The first full week of my second Transfer in Germany is done. Crazy how fast time is flying. This week was pretty cool, its nice for things to be getting back to normal. We are getting back to having lessons and we don't have to street contacts all day.
Monday we had a normal p-day we did the usual groceries and e mails and some other shopping and then at the end of the day the Romneys' took the entire district out to eat as a farewell to Elder Pilling who was transferred from our district. We would have had a lesson but it fell out. (we seemed to have that problem a lot this week with lessons)
Tuesday we had a lesson with a Chinese kid that we are teaching. His name is Shuei. Until this lesson we have had a real hard time teaching him because he speaks less German than I do (that wont mean much pretty soon, I know more German than most of the students now.) and his English is understandable but with a very limited vocabulary (like my German). But in this lesson we had Qi, a Chinese member with us. He was such a big help in both teaching and translating. Shuei has told us that he is looking for faith but he is hesitant to believe on God. But this lesson was awesome and we made some real progress with him. At the end we got him to pray, he literally said ''someone if you are there'' instead of dear heavenly father but it is still a lot of progress.
Wednesday we had district meeting. We spoke about how we can better help investigators to come to church. Then after district meeting we had district lunch. McDonalds isn't quite the same here in Germany i'm not sure if its the lack of spicy McChicken or that the nuggets aren't quite the same. But after we ate we said good bye and Elder Germann and I went to a lesson with Johanna. That was a little scarry. When we got there the mood was real somber. Her father insisted we go into''deep prayer'' we did and afterward we found out that Johanna had not been happy at school since her baptism. We decided to improv a lesson on the holy ghost and talked a little bit about spiritual highs and lows. We told her that her baptism was a place that she could feel the spirit easily. Then we told her how her school isn't such an easy place to feel the spirit. I likened it to the difference between the mtc and the mission field. We gave her a copy of preach my gospel to read and asked her to study chapter 4 it made her feel a lot better.
Thursday we had a lesson with some Greek men. And we were excited to get rid of some of our Greek books of Mormon. But it fell out( i said we had a problem with that this week.) then we did some street contacting. We found a new guy who is super interested in the gospel. He is from India and is a Muslim but he is really interested in christian religions and wants to know the truth. Then on our way to another appointment we met Dammann. He is a really chill man who says he loves to learn. He really wanted a book of Mormon so we told him we would bring him one. When we got to the appointment guess what... it fell out. So we went and did a little more street contacting but the cold had forced most people inside.
Friday was the 70thanniversery of the bombing of Magdeburg by the americans. We were told that last year there were riots and stuff and it probablly wouldnt be a good day to go out. So we stayed in for most of the day and only went out for a few things but i have never seen so many police in my life. They kept all the protests down though so thats good.
Saturday we had a lesson with Muhammed the Indian guy. He said he will read and pray about the book of Mormon. He also said he would like one in English for his friend so we can teach him too. Then we went with the Romneys to Marion and Galia. We had an awesome lesson with them. Marion knows that he cannot be baptized as soon as he would like but he is dead set on being baptized as soon as possible. This is awesome because when i first met Marion he wasn't sure if he believed in god and when he was first being taught the transfer before me he had no religious history at all. Galia brought her friend Flor to the lesson and she basically did our job for us. She committed Flor to baptism right on the spot, Flor said she needs to learn more but she would be baptized. After the lesson was over the Romneys drove us to our next apointment. Their was no answer at the address he gave us so we called him and he said that he is now in Berlin. He was only here for the day. So we got his address in Berlin and sent it to missionaries there to teach him. Then we went home grabbed some food and went contacting on the Elbe. There were quite a few people out for a Saturday afternoon walk but we got the normal answer a lot Keine Zeit Ich habe ein Termin which is weird, people out for an afternoon walk on a Saturday having an appointment. So after this we went home early because we heard that counter protests from the day before would be going on. As soon as we walked in the door we got a call from the other elders who locked their keys in their house. So we grabbed the spare set we have for the and let them in. Then we went back home for the night.
Sunday was awesome. Us missionaries were given the entire time in sacrament to teach about member missionary work. That is a topic that I don't think is used a lot in Germany. I haven't received a single referral from a member since i got here. But each of the missionaries talked and we had an awesome meeting. The spirit was really strong and I think it motivated a few members. Then after sacrament we were able to have a quick lesson with Daniel. He has been meeting with the missionaries since 2012 and we might finally get him baptized. After we were finished at church we got on a train and went to Köthen to have lunch with the Staigers. They always have us over if no one else does. After lunch we came home and did our studies. It all made for a good week.
Elder Oldroyd
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