Stuffed like turkeys, Reading Dutch, and the Love of God

This week has been a very long, completely packed week! I don't know even where to begin. So with Elder Heinrich leaving this week, we got slammed with eating appointments. This is where I learned a very key lesson NEVER SCHEDULE 2 EATING APPOINTMENTS IN THE SAME DAY. The members here all think that Missionaries are bottomless pits, so they make an unbelievably large amount of food and expect you to eat all of it. And it is also a manner of politeness to eat a lot of food ( Heavenly Father is truly merciful to send me to a place where it is good manners to eat a lot of food ;-) ). Anyway we had an eating appointment on Tuesday for lunch, (where they stuffed us like thanksgiving Turkeys) that eating appointment was at 2:30 or so ( we actually got to do a bit of missionary work, talking to the grandpa of the family) anyway it ended at roughly 4:30. Well, a mere 2 hours later, we were scheduled for a dinner appointment. I could have easily gone without eating because I was still full from the lunch that we had. But again they made a ridiculous amount of food for us, and we did our best to eat as much as possible. Oh  mercy, while trying to tie my shoes I was praying that my stomach wouldn't rupture... I have never been so full in my life! 

Transfers were incredibly simple and quick. 8.25 Thursday morning Elder Heinrich boarded an RE to Stuttgart, and Elder Stokes got off. That was it. In a matter of seconds I had a new companion and we were getting back to work right then. Meanwhile a few other people I know waited for a few hours for their new companions to arrive, some traveling for up to 7 hours by train. But yeah, fairly unexciting for Elder Stokes who came from Tübingen ( which is directly adjacent to this area). As I have previously stated he comes from Australia, Brisbon to be exact. Its weird having a new companion, but it will be a good transfer, he is a good Elder. 

The next biggest thing that happened this week was daylight savings. Yes Germany apparently does it too, just at a different time. I feel bad for the elders who just came in on Wednesday ( which, had I not fast tracked would have been when I came in) just as they are getting over Jet lag, Daylight savings! That had to be miserable. But they will be fine come next week. 

Guess what? I can understand Dutch. Read it, hear it, and comprehend it ( speaking and writing is entirely different). Its actually easier than Schwäbish! (a dialect of German native to the area where Ryan is serving) It made  sound like a weird discovery, but let me explain. Something that you hear about often is how Dutch is a mix between German and English, I have been told a dozen times that if you can understand English and German, you can understand Dutch. And have heard some missionaries say that they have picked up the Dutch Book of Mormon, and have understood it. I have heard people speak Dutch, and let me tell you, its weird! Its not German, its not English, but I can understand it! And yesterday I had free time, so I found the Dutch Book of Mormon and started reading. This is where it is really weird. It looks weird, it doesn't resemble German in the least degree, but I can understand it! It blew my mind, I sat and kept reading it, checking my German and English to make sure that I was really understanding it. Its the weirdest feeling in the world, when someone tells you that you have the ability to understand a language you have never even heard before, and sure enough you can! 

As far as our investigators are concerened, almost all of our appointments fell out this week, we were however, able to meet with the Romanians yesterday. We managed to find a sister in the Stake that can translate from German to Romanian.. It was an incredible lesson! It lasted 2 hours, but the first hour was mainly Sister Kiefer ( the Romanian sister) getting to know the family, and allowing them to get to know her. I think that was one the best things that we could have done for them, finding someone who comes from their same country, who found the missionaries, and came to know for herself that it was true.Then sharing her witness  with them that the church is true. We talked about eternal families. How God loves our families so much that he has prepared a way for us to be together with them for eternity. This I think touched Danny, I found out recently that his dad was murdered when he was young, around the age of 12. And hearing that it is possible to be back with him, and his mom, as well as his current family in the Celestial Kingdom of God, I think brought him a lot of hope. After explaining this to the family, they asked us " how can we get these blessings?". We then talked about baptism, and challenged them to read and pray to know if what we were talking about is true. We will see next week how things will unfold from there. But after learning about his dad, it makes me think on how blessed I have been, first, not having to experience the sudden death of someone close to me, and having the knowledge that families are eternal. What a blessing that is! That we can be families for eternity, being able to enjoy time with parents and siblings forever, as well as with spouses and children. Knowing that nothing can ever take that away, save it be for our own personal unrighteousness. Its a very neat thing to contemplate on. 

