October is over now....SO WEIRD
With the end of this upcoming week, we will be in November.
My head is still spinning, and I am still trying to figure out where all the time
has gone...
But we had a fantastic week this week!
Monday. EPIC FAILURE ON MY PART. So, I don't remember if I
have said so much about the current bike that am riding. Before me, the bike
was named Black Beauty, but like to name it broomstick because of the seat...
it has nearly no padding and for the most part it may be an inch and half wide,
maybe. Anyway, It needed some repair work done, the steering was starting to
get a bit rusty, so I needed to take that apart, one of the pedals broke, the chain
needed to be oiled, and the brakes tightened. ( I seem to always have brake
problems).
So I spent some time fixing the bike I took it nearly all apart
oiled it up and put it back together (and I only had 2 screws left over!! ;-)
) No, everything was put back just fine, but I decided that it would be a good
idea to raise the handle bars a bit, too make the ride more comfortable. So I
did not problems. I proceed and tighten the brakes, oiled the chain, replaced
the pedal (on a side note, I don't know why I am having all of these bike
problems, maybe this is just God's way of subconsciously letting me know that
my destined career is not that of a Surgeon, but of a bike repairman ;-) ). I
get it all put together, and don't have any time to test ride it to make sure
everything works properly, because we need to leave. So we pack up and ride up
the hill toward the Buchanans. I notice that the bike is acting somewhat
strange, but I didn't think anything of it, until we were going back down the
hill... It turns out that I couldn't raise the handle bars as easily as I
anticipated, and that I had left a gap which allowed for some wiggle room.
This
showed it self as we started to bike down the hill, the bike started to shake,
so I pulled the brakes to slow me down, upon applying just the slightest
pressure to the front brake the bike shook violently almost lost control and I
about wrecked. The back brakes worked fine and caused no effect. Sweet! Good
thing I tightened those today! Well about 20 seconds later as I pulled the back
brake to slow me down, I heard a snapping sound and all the sudden the brakes
didn't work. The back brake cable snapped. And I wasn't
even halfway down the hill yet... So now I am gaining speed down this hill, and
if I so much as touch the brakes, the bike is going to lose control and I will
wreck. Super.
I made it back safely to the apartment, without any
harm. More to show Gods matchless preserving power than any sort of skill I
could possess. Needless to say we were done with the bikes for that day and
spent the rest of the evening on foot. :-) The next day, I returned the
handlebars to their designed height. Elder Buchanan stopped at Real and bought
me a new brake cable, I installed it and ever since then the bike seems to be
working really well. But stayed tuned till next week to find out what more
chaos Elder Christensen can have with a bike...
Later that night, after we got back to the apartment I
decided to call a few people, see if we could get a hold of anyone to meet with
during the week. And I ended up texting Stephan Beck, someone who we had tried
to meet with for a long time, but he cancelled a few times and then we lost
contact. I just sent him a text asking him if there was anything we could do
for him, and he almost immediately called me and said " Wow you asked me
at the perfect time, I need help tomorrow building my Barn in Markdorf".
Cool. He subsequently invited us to breakfast and to talk a bit about God. He
has some really interesting ideas... He knows the bible well though. But it
seems his biggest fascination is with the sections like Ezekiel 1 where
Ezekiel essentially describes (what appears to be) an airplane that he sees
in a vision. And other places where ancient prophets tried to describe our day.
Really cool things, not so much about God though. It was interesting.
But later
that day we had a fun time in Markdorf helping build his barn, he has some land
down there with sheep and chickens and a garden. He is working toward being
completely self sufficient, or getting to that point. Anyway, we had a really
fun time with him and helped him space out the beams for the roof. Luckily its
a really small barn ( I wouldn't call it a barn personally, more like a shack
but I won't hurt his pride ;-)) It was fun. A lot actually working with wood
again, and having some tools back in my hand. It was good. :-) It was good and
he was impressed with our desire to work and to help others. We will hopefully
be able to return sometime this week and help him some more.
Wednesday we had an Exchange with Dornbirn. I brought Elder
Sharp (from Sydney Australia) here to Dornbirn and we had a good time. Yup. He
is from Australia. And he knows Elder Stokes too. It's fun hearing the
Australian accent again. :-) We spent the day going by on a few people before
going to Institute, to hopefully meet with Mariet, who I contacted again for
the first time in months only a few days earlier. Sadly she couldn't stay for
us to talk with her, but she loved institute and wants to come back (the only
problem is, is that she doesn't have a ride...) She wants to be baptized, but
doesn't have too much of an inner drive to do so (more of, yeah sure, if it is
convenient, and I am able, why not?) so we will need to talk with her some
more before she can get baptized.
Thursday, nothing overally exciting happened, except for
having dinner with the Stevens family, which was delicious as always. I ate WAY
TOO MUCH. Mostly with desert she made Germ Knödel, which I really like, and so
I two of them and was stuffed then Sister Stevens offered me a third one. I
said I was so full that I couldn't eat another. Then she teasingly/provokingly
said "Elder Christensen, you don't have much time left on your mission,
this might be the last time you can have real Germ Knödel". After sitting
there quietly a few seconds, I took another one. :-P I love this branch
so much, I mentioned the changes that I have seen since I arrived and the
relationship with the members has gotten only better. We have become members of
the branch, and have such good relationships with the members.
Saturday and Sunday. These two I want to specifically
mention. We spent Saturday morning doing an "Area book finding day"
with the Buchanans, after which we had GMK with David, and then went to Help
Jason put together his furniture. That was way too much fun. Making mistakes
and having to take it apart and start over again. Afterwards he made us Chinese
food... Then we had a lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, about baptism.
And he accepted and really wants to be baptized on the 23rd of November! He is
so great. He feels the spirit when he prays, when he is with us, and he wants
to feel it stronger. He lives only a couple houses away from David, and David
now has a car, so he brought him to church. He had a great time at church.
Jasmin Trautman was also able to come, so we taught two separate investigator
classes. :-) Jasmin will probably be baptized sometime in December. She can
only come to church every other week with her Grandparents, but wants to be
baptized. :-) So we will teach her and prepare her for baptism. :-). Later
after church once the members had mostly left (we needed to wait for Elder
Buchanan to finish a meeting) I sat down and started playing some Hymns.
Specifically one of my current favorites "O Bleibe Herr" (Abide with
me). It has 4 verses in German, sadly the English is missing the last one,
which is my favorite. Sister Trautman and Jasmin came in and we started
singing together in 3 part harmony. It turns out that "O Bleibe Herr"
is also Sister Trautmans favorite. :-) We have really gained a good
relationships with members here, it's so cool to see. I started playing another
hymn, and wasn't quite playing it with the correct style, so I got a bit of a
private piano lesson from Sister Trautman. It was cool. At the beginning of my
time here, that wouldn't have happened, but it has changed so much.
Later we had lunch with the Buchanans, Barluschkes, Jason
and Derick. Then we had to leave because they played card games, but that was
INCREDIBLE. Jason now feels very comfortable with the ward, and has some
friends. Things are just going really really well. We are seeing many miracles
and wonderful things are happening. God is answering our prayers. He truly is
protecting us and guiding us. Things are getting better and better. Its
wonderful to see. I know that God loves us.
Anyway, my time is now up, I wish you all a fantastic
week!
love,
Elder Ryan K. Christensen
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