Miracles....need I say more.

 
This week was INCREDIBLE! Absolutely incredible. To sum it up, since the last e-mail I wrote you, we have taught 11 lessons, found 7 new investigators, set 2 baptismal dates and found 10 potentials. ABSOLUTELY A MIRACLE. 

Wow. I don't know what to say. We have been so blessed, especially when you consider that we spent our entire saturday doing service for members and investigators, no teaching or finding at all on that day. Incredible. And we have found some of the coolest people!

So monday, after we ate with the Buchanans and taught Derrick we biked with Derrick back to where he lives to stop in on a Sri Lanken lady that I back in week 2 of the transfer ( this past week having been week 5). She was there and invited us right in to teach her ( huge advantage of being in a 3 sum, is that we don't have to turn down appointments with single women because no one could come with us). But she is so cool. She has lived here for a year, speaks a fair amount of German, but no English. Luckily she is Evangelisch, meaning she is already a Christian and has a bible, because otherwise it would be much harder to communicate. We read a lot of scriptures out of the bible and try to explain them. Which has been working, and we have had two good lessons with her this week. It was so great, when we were leaving the 1st lesson on Monday night she told us "alright, Friday at 6 I will be expecting you DON'T FORGET!" When we went back on Friday she had invited her friend to join us. It was great!

Tuesday I gave a baptismal interview and did an exchange in Dornbirn. I enjoyed it WAY TO MUCH. Especially English class that night, which was attended by some members, the Repnicks who I have mentioned before. It was so much fun to see them again and get to talk to them. Like I said, brother Repnick has become fully active in the church again and is now serving as a ward missionary. Also, there was less active who I tried to contact who at that time turned me down somewhat coldly, but now her and her daughter have become completely active ( only about a month ago!) She decided that something was missing and wanted to come back. That was SO COOL. 

Wednesday we exchanged back with Dornbirn only to ride all the way to Singen to an exchange with the Zone Leaders in Which Elder Wasden went to Singen and Elder Janis came to us in Ravensburg. That is where the most miracles happened. We set a goal to find 8 interested people on the exchange. It was VERY high, especially because we didn't have too much time to find people. But we set out with prayer and hope to make it a reality. Well, God is truly a God of miracles, with 3 minutes to go before the end of the first day we had found 7 interested people, but we still had 3 minutes, and since we were so close to achieving the goal for the exchange on the first half of it, we went out to to find the last one. We walked around the corner of the apartment, Elder Janis and Kingery went one way, I went another ( we have found then when 3 people talk to 1 on the street that it can get intimidating, so usually one splits off and talks to someone else). I saw a couple of college students walking down the road and went up and talked to them, with a prayer in my heart that I they would have interest. They did! 2 of them, so we found 9 interested children of God that day. Absolutely incredible. Truly a miracle. And we made appointments with 3 of them. It was an incredible exchange, and we saw so many miracles. It is crazy! We were able to meet with those 3 the next morning before we exchanged back and all the lessons went well. Absolutely incredible. Right after we exchanged back we went on Splits with the Elder Buchanan, and I went with him to visit a family that I found on the street in Bregenz last year and reffered to Ravensburg. That was an adventure, but no one answered, and we can't confirm that they live there anymore. :-( But it was a lot of fun doing splits with Elder Buchanan. :-)

Friday we had weekly planning and met with Zohrab again for the second time. He is from Afghanistan, and can't speak so much german, but we gave him a book of Mormon in Farsi (Persian) and he said that he would read it and pray about it. We will see if we can meet again with him this week. As previously mentioned we also met with Nancy and her friend and that was also great. :-)

Saturday was our day for service. We did service for Sister Kiefer and her husband ( who isn't a member but has come to church every week for a year or so) and then had a spiritual thought with them. That was neat. Sister Kiefer also asked me to give her a blessing ( as she was going to spend 2 months visiting family in Ogden Utah) before she flew, being a bit nervous for all the flights and connections and things. That was really neat, I love being able to give blessings, and love it when people ask. It truly is a unique thing, to have Gods Priesthood power and be able to use it. :-) Later that day we fixed Sister Stevens bike, and helped out an investigator the rest of the day. It was a good day, but because it was a full day of service I was in a short sleeve T-shirt and jeans the whole day, it felt really weird... and none of us actually enjoyed that aspect of it. The service was great though! :-)

