Hallo-"Wien" Roller Coaster

My goodness, this has been by far the craziest week I have ever had on my mission, without question. Holy cow. Some huge miracles. Some of the most stressful moments of my mission. Mensch (Oh, Man!). And most of that was between Friday, and Sunday, and because of that, I don't really remember anything else happening during that week.

But Friday. Oh my, so, it started off fairly normal, wake up study, eat lunch etc. We had a lesson that night with Michael and we hoped to  set a baptismal date. Well Elder Steed was feeling really really sick. But we were going to set a baptismal date with Michael that night and couldn't miss it. So Elder Steed rested and I made a bunch of phone calls and read the bible for a couple hours.

I love the German bible, its SO much easier to understand, I can read it like a novel, its awesome. So that's what I did. I read from Mark and into Luke 10. (I also compare how some verses are written in the Einheits, and Martin Luther bible, as well as the English, because sometimes they can be translated differently).

Anyway, one person I called is named Mike. Elder Cox met him on the street and got his number, and gave it to us (thinking he lived in our area). So I called him and talked to him trying to set up an appointment. He is an atheist  and was concerned about wasting our time because he couldn't promise that he would convert or anything. I said that's fine, we are just here to help other people find joy, through coming unto God. He seemed satisfied with that, and we made an appointment out for Monday. Nothing sounded wrong at all. 

Later on, I was in the kitchen washing dishes and cleaning up, and for some reason there was a question that kept coming to mind; What would I say to someone who was going to commit suicide? I thought it puzzling but I thought about it and came up with a few scriptures that I thought would help. After that I didn't think about it much.

Well it was now time to get ready to go to Michael. We always eat first then teach him. Elder Steed was feeling a bit better, whether he was or wasn't it didn't matter we were going. Long story short, the lesson was a bit of a train wreck. Real quick, Michael is roughly 55, he is on rehabilitation for something, and is staying with a member of the ward, known affectionately by everyone as "Mutti" (Mom). Mutti Mittermayer is 85 or 86 and when she invites you over to eat, she expects you to eat EVERYTHING on your plate. If you don't she will give a warning "Aufputzen!" (Polish Up!, Clean up!) and if you still don't SHE WILL FEED IT TO YOU. You don't mess with Mutti Mittermayer.

Anyway, she has had some abnormal inflammation of her feet, and so she was in the hospital. We thought this lesson would be just us and Michael. Anyway, so we were at Muttis house, and all of the sudden another member of the ward shows up. An older lady in our ward who knows Mutti Mittermayer. Ok thats not a problem, or so we thought. She was acting really weird and was being really rude. The spirit wasn't there, and we didn't feel like we could extend the commitment. Later that night, Michael took us to Bahnhof, and said that she was drunk and that he could smell the alcohol. Wonderful. Elder Steed was furious, I wasn't pleased, but I wasn't quite angry.

Anyway, thats not important. We get home that night, and at 8.45 I get a text from Mike: "You believe in God, please pray for my wife and 2 kids. I don't believe on anything, and tonight at around midnight, I am going to kill myself".  PANIC!! I called president Miles, and the police and for the next hour and a half almost I was the phone with people. First I called the police (here the number is 133 and not 911) so I had to figure that out, and then I gave all the information I could, which was just a name and phone number (and I knew that he lived in district 20). So I gave that to the main number. Then about 15 minutes later I had another officer call and ask where I was, in Florisdorf, and I gave all the information to them. Then they had two police men that came to our apartment, and I had to do this all again. Elder Steed was just like "eh, I have been through worse", totally calm. Meanwhile I am going through an internal meltdown not knowing what I should do. We tried Calling him, the police tried calling him. No answer. President miles recommended trying to send him some uplifting texts, and which point those thoughts in my head earlier came back. So we send some carefully worded texts to him to try and help him. Using some of my thoughts earlier. We sent a text to the Zone Leaders who passed it on to the whole Zone to pray for a guy named Mike, who was going through a hard time. Long story short we didn't here back from him at all. Neither Elder Steed or I was very tired, so at 11.50 we said a prayer (again) for Mike. After which point we were able to sleep.

The next morning I didn't here anything. The police called me at 8.30 to say that they still hadn't found him, and that the number for the phone was not him (it actually belonged to an elderly lady on the complete opposite side of Wien (which turns out was actually an Error on the part of the phone company). Ok interesting. Then we get a text from Mike. Who thanked us for our texts and said that he still needed to live for his children RELIEF.

It turns out that he had a really hard night. Disappointed a lot of friends, lost half of his paycheck gambling, (which made his wife incredibly angry) and was outside drinking a lot of alcohol. Then he sent us the text and turned his phone off. He eventually fell asleep, and nothing happened Well we got in touch with the police, they took care of everything, and with the recommendation from president Miles, we met with him that day. We met at the church near his house and brought Jakiri as a joint teach (even though Jakiri is an eternal investigator, he has a strong testimony, and loves to help people). I prepared the lesson, again with all the thoughts and scriptures that were running through my head the day before. And, even though he is atheist  he says that " he will take it slow and say only one prayer at night before he goes to bed". He will bring his family next time and said that he was interested in coming to Church. A golden Atheist, who would have thought? We will see where it goes from here.

That was one story. The next happened on Sunday. Do you remember the lady that I mention last week in my e-mail? Who I said might be Golden. Oh man, this is where some of the insanity comes in. She came to church again. So during the second hour we were going to teach her about the restoration. We say a prayer, and I ask her the question, "what do you know about the restoration of the Gospel?". She went on for 10 minutes and taught us the whole thing. IN DETAIL. When Joseph Smith was 14 there was a lot of religious competition going on. His own family was divided. So he had a question and read in James 1:5 ( SHE QUOTED IT FROM MEMORY!!!) He saw God the Father, and Jesus Christ, and felt the spirit. Teaching us that they are 3 seperate beings (JAW ON THE FLOOR). They told him that there was no True church, but in time that they would give him everything that he needed to restore the true church, meaning the same church that Christ created when he himself was upon the earth, because when the apostles died, the church became corrupted. That was what she said. Shortened, but almost exactly what she said.

We were stunned. We were all confused and just bore testimony for a bit. Then I asked "what does "Priesthood Authority" mean to you?". She went on to teach us about the 2 priesthoods, and quoted D&C 121 talking about how it can only be exercised upon principles of Righteousness. Again we were stunned. Elder Steed in amazement asked " is there anything that you DON'T know?!" We laughed and I kept asking questions. The only thing she didn't know was what happened between death and the Resurrection. I gave her Alma 40 and we had a quick discussion. She has read the Book of Mormon 3 and a half times! She has been reading the Liahona magazines for who knows how long, reading all the conference talks and everything. Bru. Jankowsky (the ward mission leader) asked, " so whats missing". Her answer "baptism".

She then went on to explain that she knew the church was true, and felt like she was ready for baptism. We set a date Novemeber 18!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( IT WAS HER IDEA!!) Bru. Jankowsky invited her to lunch at his house with us. I went through all of the baptismal interview questions (in preparation for the real interview which will be next week). And, well She is VERY READY. THAT IS A MIRACLE!!!!!!

Give someone who was considering Suicide hope and invited him to church. Find and teach a Golden investigator. See and work miracles. Those are the things that you can do as a missionary. I am stunned and so overwhelmed with Gratitude. 

I don't think there is anymore that I can say on that. Wow.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a happy "Hallo-WIEN" ;-)

Well, I feel pretty good right now I hope you all do as well. The church is true, and God is preparing people in many different ways. It's pretty amazing. 

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen