10 Investigators, and Running out of Books of Mormon

This week has seemed to have taken an eternity, but so many amazing things have happened! (Parental Note: This seemed like a very long week for us as well.  Not sure why this week was so long, but it feels like forever since we heard from Ryan. Funny that we both felt that way.)  We have found 3 new investigators this week, which brings our total number of Investigators to 10! ( 3 are former that we were able to meet with again). 1 of which we found by going to door to door, he let us right in and we taught the first lesson. He is very determined to find the truth, he has been meeting with the Jehovas Witnesses once a week, is learning Arabisch, to try and study the Koran, and seems fairly enthusiastic about reading the Book of Mormon. I have high hopes for him. 


The 2nd is Thomas Bäck, who we found in Feldkirch ( I mentioned that last week). We taught him the first discussion and it went very well! We will meet with him again this upcoming Wednesday. The third is someone who we met on our finding day on Thursday he was going into a business meeting of some sort, but he had a little bit of time to talk to us, and invited us to stop by and visit him. Which we did on Saturday. Unfortunately our timing wasn't very good and we only got to talk with him for 20 minutes, but he took the Book of Mormon, and was very excited to read it. He wants to try and read it in a Month. He invited us back this Friday to discuss a little bit more about the Book, but then wants to read the whole thing, then invite us over to talk with him about it, and invite his pastor over as well... We will see how that goes... He is Catholic, but is a bit (discouraged?, confused?), I don't know how to quite describe it, about the history of the Catholic Church (i.e. the Crusades and Inquisition).  He doesn't agree that the Catholic Church has the Authority of God, because of those things, which is why he is open to the Book of Mormon/ our Church. I am interested to see what will happen with him.

Tomorrow is Zone Conference in Winterthur, it will be interesting because Elder Esplin and I will each need to take a suitcase there, to try and transport all of our supplies back. We were very ill-equipped for this transfer, we had only 20 Copies of the Book of Mormon in German, 4 in Turkisch, hardly any pass along cards, Very few other Book of Mormons in other languages... Its amazing we been able to do what we have done. Although, haha, we ran out of Book of Mormons about 2 weeks ago, so Zone Leaders brought us 8, but those where gone in a few days, so We borrowed 5 from Ravensburg. But then we gave those out... Well lucky for us, when giving a Church tour to Thomas, we found a Box of copies of the Book of Mormon, which the Bishop said that we could use. so we took 7, and now those are gone... Lucky we get our restock tomorrow. We ordered 40, but Elder Esplin thinks he may have previously ordered an additional 40, which we are both praying for, because we just gave out 20 Book of Mormons in a little less then 2 weeks... there are 6 weeks in a transfer... But its paying off! We are finding more people, and making new appointments, we have 4 appointments made out so far with potentials this upcoming week. Possibly 4 new investigators! 

 

We have learned by sad experience that our freezer sometimes has problems shutting completely. And when left that way unnoticed for 24 hours, it can coat the inside with about 1 inch or so of Ice... that was a lovely surprise, let me tell you. so now comes the problem, how on earth to we get rid of all the ice. If I was at home, I would just spray it out, just like we do our full size freezer, but I am not at home, and that's not an option. So what do we do? Well we improvise, Unplug the freezer, Put Hot water in a water bottle, have one Elder spray out the freezer with it , while the other holds a large bowl to catch all the water, praying that there won't be an overflow of water ;-) Well, it took us about 25 minutes or so, and there were times where Elder Esplin was "trigger happy" spraying more water into the freezer than could come out through the little drainage system, resulting in water going everywhere, but by the end, we were able to dry the freezer out, put our food back in, and mop up the floor. :-)  That was quite the adventure. It made for a pretty good laugh, because its a bit of a Red-neck/missionary type of Solution, but it worked! :-)

I got my Visa! I must admit, I am rather impressed with the Austrian Government, It was going to take 6+ weeks for my German Visa to arrive, but My Austrian Visa only took a single week! I am legal in Austria now! Which is a huge relief to be done worrying about Visas for awhile ( now watch me get sent back to Germany and have to start the process all over again...) Now I just need to get a License, and I am good! We were planning on taking care of that today, but today is a holiday, which is rather horrible for us, because everything is closed, including almost all stores ( luckily the Sutterluty on Bahnhof is open, or else we would have some serious problems). So I will have to take care of my license either during the week sometime, or next p-day, depending on how quickly the office wants me to get the process going. 

I have attached three pictures to this e-mail, 2 are of Liechtenstein ( yes one of them is with me in it). (Parental note:  Mom is very happy now to have pictures that include her misisonary!! What a beautiful place!)  The 3rd picture is what I usually do after a long day of being outside :-). Allergies have been absolutely ridiculous! And I have tried 3 different types of Allergy Medicine, none of which seem to be able to help me at all. There is so much more pollen then I am used to, and I don't know what to do. I am still continuing to take some medicine, because anything is better than nothing, but I am afraid that I may have to just wait it out. I don't know, I am going to talk to the Mission nurse today to see if she can help me, I know of a few other Missionaries that are also having a hard time. Maybe someone has found a solution. 

Other than that things are going very well here! We are finding more and more people, and teaching more lessons. A lot of investigators are busy, so it's been hard to meet with some on a regular basis, but hopefully we will still be able to help them progress. 

Friday is Transfer Calls! This transfer is almost over again! Wow. Start of my Fourth Transfer, after this I will have been out here for roughly 6 months. Can it really already have been that long?

I hope all is going well with everyone at home. Congrats to all those Graduating this week!! I can't believe its now been a year since I graduated, its unbelievable how fast the time has gone! 

Thanks for all the support!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Another week has gone by already?! Exploding from Excitement!

Its been quite the week here in Dornbirn. And I am about to Explode from excitement! We have been so blessed! We have been finding people in the most unplanned of ways! (If you recall the letter from last week, they were focused on fasting and finding people.  The following stories are the successes that came from those efforts and faith.)   We were waiting at a bus stop to take us to Bahnhof to catch a train somewhere ( I don't really remember where or why) but there was another lady sitting at the bus stop with us. The bus didn't come, which almost NEVER happens, buses can be late, but rarely to they just flat out not come. So we started talking to her, and she wants us to bring her and her friend 2 Copies of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. By that time, the next bus arrived, we went to Bahnhof, and caught a later train ( we missed the first one, but we are the Lords servants, so I guess he is entitled to change our plans as He pleases ;-)).

Another time we were coming from an appointment in Schlins-Beschlingen, The plan was to catch a train, grab a quick Döner, then go try to find a turkish lady who we had met the day before, to give her a Book of Mormon. We were in a bit of a hurry to catch the train ( the train station was a 20 minute walk from where we were, and we had about 17 minutes or so). Anyway on the way there, I see a man walking down the street, and right then I knew that we weren't meant to catch our intended train. Sure enough he called out to us ,,Seid ihr Zeugen Jehova?" " are you Jehovas Witnesses?". No, we are from the church of Jesus Christ... Long story short he was interested in Reading the Book of Mormon, we gave him a copy and he gave us his address to come back and explain where the book came from/why its important. We missed our train, and the next one didn't for 30 minutes. So we ate down in Schlins, and caught the next train. Which Yilmaz was on :-) Yilmaz is a security guard for ÖBB ( The train system in Austria) and he has always been full of questions for us. I don't know if I would call him an investigator, but a good friend. We don't get to meet with him very often, but he always comes up and talks to us if we see him on the trains. We talked to him, and he kind of opened up to us right then, it was really cool, a step up in the trust he has in us.

We got back, and immediately caught a bus that was to take us to the turkish lady. We find the address she gave us, but its a bar. Maybe she works there? We don't know, we didn't go in, because there was an apartment building right next to it (the number she gave us was 2, the apartment was 2a so we decided to try there). No Luck. We started to ring the doorbells, and were buzzed in right on the first one, top floor. They had no interest, but this allowed us to go and knock on all the doors from the inside (which is better because then it is face to face communication, not just through an intercom). We did so and came across a family, to whom we gave a book, and they told us that we could come back and teach them. And then we came across someone else, named Niklaus, who was busy at the moment, but said we could come back another time. We did Last night, and were able to teach him, and he is now a new investigator. :-) False address, but it results in more potential investigators, and a new investigator. 

Another time, this one happened on Saturday, we had made a plan to visit an older sister in the ward who lived clear in Feldkirch  RIGHT on the border of Liechtenstien ( The border was about 30 yards from her front door, we got there a bit early, so yes, I have now officially been in Liechenstein, and have pictures (WITH ME IN THEM, for the sake of my poor mom ;-)) but sadly, my camera is dead, so I can't post them just yet). Anyway, we had planned for a priest who lived in Feldkirch to be a Joint teach for us. The problem was, he lived clear on the other side of Feldkirch. So the plan was to meet him at his house an hour before the appointment, then catch a ride from one of his parents to the appointment. In order to make it to him by 5, we arrived at 4:30 to catch a bus that left at 4:40 to get us to him by 5. Well upon arriving, he tells us that he will just meet us at her house ( which wasn't a problem for us, because we knew where she lived). But with the change in plan, we now had an unplanned hour and a half. So we went and started talking to people on the streets. We met Thomas. Who actually lives in Dornbirn, but was visiting someone in Feldkirch. He already had received a Book of Mormon, but had never met with the missionaries. We were able to make an appointment with him on the spot for this Thursday! Had we not arrived in Feldkirch when we did having that extra time, we would probably never have met him.

Walking on the street one day, a man who owns a small shop, calls out to us on the street asking us if we want a few sodas, we say that we were fine, but he insisted. So we come in, and start talking to the lady behind the counter (she is Thai by the way :-) ) We told her about the book of Mormon and she is interested in learning more. I could go on and on with these stories. They happen every day. I am sure you remember ( or now can go read) my letters from the start of this area. 0 Investigators, 0 Potentials. At the start it was INCREDIBLY difficult  to give out a single Book of Mormon every day, much less find someone who wanted to meet with us. Elder Esplin a few days ago was telling me that before I came, they had a district meeting in which they talked about the goal of giving out at least one Book of Mormon per day. He said that there was a lot of doubt about it being possible.

Possible? I have been here about 25 days now, in which time we have been able to give out over 30 copies of the Book of Mormon. A few weeks ago, the Zone Leaders announced a goal of trying to find at least 2 new potentials every day. Possible? On Friday we found 5 people who were interested in meeting with us. The Lord works in ways which we can't really understand. He gives goals and commandments which we may or may not think possible. The first two weeks here, nearly everyone said no. But now its changed. The Lord has tested our faith, and is now helping us be led to find those who are ready to receive the gospel. I can't tell you how grateful I am to be here right now. To be one of the instruments in the hand of the Lord to get this area going again. The changes that have taken place are nothing short of Miracles. Transfers calls are next Friday, whether I stay here or not, it doesn't matter. I am grateful to have seen what I have seen already :-). 

Everything else pretty much pails in Comparison to that. I had a rather interesting time getting to Winterthur on Tuesday... Normally what would happen is that we call the office Elders, and ask them to order us tickets for our trip, then the day before they call with the codes to print the tickets. Then we go to a machine, put in the code, and the ticket prints. No worrying about money, or anything really, except catching the train. As I have said previously, to save money and time, we have been authorized to travel alone on exchanges. Which means that I don't have a cell phone, or really anyway to call and figure things our with anyone. That being said, I will continue with the story: the plan was, I would catch the 9:20 bus from the apartment, get to Bahnhof, and catch the 9:39 train to Bregenz. I would have about 9 minutes to print off the ticket, and grab something to eat. No problem right? Well I get to Bahnhof, and go to the machine, put in the code and the ticket prints. BUT it was a one way ticket from RAVENSBURG to Winterthur, not a two way from Dornbirn to Winterthur. My train leaves in 8 minutes, and I don't have the right ticket. Brilliant.

If I was in Germany, the solution would be very simple, I would just type in my destination, and pay for the ticket at the machine. But I am not in Germany, Austrian Ticket machines don't have that function. So I go running into the Ticket office, praying that there isn't a line. There wasn't and I order my ticket, making sure to specify it being a 2 way ticket. It prints I pay for it, it was roughly 1/2 as expensive as I thought it was going to be. Then I realize, that is only a one way ticket ( at which point the 1/2 price thing made sense ;-) ) But I don't have to time right then, I would have to try and take care of it in Bregenz on my 10 minute layover. ( I wanted to buy it in Austria because I have a discount card, which gets me 15% off tickets.) Everything went well I payed for the ticket, visited the bakery, and caught my train without a problem. Upon arriving in Winterthur I realized that I had no idea where Elder Jacklin was going to meet me... Dream come true, wandering around completely lost in Winterthur without anyway to communicate. I wait at what I thought was the main entrance to the Bahnhof for about 10 minutes then decided to head toward the buses. That is where Elder Jacklin met me. RELIEF! ;-) Everything else went well, it was just an adventure trying to figure out what to do in the mean time. :-)

Anyway, that is all for now. I hope all is well at home! 

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Finding Week

To Mom, Dad, Josh, Cassie, and Mark, who all got to talk to me a bit yesterday, this e-mail may be a bit repetitive.

Parental editorial comment:  Ryan called for Mother's Day and talked to us on the phone for about 45 minutes.  It was so amazing to hear his voice, and hear him laugh.  Almost as good as having him home with us.  As he talked about his areas, and companions, and how hard the work is, there was no sense of frustration from him.  He was very matter of fact (Ryan...matter of fact??) in telling us that he was happy and just wants to help people know and understand what he already knows about the gospel. As we read his letters, we always try to put a it in his voice as much as possible, but it was so good just to hear his voice. We very much enjoyed the call up until we had to say goodbye, which brought tears to everyone.  Tears of joy because of the chance to talk with him, and a small bit of sadness knowing we won't get that chance again until December.  Man we love this kid.

Sorry... And sorry I haven't yet posted pictures of the apartment yet, we had hoped to have gotten a new couch, and 2 new tables, because the existing ones were terrible ( My desk actually collapsed on me the day we took it to the dump). Anyway Elder Sampson rented a "truck" (Which is more like a Minivan on Steroids) and the plan was, to pick up the two new desks, from Kika, then take the old ones and the couch to the dump. Kika had told us that they had two desks in stock for us, and that we could come and pick them up. Well it turns out that they only had one desk in stock, and that the other one should come sometime this week. Alright, well at least we got the one desk. Halfway through assembly, Elder Esplin realized that they had only given us half of the required instructions to make the desk. So now we are both lacking desks, well technically I am only lacking a half of a desk, but the half that I am missing happens to be the most important part of it... Anyway long story short, Elder Esplin is using the kitchen table, and I am using the couch. Without any shelves or places to organize our study materials, the apartment is a bit of a mess... So I will send pictures, when we get the new desks, and everything gets restored to its original order :-) 

Its been a fairly decent week. On Tuesday I went to Ravensburg, Germany, on an exchange. Which was fairly cool, because they speak Schwäbisch there, and before I left Esslingen, I could actually speak a little bit of it :-). So it was fun to go back and to hear it again. The exchange felt fairly short, Elder Sampson gave us a ride back in the "truck", and it took us roughly 2 hours to get to Ravensburg. That took up a large amount of time, then we ate Lunch, or dinner, not exactly sure it was like 4.00 in the afternoon, but after that we went out and proselyted. The exchanging was comparatively uneventful, We street contacted for a few hours, and went vorbei (went by) on a few potentials. We had an appointment with a family that evening at 7, and having arrived a bit early we went and did some door-ing. Something really cool happened, we door-ed into a family who was eating dinner right then, and they had invited their friends over to have dinner with them. Their friends were members of the Church :-) It was pretty cool to door into someone who had members over, we didn't stay long, but I can only imagine what the topic of conversation was after we left. :-) The appointment was pretty short, just a get-to-know-you kind of thing. 

Thursday was interesting, this day, as well as one other day this month, have been dedicated to nothing but finding. So that is what we did. Our original plan was to go to Bregenz, because there are a lot of people there. But it turns out that they are all tourists... Bregenz is right on the edge of Lake Constance, which is where everyone comes on vacation. So after 4 hours of talking to people, having only found 1 person, we decided that Bregenz wasn't where we were supposed to be. So we caught the train back to Dornbirn. Innenstadt, Dornbirn is usually full of people, especially with the "Dornbirn in Bloom" festival going on right now. But the thing is, right in the middle of Innenstadt, where everyone is, is a huge Catholic Cathedral. Which means that we can't proselyte there 1) because its a missionary rule and 2) I think its just plain disrespectful to proselyte in front of another religion's church. So we had to scratch that off the list of places we could go. We ended up deciding to go door to door for the remaining 4 hours of the day. Going door to door isn't something that I really like, because it's slow. You walk to a door, ring the bell, wait for someone to answer, if they will answer, then if they tell you they aren't interested, you walk to the next door ( or in apartment complexes, just ring the next klingel (bell)). Its a very slow process, where as with Street contacting, if some tells you no, you can quickly talk someone else; you meet more people and are more likely to find someone with interest. But Dornbirn just isn't made for street contacting, its too quite of an area, so we went door to door. I was actually fairly surprised though, we found 8 additional people who were interested in learning about the Book of Mormon. That was such a long day... 8 hours of nothing but talking to people, finding only 9 people during that time, 5 of which were found in the last 30 minutes! 

We gave out 7 book of Mormons that day! 6 German and a Turkish, as well as found people who wanted copies in Arabic, Persian, and Serbian. Exactly what that will mean for the coming weeks, I am not sure. But I can only pray that those who took a Book of Mormon, give us a call so that we can meet with them! ( There were a number of people who took a Book of Mormon, but didn't want us to meet with them, and they aren't counted in the 9). My heart goes out to Ravensburg though,  they talked to people for that same time as well, but they didn't find a single person who had any interest whatsoever. So, as hard as it was here, at least we were able to find a few people. 

Things are starting to be on a bit of an upswing here, we have been working really hard, and are starting to see some fruits of our labors. For example, last night, after our Phone call, Elder Esplin and I, went right back to work going door to door. At about 8:30 we found Nicole and Andi. They are a married couple with 2 young children, that don't live to far from us. She (Nicole) is against organized religion but believes that she has a personal relationship with God. I don't really know much about Andi, he is heading for a 3 week business trip in Vienna today, so for part of the time he was busy making sure he was ready. But we talked about the Book of Mormon, where it comes from, our personal testimonies, and that we aren't here to convince, or persuade them. That are purpose as missionaries is to invite others to find out for themselves. I think that was the reason they let us in, after we said twice that we just invite; we don't persuade, is really when things seemed to open up. They invited us back in after Andi gets back from his trip to talk more about the Book of Mormon! Just like that we found 2 new investigators. In a matter of a couple of weeks we went from 0 to 3, granted the 2 can't meet till June, but still! :-) And we have a long list of promising potentials, so we will see how that goes. 

Haha, so I have kind of a funny story that happened this week... After our District Leader meeting in Winterthur, we came back and visited a member of the ward. He is probably in his mid to late 50's and is the only member in his family. A common thing here in Europe when someone invites you in is to ask you if you want tea, usually a fruit tea of some sort, which is fine. With non members we always ask to make sure we know what kind of tea it is before we drink it. Well he offers us tea and we accept, and Elder Esplin asks him what flavor, and he says "Irish Cream". He shows us the box and sets in on the counter. He pours us each a cup and we start talking. Well, I am not much of a tea person, I only drink it because its rude not to. So I didn't take a sip right away, I was going to wait. In the meantime Elder Esplin takes two big scoops of sugar in his and stirs it around. I glance over at the box, and I notice something. The box was just far enough away that I couldn't quite read it, but I thought I saw the word "schwarztee", "Black tea". I turn to Elder Esplin, to warn him that I think this could be black tea, but I turned just in time to see him take a large sip from the tea. So at this point I have a bit of a compromise. I think this is black tea, I am not sure. But we are at a MEMBER'S home. He wouldn't give us black tea would he? He should know that we don't drink it. So do I ask? What if I am wrong? Will he be offended?  But what if I am right? I decided that I one thing was for sure, I couldn't drink the tea. He asks how it tastes, Elder Esplin says "Amazing!"  I say that I haven't tried it yet. Then he kind of looks at me and says, well try it! I slowly slide the cup toward me, praying for help on what I should do, I can't drink it, but how do I get out of this situation?. At which point I ask the question, "so what kind of tea is this?"  he says, I think its a few types of Fruit tea, and there may be a bit of black tea in it. The expression on Elder Esplin's was PRICELESS. Relieved, I push the cup away and say, we don't drink black tea. He was a bit flustered and apologized, and the situation resolved itself after that. After we left, Elder Esplin walks out and turns to me and says "Elder, I just drank black tea, with whiskey in it!" (a bit in shock, not in excitement ;-) ) ( it turns out that the tea had whiskey flavoring in it as well :-) ). We both laughed and thought it was kind of funny, especially how I when I went to warn him, it was too late. Kind of a mix between spiritual, and funny, it makes for good memory :-) 

Anyway I am out of time, I hope all is well with you at home. Things are going well here! 

Love, 

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

To Uncle Tracy, who was sitting in the train station in Munich ready to catch a flight home and sent us the following picture asking if Ryan knew where it was, his repsonse is:

 Ryan's Response:

Munich Bahnhof (station)!! I haven't seen that in awhile...

Well, Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) to be exact.

Needless to say, he was excited that Tracy was in Munich at a familar place.  Thanks Tracy, for the picture!

Long Week...Miraculous Events

This week has been quite the week. It has been an incredibly long week of seeking to find people to teach. Meanwhile both Elder Esplin and I, have been battling various physical infirmities. But the Lord has blessed us, and we have a new investigator, as well as a number of potentials with whom we will meet over the next few weeks. I will share with you a few miraculous events throughout this past week. Monday "Eismann contacting". In short, there is an icecream parlour in Dornbirn that the missionaries like to go to, and we have been talking with the owner about the church ( he asked who we were and what we are doing in Austria). He is Italian, so we promised to bring him a Book of Mormon in Italian. Well we did, but Lucky for us, Trevor ( The american who I translated for last week) served his mission in Italy, and despite it being over 10 years ago, still speaks fluent Italian. So he came with us and spoke to this man. He ended up talking with him for 2 hours ( we ran out of time, and had to leave). Trevor called us later and told us that he as well as his whole family sat around and listed to him, and they are fairly interested! They said that they would read a portion of the book ( they said they couldn't promise to read the whole book, but would begin reading it). Trevor told them that we will come by during the week to ask them how the reading has gone ( Trevor is in Salzburg with Christian Vuissa for the next month :-( ) but they can speak German, so we will see how things went. It was awesome of Trevor to spend 2 hours with them. Addressing their concerns, answering questions etc. We owe him a lot for that. 

Tuesday was really neat for me. We were completely booked, with District meeting ( a 80 minute train ride away). Traveling there, having the meeting, and traveling back took about 4 hours of our day. We got back to Dornbirn, where we were supposed to have an appointment with a former investigator, Jörg. But he didn't show up, and we weren't able to get a hold of him for a few days. We stayed at the church, making some other phone calls and things that needed to get done, until Peter Netzer arrived. He gave us a ride home to install a whiteboard in our apartment, then drove us to Feldkirch, where we were to catch a bus to a dinner appointment. After that we caught a train back to Dornbirn, and arrived back at 8:15. But here's the thing, Elder Esplin and I, have made a goal to give out at least one Book of Mormon per day. We needed to be in at 9, and we still hadn't given one out. So we said a prayer asking for help in finding somebody, and started to walk around an talk to people. We talked to quite a few people and they all said no, it was now 8:50, we needed to start heading back. I started to pray, asking Heavenly Father to help us, we were trying to do our best to find people, to please allow us to find someone before we got back to the apartment. Time was running out, but I knew that anything was possible with God. At which point in time I felt a reassurance that we were going to find somebody. We came across two more people, who both said no. With every step toward home the reassurance got stronger and stronger, at 8:57 only a block away from our apartment, I saw somebody down the street in a green jacket walking toward us. And I could feel that he was the one who would accept a Book of Mormon. So we approached him, and talked to him for a minute or two, bore testimony about the Book of Mormon, after which he not only accepted the book, but gave us his number and address, as well as made an appointment to meet with us! Wow! Right before we reached the apartment, when it looked like all hope was lost, was when my prayer was answered. That has been a huge testimony builder to me. God does answer our prayers, he will help us, but sometimes not until it looks like all hope is lost. That is how this entire week has been, working incredibly hard, being told no, hundreds of times, and right before we need to return home, something happens. It has been marvelous. Another day this week, was incredibly incredibly long. We had done service for a sister in the ward, in which I had, completely alone, cleared out about 40 square feet of weeds and grass from a garden platz ( Elder Esplin mowed the lawn and did "Mädchen Arbeit" (girls work) as Sister Vuissa ( different Vuissa, not Christian Vuissa's wife) called it. That night it was late I was absolutely exhausted, but yet again we found ourselves at 8:45 still needing to give a Book of Mormon out. That was hard, walking past the apartment, feeling like I wouldn't have the strength to make it back, to go find a child of God, who had been prepared to accept the Gospel. We were really short on time so we couldn't walk very far, but we didn't have to. Someone called out us, having seen us frequently, asking us who we were. We talked with him, and his mom, who he was visiting, and they accepted a Book of Mormon, and he was already reading in it before we left for home. the Lord has blessed us this passed week, but not until we had given all that we could. Amazing things have happened this week, and many more amazing things are to come. This is definitely going to be a hard transfer, but it will also probably be one of the most rewarding.  

Its been a fairly good week though, we had an appointment with Frau Feuerstein, who we met back when I first got here. She is a very lively 84 year-old lady. We taught her the first discussion, she understood it all and she said that she would pray about Joseph Smith being a prophet. She would read the Book of Mormon, but her eyes aren't the best. So we are going to try to find a Book of Mormon in Large Print. She is our new investigator :-) We will see how far we can go... 

Its been weird adjusting to here, everything is different, the culture, the food, the stores, everything. The things that were Cheap in Germany, are expensive here, which means I have to completely switch up my meal plan. The apartment is amazing though! It is larger than Esslingen's and we have a Dishwasher and a Dryer! ( Most apartments in don't have dryers, they have drying racks instead, so the fact that we have a dryer, automatically makes it one of the nicest apartments in the mission :-) ) Someone moved out of our building, and they gave us their ridiculously large sofa. It comes in pieces, but when but together in a line it's about 13 or 14 feet long! We were in need of a new couch, and were authorized to buy one, but we got the one for free instead. The desks we used to study at are horrible, and when our apartment was inspected by the Ehepaar (Couple Missionaries), they said that we needed to buy new desks. So the Sampsons ( the Ehepaar (the couple)) will come and pick up our two desks tomorrow and deliver them to our apartment. After we set them up I will send pictures. Austria is REALLY weird when it comes to doors. You need a key to get in and OUT of the apartment. So if you lose your keys... you are locked IN your apartment. That is something that really amazes me, is that every door has a lock, and both sides need a key... It makes no sense to me, and I think its actually a bit dangerous, it would be very easy to lock someone inside of a room and for them to be helplessly stuck there. But that's just Austria I guess. 

Speaking of Austria, President Miles has asked me to get an Austrian Drivers License!!!!! VERY few missionaries in this mission are asked to get drivers licenses, and he asked me to get one! I only barely been here for 3 months, and he has already asked for me to get one! That has been a bit of a confidence boost, The fact that he trusts me enough, that he wants me to have a license so that I can drive if I get to an area with a car ( which I think there are only 3 areas, as of now, that do.) He is trying to get a few more cars, but here in this mission it is very rough,there are only 120 cars made available between the 3 German missions.  And Cars are more expensive here, and gas prices are over twice as expensive as in america ( its1.50 per liter, meaning roughly 6 Euro per gallon, which is about probably around 8 or so dollars per gallon). But yeah, I am very excited to get a License!

As you can tell, things are going well here. Its rough, at times discouraging, but the Lord is helping us. I am excited to see what the future holds for Dornbirn. 

I hope all is well at home!

Good luck to all who are Taking AP tests!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

P.S. My Exchange in Switzerland has been moved to next Tuesday, and the district leader meeting, is going to be this Saturday, as opposed to last Saturday. So I haven't had the chance to get lost in Switzerland yet ;-)

Hello from Paradise!

Well I am now in Austria, it's unreal. Its gorgeous beyond description, I have some pictures, but they do it a horrible injustice. Its so green! And then there is the Swiss, and Austrian Alps! I have never seen anything like it in my life. I will attach a few pictures. Lake Constance was awesome too! On our way here, we stopped in Lindau, which is on an island in Lake Constance. It was a very scenic train ride, my camera was dead ( maybe it's because he took so many pictures of cars and animals!! :)   )so I don't have any pictures sadly. But yeah, I arrived safely and am enjoying Austria! The dialect is... well Its been a bit of a transition. The dialect has two names, Vorarlbergerisch or Gsibergerisch. The second name comes from their word "gsi" instead of the High German word "gewesen". I am beginning to pick up on it. I find it rather interesting, that the verb "sehen" ( which means "to see") seems to have a different word in every dialect, sehen and schauen are both High German, but depending on where you are in Northern Germany will determine on which one is used more. In Schwäbish the word is "gucken" (pronounced something like "goocken"). And in Gsibergerisch, however, the word is luacken. On an funny side note, I just noticed how "Gsibergerisch" almost resembles the word "gibberish", which wouldn't be a half bad way to describe the way it sounds ;-) 

Oh man, there is so much to talk about... First off something cool, for those out there who have seen or know of, Baptists at our Barbeque, Errand of Angels, One good Man, The Letter Writer, and Joseph Smith and the Golden Plates. Well, the man who made them is in my ward, he lives across the street actually. Talk about a small world, I would have never thought that of all places, Dornbirn Austria is where I would find him. The ward here is incredibly small! There were probably no more than 60 people that came to church yesterday! Very very small. The Ward mission leader is from Great Britain. And let me tell you, he is VERY British. We talk with him in English and he has a very noticeable British accent. ( On a side note, I find it funny that I go from having an Australian companion to have an British GML). Christian Vuissa ( the Director of the films stated above) is making a new movie in Austria that will show on KBYU in November, anyway he has a friend here from america who is helping edit the film. Trevor is his name, and he doesn't speak German, so I got my first shot at translating Sacrament meeting yesterday... That was a bit of a challenge, but as I started to get the hang of it, it was kind of fun. The first talk was hard, because it had a strong dialect influence ( church is in High German, but some people still speak with heavy accents) so I wasn't able to translate very much of the first talk. But then the High Councilor got up and spoke in very clear high German, which is when I was able to translate almost word for word. Very cool. :-) 

As far as missionary work goes, well its going to be rough. We have 0 investigators. Which I thought was just because of lazy missionaries. But after 12 or so hours of non stop dooring and and street contacting. I have changed my mind. Nearly everyone here is either Catholic, or Turkish. If they are catholic, they just say " I have my faith and I am going to stay with it" word for word. If they are turkish, then either a) they can't understand us; or b) even if they do, their Muslim. Which we have to get permission before we can actually teach them. But so far not many people have much interest. Its going to take a lot of work to find people here, but I know the Lord will help us find those who are ready and willing to accept the Gospel.

I get to go to Winterthur ( in Switzerland) twice this week! We have an exchange with the Zone Leaders, and I will be traveling. And due to the cost and the time, the Area Presidency has authorized us to travel alone on exchanges. It would cost twice as much money and take more time to meet somewhere and exchange. So I will get to try and Navigate to Winterthur on my own. I change trains 4 times... taking a total of 2 hours to get there. But I know where to get off and change trains, so I am not very nervous about it. That will happen on Wednesday, then on Saturday, Elder Esplin and I will go to Winterthur again for a District leader conference. And then next P-day, we will probably go to Liechtenstein, so that I can say that I have been there ( If I am going to be this close, I have to go visit ;-) ). Only 3 months into my mission and I will have already visited 4 countries! 

Dornbirn is a really quite place, compared to Esslingen, which was more of a downtown Salt lake feel, Dornbirn has a more rural aura about it. Large fields, open areas, less crowded housing and its just peaceful. For that reason I really am liking the city. Leaving Esslingen, came rather abruptly, we had a ton of eating appointments, and then went and stopped by on a few people, and I left. I miss quite a few people in the ward, and the investigators. But I look forward to making new friendships with members and investigators here. 

Did I mention anything about my German Visa? Well they are getting really strict about the residency permit laws, and because I was going to Austria, well, they destroyed my visa... and Elder Bullock, the only other person in the Zone that was being transferred, they took his visa and destroyed it as well. So now its time to get an Austrian Visa... hopefully it goes a bit easier than getting a German one. 

I think that is all that I have to mention, I am really enjoying Austria and the area. Its going to take a lot of work here, but I am up to the challenge! :-) 

By the way the first picture I sent was of the field that is write across the street from our apartment, and the second is from the Balcony at the GML's Appartment. The Mountains that are on the right side are in Switzerland, and the mountains that you can barely see to the left ( not the green hill but the snow-capped mountains just behind the hill)  are in Liechtenstein. That is how close the border is! 

Things are going well, I hope all is well at home, Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen.

New Pictures ....... of stuff

Sorry this is so late, I know you are desperately waiting for these.  So here you go! Sorry there aren't very many pictures of me.   I will try and change that! Love Elder Ryan Christensen

Parental Note: we received just over 200 pictures - most of which we are not posting as they are of plants and animals at a zoo, and cars at the Mercedes Museum.  When Ryan stated that there were not very many pictures of him, he was not kidding.  The only photos of him were posted 2 weeks ago.  So here are some pictures of the zoo and the Mercedes Museum.  The rest will be saved for when he is home.  Mom will be writing a letter with more specific instructions on what she wants to see in the photos for the next round :).  Dad and Josh think the car pictures were cool (but understand the need to see a missionary posing next to a cool car too).

TRANSFERS!! - DORNBIRN AUSTRIA!!

Well, I will admit I was suprised with Transfers. I thought I would stay in Esslingen, or atleast Germany. NOPE! I AM GOING TO DORNBIRN!! The city itself is in Austria, but the area is the one and only to have Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein in it! 4 NATIONS IN ONE AREA!  Wow, this is my Third Transfer, have I really already been here for 3 months? Its unbelievable. Did you ever receive a map of the mission? If not I will send one hope this week, as well as a thumb drive with the Atonement talk on it ;-) My new companion will be Elder Esplin, which is REALLY Ironic, because he was with Elder Stokes in Tübingen. Poor Elder Stokes, he has been really wanting to go to Dornbirn, While in Tübingen, his companion Elder Esplin went there, his new companion Elder Moulton, had just come back from Dornbirn, and told him all about it. Which made him really want to go, and now I am going there...  

I am not looking forward to the dialect though, it is apparently so incredibly hard, that once I learn it, I will be able to understand every other Dialect of German. It has a bit of Swiss, Österreichish, Bayerisch, und Schwäbisch. SWISS IS RIDICULOUS. Yesterday there were a few people visiting the ward, and one of them said the closing prayer in Sunday School. After they finished I asked Elder Stokes what language he thought that was, he thought it was Russian, I thought it was either Polish or Hungarian. Come to find out, its Swiss. I can see how if one could understand that, everything else would be easy... On a matter of Moving, Here is my new address (don't get used to this, I only have it is because of Elder Moulton. Normally you wouldn't know my address till the week after I got there). 

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Kirche Jesu Christi HLT

Montfortstraße 21a

6850 Dornbirn

Austria

There is so many cool things about this area that I have heard, First off, its right on the Bodensee (Lake Constance(Spelling?)) which is supposedly gorgeous, and also MOUNTAINS!!! SWISS ALPS! Finally, I will see mountains again! And the Neuschanstein (Cinderella) Castle, is not in the area (its in Kaufbeuren) but Dornbirn is the closest to it, so I will most likely go visit it! The ward there from what I have heard is also incredible and the missionary work is good. It will be cool.

Its been quite the mix of emotions, I obviously am excited to go, but I am really sad that I have to leave Esslingen. I just got used to Schwäbisch, I know my way around, I love the ward, the members, and the investigators. It was so bad of a mix, that on Friday night, and Saturday, I became fairly sick. Its so hard to say goodbye, especially to the Romanian family, the only reason I was able to make it through the lesson in control of my emotions, is because I had already intended on coming back on Wednesday to say goodbye. Because unlike all my friends and family, in 2 years I will see you all again. But now I don't know when, or even if I will see them again in this life. If I don't ever come back to Stuttgart, or even if I come back after awhile, there is no guarantee, with their circumstances that they will still be there. What makes it a bit harder is that this Saturday we were going to set a Baptismal date with them... The changes that they have already gone through is incredible. There is a bit more of a light in their eyes now than there was when I first met them. I hope all goes well for them, the only thing that is really holding them back from baptism is that they don't have money to come to church. And because they have a hard time understanding, coming to all 3 hours is fairly pointless, and because they can't come to all three hours, we can't have a member pick them up. This is when I wish we had a Romanian interpreter in the ward. If they were in Waiblingen they wouldn't have any problems, because the Kiefer family lives there, they could easily translate for them. As to what they will do to work out that problem, I am not sure. But unless we can figure out something, they can't get baptized which they really want to... 

Sorry that paragraph was a bit sad. As I am accepting the fact that I am leaving, I am getting more excited to go. Its going to be crazy on Thursday though. Elder Stokes and I will catch a train from Esslingen to Stuttgart at 11:25, then at 11.56 Elder Esplin and his companion will arrive in Stuttgart to pick me up. Elder Stokes and Elder Esplins Companion will wait with the Zone Leaders until their companions arrive at around 3. My train leaves from Stuttgart at 12:57 and arrives in Dornbirn at 4.20 pm. 

As for my Visa, Elder Stokes will send it to me when it arrives. In the mean time I will be getting an Austrian Visa. Which will be nice, then I won't need to worry about Visas again for the next 2 years ( they are good for the duration of my mission). 

Anyway Transfers are the biggest piece of news, everything has been the same, a normal week of Missionary Work. So I will leave this already incredibly long email come to an end. I hope all is well at home! Everything is going well with me, save it be that I need to leave. But thats just what a mission is, I will have to do it many more times throughout the rest of my mission. By the way, I gave my Facebook information out to a few people, so if you could accept them for me, it would be greatly appreciated :-) 

By the way, that paragraph that I talk about the Romanians, it doesn't come across as complaining does it? It shouldn't its just hard to serve and gain love for someone then to say goodbye. That is the main message that I want to convey, while I am excited to go to Austria, which I am. I am also sad to leave here because I really love it. Maybe one day I will come back and be a Zone Leader in Stuttgart or something. Who knows. We will see :-)

Until next week, when I will be e-mailing you from Austria!! 

