Week Eighteen

Alright.... So this week was crazy... I don't even know where to begin. It feels like forever since my last P-day because we have been so busy this week and so much has happened.  Make this email a little different and just outline my days because otherwise I am going to lose track of what happened.

 

Monday- After writing emails last monday, Elder Butcher and I took a relax p-day and played cards for the rest of our p-day, which was much needed to mentally prepare for the rest of the week.  Because that night we met an investigator that would just throw a huge curve ball in our week... Fikret.  So we met Fikret at his home, which is in sketch town of Hagen and he lived in a Muslim community where absolutely no one spoke german or english.  So everyone is staring at us wondering why the white folk are in this neck of the woods, and Fikret comes up and greets us.  Really just the nicest guy ever.  He is from Macedonia and he is a super strong Christian.  He speaks like 6 different languages and so we were able to speak both english and german with him.  But we met with him in his parents house, were we sat on this tiny couch that was super close to the ground and there was like 6-7 muslims standing in the room just staring at us who couldn't talk to us just staring... And they stayed like that.. The entire lesson.  But it turns out that Fikret was a youth pastor in Macedonia, he became chirstian as a teenager and because of that he was thrown out of his house and lived on the streets for a couple years before he was accepted into bible school and became a pastor.  He used to have a group of youth that he tought but they were all taken by radical muslim groups to become soldiers which is when he fled the country and came to Germany.  WOW... So we tought him a lesson and seriously he was like the perfect investiagtor and really just understood everything.  That was monday, way excited.

 

Tuesday-  We had zone conference in Düsseldorf.  Elder Schultzer was there, a member of the seventy, and we were late... 40 minutes late because the Siegen elders picked us up in the car and we got stuck in stand still trafic for an hour and a half... Yeah so kinda embarrasing.  But it was a really great conference and it is always a good time to be with President Schwartz and all the other missionaries.  I loved it.  But tuesday was not very busy because we were in Düsseldorf the entire day.

 

Wednesday-  We met with Fikret again.  And at this point we were like best friends apparently.  He calls us up and just yells "BROTHER"!!!  I really think we are his best friends right now, he has only been in germany for like 2 weeks.  But we meet him at the church to give a church tour and teach the restoration lesson at the same time.  He accepted everything very well.  I swear he was like the perfect investigator, and he wants to read the book of mormon and everything is going great and he just wants to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet everything was awesome.  At this point we are just jumping for joy he is doing great, the only problem is that he is a refugee.  And so we are not quite sure what is going on with him and why he is a refugee and had to flee.  But still just super  excited.  Side not, his catch phrase is ''Thats just the life of a refugee''  He says that all the time its funny.  But then we had a super awesome Gemeinde Rad that night that was all focused on missionary work.  I really feel like missionary work here in Hagen is starting to blow up.  We have so many investigators and the ward is becoming so missionary focused right now.  I am super excited, things are starting to change here in Hagen.

 

Thrusday-  I was on a split in Siegen, kinda boring... It takes forever to get back and forth from Siegen that between that and morning scripture study we basically do nothing.  It is like a 2 hour train one way and then on our way back we got stopped for rail construction so it was even longer... fun fun...  But it was a good time getting to know Elder Mildon a little bit better.

 

Friday-  Well after returning from the split, we had a little time to do some street finding before we headed to Iserlohn to help with the move again... yes the same move that we carried the bed 5 km.  So I haven't really been saying this but we have met with same member like 5 times now to help so this has become a regular thing.  But this time I carried about 100000 CDs and DVDs all in backpacks that hung off the handle bars of a bike.  It was basically like the whole walmart electonic section all balanced on the handle bars of a bike... Ya again I looked like an idiot walking through iserlohn.  But we got to his new appartment, and apparently he has been doing the same thing over and over for the past couple weeks... Instead of boxing things up like we thought and having the elders quorm help drive the boxes... he has been making individual trips back and forth with all of his figurines and stuffed animals... Now the big problem is that he has no room in either appartments.... ya... So sometime this week we have to help him figure out how to fit two appartments worth of junk into one appartment.  I dont know that I do justice discibing all of this in an email.  I have so many pictues that do better...  This whole thing is insane....

 

Saturday-  We had the most delicious food.  There is a family in the ward here and they always have the missionaries over and they make the best food ever.  We have had a lot of visits with them and really it is my favorite, the best german food ever.  After that visit, we met with Fikret again and went ona walk and review the restoration lesson.  Again he understood everything and is just waiting on us geting him a serbian book of mormon because that is the best for him to read (other than macedonian which is not an option, it has not been translated yet).  So again super excited and just super nice to us and really just thinks we are his best friends.  We get like 2 or 3 calls from him every day just to check up on us and make sure we are doing good.  I mean I love this guy.  So just an awesome discusion and really fun, and said he was going to come to church the next day.

 

Sunday (Doomsday)-  So super great week so much stuff happened and we have had other appointments with other investigators and just really productive and full of miracles... But it took kind of a curve ball on sunday.  So Fikret came to church and everything was going great and he was really enjoying everything, and then I am talking to him before sacrament meeting and he tells me that he is facing 5-10 years in PRISON if he goes back to Macedonia.... WHAT!!!!! Oh yeah so at that point I am freaking out not knowing what we got involved in, and then after sacrament meeting he is talking to Rebecca (the member we ate with on saturday that we eat with alot and is super missionary focused) and he askes if she is married (oh forgot to mention that he told us the only way he can stay in germany is if he gets married)  So I am feeling super awkward standing there.... And she tells him that she is going through a divorce right now.... And then it gets super awkward... He asked her to go to a concert with him just the two of them... A DATE!!!!  WHAT!?!?! you dont do that to someone who is going threw a divorce!!!  Luckly Rebecca is way cool and understanding and just brushes it off, but at this point I am just freaking out and we leave church and he goes home...  Then we have an appointment with a guy we met last week, and the entire appiontment he keeps going back to the idea of the gift of tongues and if we believe in that.  And we ask him to say the closing prayer.... And now I know why.... Because apparently the gift of tongues is talking in a language that only the holy ghost can understand and is conplete gibrish.... And then to close the prayer he yelled haleluia and I might have laughed a little bit, I covered it up with a cough... But I really wasn't expecting that... WOW.... strange... then right after that we get a call from a guy in our ward saying that he is trying to get involved in keeping Fikret in Germany and is working on all these legal stuff.... right after president schwartz told us not to get involved in that but to just teach him and try to figure out why he is a refugee...  Oh yeah that was a huge mess... So just came out of the most awkward church experience, then wierdest lesson, then have a guy call us involving us in political crap.... it just never stopped... Luckly we had dinner with Bruder Krammer that night, pretty much the nicest man alive and he was able to help make the day a little better... But oh yeah... Sunday was a mess.

 

And now we get to deal with all this stuff this week, so it should be another week full of interesting experiences... Never a dull moment.  But at the same time I have seen so many miracles here in the mission and met some of the nicest and most humble people.  I am so excited to watch them progress in the gospel.  This work really is the work of the Lord.

 

Elder Blackley