Well the time came to leave, and we were in a bit of a hurry, luckily for us it is a straight down hill shot to our apartment, well mostly. Anyway, so we set off and our hurrying home, it is like 8:50 and is dark outside, but we are still going fast. Well it came to a point where there was a short fork in the path, only a few meters long, leading in to a left turn, I went left Elder Wasden and Kingery went right, and I ended up cutting them off ACCIDENTALLY as we came out of the fork.
And now I must say, I am no engineer, no landscape designer or anything, but off all places to put a step, this had to be the ABSOLUTELY WORST PLACE EVER. I had somehow subconsciously always ridden to the right and to the left of the step, but never noticed it (like I said I question their usefulness) but it was late and night and at about 30 or so Kilometers an hour I hit the step (a good 5 inch tall) on my bike. And if hitting a step wasn't bad enough, my natural reaction was to squeeze the brakes. BAD IDEA!! The back tire came up and I very quickly found myself riding completely vertical over the front tire... Some how I didn't fall off, and managed to somewhat gracefully land it (as gracefully as I can get, for those who know me and my reputation with stairs, somewhat flat ground, and the occasional front porch ;-) ).
I may have actually won some applause for my trick, if there wasn't the sound of an exploding tire and me screaming "NEIN! NEIN! NEEEEEIIIN!" as I ride the bike completely perpendicular to its intended horizontal usage. Meanwhile Elders Kingery and Wasden are standing on the other side of the step with this indescribable speechless expression on their faces. Then when I landed and got up with out so much as a scratch, they just burst laughing and I had to walk my bike home due to a completely flat front tire. I have concluded from my experiment that the laws of physics are still in full force, even when you're a missionary. ;-)
That was Monday. Tuesday we drove with the Buchanans to Singen to have a Zone Training meeting. That was great, a long drive in the back of GW with the three of us still, but it was good. Then we met with the Micov family (the family who I met in the bus) and were going to go by on the Kunz family, but I ended up calling them and making out an appointment to come back on Thursday. We had a good time with the Micov family, there is a decent size language barrier, but we managed to read a lot of scriptures and teach them. I showed them the website, but there isn't much available in Macedonian. They don't even have a book of Mormon yet in that language. We will see what happens.
Wednesday went by quickly. We met with Justice, Christine and Mary, and had a good discussion with them about the pre-mortal existence, and the fall. Then made it back home, had lunch and finished our studies at the church (between us and the Buchanans we are trying to take turns doing studies at the church so that we can have some open house times if people want to come in). Later on we met with Zohrab, and had a really good lesson with him as well, he likes to cut us off a lot, but this time we taught, the Spirit was there and he understood what we are saying and we hope he will read the Book of Mormon. We then met up with David Barluschke, who was just called to be the ward mission leader here. I am so excited, he is really awesome, is excited and has a VERY flexible work schedule and has offered us his help, even if its on a super short notice.
Thursday was transfer day. That was interesting. Long story short, even though Freiburg is in our Zone, we still went to Munich to do the transfer. We had some difficulties getting there, our train needing to be cancelled, and we being upgraded to and ICE (instead of an IC) (Could very well be considered a tender mercy :-) ). Because our train was cancelled and we were late, Elder Wasden and I got off the train in Munich, said a quick goodbye and within maybe 10 minutes, were on a train back to Ravensburg. So much for lunch... But we made it back safely and Elder Kingery made it to Freiburg.
Thursday night we met with Anastasia Kunz. Her husband was there, but was talking on the phone and didn't join in on the lesson. We had a really great time with her, her and her husband are both from Russia, they have three daughters, and have lived here for 7 years or so. I am really short on time now, but we found out that that Alex (the husband) doesn't really have too much interest because he works all day long, but Anastasia very openly said that she is VERY interested, that she is searching for the truth and needs God in her life, because the farther from God she is, the worse she feels. She is searching for the truth, and upon asking her how she thinks she will be able to find it, she said that she expects to feel peace and joy with it!
The only hard part is, they don't have a car, and it is REALLY difficult to get to Ravensburg from Markdorf on Sundays. But she has so much interest that she says that she is willing to spend a night in Weingarten with a friend to come to church and see how she feels!! She wants to meet with us 2 times a week, so we hope to teach her on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is really cool. They are a very strong family, she stays home, even if it means that they can't live in as nice of a place as they would like, or have certain items, such as a car, because she wants to teach her daughters to live morally and correctly. She says that if she were to work, her daughters would have to be in some sort of day care, and be much more susceptible to the immoral and false ideas that are being put out today. We talked about how the gospel blesses families, and it was just awesome! I think I mentioned how I found them, I went through the area book, saw the name and really wanted to contact them, despite the missionaries not having such a great experience. And she seems to really be searching for the truth!!
Oh, and before I forget, the Ravensburg Razorbacks had their final game on the season ON SATURDAY. We knew that the coach was an inactive member, but we didn't know much about him, there are some other less active members who have played for the team and we knew some people on the team, specifically the first string quarterback, who is completely set on inviting us over to his house to have dinner with him and his wife and feed us any american food we want. He is the coolest. (They are obviously Americans). They are the coolest. His wife goes to all the games and is one of the first people to give him a high 5 when he comes back from playing, they have a really strong relationship and it cool to see. :-)
But anyway, we talked to president Miles about it, and he thought it was a wonderful idea, to help show them that we really do care about them, and not just with the gospel. We went, and the coach and the players that knew us were REALLY excited to see us there. We got a chance to talk to the coach afterward, and hear about his conversion story and why he left the church, which is heart breaking. He told us that for the first time in 25 years he had prayed that day just before the game with the team. That was really cool. :-) He didn't seem quite comfortable with giving us his information (we didn't ask, but knew that missionaries had asked before and he didn't want them to have it). But we earned a lot more respect from him. And it actually was really good.
We weren't there for the full game, just the second half. Its not quite the same as in the US. It cost us 4 Euro to get in, and it was probably less attended than your average high school game. It was really interesting to hear the whole game announced in German with American words through in there every now and again "Touchdown" and "interception". It was fun. :-) Ravensburg won 21 to 14! :-)
It was a great week. And I would love to write more, but I am out of time. It was a neat week, we taught 7 lessons, felt the spirit, and are well prepared to continue to make progress. It amazes me how God is preapring people and putting them in our path, and blessing us so much. Its been a wonderful week, and I am excited for another! :-)
I wish you a great week!
love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen
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