Well, yet another week has gone by. A rather rough week at times. I think Marco came across anti-Mormon literature. We had an appointment with him on Tuesday. We showed up and he let us into the building, but when we got to his door, the Book of Mormon, the Pamphlet and everything that we had given him were sitting outside the door. I tried knocking but he wouldn't come speak to us. I left a note saying that he could keep the Book of Mormon, as a free gift, and left a short testimony that I know it's true. He has no phone, but he gave us his e-mail address, so I had Phil send him an e-mail to see what happened, I still haven't heard back from him.
I totally spaced last week mentioning that we had a leadership training meeting in Zürich. All Swiss missionaries went to that. That was a long day, in order to make it to the meeting on time (which started at 9.30 on the outskirts of Zürich), we had to wake up at 4.15 AM. So that we could make sure we were up at out the door by 5.30 to walk to Bahnhof (train station), to catch our first train at 5.56. The route took us down to Feldkirch, then to Buchs, then Sargans, then finally a direct train to Zürich at 8.30. EARLY.
Waking up that morning was a bit rough, but the route took us through Liechtenstein, and right through the heart of the Swiss Alps at Sunrise... Yeah, it was VERY WORTH IT. It was absolutely spectacular. However, in my state of sleep deprived awe, I neglected to take very many pictures... ( I anticipate that upon hearing that, people will not be very happy... but I didn't sleep well that night! SORRY! ) but pictures wouldn't have done it any justice, its just something that needs to be experienced. I actually just figured out that with our Monats Karten (monthly pass) we can actually get to Sargans for free, and it wouldn't be TOO difficult, so I may go back and take some pictures of the trip. I took some pictures at Sargans waiting for our layover train. But nothing in between.
passing through Liechtenstein, getting into Buchs
Me in Sargans
It was a great meeting. :-) It made me laugh, on Wednesday night (the night before we were going to Zürich) I get a phonecall at about 8.00 pm from the Zone leaders, informing us that the APs called and said that we could spend the night in Winterthur. That would have been nice to know a couple of days in advance, so that I am not an hour outside of Dornbirn when I get the phonecall. Sadly, it wasn't possible in the least bit, time aside, the route wasn't through Winterthur (I don't know why). But even if it was, it was far too late. Haha maybe next time.
Friday and Saturday we saw a miracle, after a whole lot of struggling. I won't go into details about Friday, its not something that I want to dwell on. But on Saturday, we had 4 appointments already made out. 3 with investigators, one with Isabelle. Well One of the appointments dropped out on the spot, then I was notified that our joint teach could no longer come, and the other appointment also cancelled, all of those phone calls came within about 5 or 6 minutes of each other. We went from having a completely full day, to nearly nothing. It was POURING rain outside, and since we no longer had any appointments we went dooring. It was pouring so bad that about an hour or so into, the water started seeping through the umbrella and getting on me.
There were some things on my mind from Friday, that were eating me from the inside out. It was horrible, and I couldn't shake it. I tried calling around to find some new joint teaches to try to save the other appointment that day, but no one could. Then the Bishop recommended that I go by on his son, who lived in Dornbirn. I didn't have the address on me, and we had finished dooring the street, so we went back to our apartment to look up his address. Being back, I took the opportunity to kneel down and pray, I needed it. I was at my whits end. I was incredibly weighed down, and was not able, on my own, to change that. I got up, feeling a bit of relief, not completely, but better. At what point exactly the weight was completely removed, I don't know, but it didn't take very long before it was gone. The thing which had been tormenting no longer had power, and I could feel happy again.
We went out and were heading to visit the Bishop's son when Isabelle called and cancelled the appointment on us. Ok, so we just started dooring where we were at. The sun had come out by this point, and there was no more rain, so it made dooing easier. We did that for a few hours, then went to Bregenz. We had been given a list of people from the ward council who vanished essentially. They hadn't come to church and no one had been able to make contact with them. So they sent us to go find them :-). There are two train stations in Bregenz, the first less active lived right by the second. But upon getting to the first station, I felt like we needed to get out. So we did. And we walked all the way across innenstadt (downtown) to try and find this less active.
On the way, we gave out 6 books of Mormon! Unbelievable, that night we totaled up our numbers from Friday and Saturday, and we had found 11 new potential investigators!! ( Potentials are those who give us information so that we can come by and meet with them later on). Between those two days only! That is HUGE! So huge that the news spread rapidly through the whole Zone! Everyone was surprised, Very rarely does finding success happen like that, especially when its unplanned. 15 new potentials found during the week! We don't really have any investigators, no one consistent that is, and we have an opportunity to change that! It really just reiterates Ether 12:6 " you shall receive no witness until after the trial of your faith". Friday and Saturday were both hard, long days, but we saw a lot of success in the end, after we pushed through it.
A lot of cool things will be going on over the next month or so. First, Sister Miles is playing her flute in a concert on Saturday in Ravensburg. She performed a few times in Switzerland, but it was to far for us, but now we get to see it! That will be cool. It was also announced that despite having a huge training meeting that we will also be having a Zone Conference on August 7th. Another early morning adventure to Switzerland! And most exciting of all, Sister Miles' dad has announced that he will be visiting our mission, he will come to Munich and to Switzerland!! ( For those confused why I am excited that Sister Miles' dad is coming, Sister Miles is the daughter of Elder Russel M. Nelson!) I HOPE I DON'T GET TRANSFERRED! His time is limited so he can't visit all Zones, only those who serve in the Munich Zone or any of the Swiss Zones will be able to go and hear him speak. (Its incredibly easy for all the Swiss missionaries to gather in Zürich. Only the poor Dornbirn Elders need wake up SUPER early. ;-)) He will be coming on September 12! I AM SO EXCITED! I really hope that I stay!! ( I REALLY want to stay anyway, its going to be very hard for me to leave this area as it already is, but I don't want to miss this!)
But yeah, we are excited to go back and meet with our 15 new potentials and hope that they will become investigators! We shall see. But as of right now things are looking up :-). That is all for now! Thanks for your support and prayers they mean a lot!
Here are a few more pictures
Picture of me in Zürich
A really cool looking bench :-)
My British GML. :-)
Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen
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