Another Week, Another Zone Meeting

This week flew by like crazy!

Our investigator with a baptismal date, Joachim, is still doing well, and is excited for his baptism.  We have been going through the commandments with him, and he has been loving it.  He is such a happy guy!

We also had a Zone Training meeting in the city of Essen during the week.  I included some pictures from that experience.  The city was putting up Christmas decorations, and they had a pretty cool train station full of changing lights.  At the meeting they focused on how the Dortmund Stake will be working with missionaries next year, and how it will be a big focus, and then after the meeting as a zone we all went out finding people.  My companion and I were assigned to go door a University housing complex.

To end the week, we had three investigators at church.  One of these investigators had been waiting a long time to get to church because he lives so far away.  It was a good experience, and afterwards, we met with Joachim and the Branch President and Joachim got to know the Branch President a lot better, even if the meeting ended up being three hours long because Joachim went through his life story, starting from his birth.  That man can talk your ear off!

Anyhow, things continue to move forward.  I am grateful for the opportunities I have been having on my mission, and know that I have been receiving help in the work.

Aaron at the train station

Aaron in Essen

It Finally Happened!

The week started with a district Pday in Unna, where there was a carnival going on.  I got to go on some rides, and get authentic Bratwurst, which I was pretty happy about, still have yet to have a companion that likes Bratwurst.  After the Pday, I started a split with an Elder from Unna and together we worked in Paderborn.  Nothing was really working out for us, but at the end of the day, we were able to get into contact with Joachim, our homeless investigator, which was great, the man has been giving out copies of the Book of Mormon like crazy!

After the split my companion and I continued to work with Joachim by going through the third missionary lesson with him, and then inviting him to join us when we were going to visit a less active member (all of the members we tried to get help from fell out).  The less active member fell out, so we were left with just Joachim, and we went through this really meeting about how many baptisms could happen in Paderborn before the end of the year (Joachim enjoys statistics).  After the meeting, I reminded him that he could be baptised, and then we went back to our apartment.  A few minutes after our arrival, Joachim called us, and told us to get ready, because he is going to get baptised!

We established the baptism date the next day, which will be the 29 of November.  He wants me to baptise him.

Outside of that, we were able to have a new investigator come to church, and we were able to get back into contact with an investigator we had not heard from for a while.  I would call this week a success.

What made Joachim decide on baptism?  To be honest, I think the Spirit just worked on him really hard, until he was able to make a decision.  I thought it would take a lot longer for him because we tried last month, but he had his thing with Scientology.  I really think the reason for the success was because we stuck with him, and with his love for the Gospel, the spirit was able to work and do the rest of the work.  Miracles DO happen!

Aaron, Joachim, and Aaron's companion, Elder Black 

Aaron with the giant metal door at the University

Our Investigator Is Doing Missionary Work!

So apparently Paderborn has its own movie now, so I thought I ought to get a picture of that.

This week we were able to meet a few times with our homeless investigator.  He has agreed to start inviting his friends with him when he meets with us, so he is giving us referrals now!  He also has given out two copies of the Book of Mormon, what a champ!  Even if he is having trouble with baptism, he is finding joy with the gospel in his life, and one day it will totally click for him.

We also met with the part member family I mentioned last week.  We ended up just teaching the son, who we were told to focus on, and his father, who is not a member, it was a wonderful experience to be with both of them.

Halloween was non-existent in Paderborn, sorry about that.  We did get to meet with members, including the branch president and his family, and a member who was in the hospital.  We were able to give him a blessing there, which was pretty cool.

And that is everything this week!  Until next week!

Paderborn the Movie!

Mission Adventures

Due to Deutsche Bahn strikes, my companion and I were not able to get back to Paderborn until Tuesday afternoon this past week, so we kind of had a slow start to the week.  Immediately when we got back we had to go grocery shopping in the rain, and then cleaning up our apartment for apartment checks the following morning.  Fun times!

We spent a lot of time in a town called Lippstadt, working with members.  On one instance, we were doing service by moving a wall, and my companion ended up breaking into a dentists office (which is a long story), startling all of the young, attractive dental assistants.  We bought a box of chocolates to say sorry, and later in the day, when we were leaving, two of the dental assistants were waiting for us to say thank you and asked if we would go to the movies with them.  Naturally, we refused their offer, but now I can say I have been asked out to a date by a dental assistant!  Haha!

There was a fall carnival in Lippstadt also, so I made sure to get a picture of that.  We also met with a part member, less active family, and they asked us to meet with them every week so their son could become better acquainted with the Church.  We are really excited to be working with this family!

With our transfer calls we learned that my companion and I would continue to work together in Paderborn, so no drastic changes there.

To end the week, we had our stake president and a member from the area seventy of the Church, Elder Leimer, come to Paderborn.  That was pretty cool to have in our small branch, and afterwards, we were able to meet with our homeless investigator together with Elder Leimer and his wife.  Most of the time our investigator just kind of talked (he likes to do that), but it was good.

As always, the work carries on, and will continue to to be a great adventure!

Aaron at the fall carnival

Week of Trains on Strike!

This week was hectic, because of a WWII bomb being deactivated, causing trains to not run, and then later in the week, Deutsche Bahn workers going on strike, causing even more trains to not run!
Why was this so bad?  Because it happened when we had to travel.  As I am writing this letter, I am  currently in the area of Hagen, because we couldn´t get back to our area.  Fun stuff!

Other than frustrating travel by train, my district came to our area for district meeting and then a day of finding.  It was great to have everyone in our area, even though finding turned out to be difficult.  After that I had a split with an Elder from Unna, together we helped a member with his home teaching assignments, and then the next day we met a man in a town called Lippstadt, who gave us a tour of the town, that was fun!  He had met missionaries before, but he was on vacation.  When he got back, there were new missionaries, so he showed us around town, and we got to know him better.  He was a really friendly guy, something that honestly is kind of hard to find in Germany.

After the split, my companion and I were stuck in the town of Soest for an hour waiting for trains, so we walked around at night, and got some cool pictures, one of them is included with this update, along with evidence of the WWII bomb being deactivated.  We also were able to meet with our homeless investigator again, and we got to teach him the first lesson, which he already knew, but we hadn´t taught it to him yet, so that was fun.  Later that evening he even called us up to bear testimony, which was pretty cool.  He even came to stake conference by getting a ride with members, which I am sure helped him to develop relationships further with the branch members.

Because of the Stake Conference being when the strikes were taking place, after interviews with the mission president, we couldn´t get back to our area.  So  Elders in our district, from Hagen, said we could overnight with them.  It has been a fast week, with so much happening, and we are now fast approaching the end of the transfer.  I will of course update what will be happening for the next transfer by next week.  Until then!

 Aaron in Soest at Night

Trains won't be running

So close!

What a week!  We did a few things this week like knocking on doors at the University in Paderborn, but the main focus was on our homeless investigator.

We had been dying to invite him to baptism for a while now.  He already had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and loves to come to church, so we were pretty excited.  When we asked early in the week, we didn´t get a direct answer right then, but he did recognize the need to pray for an answer concerning baptism.  We continued to meet with him throughout the week, and talk about it, and he was excited about it.  He told us the idea came to him that I baptize him this month in a lake in Paderborn, and when we proposed the idea of doing it on the 25 and confirming him on the 26, he really liked the idea.  However, it came up that he also believed in the Scientology church, and was a little torn between that church and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  He told us he would have an answer concerning baptism on Sunday.

After church (which he attended) we met with him to talk about the decision.  Ultimately, it came down to choosing between the two churches, and I committed him to pray right then and there to know what was right for him.  So we knelt in prayer, and he prayed.  It lasted a while, but at the end of the prayer he indicated that he had received an answer.  After it was done he said his prayer was answered and that Scientology was the right church for him.  I was heartbroken, of course, but testified to him that I knew that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was true, but we would respect his decision.  He is still completely open and happy to meet with us and come to church every week still, but as of right now, he has made the decision, and only the Spirit can work on him now.

What a roller coaster this experience and week was!

Aaron in front of the Paderborn City Hall

General Conference Week

In this weekly email update, I have finally added a new addition to my Ultron pics.  Feels like it had been a while.  So, here he is with me in a train.

This week my companion and I did not get to work with any of our investigators, but we did meet some people who have potential of becoming investigators.  One man from the Phillipines approached us while we were shopping on Pday and just started to talk to us (likely because he heard us speaking English)  and apparently he had encountered missionaries in the past and he gave us his information, which was cool.  We also met a man on a train who is a student in Paderborn, he has traveled to Germany for his education.  He too speaks English, and we got to talk as we were all traveling, he was going to pick up his wife, who will also be a student in Paderborn.  He was a very friendly man and wanted to stay in contact also.

Outside of meeting new people, we were able to meet with a less active member whom we home teach, and help out another member with his home teaching.  During the end of the week we had Zone Training in Dortmund, and afterwards our district got together to find people in the area of Hagen.  During that time my District Leader and I met a man who was suicidal and thinking about killing himself that night.  He said he was without hope, and we did our best to help him out and support him.  We invited him to General Conference, and while I don´t know what happened to him (other than he did not show up to conference), I know we helped this man out during a difficult time for him.

For conference we traveled to Hagen to watch it, while our branch traveled outside of the mission boundaries to watch conference.  We spent the weekend with the Hagen Elders, which was fun.  They were also doing a "mini-mission" at the time with someone who will be receiving his mission call in the coming weeks.  General Conference was great, unfortunately we still have yet to see the final session of conference.

The week flew by fast, and I am half way done with General Conference on my mission now,  all I have left are the two conferences next year, crazy!  Anyways, the work continues on!  Until next week!

Aaron and Ultron on the Train