Tuesday... weird

Alright so first things first, I survived Transfer calls and will be staying another transfer! Awesome! And second, I am sure since this is coming on Tuesday you all think I went to the Zone P-day Hike. Sadly no, it was too expensive, but Ravensburg came down here and we had a district P-day.

Yesterday was packed. Elder Robins and I had a lesson with a Lady in Feldkirch, who is from the Philippians. She is like 4 feet tall if even that. That lesson went well and she really wants to know more about the church and read in the book of Mormon. So we are excited to teach her. That was at 9 am.

At 10 the Ravensburg Elders came and we went to Shattenburg, a really old Fortress right in the center of Feldkirch.

 Shattenburg

 Shattenburg

Feldkirch, through a window at Shattenburg.

We were only there for about 40 minutes or so. Not much to see unless you go through the museum, and we weren't really wanting to pay to do it. We still got some cool pictures though. Then we came back to Dornbirn, Elder Robins and I changed, and we went to Karren.

Karren is a Restaurant on top of a mountain here in Dornbirn. There is a cable car that will take you to it, but we decided to do the hike instead. Which was both awesome and incredibly strenuous. It was 1000 meter elevation change over two and an half Kilometers. BRUTAL. It took us an hour and half to reach the Restaurant ( we stopped to take pictures at numerous places, and also took a trail which was supposed to get us there, but it dead ended after 8 minutes, so we had to turn around and take the other trail.)

Karren on top of the mountain.

The Restaurant was incredible! We sat out on the terrace which gives one a view of the entire Valley, into Switzerland, across Lake Constance into Germany. Beautiful.

View from Karen.

Then we hiked, well actually pretty much ran, down the mountain.It was actually easier to run than to walk. I know, my record with running isn't really the greatest, and running down a steep rocky trail probably isn't the greatest idea, but I was careful! According to the trail marker, it was supposed to take us 75 to 80 minutes to hike down, we made it in 35 minutes :-). And we only stopped twice! At that point in time it was about 4:30, Ravensburg went back, and we went shopping, then went out and proselyted. Which is why no e-mail came yesterday :-). 

This e-mail will be a bit short, because I don't have as much time today. Last week was much better than this past week. We found 3 new investigators! Sadly we were unable to meet with Heiß (we wanted to meet with them last monday). We had a number of appointments that didn't go through, some weather related. We wanted to go by on Eugen twice this week, but it poured rain both nights that we tried to go (and because he would be outside working, he wasn't there). The second time is when we actually tried and went all the way there (the first time we decided not to go, and went somewhere else, then the sun came out...).

We got stuck under someones carport for 20 minutes because there was an inch and half of standing water on the road, and the rain was still pouring. Eventually we actually talked to the guy there, we gave him a Book of Mormon, and he gave us a ride to Bahnhof. :-) God works in Mysterious ways. :-) A really cool story that happened this week, on Thursday (the first day that we wanted to go by on Eugen, than changed plans) we were in Hatlerdorf (a city area of Dornbirn). We were going by on some investigators/potential investigators in the are. Walking down the road, I saw a lady shutting her shutters, but before she had completely shut them I called out to her and talked to her. She then called her (Brother? Friend? not sure, he had a date with a different girl that night so I don't know the relationship) who also lived there and they invited us right in and we were able to teach them! Totally unplanned, we gained two new investigators. That was awesome! 

And Bru Cukic came to church again! I was really worried, for two weeks he hadn't shown up to Church, and wasn't answering his phone. I was really worried that he had given up trying to quit smoking (he has been having a hard time, he is so close!!!) and come back. But then he showed up to church as happy as ever, and said that this week was going to be the week, without a question, he was going to quit! YES! He had just been busy over the past few weeks and wasn't able to answer my phone calls. As well as having things come up, and not being able to make it to church. We will go visit him this Wednesday.

We also had a cool experience on Sunday. So a week ago Sunday, we went to Egg hoping to teach a couple of lessons. There was a family there who said to come back on Sunday, and there was also Alvin who said that he was almost always home and to come back whenever we were in Egg. So we went. And nobody was home. So this past Tuesday, when Elder Hansen and I were in Egg, we went by and made out specific appointments, which they wrote down, so they wouldn't forget. Two lessons back to back. The plan was, to go to Egg, teach this family and introduction lesson, then meet up with Bru. Egger to teach Alvin.

Well we went to catch the Bus to take us to Egg, and it didn't stop at our stop. It was supposed to, but it didn't. And the next one didn't come for an hour. I was a bit mad, because that meant that we were now going to no- show our appointment with this family. We had no phone number for them, and there was no other options. But we went back to the apartment and decided to do our companionship study then. We caught the next bus to Egg. And went by on this family. No one was home. Drat.

Then we go to Alvin, and it turns out that this family was his son and daughter in law, and they were there! We explained what happened and they said that it was ok. The Daughter in law came and joined in on part of the lesson, but had to take a phone call and wasn't there for the full thing. But we hope to go by this next week! Alvin read the book, and we talked about it. Had some initial doubts about it. He was Catholic and was going to stay that way. This is where Bru. Egger saved us. Bru. Egger was also Catholic, but converted to our church when he was 22, and then served a mission when he turned 24. Because he was catholic he was able to talk to Alvin, and when we left Alvin was really excited to read in the Book of Mormon and find out if it was true! Amazing! That was cool. 

Last week really set us up for a good week this week. I will have to tell you more about it next week.

Sorry this letter will be short, I am out of time now. Your consolation will have to be the pictures and the memory cards that I will sent home this week. :-) 

Take Care!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen.