"What a crazy week!"
Servus!
So this week was an interesting one to
say the least. I was in 5 major cities in the mission and Elder Brande was gone
from Aachen almost the entire week with splits. We spent about 15 hours
traveling on Buses and Trains. And we still managed to find 3 new
investigators. So bear with me as I go through this crazy roller coaster of a
week.
Montag... So, last week we got to just
chill and relax in Aachen for P-day. We went through the Aachener Dom (Aachen
Cathedral) that was built back 1200 years ago by Karl Der Große (King
Charlemagne). It is a beautiful building and it actually has the throne where
every King of Germany was crowned. Adolf and Napoleon Bonaparte also did their
own personal "I am ruler of Europe" thing in this church. After that
we went around just to check out our city. We went to the Fußgangerzone and to
a few parks. Aachen is beautiful!! I am taking you guys to this city for sure.
After P-day we went back so we could pack our bags for the craziness that lay
in wait. We got a train out to Köln and then slept there for the night.
Deinstag... I woke up at 4:30am and got ready to go to our Golden Trainer
meeting in Offenbach. We were out the door by about 6:30 and got on our 2 hour
30 min bus ride to Frankfurt. The Golden Trainer meeting was an awesome
experience. There were the 5 Trainers and our Goldens plus 30 or so potential
Trainers. Our mission is supposed to be getting over 100 new missionaries by
the end of September. But there was a special spirit in this meeting and I can
honestly say that it was my favorite meeting that I have been to thus far.
Maybe it was because Präsident Schwartz is leaving soon. But there was something
special about the group gathered there that day. I’m gonna miss Präs. In the
meeting we had a few awesome break out training sessions. I got to see my
Trainer Elder McGinn. He was teaching a course on "Asking Inspired
Questions". It was great to see him and catch up and have him talk with
his mission Grandson for a bit! After the meeting we caught a train from
Offenbach to Frankfurt where we rode our bus back to Köln. We got back late and
so we slept in Köln again.
Mittwoche... Woke up early again and
left Köln on a split with Elder Jack. We headed back to Aachen on a 2 hour
train ride. Spoke to a nice man on the way there about families and France. Haha,
It didn’t really go anywhere, but hopefully he will remember the pleasant run-in
with the Mormonen. We had an appointment with a Herr Malms. Really nice man,
going through a really rough patch in life. We had a really spiritual meeting
with him where we just got to know him and bore powerful testimony about the
Savior and his atonement. He broke down in tears at one point talking about how
he could never receive forgiveness for what he has done and how sorry he was.
He said all he wanted through out his life was Love and Acceptance, and that on
the search for those things he went down the wrong road and messed up. What an
amazing message that we are able to share with people. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ. It’s amazing. I’m so excited to work with Herr (Mr.) Malms and help him
find the peace and love that he has been searching for.
After the appointment we had some time
before we had to travel to Düsseldorf, so we went out and did some street
contacting. We worked our way into a park and it was pretty empty. There was
one lady sitting on a bench and so we went up to talk to her. She asked where
we were from and what we were doing there. We gave her a Book of Mormon and
basically said, that this is why we are here! We bore some testimony and she
agreed to meet us later this week. After walking out of the park, we ran into a
member who was having a really hard time. Aachen is a really big city and so
when you run into members on the street it is a rarity. But we ran into him and
just talked for 30 min until we had to go to Düsseldorf. But all this stuff got
me thinking. How awesome is it, that the Lord put those people in our paths.
Literally, if we hadn’t felt and decided to go to this little park we never
would have seen the Lady and we never would have ran into the member having a
hard time. The Lord is so much a part of your life as a missionary. What a
blessing to serve him and receive his guidance.
After that we went to Düsseldorf for
our Zone Training. It was really good and it focused on working with members to
hasten the work.
After that I saw my Golden, Elder
Brande, gave him a hug and heard about him getting lost in Köln, alone for an
hour. And then had to go on yet another Split. Elder Bruneel and I went back to
Aachen for the night! Horraay for sleepin’ in my own bed!!
Donnerstag... Had a fun split with
Elder Bruneel. With us being called officially as University Elders, we have
been trying to spend as much time as possible on campus. We went and we had our
Language study hour in the Library on the Foreign Languages floor. After that
we went to this member family. Lovely people. They cooked us some raw turkey.
Yummy, haha. After that we went back to Downtown Aachen and did some contacting.
I stopped a lady on the street named Susan, so friendly, she invited us to her
house and we talked for a solid 30 minutes. She is from Kenya and she invited
us to come to her house next week for dinner! She said she loves Jesus and
loves us and is willing to hear what we have to say. She said she reminded us
of her kids! Haha. After that we
contacted these 3 French and Romanian guys. Gave them Books of Mormon and got
their contact info, we have an appointment made out for this Wednesday! We then
went to the church for our weekly GEMICO, not sure what that is in English, but
its when we meet with our Gemeinde Missions Leiter (Ward Mission Leader) and
talk about the work and how we can best work in unity. It was a really good
meeting. We received a referral there named Dania. She is awesome , and comes
from Cuba, she is studying here in Aachen. She speaks Spanish and German. After
that we were on a bus home. I saw this guy speaking English so we started a
conversation. Turns out he was from Columbia and he was studying Communication
Technology in Aachen. So him studying that and being South American I decided
to bring up Carlos Slim, the Business Giant from Mexico, because his company
pretty much is just Communication technology. Turns out this guy actually
worked for Carlos Slim before coming to Germany to study and work for T mobile.
Really cool conversation. Got his contact info and then gave him a Book of
Mormon!
Fritag ... We traveled back to
Düsseldorf to split back and when we were there in the Hbf, we saw a guy
looking at us very intently. We decided to say hi to him. We started talking to
him and found out he is from Ireland! Sweet. So after talking for 10 min Mr.
Fitzpatrick asked if he could buy us some Hot CoCoa. We said yes and we just
talked life with this guy for an hour or so. It was an awesome time. Afterwards
we split back and then ran into a Brazilian girl that just immigrated to
Germany, she could speak a little broken German and Portugese and we found out
that she is a member of the Church and has been trying to find the local meeting
house for her and her family! So that was cool running into her and
helping her out. After that we got on a train back to Aachen and slept the
entire way. Once we got home we just had time to go by Susan’s, the lady we
contacted earlier in the week. We gave her a Book of Mormon and then mad a
solid appointment.
Samstag... It was a slower day. We
just had our weekly planning and then went and ate a Döner for Döner Samstag.
After all of the planning and stuff we ended the day with a Ward Dominoe night
at Sister Elvis's home!
 |
| Dania Came to Church! Yay. |
Sonntag... Our new Investigator Dania
came to church !! Yay. We taught her about baptism and she seemed really
interested, she asked if we could teach her 10 year old son too! After church
we went and ate at home and then went out to meet Martina in the park. She is
an investigator and she is awesome. She is making good progress and she
believes in prayer. After that we just came home and I did the weekly call ins
with the District! That was our week. A
busy and crazy week! I loved it.
One thing that I shared with my Golden
this week was the Scripture in Acts 5 :41. Talking about how the apostles were
proud and even joyous that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name
of Jesus Christ. You need that attitude out here. I love the German people but
they have got some Sassy mouths! Haha. So when the troubles come, or people are
just being a pain. We just gotta square up and say. I got this, because I know
Jesus is on my side!
I love you all! Gotta Go!
Have an amazing week!
Tschüß!
Elder Nikora Anderson
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