Schöne Familie!
Grüß euch!!!
What an AMAZING WEEK! My goodness gracious... things are just going swell.
Can I start off by saying I LOVE FOOD.
Brief explanation: This past week, just as we finished last weeks emails,
Elder Herzog and I got talking. He had heard of a little something called
the "Apple Cleanse". Apparently, the challenge is to only eat apples and
drink apple juice for a week, and its supposed to cleanse your system.
Well... it didnt sound like such a bad idea, and of course I love a good
challenge, so we threw caution to the wind and went for it! That means
(with the exception of an unavoidable activity sunday) I ate nothing but
apples and apple juice for the past 7 days! first off, I just prayed that I
wouldnt die, but I actually feel great! and "cleansed"... haha. Im pretty
sure I lost like 30 pounds, but whatever i guess. By the end of the week
elder Herzog and I were dying for normal food... but we made it through
together and celebrated this morning with breakfast tacos. It was great.
Now for the actual report on last week!
Monday after letters we went up on a mountain top with Br. Hirschmann- SO
COOL AND PRETTY! I dont have any pictures to show you yet because the
computer is being dumb and wont let me load them. BUT THEY ROCK! We also
got to do a little farm work again, which was so fun! That night we bought
like 20 kilos of apples, and then took a thank you letter by Sister
Brunnsteiner for buying us groceries last week! It was a picture of the
four of us... and we decorated the frame with little craft pom poms. its
was pretty darn cute.
Tuesday was Zone training in Wien- it was full of mixed emotions! I had to
say goodbye to all the awesome elders and sisters who came to Wien with me
4 transfers ago and were now leaving... it was hard, but fun to see them
off to new adventures! That night we had Gemeinderat (ward council) and
they started talking about activities all the way up till christmas! Are we
really that far into the year?! I was sad to think I will probably be gone
already! Afterwards, Bruder Bauer took us to go hometeaching on some less
actives he had never visited before and TOTAL MIRACLE! One of them was a
guy named Stefan- about 30 years old, and living with a girlfriend and son.
Well, we knocked on the door and he wasnt home- but the girlfriend was! She
told us to come in and chat with her- so we all went in and she ended up
being really curious about the church because she really knew NOTHING- and
then she invited us back! Crazy cool lesson!
Wednesday was a lot of walking around all over the place... but it was so
worth it because EVERYONE was home we went by on, and we set up a bunch of
appointments, plus we found 4 potentials on the street- which it has been a
long time since weve had real success on the street. That evening we taught
Wolfgang with Bruder hirschmann about the first few simple commandments-
and it went really well! He revealed another one of his big concerns
though- which is he wants MORE communal activities between members- which
Bruder Hirschmann totally agrees and they talked about doing all sorts of
stuff together! It was a great joint teach! After, we rode our bikes as
fast as we could to the other side of town to teach Erich, or progressing
Less Active! He was SO EXCITED for church on Suday, it was super cool!
thursday was quite a bit more walking... plus 3 fallen out appointments.
Not the best day ever- but it was still fun, because we were able to write
a bunch of thank you notes that we have been preparing for all the members
to thank them for their work!
Friday we spent most of the day planning- mixed in with a hospital visit to
see a member, plus we met a potential at a bench in the middle of the town
to give him a Russian and English Book of Mormon! He was right where he
said he would be, and he was very excited to get the books, but he left to
Germany the next day! So we got him all the information for those elders up
there! Hopefully something happens with that cause he had TONS of
potential! That evening we visited the family Schildböck, and we just
talked all about the pranks the used to pull on missionaries- they are
pretty old now, but back in the day they were pretty funny!
Saturday and Sunday were two of the craziest days of my mission.
We left early saturday morning to help sister Brunnsteiner with her garden-
and it took quite a bit longer than we thought- but i was able to talk with
her about her neighbor that she really wants to share the gospel with! She
is super excited to share the gospel she just has no idea how to do it, so
we brainstormed ideas together, and we are going to make out a battle plan
this week! We ran home from that, showered, and then hopped on the bikes to
get to the other side of town... I officially had my first bike wreck. Dont
worry, nothings hurt but my pride haha. Elder Parkinson took a sharp turn
for a short cut across a grocery store parkinglot- i tried the same turn,
hit the curb, and did a graceful flip over the bars onto my butt- just for
all the store patrons to see. As I laid there on the pavement contemplating
what just happened, a lady came and yelled at me about how bike riding was
forbidden anyways and I got what I deserved. So much for pity for the
injured eh? We still made it to the appointment ok, but it fell out anyways
when we got there! So we rode back to the store so I could get something to
clean up. then we met with Bruder Korherr really quick- he was late- then
we rode as fast as we could to our appointment with Wolfgang and Bruder
Bauer- we started off answering some questions he had about the apostasy
(seriously, he has some of the hardest questions! He has really taught me
how to find answers in the scriptures though!) and then we taught Chastity-
pretty easy stuff for him. BUT THE COOL PART! We were about to ask him if
he had any friends we could teach- when he starts talking about a women he
shared his Book of Mormon with, who has tons of interest, and wants to
start meeting with us! SO COOL! We rode our bikes once again across town to
visit Erich to pump him up for church! Such a crazy day!
Sunday... best church day EVER! We walked to Erich really early in the
morning (he probably lives 4 km away from the church atleast) and then we
walked to church together! Then in the church we had a bunch of visitors
from the stake, plus Wolfgang came again and LOVED IT! and surprise
surprise... AMANDA! The investigator who dropped us 5 weeks ago came to
church and wants to start meeting again! YES!!! After church, the young
women cooked a lunch for the ward- and everyone stayed and had a great
time! It was probably the funnest week Ive ever had in church! That
afternoon we had a German class with Bruder Korherr the less active! He
called us and offered to start teaching the missionaries German class! It
was super helpful to learn from him, and its a total sign of progress back
to the church for him!
AH everything is so good. Im so glad the Lord allowed me to stay and see
the ward change and get so active and lively again! The Lord has blessed us
so much and things are GREAT!
Thanks so much for your support, I love you all so much!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
No comments:
Post a Comment