Sunday... We had high hopes to have 3 investigators in church, but something really sad about Ravensburg, is on Holidays and sundays the Buses don't drive until after 10:30. So the Earliest that anyone could get to the church by public transit is 11, but church starts at 9:30 and because it's so small church only lasts 2 hours. But in Branch council we had a great discussion, and hopefully will be able to start church at 10, and flip the hours, so that Sacrament meeting is last. If we did it any later, that would severely disconvience those active members who come a long way to church every week, so we can't start later than that. There wasn't anyone who could pick up our investigators, so we are going to need to work things out. But on the brightside,  the branch watched the "Hastening the work of Salvation" broadcast which was good to see again. I was worried I was going to need to translate it to English, but I didn't end up needing to. :-)

This morning just before e-mails, we went and visited two of the potentials that we found during the exchange, and we had an incredible lesson. Chrisina, the wife wasn't there, but the neighbor was, so we have 2 baptismal dates currently and hope to set one with Christina on Wednesday when we teach them again. They are Nigerian, but have been here awhile. 

Well this is Week six, which means that this coming week is transfer calls. I know I said awhile ago that I would most likely be staying here for the rest of my mission, I really hope I do, but with the circumstances anything can happen. Threesums usually only last one transfer. Which means one of us will probably go. Elder Kingery has only been here one transfer longer than Elder Wasden and I. Due to that it is likely that he could leave, but because I am the oldest missionary, there is a huge likely hood that I will be transferred away and that they will stay and work together. :-( Which isn't a bad thing other than I wouldn't get to stay. We shall see what happens. I learned along time ago not to really expect anything with transfers, it never seems to happen the way I think it could :-). So we will see. The Buchanans are hoping and praying that we all stay, or that a 4th missionary will be sent. THAT WOULD BE GREAT. We have so much to do, and work in the area would really pick up if we had 2 sets of missionaries, but we will see what happens. 

So many good things are happening. And we have been praying and working hard for miracles, like I mentioned the branch hasn't had a baptism in well over 2 years. We hope to change that :-). I am conviced that the Branch will be a ward someday, completely convinced. And it is toward that goal that we are working. God with be with us. He has been and will continue to be, we have been so blessed, and I can't help but only be grateful for all the blessings that we are recieving. I said it last week, but I will say it again, God truly hears and answers our prayers. I know it. And I invite you all to try it! :-)

I wish you a great week!

love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

P.S. sorry I left my camera cable at home... I know, I am the worst at sending pictures, but I will work on it ( with your luck I will finally get better sometime toward the end of December ;-)) (Thank Goodness for the Buchanan's who post pictures of the Elders on their blog!)

Another Monday, More Miracles

Yup, it's monday again. It's crazy how fast time flies. This week went by super fast because we didn't really have much of a normal schedule. Monday was P-day, and played Siedler Von Catan (Settlers of Catan) with Derrick and the Buchanans. That was blast. The had a few expansion packs, so their were higher point values, boats, islands, and a few other things. SO MUCH FUN. I Won! :-) But that took from 3:30 until we started making dinner at 5:30 or so. 

Then we had hoped to have a lesson with the Weißenrieders, a really amazing family who we went by on at the beginning of the transfer. Sadly, she wasn't there. It turns out later that there was a mis-communication with the time, and she thought we were coming at 3pm and we thought we were coming at 7 pm... :-( Anyway, but we were able to go by on a few other people which was good. 

Tuesday was actually the only normal day we had that week. We met with Sani, A man from India and his wife. I love them so much, its a bit rough, because Sani speaks very little English and German. His wife speaks more English, but teaching is a lot of fun because we have to do it in "Denglisch" to communicate. We have met with him a couple of times with out his wife, and we have mainly just read scriptures from the Book of Mormon in Hindi (he actually speaks Punjabi (I have no idea how that is spelled)).  Which is a really fun, because Hindi looks nothing like English, and the number system looks completely different. But I was very quickly (like in the matter of a 30 minute lesson) able  learn the numbers and have been able to look up page numbers for the books, go to the page, Chapter and verse. It's a long shot away from being able to read it, but I really am convinced that the gift of tongues, or rather the interpretation thereof, has played a large role in that. And I am so grateful for the help that God gives to us. :-)

Anyway, Wednesday we had an exchange with Dornbirn, because we are a in a threesum, I need to go there for all the exchanges (like I even need an excuse to go back to my favorite place in the whole world ;-)) that was absolutely incredible, amazing, wonderful, terrible and horrible all at the same time. Incredible and amazing because I was back in the place I have a lot of love for, and it was a dream come true. Wonderful because everything came back to me, I remembered exactly where everyone lived, all the streets, buses, bus times, EVERYTHING came back. And because Elder Morey has only been there for one full transfer, I ended up taking him everywhere he wanted to go because I knew how to get there better than he did. :-) 

I also was able to show him where many people that I knew lived, and recommend when to go by on them. And it was really awesome working with Elder Morey. It was terrible and horrible, because I managed to completely forget for a bit that I was actually stationed in RAVENSBURG and when I realized that I wasn't actually serving in that area permanently yeah, not fun. I love Ravensburg, and am glad to be here and not there, but because I was there the exact same time last year, the weather being the same and everything, it made it feel like I had never left, and then it was a smack in the face when I realized that it had been an entire year and that I wasn't there. It was weird. 

Anyway, that was awesome, then on Thursday we had weekly planning, then went to Friedrichshafen/ Markdorf to go hopefully have a lesson with George, which didn't happen. But thats ok. On Friday we  had Zone Conference, which are my favorite! I love Zone Converences, the Spirit is always strong there, and I always learn so much. What is really weird  though, is at the next Zone Conference I will be bearing my final Testimony. In Zone Conferences you only bear your testimony at your first, and at your last. The next one will be my last. Crazy. 

Back to Tuesday,  we had a lot of time available and we used it to try and visit some people none of whom were home. We tried talking to people and no one would listen. We ended up stopping at the apartment really quick to grab some things before we were going to go out and walk to Weststadt and talk to people on the way. I took the time at the apartment to kneel and pray. It was a bit rough that day, and I needed help. I prayed for strength and for help that we could find 2 people that night that would be open to meet with us, because up till that point we hadn't found anyone. Then we set off. 

We only had 2 hours or so (or so we thought, God had something else in mind) before we would come back plan, and eat dinner. So We go and walk out to the first member, who very evidently wants nothing to do with the church, lets put it that way. :-P Then we walk from there, and end up getting a bit turned around (we still haven't gotten the new map yet). Up until this point we had not met a single person on the street, and I was a bit mad at myself for not pushing to take the bikes, thinking that we just wasted our time, when we could have visited them on the bikes and then walked around somewhere, where people actually were. But I decided I needed a more positive out look, and so I prayed for that and tried to be happier. 

A man riding a bike, who noticed our confusion, stopped and asked us if we needed any help, we told him where we wanted to go, and he told us how to get there. So we start walking up the hill (Weststadt is characterized by a long steep hill) and not long after stop a young man and talked to him. We told him who we were and what we were doing, long story short, he wanted a book of Mormon and would like to meet us! That was awesome, anyway, then later on we get to a fork in the road, we had initially planned to just go straight and turn right, but I wanted to take the left road and walk up to the street we were looking for. We made it up there an met another man walking down the street, I had the absolute coolest discussion with him that I have ever had. 

We essentially quoted bible verses back and forth, not contending or arguing, but building on what the other said. He said that the only way to find truth was to ask God with an open heart and real intent, or else we will never get the answer. He also talked about the importance of Apostles and Prophets. (He belongs to the new apostolic church) but told us how he was first Catholic, but then started looking at different religions, and was searching and praying to find the right church. We didn't have much more time, but we had a really great discussion and made an appointment for Saturday to come back and teach him. Which we did. He likes to talk a lot, but he knows so much truth already. In the lesson he told us so many things that he believes that we also believe. It was really neat and we will return and speak with him on Thursday again. 

Anyway, it was such a huge blessing on Tuesday night to have that prayer answered. We found those two potentials and it was nothing short of a miracle.  :-) And that last minute impression to change the direction that we were walking, was also a part of it, and I didn't recognize it in the moment as an impression, just  a desire to take the other road. I am so grateful for that, that God is always watching out for me, and is leading me. That is such a huge comfort to me and it means a lot. I am grateful for the guidance which he gives us. 