In my recent study I came across something in 3rd Nephi 17 in verse 9 he heals all of there sick and afflicted. But something caught my eye, in the German versions he healed "jeden einzelnen". Which means "each and every one". It could have simply said "he healed them all" but instead it emphasizes that it was EACH and every ONE. This wasn't by any means a group healing, it was individual, I imagine that he went to each, and healed them personally. Going back to verse 7 He tells them to bring everyone that was afflicted for one reason or another, but the word "maimed" stuck out. The continent had just experienced a terrible catastrophe, cities where destroyed, fires, earthquakes, and floods, wiped out a large portion of the inhabitants. By no means could the amount of people who were maimed be small. Despite the large number he healed them EACH and every ONE. Later in the same Chapter, he takes the children, and blesses them ONE after another. This shows us that we are not just another person, we are not another face in the crowd, another prayer to be heard and answered. We are individuals of great worth to God, and to Jesus. The Atonement, on a much larger scale was done likewise. It was individual. Its a great reassurance that we are of worth to God, so much that he takes time to answer our prayers individually. He loves us individually, He hopes for our individual success and happiness, in this life and the one yet to come. Its neat to think about. 

Thats all for now, I guess I didn't have this much to say after all... But that is how it goes I guess, it was a fairly typical week save it be for transfers. I hope all is well at home! Thanks for the letters and for the support!

Love, 

Elder Ryan Christensen

Individual Letters from Ryan

We received individual letters from Ryan this week.  I wanted to record parts of them on here so I can keep a record if these letters get lost, or just take the time to translate them as his handwriting is crazy hard to read.  :)  Forgive some of the personal references or parts of the conversations that seem one sided.  I just eat up his every word and love to remember the way he says things.  

Dad,
Sorry it taken awhile to respond, this week has been rather busy as it very well should be.  :)  So I know what its like having no time.  I ought to be better.  There was a night again that we missed dinner. We barely made it back in time (9:30).   Then we planned (for the next day) for 30 minutes and it was 10.  At which point it was pointless to eat dinner.  (Probably shouldn't tell mom that :) I am really fine.  I don't skip dinner often and I eat large lunches to help balance the day out.)

Sorry about the water heater.  I wish I could have been there to help!  I have always loved to do things like that with you!  1)because I learn a lot and 2) its fun to spend time with you.  Plus I always loved how something would happen, we thought we were hosed, but then we still seemed to be able to get it done right.  :)  I am glad that you wer able to get it installed and that you have hot water.  :)

Yeah I heard about the paint fiasco :)  I can't imagine what that was like, but I am glad you found the right shade despite having a few gallons of various shades of blue.  Ha Ha, I have a feeling that I will come home in 2 years, the basement will be finished and each room will be painted in a slightly different shade of blue.

Yes I heard about the wood (friends of ours are making a Marimba out of exotic wood and used Kelly's tools) I wish I could see it!  It sounds beautiful, I can't wait to see pictures of the completed project! I miss wood working so much.  Elder Heinrich found a guitar at this apartment which was broken.  So we went and bought glue and clamps to fix it.  There is a hardware store around the corner from our apartment, so we went there.  We walk in and in smells just like Home Depot.  Oh man, I could have stayed there for a few hours, but Elder Heinrich wasn't so thrilled with that idea.  Go figure.  :)  But I miss those days of having a problem or project to work on together.

The new For the Strength of Youth pamphlets sound neat!  I wonder how long it will be till they will have them in German.  Thanks dad, for the testimony and the example.  I miss you a lot but am excited to be here and have a portion of the Lord's vineyard to tend for awhile.  Whether I will see any baptisms, I don't know.  A lot of our investigators are hesitant, but it doesn't matter I am where I am supposed to be, and the Lord is the one who called me here.

I love you dad.  And no matter how old I get, I will still be your star trek loving, Bronco riding, woodworking Pal and because of the plan created by an all knowing, loving Father in Heaven, that will never change.  I will always be your son, and you will always be my dad, hero and example and for those blessings I will forever be thankful.  I hope all is well and that there won't be anymore problems at home, well at least not expensive ones.  :)

Love,
Elder Ryan Christensen


Mom,
It has just occured to me that I never really written you a personalize email/letter or anything so here you go. :)  I wish my memory is better but alas its not and I don't remember everything I have written to you about previously.  But one of the things I do distinctly remember is that you quoted a passage in Alma 53:20 in relation to me and the 2000 stripling sons of Helaman.  Well if I may direct you to Alma 56:47-48/57:21 It says that they were taught by their MOTHERS. (I assume they had excellent father's too)  But that point was so important that it was mentioned 3 times in the space of 2 chapters.  :) So feel free to say that about me, but just recognize the fact that I was taught well by my parents.

I remember awhile back that you were assigned a talk in church on an ambiguous topic.  You asked us why were the way we were and made mention that there were a lot of good parents who's children may or may not have remained on the straight and narrow path.  A topic that has come up a few times in the past few months is found in Alma 62:41 It talks about how the exceedingly great length of the war caused some to wax hard, others to become soft.  It was the same war, yet there were 2 different outcomes.  You can compare it to boiling an egg vs a carrot.  You can put them both in the same boiling water yet the egg becomes hard but the carrot becomes soft.  Likewise 2 children an have the exact same family experience and  be completely different people.  The wonderful thing is that we can all choose which to be.  IT's never to late to change.  Jesus, while on the earth turned water into wine, why not an egg into a carrot?  :)

Anyway, things are going rather well here.  Elder Heinrich was just called to be a Zone leader in Salzburg.  I am staying here and will be getting the one and only Austrailian in the mission as my companion.  Ha ha he speaks German with a Austrailian accent which as you can imagine is a very peculiar combination.  But I am excited to remain here and see my investigators progress.

Anyway, I want you to know all is well with me and that I really am enjoying my time here.  I love you mom.  Thanks for the constant emails!  I really appreciate it.
Love,
Elder Christensen

Dear Josh,
What's up Josh! It's been awhile since I have talked with you.  How goes the Deca competitions?  ACT studying?  AP Test? Work?  You have a lot to tell me about.

How does your new room look?  Do you like it?  I hope so, it seems like something you would enjoy with your Taylor Made golf theme.  Anything new going on at home?  Sweethearts/Prom?  Have you been asked to any dances?

You're a stud Josh!  Don't let anyone/anything tell you different!  AP testing and the ACT are ridiculously difficult.  Just study as hard as you can and leave the rest up to the Lord.  Remember Alma 37:36-37.  The Lord will help you through the hard times and I promise that everything will work out.  Just keep your personal scripture study/prayers up.  Pray and you will receive.  I promise that because it happened to me, if you think it was just me that did well on the ACT you are wrong.  I was helped by the Lord a lot.  I still had to put effort into it but in the end he helped me.  And I know he will help you too. You are a stud Josh!  I couldn't have asked for a cooler younger brother!  I love you Josh!  Good Luck,

Elder Ryan Christensen

Dear Cassie,
Yeah time is going by super fast!  I have already been here 2 months!  Well on my mission for 2 months, 6 weeks in Deutschland :)  ITs cool being here.  It's really warm right now!  Today it got up to 20 C (roughly 70F)  It was so nice, even right now it's 9 pm and it's still 60F  I am liking it here.  I appreciate the fact that I am missed :)  Guess what it's March 18th.  One more month has passed! Hang in there Cassie, It will go quickly.  :)

How are things at home?  I miss your emails!  Keep emailing me!

I still can't believe I am actually here already.  We get transfer calls on Friday (every 6 weeks we have a "transfer" and there is a chance that we can go somewhere else)  I am staying here in Esslingen but Elder Henrich is going to Salzburg Austria!  I am very jealous!  Do you remember the movie Knight and Day?  Part of the movie is in Salzburg!  IT's beautiful, but so is Esslingen.  I can't wait till everything starts blooming, it will be cool to see.

How did Josh's room turn out?  I wish I could see it!  Does he like it?  How did Mark's room turn out?  I normally email at the church but sometimes we go to what's called an Internet cafe, basically a small place with a bunch of computers people can use.  You have to pay for it, but it's pretty cheap.  No it's not annoying to ride trains everyday it's kind of cool.  We ride a ton of trains and even more buses.  Sorry it's taken me awhile to respond.  I spent too much time on my email.  I look forward to hearing back!  I love you cass!

Love,
Elder Ryan Christensen

P.S.  Are you reading the Book of Mormon personally?  If not you totally should!  It will bless your life tremendously to get into a habit of personal study and prayer.  I testify of that.  TRY IT!


Dear Mark,
What's up Mark?  Sorry I haven't written very much, I have been busy!  But things are good.  I ride a lot of trains and buses!  IT's really cool and I think you would like it alot!  How's the weather there?  Its really warm here!  I like it alot.  How is school?  Homework?  I hear you still don't like it.  Sorry about that.  But I promise that it helps you learn!  IT's good for you.  Do you have any questions about the trains or anything? I know how much you love them.

