On Tuesday, we got up and had study as usual and then after we ate lunch, we made some calls to some contacts. Elder Sagmeister began calling contacts we had in our phone. It actually proved to be pretty successful--two people said, "Oh yeah, I would love to meet with you guys!" Too bad they live in Berlin.... Half the people had never even heard of Magdeburg. We came to find out that our phone had been used by the missionaries in Berlin. We found two new people for one of the Berlin companionships! Then we went out finding on the way to an appointment. Everybody kept saying no to us and Elder Sagmeister said, "Why was it so easy last week?!" Literally the next man we talked to was excited to see us and said he met with missionaries a year ago. We went to our appointment with the man we found last week. He said he really wanted to meet with us but his dad just went into the hospital so he wasn't available. He looked pretty shaken up. We told him we would pray for him and would call him soon. Tuesday night we had an awesome lesson with Claudius, a less-active member. I asked Claudius how praying has been going. He said he hadn't been praying and then he recited the email he had sent to an missionaries a few months ago that contained all of his problems with the church. Elder Sagmeister began trying to respond to each individual point. I stopped him and said to Claudius, "These problems you just listed sound exactly like what you sent in an email to an elder a little while back. I have read this email and as I was reading it, it hit me--you don't have a testimony of the Restoration. And when you gain a testimony of the Restoration, all of these problems you say you have with the church will go away. The only way to gain this testimony is through, prayer, scripture study, and coming to church." It was pretty crazy 'cause I had never spoken so powerfully like that, especially in German. The Spirit definitely helped. It took asking him tree times to finally agree to do these things. He committed again to do these things--reading, studying, church--because that is how we come to find out the truthfullness of Christ's restored Gospel. That lesson taught me a lot. I truly know now how important it is to pray during a lesson for your companion and for the person you are teaching.
Afterwards, we headed to the University for a lesson with a girl we found last week listed in our area book. Marcel, a member, came along but the girl was not home. I called her and as it turned out she had gone to Frankfurt. So we set up a new time for this coming week. Since we were there with Marcel, we decided to visit some other contacts. That was inspired because we finally met someone in our area book that I have been trying to see since I got to Magdeburg. And also we saw Vinod! He hadn't replied to any of my messages in the past week. He doesn't put minutes on his phone so you can't call him and he can't text back. So we communicate by texting his phone, he reads it, then he replies on a friend's phone...iffy at best. But we set up a new appointment with him for this week and we are hoping to commit him to a baptismal date.
Afterwards, we headed to the University for a lesson with a girl we found last week listed in our area book. Marcel, a member, came along but the girl was not home. I called her and as it turned out she had gone to Frankfurt. So we set up a new time for this coming week. Since we were there with Marcel, we decided to visit some other contacts. That was inspired because we finally met someone in our area book that I have been trying to see since I got to Magdeburg. And also we saw Vinod! He hadn't replied to any of my messages in the past week. He doesn't put minutes on his phone so you can't call him and he can't text back. So we communicate by texting his phone, he reads it, then he replies on a friend's phone...iffy at best. But we set up a new appointment with him for this week and we are hoping to commit him to a baptismal date.
Wednesday morning we got up and jumped in the car with the Romneys to go to Leipzig for Zone Training Meeting. I was asked to give the opening prayer. The theme of the meeting was obedience and how that brings results. After the meeting everyone went to the döner shop on the corner by the chapel for lunch--good business for those guys. We met with the branch mission leader that evening. We are going to start holding an investigator class during Sunday School. Here are some of the missionaries in my district:
Thursday was the 100th day of my mission! Woah, can't believe I went into the Missionary Training Center that long ago. We did a lot of travel Thursday, too. I really know the bahn (train) system here. Here's a picture of our trains here in Magdeburg:
That morning we went to Herr Ostermann's house. The visit was pleasant. He had cakes and drinks for us. Germans love their tea. We tell them we can only have fruit tea. It's gross. He said he read the Checkpoints magazine from the Air Force Academy that I gave him last time and loved it. He also read a lot of the Book of Mormon. We gave the first lesson on the Restoration and Joseph Smith. Basically, he thinks that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon while hallucinating. Herr Ostermann is so smart and so intelligent and he reads so much philosophy that I think he has totally blinded himself from anything spiritual. I don't think he has any friends as intellectual as he is so that why he likes talking to us. I saw more of his amazing house. He took us down to his wine cellar where he had broken through the foundation wall down there and is digging himself a rotunda down there.... We probably won't go back often if he doesn't want to progress in the gospel. We went to Burger King for lunch and then we went to an appointment with the man we met on Tuesday. He didn't show. We went to see another investigator Char-Ly that evening. He might come to church on Sunday. If not, we will probably not go back there as often since he doesn't show any other signs of wanting to progress either. Afterwards, we went and visited the Alexandroves, the Bulgarian family we met last week. We couldn't go in because only the mom was home and the older son is not 15 yet but we just stood at the door and checked up on them. The mom said she had started reading the Book of Mormon. The sons were super excited for soccer. We invited them to come to church on Sunday morning and they accepted!
That morning we went to Herr Ostermann's house. The visit was pleasant. He had cakes and drinks for us. Germans love their tea. We tell them we can only have fruit tea. It's gross. He said he read the Checkpoints magazine from the Air Force Academy that I gave him last time and loved it. He also read a lot of the Book of Mormon. We gave the first lesson on the Restoration and Joseph Smith. Basically, he thinks that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon while hallucinating. Herr Ostermann is so smart and so intelligent and he reads so much philosophy that I think he has totally blinded himself from anything spiritual. I don't think he has any friends as intellectual as he is so that why he likes talking to us. I saw more of his amazing house. He took us down to his wine cellar where he had broken through the foundation wall down there and is digging himself a rotunda down there.... We probably won't go back often if he doesn't want to progress in the gospel. We went to Burger King for lunch and then we went to an appointment with the man we met on Tuesday. He didn't show. We went to see another investigator Char-Ly that evening. He might come to church on Sunday. If not, we will probably not go back there as often since he doesn't show any other signs of wanting to progress either. Afterwards, we went and visited the Alexandroves, the Bulgarian family we met last week. We couldn't go in because only the mom was home and the older son is not 15 yet but we just stood at the door and checked up on them. The mom said she had started reading the Book of Mormon. The sons were super excited for soccer. We invited them to come to church on Sunday morning and they accepted!
Friday basically consisted of weekly planning and study. We set lofty goals for next week so we can continually improve. We tried to make a pasta dish and it didn't turn out too well. I think I will stick to ramen. That evening I practiced the organ at the church while Elder Sagmeister filmed a video that he is sending home for his congregation. They are going to play it as a talk during stake conference--a cool idea.
Saturday morning we took a bit of time during our study to practice Elder Sagmeister's English. Thanks to years of Latin, I am able to teach basic grammar and parts of a sentence. I am not, however, able to answer as many "why" questions as I thought I would be able to. We went street contacting that afternoon. Nobody was really interested and not many people were out since it was chilly. Here are some of the places we pass as we walk through Magdeburg--a church and a building they claim has the fewest right angles of any building!
We decided to go by the church and see if we could talk to anyone around there. We met a super nice Norwegian guy out on a walk with two of his kids. He says he lives right across the street from the chruch. He is a doctor studying Alzheimers. He is fluent in five languages. He said he sees missionaries all over Europe but none of them have ever spoken to him. He was so nice and was happy to set up an appointment with us for next Saturday! Yay! That night we ran home, changed, and picked up the Alexandrove boys for soccer. It took 20 minutes to walk to the field from their wohnung (apt.) Apparently, I only know the long way there. They told us they lived in Spain for eight years and they speak Spanish, German, Bulgarian, and a little Turkish. They want to learn English. We are going to start teaching them. The only words they know are curse words. Soccer was fun although we couldn't figure out how to turn on the field lights. We played near the road where there was some light from the street lamps. We had 7 kids there! They all asked us what we were doing in Germany so we got to talk a lot about the church. Everyone was asking for English lessons. The Alexandroves said they couldn't come to church this week now...bummer. But they promised to be there next week. We have an appointment over there tomorrow.
We decided to go by the church and see if we could talk to anyone around there. We met a super nice Norwegian guy out on a walk with two of his kids. He says he lives right across the street from the chruch. He is a doctor studying Alzheimers. He is fluent in five languages. He said he sees missionaries all over Europe but none of them have ever spoken to him. He was so nice and was happy to set up an appointment with us for next Saturday! Yay! That night we ran home, changed, and picked up the Alexandrove boys for soccer. It took 20 minutes to walk to the field from their wohnung (apt.) Apparently, I only know the long way there. They told us they lived in Spain for eight years and they speak Spanish, German, Bulgarian, and a little Turkish. They want to learn English. We are going to start teaching them. The only words they know are curse words. Soccer was fun although we couldn't figure out how to turn on the field lights. We played near the road where there was some light from the street lamps. We had 7 kids there! They all asked us what we were doing in Germany so we got to talk a lot about the church. Everyone was asking for English lessons. The Alexandroves said they couldn't come to church this week now...bummer. But they promised to be there next week. We have an appointment over there tomorrow.
Yesterday was disappointing. We had five people from our teaching pool tell us they were going to be a church and none showed. I got a text from Kolja right when church started that said, "Hey man. I was thinking about the church and I think I am not ready to join at this point in my life. I thank you for all the nice lessons we had and wish you huge luck and success in your further efforts as a missionary. So...goodbye, I guess..." I was so shocked. He has been our stud investigator. He is an awesome person. I felt like I was back in high school being dumped over text by a girl though this is eternally more important. We're talking about his salvation! I tried to call him back yesterday but he didn't pick up. We really need to meet with him this week and find out what happened. We can't just give up on him! So during church I was bummed but I thought Fast and Testimony meeting went really well. I translated for Qui during Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting. Sunday School was hard. I didn't understand much more than the general ideas so I just took that and then put my own spin on it. Sacrament was much easier to translate. But I realized that translating is an awesome opportunity to teach. That afternoon we we went to a new investigator's wohnung--a Vietnamese woman we met on the straße bahn. She had invited us over to eat but we couldn't find a member to come so we had to stay at the door and apologize for not being able to come in. We gave her a Vietnamese Book of Mormon. All of the sudden a very large German woman came from inside the wohnung and started interrogating us asking us who we are and what we are doing. She tried to take the Book of Mormon and give it back to us. She sent the Vietnamese woman back inside with her children. We were very nice to her and explained to her who we were and what we do. We were firm though and told her that Dinh invited us there and that she cannot keep us sharing the gospel with her. It was so awkward and I feel so bad. I know that after we left, she was probably berating Dinh for talking to us. We set up a time to go back tomorrow. We went to the Steigers for dinner last night. We had sausage stuffed in whole bell peppers and chocolate for dessert.
One thing that gave me a good feeling the other day is the thought that there are other good people trying to do the Lord's work. See here a marquis on a theater rented by another church--it's true!!
One thing that gave me a good feeling the other day is the thought that there are other good people trying to do the Lord's work. See here a marquis on a theater rented by another church--it's true!!
Overall, it was a solid week and I am loving it here. Trying to be better each week! Hope all is well on the home front!
Love,
Elder Germann
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