Last night things didn't necessarily go completely to plan and we had extra time, which I felt we should use to call people. In only maybe 30 minutes I contacted 3 former investigators who have interest, and made appointments with them. :-) Things are going well and we are being so blessed! I am so grateful to be here and so grateful for Gods love and grace and for his help. I know that he loves us. I know that he hears and answers our prayers. And I am so grateful for that. 

I wish you all a wonderful week!

love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Tender Mercies...Pictures!!!

For those of you who follow Ryan's blog, it's painfully obvious he doesn't send many pictures.  So when I checked my email and found an email from a senior missionary couple serving in his area, and they sent me a link to their blog, I was thrilled!!  As a missionary mom, you are starved for information and photos of your missionary, so it was such a tender mercy and a blessing to receive this email from the Buchanan's.  Brother Buchanan is the branch president in the ward where Ryan and his two companions are serving. The top picture was from a castle they visited on a P day with an investigator.

This was on a ferry on P Day

He joked that when he takes these three elders in the little mission car, they have to roll down the window so they can stick their shoulders and arms out to have enough room.

These pictures are of the beautiful part of the German countryside they are in.

No' en Woche isch vorbei gange'

Well like it says completely clearly in the title, another week has gone by ;-). This week was pretty good actually, it also has its adventures as well. :-) 

First P-day, we went to Meersburg Castle, that was really cool! People still live there (which for me is crazy, I can't imagine having a castle as my home...) but there is a large part which has been dedicated as a Middle ages Museum. I will attach some pictures in a moment. (We did not get pictures of Meersburg, maybe next week)

That was a blast, it was Elder Buchanan, the three of us and Derrick. I member of the ward who I love a lot, he is really good guy. I think he is 19 or 20, He is here from Nigeria, and who has an absolutely terrible past (I may have mentioned him last year when I was serving in Vorarlberg). The Buchanans are WAY TOO NICE. They offered to take us to Meersburg, and were wondering if we wanted to go, The only problem was the entrance fee (and that sister Buchanan wouldn't be able to go) The entrance fee was somewhat expensive, and we had originally declined the offer, because of price and because Sister Buchanan couldn't go. Then they called me back and said that they would pay for everything, and that Sister Buchanan would stay home because it would be a lot of fun for Derrick. So we went, and then they brought us back to their apartment at 5 with a nice dinner prepared and then we had a good conversation/ lesson with Derrick, before heading to our "Appointment" at 7 that night. 

I say that with the quotation marks, because the "appointment" was with a homeless drunk man that I talked to while we were walking around and he said that he wanted to meet us. On Monday night at 7 at the park. So we went, and waited for 15 minutes (we walked and talked to some people as well in the mean time). He didn't show up so we decided to go by on Scott, someone who I knew from back when I was in Vorarlberg. 

That was an adventure. So I locate the street on the map (we do everything by a map here in this mission...) and I found it, and found, what I thought be a shorter way, with some additional streets, instead of riding to the Bascilica in Weingarten, to turn well before that, and it should have been a straight shot. That is, if the map we had was actually a decent map. So we got lost, none of the roads existed for which we searched for, and we got out somewhere, and when we finally decided to go the long way, it was going to take too long, and we would have been late home. So we road back. And to our astonishment, we made it back to the apartment in 15 minutes. (We have gotten good at efficient Bike travel) so we used the time to go talk to some people for a few minutes, and I found a really cool man out of India who knows Derrick.  But that was Monday.

Tuesday was neat, we went to Zone Training meeting in Singen, and the Buchanans drove us there, through Meersburg (the city) and then with the Faerie across Bodensee, to Konstanz from there we drove to Singen. THAT WAS SO COOL. I was only able to take a couple picture though, because it wasn't a very long ride, and it was also the only time that we could really eat lunch. That was cool. Then that night we finally met with Marriet, the Nigerian girl who has before expressed a lot of interest to get baptized, but wants her family to be there. The lesson was interesting. According to the Buchanans she wasn't herself at all and something was wrong. She said that she was having "personal problems" what ever that is supposed to mean. I hope that things will go better for her. She couldn't come to church yesterday because she had some friends visiting. And she actually hasn't been to church in a long while. 

