My first notable, or rather, noted, event occured On Tuesday the Third of October, also known as the birthday of everyone and their dog, The Day Gandalf fought Ringwraiths on Weathertop, and der Tag der Deutschen Einheit, among other things. I decided it was time to buy our 344€ Monatskarten (That's for both of us, but it's still a way expensive one, but it works out to be cheaper than our other options). Due, However, to the last of the mentioned identities of the day, the Reisebüro (travel office) wherein such a monthly pass might be obtained, was closed. Now. At this point, an old curiousity of mine began to creep its way into the forefront of my consciousness. I understood that even ridiculously expensive Monatskarten can be purchased through the Automats.... And I'd been wondering how that would differ from the Reisebüro experience. So I decided to try it. But the automat wouldn't accept my card. It would only accept giro/EC/cash cards, and no one even knows what those are anyway. So, defeated, I began to walk away. I then had an Idea which led to a flashback. Wsehsehsihfes (that's the sound that comes as the screen goes blurry and we find ourselves in flashback mode) - I'm much younger. Like 12. or 15. Or 5. or something. We're switching our bank accounts from Bankone to the Beehive credit union for some reason that adults understand and I didn't. But in order to do that, we took out all of our money in cash. So Joseypookins and I are sitting in the car counting our Benjamins as we drive to Beehive - Cool Conference Talk, na? C L really liked it - Anyhoodles. wooooossssccchoooop! Flashback over. I turned my head to see a certain Geldautomat on the other wall. Or for our american speaking friends, the ATM Machine. And yes, I do mean the Automated Teller ATM Machine. I'm snarky like that cuz I was in the ELP Program.... Ok, Don't you just love it when I'm in these moods, dear readers? I imagine you can't really tell what I'm saying, but that it's much more entertaining. The real tragedy is that I'm nearing the end of my email time and I'ven't even finished my first, and actually rather insignificant story. Schade, schade, schade. So I went to the Geldautomat and I pulled out 350 €. It was pretty intense. Everything is going hunkily dorily as I feed my 50 Euroscheins to the DBAutomat beast. Only then a tragic thing happened. As I only owed 4 more Euro, and started to put a 5 Euro bill in, Elder Pack said to me, "You've got to pay with Coins. It won't accept any more bills." I looked at the screen in horror to find he is correct. WWWSChesfuhsewww I'm in the Kiel Hauptbahnhof, currently serving in Flensburg. My companion was just in a District leader training, and I had been with another junior companion. But now we're ready to go home, and Elder Evans runs up to us, explaining that they'd tried to pay an automat with cash, but that they didn't have enough, the automat timed out on them, gave them around 20 euro of their money back in coins, and the rest was just gone. I was then able to pay for their ticket home, and we all go on our way. WWWOooshhhhoop! Ach Mensch! I couldn't let that happen to us. Elder Evans had gotten his money back, but only after obnoxious paper work and like a month. I desperately clawed through my change, cramming in as much as I could as fast as I could. But it was clear that we were coming up short. We were stopped dead at 60 cents. I looked with wide eyes at Elder Pack. Then I heard the clinking of change in the Automat next to me. I turned to the man there, and I'm not sure how frantically asked, "Do you have change?" He said something along the lines of, "only a little.." I asked, "How much have you got?" "Just 90 cents...." I handed him my 5 and said, "That's worth it to me." I slapped in sixty of those cents and breathed a sigh of relief. I learned two lessons from that story. 1. Always Buy Monatskarten from the Reisebüro. 2.Manage my email time better.
But wait, there's more! I know, that's crazy enough for a whole week, but there's even more that I'll be able to report. One of those things is that when Elder Pack and I were doing doors in Neustadt, this lady opened the door and said, "I have two really good reasons why I don't have time right now. My son has a Latin Test tomorrow, so we're studying Vocabulary, and we're strong, active Catholics, so you won't get anywhere. But come in, I've got something for you." Then She gave us yummy candy and chatted with us for a few minutes. She said she was really sorry that she didn't have time, and that we should come back another day. I love wandering into awesome people.
Skip forward to the most exciting stuff. So Saturday Morning we Went to Hannover for a distrikt breakfast/gemeinsames Transfer call listening experience. The Mission had a lot of changes. Half of our district is leaving, I among them. I'll be going up to Bergedorf in Hamburg, Address:
Brookstraße 19
21029 Hamburg
Where I will serve with Elder Robinson, who has two transfers left (I get to be Junior Companion again! jk, I'mma try not to be a senior companion gone once again fisherman). I've met him a couple times, and heard a lot of good things about him. I'm pretty excited. Elder Pack on the Other hand, will be getting a companion who is only one transfer older than him, who he knows from the MTC. Crazy, crazy, crazy. They'll do great, and it will be a wonderful opportunity for him to learn and grow by figuring things out himself. I wish I would've taught him more and better though. Two other missionaries from Elder Pack's group are training. It's so exciting.
Then an even bigger (Ok, much, much bigger) change in Missionary work was announced by President Monson in General Conference. We, much like everyone else were totally geeking out about President Monson's announcements that missionaries will now be able to serve at 18. And the rest of conference was so wonderful too. I've always loved conference, and this one really spoke to me that I need to get my act together in a lot of things. The whole conference had an interesting tone though. I felt that from President Monson's first words as he talked about the empty seats in the back of the conference center. This Conference seemed to me to be much more sober, almost grim. I felt like we're really buckling down to resist the moral decline of the culture around us. I kept thinking of the feel of the last few Harry Potters, as Voldemort is moving openly, and those fighting for good have to make a show of pure grit. It's kind of a silly comparison, but a very similar feeling.
One other very cool thing was that on the way to conference, A man on the train invited us to sit with him and we had a great conversation with him. He told us about his incredible story of repentance and becoming a Christian. We invited him to come to one of the sessions of conference. I didn't find him if he did make an appearance, but he gave us permission to pass his number onto the Elders from where he lives. It was really cool.
Well, I've unfortunately gone ridiculously overtime, but I want you to know that I love you and that I love this gospel. Have a fantastic week!
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