(Another week has gone by) Ja, ich habe überhaupt kein Idea wie ich diese e-mail beginnen soll. (Yes, I have absolutely no Idea how to begin this email)
This past week was alright, but we are still suffering from fallen out appointments. Deborah, the serbisch lady who is a relative of Bru. Cukic, had a visa problem, and was forced to go back to Serbia for a minimum of 3 months. Because of that, she couldn't meet with us. She is now in Serbia, and the nearest missionaries are 250 kilometers away. That was hard on me.
I am been so blessed. I have no visa problems, I have no money problems, I have no problems at all, save it be trying to find people who will listen to me. And it is so hard for me to see other struggle and realize that I am powerless to do anything about it. I feel guilty at times.
And it makes me sad, Deborah seemed like she had quite a lot of interest in learning about the gospel, and now its not possible, save it be reading in the Book of Mormon in Serbisch that I gave her. I am still going to try to pass her information down to Serbia, to see if there is anything at all that they can do, but as far as Bru. Cukic knows the nearest missionaries are in the main city. At one point there was a ward down there, but then there was some problems with the government, the church wasn't allowed to have their own building, so it was taken away and since then he doesn't know where they meet or anything about it really. That's hard. I hope and pray that she reads in the Book of Mormon, and still wants to meet with us when she gets back.
But as hard as last week was, it set us up this week to have a really awesome week. We are totally booked out. Every evening this week is filled with 2 or 3 appointments, and there are a few days which are already completely planned out. This week marks the beginning of school here, so everyone is finally home again!! This will be a breath of fresh air for us. A lot of potential this week.
Smart, a Nigerian in our ward, has been trying to bring his twin daughters here for a long time and finally succeeded (a lot of government paperwork on both sides). They are 17 soon to turn 18, anyway, they are not members of the church. But smart made out an appointment with us to come and teach them! I am excited, Smart has an incredibly strong testimony, and I think this will work out well. Apparently yesterday Schwester Egger taught the youth Sunday school class in Englisch so that the two Nigerian girls could understand it.
Schwester Egger cracks me up, she only speaks to us in Englisch so that she can practice, but her accent is VERY German. It brings a smile to my face to hear it. :-) Anyway I thought it was cool that spur of the moment they decided to teach it in Englisch, and I am glad that Sister Egger was the teacher. Not many can speak Englisch that well. Although, due to Smart, Phil, and Bru. Stevens, more and more people are picking up the ability to speak Englisch.
Isabelle has continued to make progress. She doesn't want to stop smoking cold turkey, but rather over time. She did it last time like that apparently and it worked, so she is convinced to do it that way again. But its still amazing to see the change that she has made over the time that I have been here. Things are going much better for her now, and will continue to do so. We were also able to meet with Bru. Cukic and Peter Netzer, in both of whom I have also noticed a large change. Its cool to see.
Recently we started teaching Noah Repnick. He is 8 years old and is preparing for baptism. His mom invited us to come and teach him the discussions which has been awesome, and has given us a chance to talk to Bru. Repnick a bit. Bru. Repnick has been inactive for a long time. Due mainly to the history of the ward, there were some things that have happened that have shaken the ward to the center. Anyway, the first time we taught Noah, he was a bit, not cold, but not overally warm. But this past time changed that. I don't know exactly what, but right as we left he seemed a bit more welcome to us being there, and invited us back next time to eat dinner with them. That was something cool that happened this week. I think we may have a chance to begin to talk to him and help him out. As well as Noah.
We still continue to help Eugen out once a week. For which he is so grateful. Otherwise he would be completely alone, and when we come we he can get much more done than otherwise. He is still ridiculously busy, which is preventing us from really being able to teach him. But when he gets his house finished and we help him move in ( I say we as in the missionaries in General, I will most likely not be here) I think he will be pretty golden :-). We have most certainly won his love and trust. I am excited to hear what happens with him.
That is pretty much all that happened this week. A lot of unplanned finding activities, in which we found a number of new potentials. Which is good, but only if we can actually get an appointment and meet with them :-). We have been able to make out a number of appointments this week, and I pray that they all go through. Elder Robins and I had some neat experiences finding though. We have had a number of times where we talk to someone and they originally say no, but we still continue to ask questions and bear testimony, then they take a Book of Mormon, and we commit them to read a certain chapter (given based on how we feel) and then ask to come visit them. A number of times, despite saying no first, they eventually accepted our invitation. That was cool. One of the times they even invited us back at a specific time. That was cool. Next Monday night at 19. I am excited for that!
This upcoming week is going to be crazy, specifically tomorrow and Wednesday. Tomorrow starts early morning seminary again, which we help out with. Meaning we get to wake up at 5 or so. Then, as I have stated before Elder Nelson is coming on Wednesday and visiting all the Missionaries in Switzerland. Well the meeting is in Schwamendingen. 20 minutes outside Zürich with a street Tram. Which isn't bad till you consider that the meeting begins at 9:00 AM. And because its an Aposlte who is coming, they want us there at 8.00.
Because we are so booked this week, we can't spend the night in Winterthur like we did last time. So we will get up at 3.15 am, to be able to shower eat, and prepare to walk out the door at 4:40 to walk to bahnhof to catch a 5 am S-bahn. The 5 am S-bahn is the EARLIEST POSSIBLE TRAIN. There are no trains earlier than that. For a good reason. Oh man, that will be early, then we take a 30 minute train ride to Feldkirch to catch a train at 5:45. This is the earliest possible connection, any earlier and it wouldn't be possible to go. CRAZY.
So on Tuesday, when you looked at the clock at 7.15 PM, I will be getting up here to travel to Zurich. Any prayers would be appreciated. That day will be completely full. Elder Nelson for 3 hours, followed by Zone Training for an additional 3 hours, then coming back, and hopefully teaching a lesson that night before we come back and collapse at 8:30 or so. Then if we are able, we may have dinner, but my guess is we may just plan and go to bed. :-) an 18 hour day is long enough :-) Living here has its positives, and one heck of a negative :-). But that is just how it goes.
Anyway, that seems to be the biggest thing going on this week. I am excited to go, I have already missed Elder Bednar (who visited München awhile back) and Elder Christopherson (came to Wien). So now it's my turn! :-) I just hope that I can stay awake long enough to enjoy it :-)
Alright I think that is all for this week,
I hope all is well at home!
Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen
P.S. The pictures are more for Josh than anything else :-) Caption on the picture : We finally got a car! Autobahn here we come! ;-)
Poor Josh, He loves the Eagle Vision...Still misses the one we had. This one looks better.
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