I Saw The Rains Down In Africa

Well, the week had quite the African theme to it, making for an adventure in and of itself.

For P-Day, Elder Sollis and I looked around a little in Siegen, but we were not able to come up with much to do.  The highlight of P-Day really was writing emails.  After P-Day, we had an appointment with an African member family, and talked about what the Gospel of Jesus Christ meant to them.  The next day was Frodo and Bilbo´s Birthday, and the day was spent driving in the rain to the city of Düsseldorf to get to Zone Conference.  It lasted the whole day, and was centered around the third missionary lesson: The Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The most peculiar part of zone conference, however, was the Food Nanny, a lady from a BYU show, showing up and giving a presentation about cooking.  You might as well have placed us in a studio and added cameras to her presentation, and it would have been an episode of her show.

Wednesday after lunch, my companion and I struggled for hours trying to get a brownie recipe right.  We had an appointment with multiple members, one of which was having a birthday, and we were volunteered by someone to make brownies.  Eventually though, we ran out of time and ingredients, and had to result to buying some cake in a store.  We then went to the African shop we go to every now and then, and managed to sit down with two guys and the woman who runs the shop, and talk about the Restoration of the Gospel.  It was cool because the lady who runs the shop bore testimony about the Church, and she isn´t a member!  After that appointment, we went to the multiple member appointment, and a member gave a presentation about joy and the Gospel.

Thursday we drove out to meet our American investigators.  Originally we had a plan to talk about one of the commandments, but we ended up talking about the Gospel of Christ, and inviting them to baptism.  They are really close to agreeing to be baptized!  We drove back to Siegen afterwards and visited the African shop again, and talked to multiple people there, and then asked the lady who owns the shop if she wanted to be baptized, and she said yes!  The next day we tried to meet with some members, met with an African investigator and his friend, and tried to fit in Weekly Planning all at the same time.

Saturday we tried to meet with another African investigator, but due to miscommunication, we ended up in the wrong town.  We also visited the African shop and taught a little bit more, and tried to meet with a member family, but when we got there, they had visitors and no real time to meet with us.  Finally, on Sunday it was Stake Conference in Dortmund.  There I was able to see multiple members I knew when I was in Paderborn, and see one of them receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.  Sadly, the man I baptized was not able to attend, but I heard he was doing well.  After that we met with a member and helped him set up a Skype account.  And that´s the week!

The Siegen church meeting house.