Oh how the time flies- if you blink you'll miss it! This week was just one of those weeks where everything just went too fast... and im not really sure exactly what happened! But i guess it did! Tuesday we had District meeting down in Kreuzlingen- the Elders there dont seem to be too fond of us (its a german/french companionship- and they dont really care for americans...) but we are working on that still! When we finally made it back from Kreuzlingen, we had to put our suits on and get straight on a train to Winterthur, Switzerland to meet with the stake president- the meeting was essentially pointless, because they just changed the boundaries of our zone, so before we had a couple wards in St. Gallen stake that we would report on, but with the changes, Konstanz/Kreuzlingen is the only ward in our Zone that belongs to St. Gallen stake- so we will not attend that meeting in the future! There was a minor uproar by the stake presidency though- President Miles asked Elder Garrett and I to evaluate the zone boundaries (as far as travel times and cost efficiency goes- because in the past, zones were just drawn on stake boundaries) so we reconfigured everything in the swiss area, and it really is more time/cost effective now, but the stake people were all frustrated with the change. i guess thats how everyone reacts to change- dont even consider it first! haha oh well. Wednesday was the day before Sister Gurneys birthday- so in the morning we went and bought her flowers (gerber daisies are her favorites- i know my flowers :) ) and we had to store them in the church during the day. We rode a bus out to a little village called Tengen to eat lunch with an elderly couple in our ward- and the bus ride was an hour one way... so it was pretty boring, but luckily the spring time here in beautiful, especially out in the countryside! On the way back, Elder Garrett and i were the only ones on the bus, when these two annoying teenage girls got in and came and sat RIGHT NEXT to us. they were so obnoxious- just trying to be way flirty and annoying. so we just pretended to fall asleep so we could ignore them. The afternoon was crazy and almost a disaster! We went with the sisters to visit a sister in our ward in the hospital, and we had planned to go straight to sister gurneys house afterwards to deliver the flowers, so we had to take them with us to the hospital. naturally, we couldnt bring them in the room with us because this sister would assume they were for her, so we left them at the front desk. we sat and talked with her for about 30 minutes when we left to catch the bus. the sisters distracted her while we took the oposite exit to go get the flowers and make our get-away. WELL this sister came with the sisters to meet us at the front entrance, so we make a rash move and threw the flowers in the bushes so she wouldnt see. We were really stuck, because she wanted to wait at the bus stop with us until the bus left, and we didnt know how to recover the flowers without her seeing! As the bus pulled up and we started to get on, one of the sisters dove inthe bushes and grabbed the flowers while she wasnt looking and we all got onthe bus and made it our without hurting anyones feelings. we should have just bought two sets of flowers eh? Sister Gurney really loved them though, so i guess it was worth all the fuss! Thursday i left for München in the morning to do exchanges with the Assistants! my train was delayed in a city called Ulm, so i was stuck there for about an hour, but i eventually made it to Munich! I worked with Elder Orchard- he is going home in just few weeks! But he is still working just as hard as ever, so i was able to learn alot! We had a few appts. so we were driving around the car alot. and on the way.... we had to stop at take a pictures. So its hard to describe, but ALL OVER southern germany are these big canola fields- they are all over and they are huge, and right now they are BRIGHT yellow- they look so cool and it makes the ground look like a big green and yellow checker board- did i mention everything is soooo unbelievably green? anyways we stopped to take a picture in one of the fields- and it looks pretty cool i must say :) when i have time to put more pictures up i will! Friday afternoon i began my journey back to Singen- a trip that should take 3 hours... it ended up taking 6 1/2 because of SO MANY train problems. sometimes Deutsche Bahn (the germany train system) just has sooo many problems. but i made it back eventually! and we just crashed, because saturday was a HUGE day! it was Marias baptismal interview! we had met with her a couple times in the week to make sure she was ready- and it was looking good! So we had to wake up early to take an early train to Konstanz so that we could pick up Elder Sardoni, the district leader, and elder garrett stayed there to work in Konstanz. Maria PASSED the interview! She seemed so happy and excited. Elder Sardoni stayed to help us teach a few more lessons as the other elders traveled up. Long story short, we had most of our lessons for the week planned for saturday, and two of them showed up at the same time! Markus and Athena! luckily we had Benji there as a joint teach, so we were able to split up and teach everyone- sheesh it was wild. Sunday was stressful- maria didnt make it to church! She called to tell us that her sister showed up and dragged her to the catholic church- we are not sure what to do, but we think we are going to go through with it, because if her sister wasnt there, there would be no problem and she is otherwise very excited... we will see! Lets all pray that it goes through!!! Sunday evening the huge rainstorm blew in (and its still continuing now) and our afternoon consisted of walking around without umbrellas and getting SOAKED. just another day in the life of Elder Bartholomew.
Boom- and suddenly we are here. this week should be crazy too- Friday we find out the next transfer! Its pretty much 100% sure that i will be transfered, so i guess i will report next week what its happening to me! I wont officially leave until the 8th of may, so i will write next week from Singen as well, no worries. I have loved Singen so much! I cant describe with words- this place has been so special and miraculous. and being able to serve as a Zone Leader has taught me so much about missionary work, and about being an example! I hope i get to train again, so i can put all this knowledge to work- sorry Elders Parkinson and Dickson- i wasnt quite so wise when i trained them haha.
Congrats FIRST to mom and dad for their anniversary last week, and also to Scott and Julie for the new baby Dallin! Im so happy for you!
I love you all!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
No comments:
Post a Comment