Change In Schweinfurt

This week some changes happened in the area of Schweinfurt.  Starting
off the week for Pday, my companion, Elder Wilde and I took care of
some shopping and visited a member family to say goodbye because Elder
Wilde was to be transferred.  The following day was district meeting,
and then meeting with a less active member, and then the bishop and
his wife, both good appointments.  Wednesday was spent all day packing
and visiting one last family.  The most curious part of Wednesday,
however, was running into the woman who believes in aliens from the
fourth dimension again.  It gave my companion some time to say goodbye
to her, and me obtaining her phone number.

The next day we traveled to Frankfurt for transfers.  There, I got to
see some past companions again, namely my trainer, who was visiting,
and Elder Crittenden, who I served with in Paderborn.  I met up with
Elder Cobbley, my new companion, and we set out to Würzburg for a
baptismal interview.  There we did a mini split with the Elders there,
and I set out to a place called Wertheim for the baptismal interview.
The interview went well, but afterwards the train and bus connections
back to civilization were terrible and we didn't get back to Würzburg
until midnight.

The next day Elder Cobbley and I traveled back to Schweinfurt and we got
my new companion situated there.  Saturday we went by and visited a
few people to introduce my new companion and had our usual game night,
during that time the weather changed from warm and sunny, to rain,
lightning and hail in a matter of minutes.  Sunday was church in the
morning and visiting some investigators to introduce them to Elder Cobbley.

And that was the week!  It feels like a lot happened, including seeing a Weeping Angel.  Until next week!

 Saying Goodbye at District Meeting

Elder Cobbley, Aaron's new companion

Weeping Angel from Dr. Who

It Came

This past week began with playing the game of "Risk" for P-day, but from there things started moving quickly.  Early in the week my companion and I went out finding, and ended up wandering into a forest.  We used it as an opportunity to knock on some doors in the forest for directions and talking to people walking through the forest.  The amount of people out there are far less than in the city, but I got to say people feel a lot more open and friendly when out in nature.

I then had a split with an Elder from the other Schweinfurt companionship.  Together, we met with one of their investigators, who made some free pizzas for us when she was at work, we did some finding in a park with animals, and we went out to eat at a restaurant the other Elder really wanted to go to.

After the split we all traveled to Offenbach, my first area of my mission, and there we had a zone conference.  It was a lot of fun to travel back to Offenbach, and see some of the familiar sites, and hear about how the work is going on there these days.  At the end of the zone conference, we were given iPads, and the next day as a district we got them configured and ready to use.

Ending the week, my companion and I met with our Landlord and Landlady, our Landlady being a member, and shared the first missionary lesson with them.  It was a good experience, and we have the rest of the appointments scheduled out with them until August, meeting with them every other week!  Saturday was transfer calls once again, closing out the current transfer, and there we learned that my companion, Elder Wilde, will be traveling to a new area, while I stay in Schweinfurt.  Not a surprise to us, considering how long my companion was in Schweinfurt, but it was a lot of fun to serve with him!  We then had a street display, but it was a little difficult because the weather was threatening to rain the whole time.  We still managed to get some work done, though.

Until next transfer and a new companion!

Aaron and Ultron with an ipad

Aaron

Time Flies When Having Fun

The week flew by out here in Schweinfurt!  It started on Pday with my companion and I visited a park with animals.  For the first time in Schweinfurt, I actually saw a pig.

The following day we had district meeting, followed by a split where I went to Würzburg again.  While there I got to see the Residence, a really cool building, surrounded by a beautiful garden area. Ultron was there as well.

Through the course of the week my companion and I had some cool experiences.  The week before we had met a man in a park and got his telephone number, but for whatever reason the number didn´t work.  We prayed we could find the guy again so we could give him a copy of the Book of Mormon in Arabic and set out to find him where we first met him  for a few days, and eventually we ran into him when he was riding his bike, and we were able to give him the Book of Mormon.  We also were able to visit a less active member, who is actually our landlord, and set up times to meet with the entire family to share the missionary lessons to introduce the Gospel to the family members who are not members.

All four Schweinfurt Elders also teamed up with a member and his son to help out in a move on Saturday.  We helped a less active member move from one apartment to another, and we were able to do it rather fast, and it was a lot of fun.

This upcoming week is a zone conference in my first area, Offenbach.  I´m excited to go back there, and we should be receiving iPads then, so things are looking pretty good for this next week!

Aaron at the Residence

Ulton checking out the statues 

Summer Weather

This week in Germany we were hit with really hot weather, which makes working outside not a lot of fun, but at least summer is here!

Early in the week, I had the chance to go to the city of Würzburg for a split.  The Elder I worked with and I met an American and prepared for a street display later in the week during our time together.  We also had a little fun with Ultron.  Interesting enough, during the split my companion ran into the woman I met weeks earlier during a street display, who claimed to have contact with aliens from the 4th dimension.  She told my companion that she had met Steven Spielberg in the past, which I found pretty cool when I heard about it!

Thursday was once again a holiday, but this time we found more success.  We decided to visit people we had met earlier.  We were able to clear up some questions about the Book of Mormon, and as to who we were as Mormon missionaries.  The rest of the day was spent walking under the hot sun by a river contacting.

During the week, my companion and I were also able to visit a part member family that lives far away from the city of Schweinfurt, which makes it hard for the missionary to visit them as much as we would like to. They seemed happy to have us over, and we got to learn more about their son who is serving a mission currently.

To end the week, we had another split with the other Schweinfurt Elders, and we went to Würzburg for a street display.  I had an interesting time during the street display.  The whole time I was trying to fill in contact information on the material at the display because it wasn´t done earlier, yet I was able to share multiple copies of the Book of Mormon with people.  They just kind of walked up and seemed interested.  It´s really cool when that sort of thing happens.  Sunday we had visitors at church, yet no priesthood leadership was there because of the vacation time, so someone from the stake came to run the meetings.

It was a fun week, looking back.  Missionary work can be tough often times, but it can also be awesome!

Ultron calling the Elders to repentance.

Ultron wants you to go to Sunday School

A Little Bit Of History

My companion and I had a pretty good week for the final week of May.  We saw a lot of stuff happen!

Monday was a holiday, so we changed our Pday to Tuesday.  For the holiday we tried to talk with people on the streets, but because of the holiday, not many people were out, and it rained.  For what was something like an hour my companion and I were trapped under a bridge with two other people who couldn´t really speak English or German.  The reason for being trapped was because my companion forgot his umbrella, and didn´t want to get soaked in the rain.  Even if there was a language barrier, we did try to communicate with the other people under the bridge.

Tuesday was a quiet Pday, and some knocking on doors in the evening.  Wednesday was district meeting, and afterwards I drove to Nürnberg to start a split with zone leaders.  Returning to Schweinfurt, the zone leader and I met with a family we met earlier through knocking on doors, and we were able to share a copy of the Book of Mormon and invite them to read it and pray about it.  Towards the end of the week, my companion and I drove to a member´s house that lived far away.  There we learned about his family history, and things about WWI and WWII.  It was really cool to meet with this older member, and hear his stories, some of the stuff he was saying was incredible to hear, and then he had pictures and articles as well documenting the story of his family.  After that really cool appointment, we returned the car to the senior couple in Würzburg, that we were borrowing the car from.

Saturday we had our first cleaning check in Schweinfurt, and then later ran into the senior couple that came down for the check when we were out trying to talk to people.  They were out seeing the sights.  Sunday was quiet, especially because it is vacation time in Germany, so a lot of members were not at church.

So that was the week!  I would say it was a good time, and a lot of good things got done.

Aaron's District