The food here is pretty good, I am learning how to make it too!  It's pretty good!  I have yet to have anything that I don't like, even liverwurst!  The bread here is fantastic and there are bakeries everywhere!  ITs awesome.  Take care Mark!  I lovew you!  Good luck with all that you are doing!

Elder Ryan Christensen

Transfers and Zone Conference

This past week has been incredibly busy! Tuesday we had Zone Conference, which was absolutely fantastic! Then after an excruciatingly long week, we finally got "the phone call". No surprises on my part, I will remain here in Esslingen ( I am still in the process of getting a German Visa, so there was no way that I was going anywhere) however Elder Heinrich will go to Salzburg Austria. I wish I had a picture of his face when he found out... it was priceless! Which brings me to my next point, my new companion will be Elder Stokes, who is from Australia. He speaks German with an Australian accent, which, as some of you can probably imagine is a rather interesting combination. :-) Haha I feel bad for Elder Stokes though, he is from Tübingen, which is the area right next to mine, in my same district as well... he doesn't get much of an exciting transfer, especially since he has already been in Tübingen for 5 transfers... But he seemed rather "stoked" to come here none the less :-)

Elder Heinrich is both excited and sad to go to Salzburg, sad to leave Esslingen, because the ward is incredible, but excited because IT'S SALZBURG AUSTRIA! That will be neat for him. But I am very much so glad to stay here in Esslingen, hopefully that will allow me to see more progression with some of our investigators. Speaking of investigators I had my first one drop me yesterday. It totally caught me off guard. Frau Baumann. Yes, the lady who read the entire Book of Mormon in three weeks dropped us yesterday. She said she was baptized into the Russian Orthodox church, and she was going to remain Russian Orthodox. She didn't like how we asked her to be baptized again. And she had a few other concerns, such as the name of the church including the phrase "Der Heiligen der letzten Tage" (directly translated it means "the Saints of the Last Days") she didn't like how it said "last days". We wanted to explain it, but she didn't let us, instead she told us that she didn't want us wasting our time teaching her, and that she really appreciated the few lessons we taught. She said despite the age difference we were the best teachers that she's had ( at this point I was asking myself the question " then why are you are you dropping us?!"). But yeah, she did, and that was that. It really taught me the importance of pondering and praying about the Book of Mormon. This really showed me that it was truly possible read the entire Book of Mormon and still not gain a testimony of it. And a testimony is INCREDIBLY important. Especially when two 19/20 year old boys are essentially telling you that you need to be baptized again, because the first time wasn't valid... 

But yeah, the rest of the week pales in comparison to Transfer calls. That and Zone Conference. It was awesome to President and Sister Miles again. And the AP's who I seem to have gained eternal fame with. So back on my first day here, we spent the entire day being taught by the AP's. Nothing like sitting in a class for hours on end while suffering from Jet Lag... Well we were all really tired and doing everything in our power to remain awake. The AP's seeing our struggle to remain awake, said that they would allow us all to take a "20 minute power nap". Now keep in mind that the night before leaving Utah, I got roughly 4 hours of sleep, and wasn't able to sleep on the plane. So I by this time had been up 28 hours or so with 4 hours of sleep preceding. And after the 20 minutes were up, everyone else was able to wake up. Except me. I was out cold, and despite them yelling my name and shaking me, I wasn't waking up... Anyway, long story short I somehow woke up and was fine for the rest of the day. But upon seeing me at Zone Conference the AP's came up to me and said something to the effect of "Elder Christensen, its good to see you awake". Even the brand new AP seemed to know who I was... It was rather funny. But Zone Conference was awesome. President Miles is amazing and taught an awesome lesson on Faith and Obedience, and we broke off into smaller groups and worked on some aspects of teaching, This allowed President Miles to come around and give us individual tips on how to be better. I very thoroughly enjoyed it. :-)

The rest of this week was packed, but with the usual things, Teaching investigators, various eating appointments ( when members here that there is a transfer coming up, we get a ridiculous amount of eating appointment invitations). We have 2 eating appointments everyday for the rest of the week ( well till Wednesday, then on Thursday we transfer). Things are going well here. The Romanians moved, and changed telephone numbers ( we knew they were moving but didn't know when) so when we went to go say hi on Tuesday, someone else answered the door. That is a really strange feeling, when you knock on someones door, and someone completely different answers the door. We haven't been able to visit them for a week because both Danny and Thomas have worked, which means that its just Andrea, Datia, and Dannys mom at home. So evidently they moved between the time that we last visited them. But we found them this week!!! So we are continuing to teach them! Which I am very happy about! They are incredible! They were also incredibly happy to see us.. It's going to be hard for me when I get transferred out, I have really become good friends with them. Danny got a Job working construction in Böbling ( its on the complete opposite side of Stuttgart) but having to pay for a ticket there every day has left without enough money to come to church ( he gets paid for the first time this week so he said that they will be in church next week!) He has read all the way through first Nephi, and seems to be really liking it. I asked him if there was anything that we can do for him and his family, and he asked me for Church music, because it gave them feelings of peace when they listened to it. I am glad to see, whether they recognize it or not, that they are feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost.

So things are continuing to go well here. And as evident with the story above, the Lord continues to hear and answer my prayers, even the smallest of things he seems to care about. Its been a great testimony builder to me. The Lord is always there for us, all He is waiting for us to do is to ask Him for help.

Thanks for the e-mails/letters! I really appreciate them. Bis nächste Woche! (Until next week!)

Love,

Elder Ryan Christensen

Doner

In the pictures Ryan sent us, a couple of them show him eating something called a donor, and some people have asked him what it is.  Today he included a quick email and explained it, so I will post it for those who were curious.

So bowling fell through, and now with the last 20 minutes I am printing off a few things, and so I though I would explain a Döner now. First off a Döner is not german, rather its turkish ( turkish people are like the latino population of Germany, so just as there is a lot of Mexican resteraunts in the U.S. there is a lot of Turkish resteraunts here). Anyway, there are two types of Döner, a Kebap or a Yumfka. The one you see in the picture is a Yumfka, which is basically a Döner in a homemade torilla. Anway you go into these restraunts, and you see this huge chunk of meat on an open rotisery. Then when you order your Döner, they will take a sword out, and shave the meat off and put it in the tortilla, or in a crecsant like bun. Then you have your choice of various condiments, redkraut, weißkraut, lettuce, tomatoes, a white sauce, and special type of cheese if you want it. Then you can have ground pepper ( essentially the pizza pepper mix that you can get from Papa Murphy's ) added as well. It takes great! I am not sure what kind of meat it is, some say its lamb, others say you don't want to know... so maybe one day I will ask :-) either way its very good! Anyway I love you dad, thanks for your letter! I will respond and send you a return letter when I can, by the way your letter took 5 days to get here, which is 5 days faster than any other letter I have gotten!

A strike, a Ukulele, and a Testimony

I can't believe that yet another week has already gone by! It seems the weeks are going by far to quickly. Things are going fairly well, this week was a slow week, and  it seemed that none of our investigators could meet with us. Which was hard. Although it could be worse. My poor Zone Leaders. So on Wednesday there was public transportation strike, which was mainly in Stuttgart ( only 4 buses in Esslingen weren't driving, so it didn't effect me and Elder Heinrich too much.) Anyway, Stuttgart is rather large, and EVERYTHING was shut down. So the night before the strike my Zone leaders borrowed some bikes from members in the ward, to be used to go to all of their appointments.The next day comes, and they found themselves walking out the door a bit late. Luckily for them though ( or so they thought) they lived on the top of a huge hill, so they could make up the time by riding really fast down the hill. Which would have been totally fine, if it weren't for the incredibly sharp turn at the bottom... Yeah, so the first elder didn't make the turn and flew off on to the sidewalk, while the second, following not to far behind slammed on the brakes, but not quick enough, hit the other bike and flew up over the handlebars. Both bikes were destroyed in the process. But they both miraculously remained fairly uninjured ( they were traveling at around 40 kph ( roughly 25 mph) when they wrecked. But had some pretty good sized cuts ( they showed up at our District meaning a few days  later with some bandages claiming to have been jumped in an alley :-) ). Anyway, they made it into the newspaper with their wreck, which makes it twice in the period of 2 weeks that they were in the newspaper :-) The first time was an article about the church/missionary work. You may be able to see it ( although I think only Beth would be able to understand it) The name of the Article was Sie gehen ihren Weg des Herrn in the Stuttgart Zeitung, if anyone is interested.

Anyway, I am trying to think of anything exciting that happened this past week, but nothing is coming to mind, it was just a normal week of missionary work.  2 Nephi 29:3, if I had a dime for every time I have heard that phrase in the past few weeks... my goodness. It seems to be always the same:

 "Hi we are missiona... yeah, yeah, we know, you have your bible and that you don't need anymore. Yes we are familiar with Revelations 22:18, are you familiar with 2 Nephi 29:6? " haha I wish I could use that, but it probably wouldn't go over so well. But yeah, things are well, Frau Baumann came to church yesterday and liked it, and said that she will come again next week. Things are interesting at the moment with Frau Baumann, having heard that she has read the bible twice I assumed that she was christian, but she is very firm in her belief of Reincarnation, which is not a christian belief. So we hope that with time, coming to church, praying about the Book of Mormon, she can get a firm belief in the Plan of Salvation. She still doesn't have a baptismal date, because when we asked her if she wanted to be baptized, she said that had already been baptized so she didn't need to be. We are going to go back and review Priesthood Power and Authority, and then ask her again.

We have recently gained 2 new investigators, Mai and Steven. They both come from Nigeria, Mai has been here for 12 years, and Steven has lived here for a few months. A month or so ago, Mai had a baby girl, and named her Gift. Which in English is a sweet name to give a baby, however the poor child will be raised in Germany, where the word "Gift" means "Poison". Anyway, we met with them on Friday, and they came to church yesterday! All 3 hours! (Most of our investigators only come to Sacrament meeting, because its easier ( Sacrament meeting starts at 10.50 and for some it takes awhile to get here.)) They seemed to really enjoy it, so things are looking well in that respect. We just need to convince them to get married sooner rather than later. 

I am giving on a talk on this upcoming Sunday. And am scared to death to do so. Its easy to speak to one person in German, but it is going to be completely different speaking to 200 people in German for 10 or so minutes. But I will be fine, its just going to be pushing me well out of my comfort zone. Haha I gave a presentation in the primary! Well sort of, they were learning the names of the apostles, and Schwester Müller found out that I knew various facts about the apostles. So I told all that I knew about each apostle, which isn't much but it was enough for primary age children. Then Elder Heinrich, and Schwester Müller, and I tried to sing a poorly translated song about the apostles while Elder Heinrich played the Ukulele. We have video footage of it, but it is probably better not to share it ;-) Elder Heinrich's family will probably post it on Facebook, so if you add him as a friend under me, you might be able to see it.  Its really weird, there are only 13 kids in the entire primary! There almost more Primary children in our home ward than there are members in this ward! I am still trying to adjust to that. 

One thing recently that has come up a lot in my studies, is the atonement of Jesus Christ. A scripture that we commonly use is Alma 7:11-12. But having used a lot in the past few days, it has really caused me to stop an ponder on it. Its something that is very widely known and excepted that Jesus suffered for us. But I really wonder how much people comprehend the extent of what that means. Yesterday in a lesson with a non active member of the church, he expressed to us, that he couldn't believe in a God that would allow so much pain and sorrow to exist in this world. He wondered why it was necessary to come here and to be exposed to all of this. Naturally its for our good and for our experience, as stated in the Doctrine and Covenants, but one thing that I have thought of is that it allows us to more fully comprehend the atonement, and what it can do. We oft time take it for granted, and it is truly through trial and sorrow that we draw nearer to our Savior. How are we expected to draw nearer unto him, if we don't know Him, or don't know what he has done for us. By allowing these trials to come upon us, he allows us to become nearer to the savior, by relying on him more, and ourselves less. I am very grateful for what Jesus did for me. What a blessing it is to know that He should care for us, enough to atone, and die for us. It makes life that much more worth living, to know that someone has been where we are, and will always be there when we allow Him to be. I testify that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. That he came down and took upon himself all of our sins, iniquities and infirmities, so that we could repent, gain the help that we need, and be able to return to our Father in Heaven one day. 

Sorry that this week was a bit uneventful, hopefully there will be more to write next week!

Love,

Elder Christensen

Weekly Update

Sorry this is a bit late, today has been pretty weird. We ended up going to the Botanical Gardens/Zoo in Stuttgart today, mainly because my companion has never been to a Zoo. It was incredibly pretty, Its a one of a kind in Europe and one of only a few in the world. It was originally built to be a private garden/ residence for the king of Schwabenland, but now its a beautiful park. There is a Castle in it too, but we weren't able to go see it because it isn't open on Mondays ( but if you want to see pictures of it, just google Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart). I took roughly 160 pictures there, so you won't be lacking anything ( my camera died, so I can't send home any just yet). We spent a little more time there today then I wanted ( hence the reason for the late e-mail) but it was worth it in the end. 


Things have been going really well here, This past weekend was marvelous! But it didn't start out that way. So on Wednesday we got a referral from Church HQ of someone who lives in Kirchheim who anmelden on www.mormon.org and was requesting a Book of Mormon. So we made plans to give one to him on Thursday evening. Thursday was rough. There is a saying, or a parable of sorts about missionary work here; It goes like this: There are 2 people working a Garden, One of them spends all day sowing and harvesting plants, the other pushes a giant bolder around the perimeter of the garden all day long. Both work very hard and at the end of the day the are both exhausted, but the one who pushed to bolder in circles didn't do much. We felt like we had spent the day pushing a bolder. Everything fell through and no one wanted to listen ( I partly blame the weather, it was a GORGEOUS day on thursday) Sitting at the train station, we were exhausted and wanted the day to come to an end. Our referral lived a block away from the train station, so we planned enough time to go down to Kirchheim, give him his book, come home, eat dinner and go to bed. We take the train to Kirchheim ( a 25 minute train ride there) and go and klingel his door. The name on the door was "Pfarrer Obermann" Pfarrer means Pastor; he was a pastor for a local church. We thought " oh great, he is only going to want to bible bash with us" ( this wouldn't be the first time that someone went through the trouble of finding us, just to bash us). Anyway to our great surprise, he came to the door and was excited to see us, he was like jumping up and down with excitement to get his hands on a Book of Mormon. We gladly gave it to him. He said that he was busy for the next 30 minutes, but if we could wait he really wanted to talk to us about it. We said that would be fine, and that we would come back in 30 minutes. As previously mention Germans really dislike missionaries knocking at their door. The only thing they hate worse than that, is when missionaries knock on their door after the sun goes down. Well the sun had gone done, there wasn't anyone on the street, and we were stuck for 30 minutes. Which means that we only had one option, we were going to go door-ing after dark in the small city of Kirchheim. To our utter amazement 3 out of the 7 doors we knocked on actually had interest and we gave away a few Book of Mormons! We were dumbfounded! That kind of success doesn't not happen in Germany. Kirchheim! of all places! So as you can very well imagine we have already made plans to return to our new favorite proselyting area ;-). 


Anyway one thing I neglected to mention was that because were going to be in Kirchheim waiting to talk to Pfarrer Oberman, we knew that we weren't going to have time for dinner anymore. We had planned just enough time to come down give him the book talk for maybe 20 minutes or so, then return home for dinner ( we eat dinner at 8.00 PM here, then plan, then have an hour of personal time). So we had just assumed we would skip dinner again tonight ( BEFORE PEOPLE PANIC, THIS IS NOT A COMMON OCCURRENCE!) but it does happen occasionally. We came back an knocked on his door at roughly 7:55 P.M. He answered and welcomed us in, his wife was making dinner, and he told us that he doesn't let guests interfere with dinner, so we assumed we would talk to him for a bit, then he and his wife would have dinner and we would leave. Walking in to the main room, I glanced into the kitchen and noticed that the table was set for 4 people, I thought that to be peculiar, but assumed that they were having guests, so I didn't think anything of it. But after about 20 minutes of talking with him ( mainly just getting to know him ( he has a really interesting history)) his wife called us for dinner. We assumed this meant that we were leaving, but to our utter amazement, he invited us to join him for dinner! We had never met him before, and they had no idea we were coming! ( Or any clue that we weren't going to be able to eat dinner.) His reasoning was: "two young missionaries far away from home can appreciate a delicious home-cooked meal that they don't need to prepare or buy". So we joined them for dinner, and it was wonderful. They are an incredibly kind family. It turns out that he had served on the military base and had a colleague who was a member of our church, so he wanted to know more. Long story short through the meal, and tracting earlier, we gained a few new investigators, and didn't starve that night :-) It just goes to show that the Lord will take care of anyone who tries to do what is right. :-)


That was Thursday, on Friday Elder Blogett ( who actually was a professor of Linguistics at SUU) gave a presentation in Esslingen on the scattering of the 12 tribes of Israel. THAT WAS AMAZING! Completely in German, and yet I understood all of it! He used Linguistics to show the evolution of European languages, as well as who was scattered where and when. So in the presentation I learned the entire history of the English and German languages their origins etc. As well as the 4 times that the house of Israel was scattered! Its crazy! So long story short, Latin, English and German come from Hebrew ( well I am not 100% sure if Latin came from Hebrew, but it had a MAJOR Hebrew influence). And there are some really cool similarities for example:


