Eine Woche der Wundern

(A Week of Wonders)

This week was pretty amazing, So many Neat things have happened, and I sit here at the end, and can only be grateful. Monday, was a bit rough, it wasn't a very good P-day and because of a lack of preparation for Mothers day  and other things, it cost us some valuable time. After taking care of all that, we left to start our proselyting time. 

We walked out of the Internet cafe and I had a feeling we should go by on Chris Ameiza, a potential who we were having a hard time getting in contact with. He lived over by Innsbruckerring, which is only 2 stops on the U-bahn from Giesing (where we live) (Giesing by the way, is the name for this part of the City of Munich). So we go there. It was rainy, a bit chilly, rather annoying for missionary work because most people don't want to stop and talk to you. Anyway we go there, and well, he isn't there. 

So we started going door to door in the area (there being no one on the streets) and after the first building I looked out across the street, and down a little, and I felt that we should go door to door there. So I tell Elder Evans and we go. We door the first set of doors, no one had interest. It was now around 7:50 or so, and neither of us had eaten anything all day. We had originally planned to be home at 8 and have dinner. So that is what we were going to do, but then I felt like we should go one more set before we go home. So we did.

 The very first door we knocked on was Christiana. She originally said that she wasn't interested, but I bore a bit more testimony. She then asked me a few questions (all in English by the way, she is Nigeria, so we can teach her!) "Do you fast?" I said yes. "Do you believe in the gift of Tongues and other gifts of the Spirit". I said of course, and then told her a few more of our beliefs upon which she said "Ok, now I can meet with you". She had visited many churches and couldn't find one that she believed in. I invited her to church and got her phone number so I could arrange to meet her on Sunday. She was way cool! And she came, but I will talk more about that when I get to Sunday.

Nothing to extraordinary about Tuesday, we practiced for the musical Number for Mission Tour, Elders Klappert, Johnson Müller and I. We added Sister Bice from Stuttgart in on Thursday, but we sang I believe in Christ, Elder Müller accompanied us on the Violin. First verse Unison, second verse accapella parts, we skipped the 3 verse, and sang the 4th in German parts, with the Violin playing and octave above. It was pretty cool. :-)

Wednesday we met with Nataly, which went REALLY well. We brought the Hunsakers with us and it was a great lesson. We talked about Following the prophets and apostles, why we have them, and then watched a few clips from Special Witnesses of Christ. It went well, but we will need to push back the baptismal date. She doesn't quite feel ready, and wants to be absolutely sure that this is the true church before she will get baptized, because as I may have mentioned last week, she recognizes that it is a big change. 

That night we were invited to the McPhee family for dinner. But before that Elder Evans and I went by on some potentials we had down near Holzapfelkreuth. Neither one was there, but we still had 10 minutes before the Office Elders came and picked us up with their car, so we started going door to door in the area. On the 10th door we knocked on a Man answered and I started speaking with him in German, and he stopped me and asked if I speak English. YES! I do. I talked to him about the family for a bit, and he was going to invite us in on the spot, but we didn't have time, so we made an appointment out for Saturday! We were so excited that twice in the week, after going door to door for only minutes we had found English speaking potentials.

Thursday, nothing really exciting happened we had weekly planning, and help pick up the Stuttgart Elders and bring them to the Mission office to spend the night. The Sisters were lucky, they got to stay in the mission home :-) When all the other Elders, 18 of them, stayed in the office, which already houses 7 Elders... VERY OVERLOADED. We took two with us back here to our apartment, but our apartment is small, so that is all we could take. Too bad that those are the only two places in the Munich where Elders live...

Anyway Friday was amazing we had Mission tour, which nearly took up the entire day. Elder Teixeira, the Area President Came and spoke to us, and it was amazing!

Skipping to Saturday, We met with the man we found on Wednesday on the 10th floor. We found out that he is from Tibet.  We started talking and found out that he has met people from nearly every Christian denomination and has listed to them speak. He is buddhist but believes on Jesus Christ. He asked us if we could pull out our bible, and he goes to the cupboard and pulls out a brand new book of Mormon, with a card in it. I was shocked. I asked if I could see the card, and I looked at it, and recognized the number as the new Munich 2 sisters, who came here (Munich) the same time we did. 

Sister Smith (from Munich 3) was on exchange with Sister Scoggin, and had asked us if she had given us the information of a really cool guy from Tibett. She hadn't, but we found him through dooring!! He told us that everywhere he has been he has met missionaries from our church that he can't seem to escape it and that he thinks God wants him to meet with us and hear our message. I was shocked, but he said it with such conviction that I knew he was completely serious. He asked us what is so important about the Book of Mormon, and why we should read it, and off we went. That lesson was probably the greatest lesson I have ever had with an investigator my in my whole mission. 

