Dear friends and fam,
This week was absolutely insane.. I got sick, punched by a drunk man,
and I got to go back to Berlin. But let's take it from the toppp.
Strap on your big boy pants cause this is going to be a long one. But
I promise, it's worth it:)
Monday our appointment with Herr Gerlich fell out.. It's all good
though because we rescheduled and have another one today:) other than that
nothing much. There's nothing to do here on pdays... There's a mall
but that's about it and we go there every pday...
Tuesday! We did a little bit of finding in the morning and then headed
to church after lunch to plan for our English and German classes. We
were going to have to teach both classes this week because the member
who usually teaches the German class had to leave town. Elder
Ashby has only been here 4 weeks so... Not only did we have to plan
for those, but I had to prepare a 3rd lesson as well for a Spanish family in
our ward who speaks 0 German/English. And when I say 0 I mean 0. They
can say hello and goodbye, but that is it and my Spanish is very very
limited. So I was able to teach them some starting out phrases and
words but boy it was rocky at first hahahah. They have some harrddd
Spanish accents and they could not pronounce the German words. It
was really funny but they were trying so hard. They got better of
course as the lesson went on. But Sunday they came to church and they
were perfect!!! They came up to me and asked me how I was doing. I
responded and they responded again all in German! They worked on their
La Tarea;) but after that lesson it was a little depressing cause nobody
showed up to either of our next classes.
Wednesdayyyy, Ash Ketchum and I were planning on going to bed at 8
Because our train would leave at 4:15 the next morning to Berlin for
the trainer trainee meeting. So we go up to Kiel like normal and have
district meeting and when we got back to Neumünster we stumbled upon a
Magic/Pokemon/that kinda thing store. Before we knew it, the owner was
teaching us how to play Magic and we were talking about the gospel as
well in return! It was way sick. He gave us a free starter kit, way
cool guy. After that we decided to do one last "quick" thing and go by
a referral from a member. The Sunday before, he got up and talked about
how he met this lady who was so ready and she wanted to be baptized
but she couldn't because her parents didn't want her to. So we’re
walking to this house expecting to make out an appointment later with
like a 16 or 17 year old, Klingle it, and an older lady
answers the door. We ask if Frau R is there (name of the referrel) and
she says that she is her! That was kinda confusing but okay, we start
talking and it starts really good! Then somewhere is just went all
down hill. She kept repeating the same things she had said before...
whenever we talked about the gospel she kept changing the subject to
fireflys that lived out in her front yard. Long story short an hour
later we had to insist that unfortunately, we had to leave.
Somehow completely opposite of
what we wanted - we didn't get to bed until 10:30..
Thursday bright and dark Elder Ashby and I were showered and out the
door at 3:45 to catch our train:) We arrive at Banhof and have about
5-10 minutes before the train gets there. All of a sudden this drunk
Russian man, who I could barely understand because his accent was so
horrid, asked us if we had cigarettes. I said "no, we don't smoke." He
asked me, "are you lying to me?" Again I said, "no I don't have
cigarettes, we do not smoke." He continued to say some stuff that
wasn't very nice that I won't repeat, and started taking off his
pants. Finally I said "okay you can go away now." He didn't like that
very much and proceeded to punch me. Now, this wasn't by any means a
Mike Tyson right handed hook, but it definitely had some oomph behind
it. But y'already know I blocked that crap. He said sorry shortly
after and pleaded with me not to call the police but I didn't even
have to, they already came out and scared him off. Yep. 4 hours and a
cancelled train later we wound up at the mission home, and had a great
meeting. We had not very much time after if we wanted to make it back to
Neumünster that night but we stopped at the Brandenburg Gate for a
little bit and then had a layover in.... SPANDAU:) I got off the
train, went down the stairs and my beloved Dessin Family was waiting
there for me and took us out to ice cream. Weird being back there. I
have the best memories of my mission there. Everyone who I served
with there is home now. It was a quick visit before we had to catch
our connecting train back but it was so good. We were completely dead on the
way back but people kept talking to us. These 4 German girls came up
first and just started chatting. They thought it was so fascinating
that we were Mormons from America. After an hour they left and another
lady comes up and chats with us. She was a member from another ward.
An hour later and yet even more chit chat, we helped her and her husband get
their bikes off the train in Hamburg. After being up for about 21
straight hours we were reunited with our beds.
Friday funday!! Nope you guessed it we woke up feeling not good at
all. Somehow we mustered the energy to get up and get outside and try
to do some finding but it wasn't for long. We were looking like
zombies out there so we came back and took a nap, then weekly planned
and that was pretty much our day.
Saturday morning Elder Ashby was explaining to me how somebody kept
ringing and ringing our doorbell in the middle of the night. Our
doorbell is LOUD so I thought he was dreaming because I would have
definitely woke up. He said he was tip toeing around the apartment
freaking out a little bit and he almost woke me up but didn't. He
said he looked out the window and all he saw was just a really nice
car. I then go get the phone to see we have 3 missed calls from our
ward mission leader! I was so confused. I called him and he said it
was him hahah. He and his wife brought us McDonald's and wanted to
take us fast down the Autobahn in his new car!! BMW had a car
convention in his work's parking lot and they gave him one of them for
the rest of the night if he would keep it in his garage instead of an
open parking lot!! This car was insane nice! He showed us pictures.
God did not let me wake up that night because he knew I would have
went out hahaha but we were all laughing pretty hard about it.
Sunday we were over at our ward mission leaders house for our Sunday
eating appointment. That is my favorite place to go.
There is not a guy who can make me laugh harder than
Bruner Zickler! He made really good homemade pizza and his wife
sat down with us and helped us make a meal
plan so we’re not eating tortillas and bbq sauce for dinner 4 days a
week.
There it is. It was a fun one. We get transfer calls this week. Blows
my mind. This transfer felt two weeks long. I would guess Ashby and I
have one more together and I will finish his training so could be a
4th Transfer in Neumünster coming up. I can feel winter cominnggggg.
Regardless of all the craziness this week, I have really felt the love
of God this week. I feel and see his promises he is fulfilling for me
as I have come out on my mission and stayed. I see them as I strive to
give my best everyday. He has those promises for everyone of us if we
decide to follow him. It's not always easy but it's so worth it. We
might fall every once and a while but when we do, no biggy. Just gotta
get up and keep going.
I love you all so much!
