Germany Week 14

Doo de doo de dooooo....

Hmmm... So, This week is kind of garbled up in my mind. I feel like I'm finally getting out of the slump the chicken pox left me in. It requires more motivation to get out of the apartment and work when you realize it's possible to lay around all day. But I did it anyway. You should be proud of me.

There's this Venezuelan investigator, M, who's moved into an old house and we've been helping her fix up the house a bit. So we were there a few times in the week. She has alright German, but it makes it difficult to teach and be sure that she's comprehending. Luckily though, the branch has a few Spanish speaking members, including one who served his mission in Venezuela who's super excited to help out. We've given her a few pamphlets in Spanish, and watched La Restoracion (That's just my guess, I don't remember if that's the real word). She seemed to like it, but is pretty quiet about it. She said as she read one of the pamphlets she got goosebumps all over. And that while she was watching the movie she had good feeling she couldn't describe. And she came to church yesterday - that's actually where we watched the movie. So working with her is really exciting, even if it makes me wish I spoke Spanish. I told her my mom could speak Spanish and she was like, "Well why can't you?" Every once in a while I want to just pull out the few spanish words I know - but they're all the easy ones and her German is a bazillion times better than my Spanish. Germans do that to us fairly often - they'll just keep talking until they happen to know a word in English and then they'll say both. It doesn't really help much, but sometimes it's amusing.

On Wednesday after District meeting, We had a Tausch with the Zone leaders - Elder Harris came to Bad Bentheim with me. I was kind of in a crummy mood to begin with, and I didn't really know what to do, since I felt like I still didn't know the area or the members really, or even the investigators, so I was kind of anxious. So then we did finding for most of the day - just talking to people on the street, and then a few hours of doors. I can confidently say that those are not my favorite activities. Elder Harris seems like a pretty cool guy, but I was being Mr. Grumpy Gills. It actually did get a bit better as we went on, but I could definitely have used an attitude adjustment. Maybe I'll become a decent missionary some day. I think I was at least keeping my grumpiness to myself - I was trying at least to look happy... I guess that's something. Not enough, but something.

Yesterday was a good day though. Elder Ririe and I both gave short talks in church, and I felt the spirit more strongly in that meeting than I have in a while - during the sacrament, and during a sister's talk. I felt marvelous as I took the sacrament, and I really felt like it was a point from which to go forward, that I can renew my efforts. It was a confirmation that I really was renewing my covenants, and it was rejuvenating. Right now I'm feeling tired and sluggish again, but looking back on how I felt yesterday is helping me look up a bit more. "It's better to look up."

So I had hoped that we'd be able to make it to Elmshorn as well, but there wasn't a train that could get us there without skipping church here entirely. So we just stayed here.

Right after the meeting we had Gemeindeessen (food as a ward), one of the boys in the branch was getting baptized, so we drove out to Osnabrück where they've got a font for that. In the times between I would seem to've quickly transformed into a playground. Those kids are crazy. It was fun, but I should be a better example of stoicism. I got the feeling the parents were not very happy with their kids, and I wasn't really preventing them from jumping all over me... Gotta think stoic thoughts.

I feel like I'm in a little bit of a weird mood today, I hope it doesn't show through in my writing and make me look like a lunatic.

Anyhoodles, I love you, I know this church is true, and I know that as we serve God and as we serve each other, we will find strength and joy.

- Elder Cloward