That was pretty much it for Tuesday. On Wednesday, we had an appointment with Ley, who we can't really do much for. He has taken a lot of drugs in the past, which have permanently effected his ability to think and reason. He isn't really capable of hearing and understanding our message, which is hard, because he heard of baptism and wants to be baptized, but he has some really weird beliefs, and because of the drugs in the past, he can't understand us. Sometimes its as if we aren't even saying anything at all and he just says the same things over and over again. 

After that we decided to go and try to Find Scott again. I HATE OUR MAP. We eventually found the street, and there is only one building there, which is a warehouse. And it turns out that he lives there. We talked to some people outside who said he lives there. So we went and walked around this wearhouse until we found out where his room was. Of course it had to be on the level where they store all the miscellaneous items and all the lights don't work. Dark room with weird objects, it was rather sketchy. But we found his room and had a good Visit with him. 

He is quite the interesting character to say the least. He has had a lot of rough things happen to him in the past, one of which involves a close family member intentionally setting him up to fail in a business which caused him a huge amount of debt. A lot of things haven't gone his way and he described himself as a servant of God who is worn out. We will see if we can help do some service for him.

Thursday we spent in Friedrichshafen, That is such a beautiful area, right on the Bodensee. Anyway, again we had map problems with streets not connecting in ways that the map said... :-P So we were only able to attempt to go by on a potential in Friedrichshafen, whose house number actually didn't exist (there's nothing greater than spending an hour using a faulty map trying to find a street so that we can visit someone, only to finally find it and realize that the house number doesn't exist! :-P). But on the bright side I had a really neat conversation with a lady on the way, who didn't necessarily express interest right then, but maybe someday. 

Then we met with the Zeller Family, a family who I knew when I was in Dornbirn, but for some unknown reason the missionaries stopped meeting with. We had a good discussion with Mr. Zeller, although his wife very obviously has more interest. She wasn't able to get there until only a few minutes before we had to leave. 

Then we went to Markdorf to meet with another family that I found in the area book. When I first talked to him, he asked me if I needed directions how to get there (having not had the experience with the map yet, I didn't know this would be necessary) and I said no. We looked up the address on the record, and the street name seemed to us incomplete, and there were two options that it could be. So we tried both, and then later (after finally getting someone to talk to us on the street) figured out that the address wasn't incomplete, that it existed on a hill, and that there was only one house there and that our map didn't even know that it existed. By that time, we had to cancel the appointment, and head home because we were in danger of being late. :-P 

So, to sum up, we learned our lesson, that we need a new map, and are desperately waiting for the arrival of iPads, with the ability to look up address on google... :-) I probably won't get to see that day, as it most likely won't take place here until nearly January, but that is ok. :-) 

Luckily on Saturday and Sunday we spent the whole day with the Buchanans visiting Members, and potentials in Friedrichshafen/Wangen and other surrounding areas. Luckily they have a GPS in the car. One of the people we visited was in Markdorf so we decided to plug in the address of the family and we drove out to find it. TALK ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. That will be fun trying to get back to. We went and knocked on the door, and now one was home, we just woke up a small dog which came out and attacked Elder Kingery... :-) No I am not kidding, it went for his pant leg was pulling on it growling and barking. That was funny. 

We had to hike up the last little bit to the house because the hill was too much for poor GW (GW, is the 4 cylinder eco friendly Opal that we have here in Ravensburg. The name "GW" is Sister Buchanan's name for it. It stands for Gutless Wonder. ;-)). Haha, I still laugh at that, especially remembering Elder Sampson's Sarcastic Commentary on it last year "That's the thing that I love about the car, is that I can push the pedal to the floor, and it doesn't go any faster" ;-) )

Anyway. That pretty much sums up our adventure, we visited an older lady of our ward yesterday who can't come to church because of age and distance, so we took her the sacrament, and sang (in what actually was pretty good 4 part harmony)  the hymn "O bleibe Herr" (literally "O Lord Stay", maybe Abide with me??) I don't know the English name for it anymore, but it is beautiful, especially in German, and is one of my favorites :-) She spoke really fluent Schwäbisch. That was so fun to hear it again, especially now that I can actually make sense of it. I found out after thought that I am the only one who really understands everything that she is saying. :-) President Buchanan said he only understands about half of what she says. 

Yeah, the bike problems have continued, the rubber on the handle bars has turned into a puddy like substance, which has been sticking to my hands and turning them black. So I managed to get some Electrical tape, and now the problem is fixed. :-) I will need knew brake pads, and the back brakes, no matter how hard I pull them, don't do a darn thing I happened to figure that out going down one of the largest hills in Ravensburg... (luckily the front brakes work really well, as long as you don't pull them too hard... ;-)) So I will be getting those today. After that I should be fine, until next week when you will probably here of me getting a flat tire, or having the frame collapse or something... 

Another funny thing, David Barluschke just moved into this ward. He was my first Zone leader. He is going to get married in a month or so. Anyway, just having in the ward is really funny. He is one of the missionaries who was in the epic bike wreck, and what is even more Hilarious, the bike that he destroyed in that wreck is that of his future father in law. :-) When I found that out I made fun of him even more, which led into the story of how he and Steffani got together (to show that they didn't get together when he was serving in her ward) which is even funnier. Long story short she thought that he was a complete idiot when he was serving in her ward (there is a long story behind that) and every time the missionaries were invited over, she would go take a nap in her room. After his mission (since he is  German) he came back and visited a few times. And now they will be getting married in October. :-)

Anyway, that was pretty much our week. Its been a bit different getting used to having bikes, you can't do things the same way as you would when you have public transit. What we have come up with, is that we use the bikes to travel to a city in which we want to work, chain up our bikes somewhere, and then spend our whole time there walking around talking to people, as we go and visit people. Its still slow going, but we have a lot of promise for this week, which I am so happy about. We still suffered some dropped appointments last week, but we also managed to teach more lessons than any missionary companionship has in a long time(well over a year or so). And we are only starting. There is so much potential here! I don't understand why, but we are being so incredibly blessed right now, and I haven't worked nearly as hard as I have needed to in the past to get things going. 

I am so grateful for this work, and for the wonderful chance that I have to be a part of it. I love it so much, and am so excited to keep working throughout my whole life. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ, my Savior. I have a much greater appreciation for him now than I ever had. In Isaiah 48:21 It talks about the Israelite s  didn't suffer any thirst as God led them through the Deseret because he let water flow from a rock, the rock was first broken then water came from it. I came to realize in that moment, how symbolic that really was. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 we read that Christ was that rock, or rather that rock is symbolic of ´Christ. That Rock needed to first be broken, before the life-sustaining water could come forth. 

Reading in John 7 we can find that the Water is symbolic of the Spirit. Christ atoned for our sins, suffered and died, so that we would have we could, among other things have that water which we need to make it through this desert of trials and hardship we call life. And I am here trying to do what it tells me to do in Verse 20 of Isaiah 48, to proclaim the message with "Fröhlichem Schall" ("Joyful Sound") to the ends of the earth, that the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob. 

That even when times are rough, there is a way prepared that we may find peace, not a peace from the world, but from the Comforter, which is to speak, that water to help us make it through this life. I know that is true, and am grateful to be apart of it! 

I wish you all a great week!

love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Here are some pictures of when I was in Munich and we went and saw Neuschwannstein. Sorry I actually don't have any more time, so these pictures will have to do for this week! That and my battery just died, so the last picture that I wanted to send, will also have to wait. But I hope you enjoy these 2!

Sorry not much time today....

This will probably be the shortest e-mail I have sent in a long time, President Buchanan is taking us and Derrick (a member of our ward who was baptized 2 years ago but is having a bit of a rough time currently) to Meersburg, to go tour the castle, and then bringing us back to have dinner together and have a short family home evening with Derrick. That will take up nearly the entire P-day. So that is that. 

Not much to report on this week. We got the bike, there is an interesting story to that which I will get to in a moment. But man, I never realized how long it has been since I have ridden a bike until we after the first day, and the next few days in which my legs did not ceased to remind me how long it had been ;-). That has been an adventure. 

Actually the bike itself has been quite an adventure. I test road it real quick when I picked it up and everything seemed in order. But after the first couple days it became apparent that there were some problems. I had to completely fix and re-tune the front gear derailer, because it wasn't allowing me to switch gears hardly at all. So I fixed that (and actually because I had nearly no time, I OVER tuned it which caused the chain to jam and nearly cause me to crash). Then on one trip to Weingarten, I began to notice that I felt like my seat was reclining and that I was leaning backwards. Well it turns out that the seat wasn't really tightened well, and I lacked the tool to fix it so I had to tighten it the best I could with my hands, which allowed me to make it back in one piece to Ravensburg. 