I used an example that I have used in 9 transfers, because the spirit told me to use it, and when I explained it, everything clicked for him, and the spirit was so strong, there was such an enlightenment there. Essentially I compared the truth of the gospel to a plate, and the time of Christ and the apostles it was one complete plate, The apostles and prophets support the plate and protect it. But people became wicked and killed the apostles, the plate, so to speak, fell and broke into many small pieces. The problem then was, is the church took pieces of the plate and called it the truth, which it was, but only pieces of it. But some other people saw different truth, and took different pieces of the plate... this is why there are so many christian churches today, and each of them have parts of the truth, but not all of it. 

He thought for a second and then asked, do you think God will ever bring back the full plate to the earth? Elder Evans and I smiled and we taught him about the restoration. It was incredible. Then we made out an appointment for next Saturday. I then asked him his name and he said "Tenzin". I wrote it down and thought, "ha, that's really funny, the sisters told me they found a golden investigator from Tibet and his name was Tenz... oh no..." 

The previous Monday I was talking to the sisters and they said that had an investigator who spoke English and a bit of German, and asked him if because he was being taught in English, if they should give him to us, I told them, that what ever ward he wants to attend, those missionaries should teach him. They were going to ask him and let us know. Well we happened to door into him, and teach him a full lesson. The funny thing was, is he had made an appointment out with the sisters for an hour later, and they were on the way there as we were leaving... They still ended up meeting with him, and he really likes both of us, so we will see what will happen. 

The sisters reaction was really funny when we told them that we had just taught their Golden investigator. I am pretty sure that the sisters in Munich consider me an investigator thief or something, because the night before I was calling some potentials that I had found in the book, and set up an appointment with one, when I found out that she had been meeting with the Sisters in Munich 3 for  8 months... She spoke perfect English, but was German...

Anyway that was cool. I don't have much time left, but Yesterday was quite crazy. So Like I said before Christiana came to church. I called her a few days earlier, and had told her to meet us at Innsbruckerring at 10:20 or so. Well that morning Elder Evans and I go, and we wait, and wait, and wait, I gave her a call but she didn't answer. In the meantime so people walked up out of the U-bahn, 2 guys and 2 girls who spoke English only, and they started mocking us with the most foul language I have ever heard, every single word they used, except for the prepositions  was vulgar. It was so putrid and vile, more than I ever thought was possible to come from a human mouth. They were walking away, so I just ignored them, because I knew there was nothing that I could say to them. 

At 10.30 we walked back down to the Platform and waited, and took the next U-bahn. We got quite a few stops, when I get a call from Christiana, asking if we are still meeting up for church, we said yes, and we made arrangements to meet at Sendlinger Tor, where we needed to switch U-bahns to get to church. Anyway, long story made short, because I am pretty much out of time, we met up with Christiana at Sendlingertor adt 11.05, church started at 11.30, we missed the u-bahn and had to wait ten minutes, ended up missing the bus, and waiting 10 minutes by Aidenbachstraße. 

We got on the bus, and as we were getting off to make the 7 minute walk to church it started to POUR, so much. I was pleading in Silent prayer that the rain would stop, because I was worried that they would be discouraged and not want to come (Christiana had brought her 3 daughters ages 12, 5, and 1, her husband wasn't able to make it this week). And as an answer to the prayer the thought came to my head "Trust me". "Alright" was my thought. 

Well we get off the bus and are ready to go, and it poured even harder. It didn't stop raining till we arrived at the church... of course it stopped when we arrived. Elder Evans and I had umbrellas, and had given them to Christianna and family to keep them dry. We showed up to church at 12.15 or so looking like we had just gone swimming... But they liked it and may come again next week. The husband, although he couldn't make it told the wife she needed to go and see if it is a place where they could worship, they are searching for a church. At the beginning the 12 year old was not very happy to be there, but afterwards she was asking if they are/could come back next week. 

"Trust me" who would have ever thought? Granted I went swimming and they stayed dry, I was soaked for most of church, but they had a good time! :-)

We will hopefully meet with them this week and teach them all together. :-) The Lord works in mysterious ways I will just say that. It was really hard on me, everything that happened, but the spirit was especially strong in the sacrament meeting, when we made it just in time to hear the high council man speak on eternal families, and sing hymn 300 families can be together forever... All in all it was very worth it. And if getting soaked to keep them dry didn't earn their trust, I am not sure what would... I am grateful that things happen according to God's wisdom and not mine, it always seems to work better that way. :-)

I wish you all a great week!

Love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Parental Note:  We were able to skype Elder Christensen on Mother's Day for about an hour and 40 minutes.  It was AWESOME!!  We loved seeing his face, hearing his voice, and his laugh.  Those of you who know him know how fun that is.  He is VERY HAPPY and doing very well. 

He took some time to teach from the scriptures and talk with Josh about his upcoming mission.  That was so fun!  Each of the kids was looking up scriptures as he referenced them.  And we had a good family discussion.  

Best of all, he bore a very strong and powerful testimony of missionary work, the power of prayer, and his love of Heavenly Father.  What an amazing time we had. He even expressed some very loving  words for his brothers and sister.  Parents really like that!