This week was really good. Bru. Cukic is pushing forward firmly toward quitting smoking. Twice this week when visiting Familie (who all smoke) he smoked 2 cigarettes. But the first time was after 3 days, the second after 4 days, and in between nothing. He is going to try and isolate himself this week, and indulge on Grape Fruit Juice ;-) I can't help but stand and be amazed. This week Bru. Egger's home teaching companion dropped out last minute, so he called Bru. Cukic and he went for 3 hours home teaching! And he told me that he really enjoyed it! He has come to church these past two weeks, stayed for all three hours, and was very active in the lessons! HE HASN'T COME TO CHURCH IN NEARLY 7 YEARS!!!! UNBELIEVABLE! The changes that he has made, in only the few weeks that I have met with him is, indescribable. He is pushing forward very steadily determined not to fall away again. Wow.
Tuesday was also really cool. Its a long story though, which goes clear back to last transfer. Do you remember when we purchased the two desks for our apartment? Elder Esplin, Elder Hanson and Elder Sampson went to pick up the desks in the "Truck" that Elder Sampson was renting. Elder Hustead and I stayed and demolished the desks in the apartment ( we were going on exchange, and for some reason saw it necessary to split that way). Anyway they come back with only 1 desk. The store told us that they had two in stock, but they only had one and, so we ordered the other one. A week later we get a text saying the desk was in and that we could pick it up. This time I was in Winterthur on exchange, Elder Esplin, Allen and Sampson went and picked the desk up. Cool we have two desks, all is well.
Until about two weeks later when we get a text saying that our desk is in. Weird, but we ignore it, thinking its just an error, until a week later when they call us saying that they have our second desk that we ordered. We told them that we had already picked up both desks. They tried to convince us that we hadn't picked up the second desk, that we only had one, despite the fact that we could see BOTH desks. After about 15 minutes when we finally convinced them that yes, we did indeed have both desks (they were pretty stubborn...) they said that we needed to bring in both receipts because we only payed for one. No, we payed for both, ok we will bring the receipts in. So we take them in, hoping to only be there for a few minutes. We were there for about 40, in which they accused us of making a mistake and ordering three desks instead of two, and he pulled out a bunch of paperwork and was showing me all these things trying to convince me that it was our mistake and we needed to pay 70 Euro, which would then be given back to us as store credit. (It makes no sense to me why they would do that).
Elder Esplin was clueless as to what happened when he went and ordered them, which ticked me off a bit, he was there, I wasn't and he couldn't remember anything that happened. In retrospect this guy was being a total jerk, desperately trying to make us pay the 70 Euro, it couldn't possibly have been his mistake, it had to be ours. Anyway, I didn't have the money nor the authority to do anything with the money, so I told them we would need to come back with Elder Sampson to get it figured out. They gave me all the paper work and told me it was fine, just come back when we find the time. Long story short, the soonest that The Sampsons could come was this past Tuesday. In the time between I was looking through all the papers he had given me, trying to figure what happened. Elder Esplin looked through and had no idea, and he wasn't really worried about it. Lucky for him, it was really bothering me. I wasn't there so I didn't think I really had a chance at figuring out where it the problem started. Then early Tuesday Morning I awoke, and I knew what happened! I knew what the problem was, and how to fix it. It wasn't our fault it was their fault, we didn't owe them anything. After district meeting I showed Elder Sampson all the paperwork and explained what I had figured out, he agreed that that had to be the problem. We went to Kika (the store) and within 5 minutes I was able to explain what happened, get it all cleared, and we walked out not owing anything. That was cool :-). District meeting that day was also great. I learned a whole lot and got a huge compliment from Elder Sampson, who is a former mission president. It was a much needed confidence builder. :-)
Thursday we found two new investigators. We originally found them while dooring about a month ago. We were able to recontact them on Saturday of the week before last week. They said to come by on any night after 8. We found time on Thursday, so we went and visited them Herr Geyser and Frau Fink, an unmarried couple with 4 children, the oldest of whom just graduated the Austrian equivalent of high school. At first they were a bit skeptical (we found out on the end of the appointment, when their neighbor hear that they had invited us over, she started telling them all these bad things about us, that we were a sect etc.) getting into the lesson though they were impressed with how open we were. We taught them essentially the first lesson, and answered all of their questions, cleared up all rumors and by the end they invited us back in a couple of weeks to talk about what they will have read in the Book of Mormon. Not bad :-)
We may also be getting another new investigator fairly soon. His name is Anton, he is 13. He has been coming to church these past few weeks, and seems to really be enjoying it. I think he feels fairly at home in the ward, so we will talk to him and hopefully be able to meet with him and his parents. Someone told me they thought he was only coming to church because of Anneke Vuissa, a girl who he may be crushing on, don't know. But the Vuissa Family is currently in Provo, and will be spending time there and in California for about 10 weeks.
For those of you who are wondering why they are in Provo, Sister Vuissa is an American, her parents live there, and both she and Brother Vuissa went to BYU. Its really weird, Trevor, the american for whom I was translating is now back in Salt Lake, the Vuissa family ( who live practically across the street) are in Provo, and I just found out that My German Teacher was in Chur (the area right below mine) to visit his brother for a couple of weeks. WEIRD! Despite being here, I still find these connections with people that I know from there coming here, or people here going there.
Anyway, as far as this week is concerned, Transfer Calls are this Thursday. Elder Esplin, having been here for nearly 4 transfers, is most likely going to be transferred. So I will let you know what happens next week. Haha, right after we get the phone call telling us if we stay together or not, I leave to go on an exchange in Switzerland. :-) I can't help but laugh, we will get a phone call saying that Elder Esplin is going to leave, then right after the phone call I will go jump on a train and leave... Komisch (Funny).
Thats about all that is going on here. I got to live out a bit of an adventure fantasy yesterday, running for cover while dodging large golf ball sized hail. Thats a bit of a funny story, we were meeting with someone outside, a group of Jehovas Witnesses, actually, and in the middle of our conversation they look off into the distance and say "Hagel" (Hail). I was like "Hagel?" just then a huge piece of ice strikes the table in front of me and smashes into pieces. So we all run for the house while narrowly missing getting hit as ridiculously large hail begins to fall.
That was only the beginning of the weather adventures yesterday, Elder Esplin and I got stuck in a tunnel because of a huge lightning storm that lasted for about 30 minutes... yeah, not fun. Being in the tunnel, the thunder resonated louder, and one time is was so loud, it about knocked us over, somehow we managed to cover our ears before that one, that was nuts. Anyway, I am still in one piece, and I didn't get struck by lightning, nor pulverized by hail. So I guess I can say that I am doing well! ;-)
I hope all is well at home, I am glad to hear that it rained finally!
Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen
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