The Golden

Hey Mom!

 

Well, there is only one word I can use to describe this past week: stressful. The beginning of the week was pretty good though. On Monday, Elder Fowler and I met with the Helzer Family for a late breakfast and then had the rest of our P-day. Per invitation from Präsident Schwartz, we spent the time from 6 PM to 9 PM to take a look back at the year, what we had accomplished, where things were good and bad, and then made new goals for this year and then plans on how to achieve those goals. Then on Tuesday, we met with Stan the Man Kawitski, which went well. He let us into his room, which he doesn´t do often with missionaries, only with the ones he really likes. I think he liked Elder Fowler a lot, so I was just along for the ride haha. Afterwards, we had planned to have an appointment with that 17 year old girl, but she didn´t show so we had a member lesson instead with Thaddäus Hoppe and his girlfriend from the branch in Wesel, who were there for the lesson with the investigator. Then we met with Bruder Köster, and then finally with the Hansens for dinner.

Wednesday was Elder Fowler´s last day in Solingen. We left at about 1:30 PM to catch a train to Frankfurt, where we then had a meeting for all of the trainers this transfer. It was a really long meeting, but I learned a lot. We then were taken to the hotel where we stayed as goldens on our first night in Germany. I had a really hard time sleeping that night. I didn´t fall asleep until about 12 and woke up again at 3 and just laid awake the rest of the time. When the alarm went off, I hit the light and the golden that was in my room was named Elder Checketts. He is a cool guy. We got ready and then went to eat breakfast with all of the goldens and trainers. After breakfast, we headed to the Frankfurt Chapel for the meeting where the goldens and trainers get paired up. I was the second or third to get paired up with my golden. His name is Elder Colson from Hurricane, Utah, and he is pretty legit. I am excited to have a "son," I just hope I can raise him ok haha. Being with a new missionary just reminds me of how blessed I have been with the gift of tongues, especially as I was a golden. We traveled back to Solingen with all of the Elders in our zone and in the Dortmund zone. I pretty much talked to Elder Proffitt the whole time since Elder Colson fell asleep on the train. Probably was tired from the jet lag. We eventually got to Solingen, and I took a little time to get Elder Colson familiar with the area as he unpacked all of his stuff. We also went out to get his first Döner, which is just a super good kind of sandwich thing that they have all over Germany. We also called a potential investigator that Elder Fowler and I met a few weeks ago and gave a Joy to the World DVD to, who had told us to call him after the holidays. He said that he had watched the DVD and that he was still interested in hearing our message, so we have an appointment with him on Saturday, which we are super excited about.

The next day, we had our district meeting in Düsseldorf, which went super well. The Elders in Wuppertal are the same this transfer, and so are the Sisters in Düsseldorf. Elder Ripplinger got called off as district leader in Bamberg, so Elder Hall and Elder Sommerville are now the zone leaders in Düsseldorf. After district meeting, we traveled back to Solingen, had some study time, and then went to meet Bruder Köster. It was a really good appointment, and I am glad that Elder Colson´s first German appointment was with Bruder Köster. The next day, we planned out our week, and then were going to have a lesson with an investigator, and when we called him he said he was sick. We were already on the train, so we got off, did a little work in Solingen Ohligs, and then got back on the train and did some more work in Remscheid. We found a kid who seemed pretty interested, and gave us his phone number. Hopefully that turns out ok. We then had yet another appointment with Bruder Köster, which was really awesome once again. I could stay in Solingen for a lot of transfers just because of Bruder Köster. He helps me a lot become the missionary I want to be and he also helps me become very good at speaking German.

Yesterday, we had church meetings. There was a guy there who was a nonmember, a friend from Schwester Pickelein, who is a 94 year old convert. He was not terribly interested, and only stayed for priesthood, but we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. After church, we ate dinner with the Holland-Letz family. Later that night I had my call ins with the district, which is always one of my favorite things to do.

Today, we went to a man´s house at the request of a sister in our ward. He has Parkinson´s Disease, and we were supposed to give him a Priesthood blessing, even though he is not a member. We talked to him about his religious beliefs and about the Book of Mormon, and then gave him a blessing. Elder Colson did the anointing of the oil and then I sealed it and offered a blessing. After the blessing, the man told us that during the blessing he felt a feeling going through his head like warm water flowing through him, first through his forehead and then his cheeks. It was really awesome and the Spirit was really strong, and then he told us we could meet with him again in February, which was a real bummer. We tried to set something up earlier, but he said he is busy and will call us when he has time.

Anyway, that brings us up to where we are at now today. We will go out and prepare for the week with some shopping and stuff, and hopefully I will have time to write some letters. I hope you have a good week!

Liebe Grüße, Daniel