Love,

Elder Ryan Christensen

Wow! Another Week has already gone by, as well as a Transfer... almost

I can't believe its already been a week, although last week was INCREDIBLY LONG. Elder Stokes has been sick, so he has been resting, meanwhile I deep cleaned the entire apartment, fixed the fridge, the sink, and organized about everything I could find. As well as reading "Our Search For Happiness" in its entirety, and having some intense scripture study. Not being able to really do much missionary work was, in all honesty, a bit saddening. Don't get me wrong, the studying was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING but, I its not what I was sent here to do. All but 3 of our appointments cancelled on us this past week, we still went to all the ones that were pre-scheduled, but we didn't do much else.

As stated in the title of the e-mail, yes another transfer is coming to a close. Before I came on a mission the transfers used to alternate, a 7 week, then a 5 week, and so on. But they changed it so that they are now all 6 week transfers, but the change happened right after a 7 week, so to make up for it, this one was a 5 week transfer. Interviews with the President are tomorrow, and transfer calls are this Friday. WOW. The following Thursday I could have a new companion, area, or even Country! ( Which is HIGHLY unlikely, because my German Visa should arrive in the mail in about 4 or so weeks, so I think I will be staying in Esslingen at least one more transfer, till I have the Visa safely in hand.) But then all hats are off as to what could happened next. I have a few ideas of what could happen, but I will keep them to myself until next week ;-) Elder Kuhlo ( Zone Leader), on an exchange kept telling me that I am going to be a great leader, and hinted that I may be in for a surprise this upcoming transfer... But we will see. 

Sorry I haven't sent any pictures home just yet, I am backing them up first, just in case they get destroyed in transit. I will attach a few from the Museum, and my trip to the botanical Gardens/ Zoo. 

The first picture is of me at the gardens, we ( Elder Smith, Elder Neumeyer, Elder Heinrich, and I) were all wearing glasses, and we walked from a cold, not so humid room, to a very warm, incredibly humid room. All of our glasses fogged up, we all laughed and took pictures of each other.

The Second picture is of me and the Romanian Family: Danny, his wife Andrea, Datia ( the 4 year old) and Danny's mom). Apparently Romanians don't smile for pictures... I promise they really are very kind and happy! 

Anyway, Like I said, with Elder Stokes being sick, not much happened this week. I really like "Our Search for Happiness" the intent of writing it was to help other people outside the church understand us a bit more. In order to do this it covered essentially our entire doctrine and gave some neat explanations of things. I also read a Talk on the atonement by Cleon Skausen, if you can either find a written copy, or a mp3. They are different, but both incredibly amazing! It completely changed my view on everything, especially Chemistry! I will try to send you a copy, but so far I haven't been able to do so. It's a beautiful talk about the Saviors Atonement. I may sound weird that I just linked Chemistry and the Atonement, but Chemistry is a HUGE part of the Atonement. I am assuming you are all now very curious, you need to read it! I will send a written copies of it when I can make a copy of it. 

I am so grateful for the Saviors Atonement for me, and what it has done for me in my life. I am grateful that Jesus Christ did do it for me. To give me a chance to repent and to become clean again, to gain strength and help from Him who is all knowing, knowing from experience. I am grateful for my opportunity to share that with others, there are those out there who don't know about it,  who don't know that because of the Atonement, we can have a hope of something better. That this life is just a small moment, that there is something far greater than anything that we can imagine. John 17:3 says something to the effect that "this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the true and living God" with a little cross referencing, and some linguistic work, you can change that scripture to this " this is life eternal, that they may have a relationship of greater love and closeness than words can describe, with thee the only true and living God". Thats a pretty powerful statement, that the end goal is to get to know God and have a friendship with God that is of far greater love and closeness than we can really imagine. To live again in his presence with all of our friends and loved ones. That is only possible through the Atonement of Christ. Without it, we would have to be cast out of Gods presence being subject to the devil and his angels forever. What an amazing gift the Atonement is which delivers us from the devil and returns us to the presence of God. And as Moroni says in Moroni 7:2 , what a gift to let others know about it. 

Anyway thats all for now, I hope all is well at home. Good luck to Josh, Beth, and anyone the Pleasant Grove Choirs who will be going on Choir tour this week! Travel safely! 

Love, 

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Easter, The Atonement, and an Eye of Faith

Wow, What a week! Sorry this e-mail is going to be short and late. Today is a holiday ( Easter part 2 ( Easter and Christmas are two day long holidays here)) and because of that my entire schedule is thrown off. Normally P-days go something like this: (6.30) Wake up, (von 8.00 bis 11.00) (from 8 until 11) 3 hours of studies, (11.00 bis entweder 11.46 oder 12.16) (11 until either 11:45 or 12:15) go shopping for the weeks groceries, (11.46 or 12.16) catch a bus to Sirinau to do e-mails till about 2:30 or 3, then find something to do for the rest of the day. Well today all the store are closed, so we couldn't go shopping. Few people work today, so we got invited to a lunch appointment at 13.00. Then, because of the holiday, THE MERCEDES-BENZ MUSEUM was open! So we went there and spent a few hours there, and now I am back here at the church writing this e-mail. It was INCREDIBLE! Oh Man, I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, which I will send when I get the new memory cards. For those out there who don't know, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimier separately patented the first car at the same time ( they set up opposing companies, but in the financial crisis following WWI they joined together). So in the museum they have every advancement from the first motorized carriage to the really new cars. VERY COOL. 

This past week has been pretty normal, except we went door-ing for 3 hours in pouring rain in Frickenhausen. Yeah, there is a town in my area called Frickenhausen. :-)  Sadly my umbrella broke about halfway through... so I was one sopping-wet-pathetic-puppy-dog-looking missionary by the time we knocked on the last door ;-) Haha but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Its been very cold and rainy here for the past week or so, I don't think I seen the sun for 8 or so days, its so weird. But at least its consistent, unlike the weather in Utah that I have been hearing about... This week was a bit weird with the holidays ( Good Friday and then the 2 days of Easter). Its crazy on both Easter, and good Friday, Esslingen looked like a Ghost town, there was practically NOBODY out. No cars. All the shops were closed. It was so different. Holidays are big family days, so we weren't able to meet with very many of our investigators :-( But this week should be better. The man that I talked didn't show up to church. It might have been due to Easter, I don't know. I hope I see him again. I am considering door-ing in that area to see if I can find him. I don't know, we will see. (Last week he wrote of a man who asked the next time they would be meeting at the church, someone who had previously had contact with the missionaries)

Easter was nice, what a wonderful time to reflect of the wonderful gift of the Atonement. And to celebrate the Resurrection of Him of redeemed us. Sacrament meetings was amazing, I love singing the hymns about Easter, the Resurrection, usw. They are powerful, and very uplifting. I am so grateful for everything that my Savior has done for me. Alma 7:11-12 Is a wonderful reminder to us of the purpose of the Atonement, In verse 12 it states that he went through it so that His bowels could be filled with mercy according to the flesh, so that he could understand from a personal perspective of what it's like. So he knows how to comfort us in every situation. In 3 Nephi 11:15 The Nephites get to see and feel the prints of the nails in hands and feet. There is a phrase in Ether 12:19 that I really love, It speaks over those who have gotten to see Christ personally, in the middle it says that they got to see with their eyes, what they had seen WITH AN EYE OF FAITH. That is a very cool description. We may not get to see those nail marks with our own eyes, but with the eye of faith we can. And as it says in verse 4, with that faith we can hope for a better world at the right hand of God. Because of what he did, we have a chance at living with God again, we can have that hope in us, that nothing, not even death can take away those blessings from us and our loved ones. But in to gain that hope, we need to have faith, and we don't get that faith till it has been tried. Its an interesting principle, that in order to gain that eye of faith, to gain that hope, we need to be tried, sometimes with very hard things. But God knows that it will ultimately end for the better. I am out of time, but I would like to add that I know that Christ lives. I know that he died for me, and that because he did that, I have a hope that I can one day return to Gods presence with friends and family. I know that on the third day, Christ was resurrected from the dead, and that HE LIVES. I hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter! And that everyone will have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Wow, What a weekend! General Conference

Wow what a weekend! This was probably by far the most enjoyable General Conference yet! It was really weird though. The "Saturday morning session" is a live broadcast out of SLC that began at 6pm. Jan Fabian (an investigator) came to that, so we saw that one in German. Wow. That was rough, the translator had a bit of a rough time keeping up, so there were times where he spoke really fast, and I was hopelessly lost. But I managed to get the Hauptpunkte von (main points of) each of the talks. Talking to him afterwards, he said that it was wonderful and what they spoke about was really something important ( I am glad that he understood more than I did ;-) ). Sadly, it being late on a Saturday night, the trains didn't work out well, and so Elder Stokes and I weren't able to get home till 10 pm. Its rough, because it takes almost 75 minutes to get to the stake center, and consequently return too, and if you miss your train, it can take a much longer time.  Anyway on Sunday morning, the Priesthood session was the first session which began at 11 and went to 1, then at 2 began the "Saturday Afternoon Session" which went till 4. Then after a 1 and a half hour break, Music and the Spoken Word began. Something which I thoroughly enjoyed! Followed by the "Sunday Morning Session". It is incredible how we can all go and hear the same talks, but yet, through the spirit can get completely different things out of it, depending what we need. Specifically for me, what talks I could give to our investigators that would benefit them.  I am very grateful for the Spirit of the Lord, who was able to enlighten me as to which talks should be given to who. 

These talks are truly inspired of God. Fridays here in the mission are when we do weekly planning, it takes 3 hours out of our day, but it generally is one of the worst days to proselyte. Anyway, so we had previously set up an appointment with Mae and Steven at 5pm. And the way it worked out we began planning at 4pm, we had planned to start the planning session, go and have a lesson with Mae and Steven, then come back at 6 plan for 2 hours then eat dinner, and end the night. Well we get up to Mae and Steven, and they weren't there, we call them, but they couldn't meet then, so we made out a return appointment, and returned home. We resumed planning and finished at 19.30 ( 30 minutes before we were going to have dinner). Sitting there wondering what to do, I had the impression to go to the Romanians. We had a disc of music for them, and some talks that had been printed out for them. So we thought we would run by real quick, and possibly have a quick spiritual thought or something. Anyway they didn't too far from us, so we walked there. On the way there a very sad looking Man came up to us and asked us if we were from the Church (Specifically meaning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). We responded in the affirmative and we started to talk with him. He shared with us that his life is very terrible right now, everyone in his family has passed away, parents, and all siblings, he was addicted to drugs, but as of a few weeks before had stopped cold turkey. He said to us that he needs God in his life, he felt completely alone and was having a very rough time. He asked us when the next meeting at our church was ( he knew where our meeting house was, ( I guess he has had contact with missionaries at some point in the past)). We told him that this week was different than the other weeks, but the next meeting in Sirinau would be the following week. He had no interest in General Conference, but said that he would be at church next week. We gave him our phone number, told him that we were willing to help out in anyway that we could, then parted ways. He was on my mind for a large part of General Conference, and I was stunned to notice how many talks mentioned, in part or whole, that we ARE NOT ALONE. Wow. Especially Elder Hollands talk which mentioned that its never to late to repent and come back, that no matter how hard life is, no matter what we could have done, we are never outside the reach of the atonement. I am going to burn him a disc of those talks, and give it to him this upcoming Sunday.

But going back to that story though, it is amazing to see that the Lord really is in charge of things. If that appointment we had didn't fall out, we wouldn't have had time to go to the Romanian Family, and would have not been walking on that street to meet that man. I guess we might have seen him later on, but I don't doubt that he needed to meet us at that point in time. And visiting the Romanians at that time was inspired as well. We got there and talked to them, one thing that Danny mentioned to me, is how much he really wanted to learn German, but didn't have money to go to school and learn it, and without German it is almost impossible to get a job. I remembered that my German was greatly improved by reading the Book of Mormon in German, so I offered it to him. He expressed a concern of not being able to pronounce things correctly because he couldn't hear German being spoken. At that point it was brought to my remembrance that Elder Heinrich had a recording of someone reading the Book of Mormon in German, and that he had put it on a flash drive for Elder Smith, but because he left to Salzburg, he had given ME the flash drive to deliver to Elder Smith ( which was going to happen the following day). The flash drive happened to be in my backpack, and because of that, I was able to put a copy of it on the computer that they had. So now he has an inexpensive way to learn German and the gospel too! Only an all knowing Father in Heaven could have come up with something so perfect. 

That was the biggest thing that has happened this past week. I am excited to meet with the Romanian Family again this week and see if they have prayed about the Book of Mormon. And with them now having a computer with Internet, I can show them where they can listen to church music, and Listen to church talks etc. Missionary work proceeds forth, despite my weaknesses. I am grateful for a Father in Heaven, who always helps me through the rough times, who allows me to serve and be a part in this most glorious work, despite those weaknesses. Its truly a great blessing. 

Anyway, This e-mail is probably long enough :-) Things are going well here. I am officially legal in Germany for the next 2 years! (Ryan's application for a visa was approved) That's a relief to have that taken care of. I hope all is well at home, and that everyone enjoyed Conference! 

Love,

Elder Ryan Christensen

P.S. Haha I listened to the German Translation of Elder Christofferson's talk. Haha That poor translator...(struggled to translate the phrase) " What ever that is supposed to mean" it cracked me up. Anyway. Bis nächste Woche! (Until next week)

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