The Hebrew word: Pader means Father. Scholars have noted that there are only 6 basic changes between Hebrew and English/German 2 are involved with this word: 1) P over time became an "F" in Englisch. 2) "d" became "dh" which in English was pronounced ( and later spelled) as "th" substituting those in directly, you get the word "Father". And those who know Spanish will recognize the word Padre´ anyone notice a similarity?! Yeah it blew my mind. This is why So many European Languages seem similar, they all came from a Hebrew background, but as Israel was scattered and time went on, became different languages! 
He showed that with so many words! It was so fascinating! And then he talked about symbols and things of the different tribes, and often times on the coat of arms of a state, or country you can seen which tribes settled it. For example one of the symbols of Judah was a cross, for Emphraim it was a cross tilted to look like an "x" you will noticed that the British flag has both of those symbols, which means that it was founded under a Judaic and Emphramaic influence. Even the Great Seal of the United States of America has symbolism. The original Country had 13 states, and there are technically 13 tribes of Israel ( because Joseph had two sons). So the seal has 13 clouds, and 13 fires, representing the Israel exodus from Egypt, they were led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. HOW COOL IS THAT!! Oh my, it was awesome! Also, something really cool, most scholars think that Moses led the children of Israel out of bondage around the year 1492 BC. In 1492 AD Columbus discovered america, which allowed for many to escape a "spiritual or religious" bondage. It was a spectacular presentation.


And then on Sunday we ate one of the members houses, and while talking at dinner, she told me tht I speak "Akzentfrei" meaning accent free, or free of an accent. I gave her a puzzled look, because I thought there was no way that I, having only been here for 4 weeks, could possibly be speaking without and accent. See my expression, she said " well you have an accent, it just is much better than the other american missionaries". That made my weekend! I was told by a German native that I speak mostly accent free. Which made me feel really good, because I have been really working hard on my pronunciations lately. Speaking of which, right now I am trying to master the German "r" sound, they roll their "r" but its not with your tongue against your teeth, like they do with Spanish. Instead it is your uvula vibrating of the back of your tongue, and it is incredibly hard to do, I still can't do it. Maybe if I nod my head really fast... nope it didn't work, but I will keep trying! :-)


Things are going well here, there are naturally hard times, but things always seem to work out one way or another. There are a few investigators who could easily be baptized, they have kept all of our commitments, are in harmony with all the commandments or God, believe the Book of Mormon is true, everything! They just don't quite feel ready for baptism yet... But we will keep working. Hopefully we can set up a new baptismal date for Frau Schmid ( she is still trying to quit smoking, and is very close to doing so.) but once she does that, we should be good to go! Anyway, I hope all is well at home! Does Josh like his new room? After all that work, I hope he does. Speaking of Josh, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! ( In 2 days :-) ). For your present, I decided to give you my room, my laptop and my car! ;-) In all honesty though, I would send you a gift, but most things in here are German ( Go figure...)  ( I was actually tempted to send you this golf book that I found, but you wouldn't understand it anyway :-) ) But if you can think of anything you want me to send you, I would be more than happy to do so! 


I love you all, 
Elder Ryan Christensen

Pictures!!

We finally received a memory card with some pictures from the first six weeks of Ryan's mission.  I love pictures, it makes things seem much more real, but also make me miss Ry more.  Forgive spelling of German words and names of people he met.  I need a Urim and Thumum (translators) and magnifying glass to decipher his handwriting.

MTC 

Elder Ronenburg from Denmark, my zone leader from first week.

 Elder Young (companion) with Elder Ronenburg

 Elder Fitamenut (sp?) from France, another zone leader

 Elder Young and I at the the temple, I have no idea what he is doing.

 Elder Javille, a zone leader from week two

Last temple walk day, I really miss these mountains.  Even the German's say they are gorgeous.  

 My district

 Sister Vaetus from Tahiti going to Madagascar, french speaking

 My zone week two, many cameras were taking pictures at once which is why no one is looking at the same place at the same time.

First pictures from the plane of Germany, the view was amazing

Eating my first doner, they are amazing

 Pictures of my apartment

 Books of Mormon in many different languages

 Good old reliable German washers :)

 wool sweater washing 101 with Elder Henrich

 Pictures from Esslingen on P-day, they were taken from Esslingen Schloss (Fortress) It's pretty amazing.