUT!!!!!!!! HUGE EXCITING NEWS!!!!! I think I have written about Nick Stemple before, if not I will refresh everyone's memory. So about 3 weeks or so ago, Elder Esplin and I met a Turkisch lady on the street, and with what little German she knew, and the incredibly small amount of Turkisch we knew, we were able to explain to her that we had a free book for her auf Turksich about Jesus Christ. She seemed a bit interested and gave us her address. The next day around 7 pm or so, we set out to try and find it. The address was Haselstaunden Straße 2a. Well we found it, it was a bar. But Haselstaunden Straße 2 was an apartment complex. So we went door to door there hoping that she just got it mixed up. Well somebody let us in, and we went door to door inside the building ( face to face communication is much more preferred than talking through an intercom.) And we came across a family that took a book of Mormon and said that we could come back, The very next door is where we met Nick . He told us that he had someone over, but to come back another day.

The impression that we got from him is that he wasn't really interested, but we were still going to back anyway (of course). So we came back a couple days later to try to meet with the family we had found, and to try to contract Nick ( however, at that time we didn't know his name). Having gone door to door inside we didn't know which klingel belonged to the family ( the man told us his name was Klaus, but didn't tell us a last name, and that was what was on the klingel). But we knew which door inside was his. So I started to ring the klingels, fairly randomly, going through which ones I thought were probable, then just ringing them, to see if someone could let us in. After going through all of them, no one having answered, we started to leave. After walking down the street a few meters, we heard someone buzz us in, so we turn around and sprint to the door trying to get there before it locks again. We made it in, but we have no idea who let us. Surprisingly it was Nick. He said that his apartment was small and a mess so that we wouldn't be able to come in. So we taught a very brief first lesson, gave him a Book of Mormon and said that we would come back next week to check up on him. ( Yes, we did check on the family, and they weren't there.) 

Again leaving his apartment, the impression was, he probably wouldn't read and probably didn't have any real interest in our message. But we came back the next week and rang his doorbell, no answer. He doesn't have a phone so we could only rely on contacting him in person. We lost contact with him for two and half weeks. We thought for sure he had dropped us and that he didn't want to meet. But we kept going back anyway ( we had by this time contacted the family, at which time they expressed no interest). On Tuesday this week we went by again to see if he was there. No answer again. But as we start to leave, a bus pulls up and he gets out. We go to talk with him, but before we really said much he saw the Book of Mormon in Elder Esplins hand and said " I love that book! I have already read half of it!". We were stunned. Somehow I managed to spit out the phrase " what do you think about it?". His reply: " What can I say, its true." WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This happened nearly a week ago, and I still get speechless thinking about it. And as if that wasn't enough he continued : " I was baptized into the Catholic church when I was born, but I never received the confirmation, this book has made me really want to receive it, and I think I want to change my religion and become a Mormon."

I could have exploded from happiness at that point in time! The utter shock must have been blatantly evident, because noticing the look on our face, and the fact that neither one of us could come up with a coherent sentence he said " You guys do get that a lot do you?". No, no we don't. Its very rare to lose contact with an investigator, re-establish it, and then have them say they think they want to join the church.... WOW!!! Luckily, despite the huge excitement I was in, I was still able to listen to the spirit, which told us not to meet right then, but to make out an appointment. Brilliant Idea, let us settle down a bit and prepare a good lesson, before we, out of excitement, stumble, just like Jakob was worried about doing (Jakob 4:18).

He is really busy with work, but his work ends on Tuesday, so we hope to be able to meet with him a few times a week starting Wednesday! We want to review the first lesson with emphasis on Priesthood Authority, and challenge him to Baptism! We could have a baptismal date by next week!!! We are very excited. Although, if he really wants to join the church, he will need to make a lot of changes, which won't be easy. I pray that he has enough of a testimony received, in order to take on these new challenges. But we will take it one step at a time and see how it goes, we are off to a good start. :-)

That was one of our "ups" so to say. The other came from meeting with the Cukic family again, they come from Serbia. Brother Cukic used to be a councilor in the bishopric, but he over worked himself, giving more than he could. He ended up burning out and going into a huge depression. He has been battling depression for a long time and has been afraid to try to come to church, read or pray, fearing that he will hit a high again, then crash. Missionaries have been working with him for months to try to help him out. I met with him for my first time about a Month ago, He is such a great guy, he loves to hear about our success, and how things are going in the ward, but he still had some lingering depression and fears. However this past time we met with him, when he walked in the room, there was a bit of a light in his eyes, and he was noticeably in a better mood. We inquired as to what had made him happier, he told us that he had started reading in the Book of Mormon and Praying again, and that he had noticed a huge change as a result of it. We were incredibly happy to hear this and asked him what caused him to start reading again.

Ironically it was the Jehovas Witnesses. The father of his daughter in law is a Witness, and I guess he showed up one day with a friend. Brother Cukic said "what could I do, he was the father of my daughter in law, I couldn't just turn him away". They started having a discussion in the which Brother Cukic started actually teaching them about the Holy Ghost. It was then where he " came to himself " (See Luke 17, the story of the Prodigal Son) he realized that he need to start reading again. Then he came across Onmi 1:2 where he said that he himself was a wicked man and hasn't been keeping the commandments like he ought to have. This was something that really helped Brother Cukic. I don't remember exactly what happened but he said something along the lines of " he wrote in the book of Mormon, Holy scripture, and he wasn't perfect." It gave him the courage that he could fight! And since then he has been reading and praying daily. Making progress toward coming back to church. Wow. I have read that verse a dozen or so times at least, and never thought anything of it. And for him it means everything. It just shows the power of the scriptures, and the importance of every verse!

Anyway that will need to suffice for now, things are going great! We have our ups and downs, but the difference is very noticeable, we have two or three appointments per day already scheduled this week, instead of just dooring for hours on end. Not that dooring is bad, its just doing all day every day can get exhausting... 

I hope all is well at home, Take care! 

Tchau mit 'n and! (Goodbye everyone)

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen