Schönen guten Morgen!!
Grüß euch!
Wow, this week was one of the more stressful ones of my mission.
But through many prayers and much focus, we made it through. So- lets
recap how it all went down, shall we!
Tuesday,
we had a meeting once again in Winterthur, Switzerland. We decided to
defy all rules of society and wear our "Frump" suits to the meeting-
quick explanation: In Europe (especially switzerland), any and all
cloths that are not tight and fitted are immediatley deemed culturally
unacceptable- hence our made up missionary term: Frumpy. That
essentially means all missionaries from America are frumpy- seeing as
this principle is not so strictly observed in the states, and missions
are not a fashion show anyways! Well, we do our best to oblige the
cultures demands (i.e. skinny ties, tighter slacks, fitted shirts)-
while still maintaining missionary standards. BUT Elder Garrett and I
both own suits that are deemed ultimate Frump status (my brown one)- he
has a matching black one. Well, in our defiance of the swiss culture, we
wore these suits, combo'd with ties so fat, i believe they could serve a
dual purpose as a sleeping bag. Needless to say- the europeans were
speechless at our downright "Americaness". It was quite the meeting.
Thursday
was a MIRACULOUS day- Holy smokes. In the morning, we invited a man
named Henry to come have a church tour (he had previously approached us
on the street and given us his card)- he walked through and absolutely
LOVED the church. He got hung up on the geneology room and demanded an
explanation of why we do family work. We finally explained baptisms for
the dead, and after a thought pause he says "ok... ich bin dabei"-
translated: im on board. We showed him the baptismal font- and before we
could even invite him he says "ich bin SOFORT dabei!" translated: Im
IMMEDIATELY on board! He has the goal of being baptised on the 15th of march! We are way excited for him and will be meeting with him again this afternoon!
Later that day, we had an appointment with an italian family that
we met on the street- the Lomanacos! When i spoke with them, i used the
limited italian i learned from elder mongia (i can say: hello! Im a
missionary of the church of jesus christ. Im sorry, but i only speak
german and english, im from america. I have a friend you can speak
with!) Thats when i call elder mongia on the phone and hand the phone to
the person. It works suprising well! They invited us over- the husband
actually speaks great german, but the wife has only been here for 3
weeks, so she speaks none. They live about 10 minutes from the church,
and on the walk over, all the powers of satan combined against us. Out
of nowhere- the HUGEST rain storm came out and winds were blowing so
hard, and then it randomly started hailing like crazy! we almost turned
back it was so bad, but we just buckled our heads and ran- and the
appointment was AMAZING! They had so many questions about our church and
the book of mormon- and they really were excited to start reading the
book of mormon! It was a super miracle. To top off the day- we met with
Frederic in the evening, and he committed to live the word of wisdom,
and tithing- and before he was living with his girlfriend- but we had
taught the law of chastity, and he kicked her out! Yahoo! What a great
day. We had to take a train to spend the night in Offenburg for zone
conference the next day, but it was such a super day.
Friday
was Zone Conference. Lots of administrational things needed to take
place, so that was stressful, but overall it was a really spiritual day.
Oh yeah- elder garrett and i also performed the musical number! He
played an amazing arangement of "i need thee every hour" and i
accompanied on the piano. The piece was pretty difficult, but i shook
off my rust and it sounded amazing. The Lord works miracles sometimes! I
think ive somehow gotten better on the piano on my mission- hmmm.
blessings come in mysterious ways!
Saturday
was also WAY stressful. We made transfer call (im staying here :) ) and
then we met with this man, Wolfgang. Lets just say he is just as cool
as Wolfgang in Sankt Pölten. I had met him right in front of the church
about a week previous- and he told me he lived right across the street,
and had always been curious, but had never had the courage to come
inside. We met on saturday,
and gave him the church tour too. He realized half way through the tour
that he had met mormons before 30 YEARS AGO and had gone to church
every sunday
for two years, before losing contact with the church. He never knew
that same church was built across the street from him 30 years later. He
doesnt really remember any of the doctrine of the church, he just
remembers "the blue book" and the it felt good. We confirmed the address
of the old church, and it was the same! We watched the joseph smith
movie, and he told us "i just feel like that boy- ive been searching for
the truth!" WOW. It was mind blowing how prepared this man was. He
wants to be baptised on the 29th of march.
Wolfgang Maxel is his name. he is 57, and within the last two years he
has given up drinking and smoking, become vegitarian, and has been
actively searching answers for a long time. It is humbling to teach him.
Also on saturday
we had a finding day and a talent show in the evening- it was very well
attended and Julia even performed with her flute- she stole the show
she was so good!
Well, another transfer down! im entering my 9th of 16 transfers-
crazy! i will likey stay zone leader the next two- (so the next 12
weeks) before moving on to the next adventure. Oh how time flies!
Well, I love you all. thanks for all your letters and support. Life is good! Church is true!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
