Well the title says it. This week was definitely a life changer and
an eye opener. I wish I could begin to describe my experiences here in
Karlsruhe. But I will never be ever to do it justice.
On Monday, we went shopping with Elder Vorimo, being the only one
transferred. We then went to the church and watched Johnny Lingo and
the Phone Call. The two worst movies ever created. That was a lot of
fun. I also played piano a lot and that is always fun for me.
On Tuesday, Vorimo was transferred. He traveled by himself to Feucht.
He got on a train at 9 in the morning. We were in a drit for a
while. We cleaned Anderson's apartment. That took a long while. But
it was still fun. He waited at the train station for Elder Homer, but
Draper and I had to catch a Straßenbahn to a station to pick up my
boy Sagbo. He is such a great dude. We taught him about the importance
of the plan of salvation. He is a classy dude. But he is as humble as
people can get. I love refugees. After our lesson, we made our way to
the apartment to meet the new district leader. Elder Homer is his
name. He is awesome. We tricked him into thinking I was still a
golden. Haha I used really bad German, and asked lots of questions
about Germany. The other two acted like jerks to me. Then I started
reading out of the Book of Mormon in normal German and it broke Homers
brain. He couldn't believe I could speak so well... Then we told him
that I'm in my 13th transfer. Haha we all laughed pretty hard. He said
I did well at acting like a dummy haha. We then met with Martin
Siebert. He is awesome. He is an rm from Poland and is the second
counselor in the bishopric. He apologized a thousand times for how
difficult this ward is. He thanked us with tears in his eyes that we
haven't given up yet. It was really cool.
On Wednesday, we had ddm right in the morning. I tied a carrot to a
string, trying to catch the little varmint bunnies living behind our
church. No success. I'll try tonight. During ddm, we got a call on the
phone church. It was a young man. He told me he was representing his
school, and that they want to make out an appointment to meet with us
at our church. So this Wednesday, we are teaching a whole school of
kids about Mormons! Yay! What a miracle! After ddm, we met with Sister
Henschl and Sagbo. It was a good end to the day.
On Thursday, we woke up, got dressed, and made our way to Baden Baden.
We met with our great buddy Lucky. I love this guy. He is 100% a
perfect example of being thankful, when having nothing himself. God
bless him.
So we asked him where he heard about our church. He gave us a number
of a mysterious man named Jack. We were excited to find another
investigator. Jack sounded great! We also found another one of Lucky's
friends.
But yeah... On the way home, I call Jack's number.
Jack: "hello?"
Me: "hey Jack, this is Elder James from the church, how are you?"
Jack: "hahahahaha hello James."
Me: "hahaha so Lucky told us to call, how do you know about our church?"
Jack: "haha! How do I know?! Well, I was baptized 2 years ago, I love
the prophet Joseph Smith with all of my heart, and I read the Book of
Mormon daily."
Me: *shocked
Jack: not to mention I am a priest in the priesthood.
Me: "we would like to meet tonight brother Jack."
Hahaha and meet we did.
We first go to the Mainkas and help them pack, and then we ate at
Sister Gaesss house. Homer and I brought a friend to Sister Gaess.
Anderson and I then made our way to Bruchsal, where Jack is. We get
there, and see him and two friends. All from Nigeria. We give them all
hugs and help them bring their groceries all the way home. These guys
are hilarious. They are like the three stooges. Jack is the most
intelligent man on the planet, and has the best voice ever. Like, he
kills Morgan Freeman. It's incredible. Mike is a huge black African
that says like 3 words at a time. Chris sounds American and lived 10
years in Holland. Chris is also very are anti God. We follow them like
4 kilometers to their camp. They had so much food. My arm was about to
fall off by carrying them haha. The camp was extremely scary. It was a
huge warehouse with pretty much cardboard walls for the individual
rooms and sheets for the doors. Anderson and I had the prompting to
take our name tags off. We did, and 20 seconds later we pass a huge
group of Syrian men that look extremely scary and mad. I'm glad we
listened to the spirit. We get to the room, and teach the first
lesson. Mike loved it. Jack bore strong testimony. And Chris fought
us. He didn't even stay for an opening prayer. Towards the end of the
lesson, Chris was completely take back by our message. He began asking
questions about God, his love, and his commandments. He wanted more
truth. He became a sponge. He wanted everything. It was truly
incredible to see him change so fast. He committed to read the book
and pray. Jack puts his arm around everyone and tells them they need
to be baptized into the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
He is literally the most incredible man. He knows everything about the
bible and the church. He has no reason, from earthly eyes, to be happy
or thank God for anything. Yet every day he preaches the gospel to
people he doesn't know. He sacrifices for friends. He gives all he
can. The people their have seen horrible things. Stuff I can't even
comprehend, yet they smile. How?! I want to know. My only conclusion
is humility. I want to be just like this wonderful people. I want the
qualities and characteristics of a refugee, because they are the same
as Christ's. Anderson and I got home way late. Haha 11:00
On Friday, we had a meeting with the other elders, planning together
for the week. We then met with Henschl. We then made another split.
Anderson and I went back to Jack, while Draper and Homer taught Lucky.
Anderson and I love going to the camp. It teaches us so much. The
spirit is poured out upon us.
We get there, and they were busy preparing a traditional African meal
for their news friends. Us. They took an hour to cook. It was like
soup with chicken and beef. It was good! Funny story though. While
they were out cooking, I spotted a stack of plates and silverware
under the bunk next to shoes. I told Anderson that we would eat off
of them. Sure enough, Mike grabbed them and brought them Infront of us
to load our plates full. Yum! We teach Chris and Mike, when a man
walks in, named Kevin. He looks at us with longing eyes and says...
What is your church? I would like to find one. We teach him, when
another man walks in. Alli, from Iran. Alli I told us his story. He was
a big shot graphic design artist and had a family, a house and
everything. He fled to Germany, because he always new that Christianity
was right. He left everything for nothing, because he wanted to follow
Christ. Puts tears in my eye! What a wonderful man. God bless him.
We left with 2 new investigators.
Saturday was the party. Long story short, we had 8 non members there,
and the evil relief society president demanded one of our investigators
to tell her where he put 2 stolen candles. Just cuz he's black she
accused him. And..... We will probably never see him again. Pretty
bad. But charity right?
On Sunday, we had Lucky and Sister Bailey there. It was awesome. We
told Martin about the racist remarks and he was nearly in tears and
was extremely upset. He said he will do whatever it takes. It is
really sad that it has to come to this.:/
Well yeah... We had an awesome week. Probably the most successful my
whole mission. We worked our hearts out to get 8 non members to
church, and our ward rejects them like radioactive waste.
Well... I will do my best to continue to learn from the wonderful men
in the camps. I love them. They are changing my life.
Today, Homer and I went biking through the Schwarzwald. I am dead. The
cold air killed my lungs.
I do love it here. I really do.
I love you all
Elder James
P.s. I have no idea when I'm skyping. I'll tell you when I know.
Von meinem iPad gesendet
No comments:
Post a Comment