Then as if that wasn't enough, I realized that my brakes weren't as tightened as I thought they were... Elder Kingery had to come to a somewhat sudden halt at a stop sign for a car, and well. I ran right into him. Not because I wasn't paying attention but because the brakes weren't very tight so I didn't slow down fast enough (did I mentioned this bike was used??) Luckily he stopped me before I went into the intersection though. :-). And if that were it, it might not be too bad... But the list continues. 

And to top all that off, after I finally fixed the bike I chained it up (at home luckily) only to find that sometime during the day the key had fallen out of my pocket... AWESOME, I fixed up the bike and can't even ride it now! So we spent Saturday (or actually the part of Saturday that we weren't in Vorarlberg) walking around until the next day when Brother Trautman provided me with Bolt cutters to free the bike. :-) (By the way, if you ever want to get weird looks from people, you should try cutting off a bike lock with Bolt cutters and then replacing it with another bike lock. ;-)) 

Other than the bike adventures, we managed to visit and talk with two less active members, which was good. The one that hadn't been to church since 1960 at the beginning wasn't really showing much interest in talking with us, but at the end he consented to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. That was good. :-)

Other than that we didn't really have much else that happened. We did, however manage to make out a number of appointments for this upcoming week. Which is good. Last monday I got a call from Elder Brose, who had found someone for us in Konstanz, who really wanted to learn more and lived in Markdorf. That was an adventure getting there... Luckily we decided to use the train to get there and not bike, as it would have taken us 2+ hours to get there and well over 3 to get home. But we went with the train, which was easier, and sadly couldn't meet with him, but found a neighbor who was interested and talked to his daughter who might also have interest. :-) That was good as well. 

This past week at church we had  a pretty decent turn out. nearly 15 people I think, including us and the branch presidency. We had a few people there who hadn't been to church in several months, one of them a year! That was GREAT! And one of them was someone that we visited and invited to church! 

By the way, before I forget (since I have already forgotten once). 

Elder Ryan Christensen

Kirche Jesu Christi HLT

Charlottenstraße 8

88212 Ravensburg

Germany

Yes, if anyone noticed, I was in Vorarlberg again. We had finding day in BREGENZ!!! That was so cool, and fun, and I still can't believe that it actually happened. The entire time I was there It felt like this weird mix of Dejavu and a dream. It was incredible for the first half I worked with Brother Lange, and we went by on some old investigators. That was REALLY COOL. Because many of them were found by Elder Robins and I. ( Did I tell you about that? How Elder Robins and I were finding like crazy but having a hard time meeting with people, and that after I left they really focused on making out appointments with people that we found and were teaching nearly 20 lessons every week?! ) Anyway, I saw one, who I really loved, Bruno. And I took the chance to go and meet with him. I knew exactly where he lived, and knew that he would be home. That was good, but hard, his health has gotten a lot worse since I last met him. He didn't really remember me anymore, and wasn't quite the same. He still has a good heart though. When I was there his mind wasn't completely there already, but it is even worse now. But it was still neat to go and talk with him again. 

For the second half of the finding day I was on splits with the Bishop. That was fun, we met, as do we always, some interesting people. Man that was so weird, like I said it was weird, like a dream nearly. But it was really neat. Something really cool, that made me happy, a less active member, whose son Elder Robins and I taught, when I first met him, he didn't have any interest at all in the church. Didn't want to come, wouldn't read the book of Mormon, didn't really have a testimony. But as we kept coming, we started to noticed that he was changing. When I asked about him, I found out that he is completely active in the ward, he has a calling and his testimony is strong once again! 

Anyway, I really don't have much time. But things are going well, this week should be a really good week (I think I always say that, and they always usually are in their own (sometimes twisted) perspective). We have a lot to do. A LOT. But I am grateful for the chance I have to get out, find people, talk to less actives, and get the work going again! I am so grateful for this Gospel and this church. I know its true, I really do. 

Sadly I have no more time at all, so I will need to bring this to a rapid end, but I wish you all an incredible week! 

Love, 

Elder Ryan K. Christensen