A much better week

Well this week was much better than the last week. Despite having no appoitments we were still able to teach 4 lessons or so and find a new investigator. Not bad. Plus we gained a lot of new potentials who we will go back and contact within the next week if possible. It was good to get back into a somewhat normal routine again.

Despite the exchange. The exchange in Ravensburg was good, showering was miserable (no water heater), but the rest was good ;-). In Ravensburg we were able to go by on a few Less actives, as well as do some street contacting. Something which I, in the last transfer or so, have actually gotten fairly good at. I forgot had forgotten how awkward it was at the start until Elder Hanson asked me how I am able to walk up to someone and start a conversation spontaneously. I remember now how hard it was for me at the start, but now its well, fairly easy.

Still no contact with Nick, we think he might have taken a trip somewhere because his work is done for a while. So we will continue to keep going by until we somehow restore contact with him. This upcoming week we have a few appointments which we are excited about, such as Ronald. Elder Esplin and Elder Smith originally found a long time ago, and gave him a book of Mormon in German. But he is from Holland, so German isn't his mother tongue. Anyway, roughly 3 weeks ago, we bumped into him in Bregenz, which was cool because he lives in Rankweil, (near Feldkirch which was about 40 minutes away from there). He was heading home and we happened to be taking the same train. Which was awesome, because I was able to get his address and we went by a few days later to give him a Book of Mormon in Dutch. At which point we made an appointment out for Tuesday. ( 3 weeks a way at that point). He is a really awesome guy, and seemed fairly interessted in learning about the church ( he is just incredibly busy with work).

We have another appointment with the Cukic family again ( In case anyone has forgotten, brother Cukic was the one who had a severe burnout and depression). He has been making quite a large amount of progress and we hope to invite them back to Church again! That will be neat.

We will also most likely meet with Isabelle. She is 28 years old and has had an incredibly hard life. At the age of 16 her mom spontaneously kicked her our of the house, didn't say why, and to this day refuses to have any contact with her or Isabelle's dad. Because of that she ended up begging on the streets of France for a while. I don't know the whole story, but things eventually got better for her, and she found the church and was baptized. However not long thereafter she went back to the way she was (  i.e. smoking, drinking, etc.) and the guilt of being baptized but then doing all of those things was so much that she had her name taken out from the church. But she wants to come back. She justs wants to make sure that this time she is completely ready, unlike last time when she said that the missionaries really rushed her into the decision.

She doesn't want to discuss baptism at the moment because for her that is a huge step, but she has stopped drinking, comes to Church every week, has read the entire Book of Mormon cover to cover ( in about 3 weeks or so) and last time we met with her, she was already into John in the New Testament ( she likes to read.) She is going through a really hard time right now, she is in the hospital with immense stomach pain, which the Doctors have not been able to figure out why yet. Which somewhat confuses her because she is trying to do what is right, and just as she is coming to church every week again, she starts getting immense pain, and no one has been able to figure it out as of yet.

I really hope things get better for her, she has been coming to church every week, and has been participating more in the lessons, than any of the other members do! And yet she is not ready to let go of everything yet, smoking, or peircings she said that she isn't quite ready for that yet. But maybe while I am here she will change, we shall see.

I think that's it as far as any major appointments go this week. On un related news, I speak German with a Danish accent. :-) I don't quite know how that has come about. Something that someone told me once is that as you get better and better at speaking German, you will start sounding closer and closer to a German. And as this happens, your accent changes and resembles that of a European, specifically Scandanavian. As people guess where you come from, and  they will start guessing closer and closer to Germany. Well everyone that I have been talking to has been asking me if I come from Denmark or the Netherlands. And with a Danish last name... its starting to lean more toward Denmark. :-) Which is cool, because that means that I am getting better at my German. :-) It has had a bit of an effect on my English as well, not a huge influence, but I do sound a bit different...

Anyway thats all for now! Things are going well here. I need a new umbrella again... number 4 or 5, I lose count. The first one broke in Esslingen, then next one fell out of my Backpack on a train (unnoticed of course), Third one developed holes in a couple of weeks ( during the intense rain). And this one had a faulty opening mechanism, which goes off spontaneously ( I have gotten hit in the face a few times...) and today, it shot out of my hand. And when it hit the ground, it smashed the handle into small little pieces. Wunderbar. :-) So I will go buy another one. Yet again. ;-)

Other than that things are going well! :-) I hope all is well at home!

Schöne Tägle! (Have a nice day!)

Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen