Oct. 31, 2011

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope all of you American children are enjoying your day of free candy, because here in Switzerland there is nothing. It is like it is not even a holiday or something. But it’s all good, I will keep the holiday spirit alive all throughout the day. No problem. I am sorry that this week has been stressful on you, we haven`t had the best week either.

First of all we had an unusual amount of fallen out appointments, which is always rough, but then we had a big shock. Tuesday after district meeting I did a companion exchange with the missionaries in Ebnat. I worked with Elder Bauerfiend, who is German and this is his first transfer on his mission, so he is pretty new. We had a great day, we had a great lesson with M_____ where we talked about the prophets and one of his friends was there and she had a lot of interest as well, so we gave her a Book of Mormon and made out an appointment with her, and then we did a lot of vorbeis, where we just go by on former and potential investigators, and with the first 2 we made out appointments for when we could come back and teach a lesson.

Then that evening we were supposed to have dinner with Bishop Uchtdorf, but he forgot and so that ended up not happening. But we found a sweet guy off the street named D_____, he is from Urietria or something that sounds like that, in Africa, and we have an appointment tomorrow so we will see how that goes. So it was actually a seemingly effective and great day. But then M_______ called us the next morning and said that he had thought more about it and he didn`t want to be baptized. In fact he didn`t want any contact with us at all. It was pretty rough, but we are hoping that we can get contact with him and find out exactly what happened.

And then one of our other baptismal candidates, M_____, is super flaky, and never shows up to our appointments. So he is pretty much dropped, sadly. There isn`t much more we can do for him. And then our last investigator with a baptismal date, A____, didn`t make it to church even though I called him 30 minutes before and he said he was coming. Needless to say it was a rough week.

Nevertheless (that is a great scripture word) I have really been impressed with how well Elder Jacob has taken all of it. He is still excited to do the work, and full of faith that we will be able to have contact again with M______. We have a pretty good week already planned out, and as Joseph Smith so eloquently stated, "no unhallowed hand can stop the work." "but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done”. That is the truth. The work is still moving forward, despite all of Satan`s attempts to stop it, and in spite of everything else that is going on in the world. So pray for a great week, and I am sure it will be exactly what the Lord has in mind.
            Now to answer more of your questions, Halloween, yeah not so big here, daylights savings time is awesome, we adjusted our clocks on Sunday, and I loved the extra hour of sleep. And don`t worry, the weather was actually really nice this week. I didn`t even wear my winter coat, just my suit coat the entire week. But yeah, it is pretty foggy this morning, and I have a feeling that the summer dreamland is about to be crushed. But don`t worry, I am ready for it! I am actually super excited. Winter in Switzerland! nothing can be better. Oh and I got my official Switzerland visa this week, so most likely (knock on wood) I will be staying in Switzerland for a while. My visa is good until next October, so we will see. Anyways thanks for everything, no packages yet, but hopefully soon :) and Christmas.... man I don`t even know... some cool gospel pictures, good, quick, American recipes, and love. That`s all I need. Oh and to know what you all want for Christmas. I mean, its not every day that you will have a son living in the land with the best chocolate, watches, and overall the best quality of everything. Naturally I will send you the special Swiss chocolate that is unavailable outside of Switzerland (the Swiss people say that the Swiss chocolate that you can buy in other countries, ie lindt, is not the same as when you can by it IN Switzerland. Sounds pretty phony to me, but we will see...) anyways, you are all in my prayers, thank you so much for everything, and I hope that this week is awesome. I mean it’s Halloween, how could it not be awesome? I love you mom!
liebe
Elder Terry

October 24, 2011

October 24, 2011

 (there are pictures at the end of this letter...check out my boy with really short hair!!)

            Wow it is weird to think that Jason Hodson is home. Crazy. that is cool though. and hopefully Colten gets his mission call soon. That would be pretty rough to be the last one left. I am glad that Caleb and I left at practically the same time.

            Okay about German....(I asked him if he was able to communicate ok with his companion, who is native German, and if Elder Jacob corrects him when he talks) Elder Jacob and I can communicate perfectly in German, because he speaks High German, unfortunately the people of Switzerland don`t. They speak Swiss German. And about 2 or 3 times a day I try to talk to someone and they don`t understand what I am saying because I speak High German with an American accent. But they can understand Elder Jacob just fine. Silly American accent. I am trying to have Elder Jacob help correct me, but so far it is not really helping. Sometimes when I am super frustrated I tell people that I come from Wien and that I am speaking High German. (the way I phrase it in German makes it so that I am not actually lying). hahaha it really isn`t that bad, but it is pretty funny, and I am trying my best to learn Swiss German, but it isn`t all that easy.

            As for how the people are different... that is a good question. I find the people to be much nicer and more open then in Austria, but other than that, it’s pretty much the same. Everyone has pride in their own country. Wetzikon is a lot smaller geographically then Wiener Neustadt, and their but we go to different cities more often then in Wiener Neustadt.(Can I tell you that it is killing me not to correct his spelling?  I’m not sure what he is saying with “their” so enjoy!) The biggest difference is just the economical differences. Austria is obviously a very rich, 1st world country, but Switzerland is loaded. Money coming out of their ears. But that is about all.
            Oh and before I forget, I got your letter today. So it took a week if you sent it last Monday.  (I sent it Tuesday so that’s good.  So keep sending letters)
            Our week was pretty good. First of all one, A_____ G_____ got baptized. He is 8 years old, and his mom is a member but his dad isn`t, and his dad didn`t want him to get baptized unless that is what he wanted, so we got to teach him the lessons. That was pretty cool. Then we are also working with M______ M_______. He is this sweet guy from Switzerland. He had a baptismal date for next Sunday, but we changed it to the 20th of November because he isn`t ready yet. Then we also have been going through the area book looking for new investigators, and we found a former investigator who we called and set up an appointment with. She is from Haiti, and she is awesome. Her name is H______, and pretty much we walked into her house and sat down and she told us about how much she loves the Book of Mormon, and how she tells everyone that she belongs to the "mormon church". We were super suprised, and I asked her if she knew all of this stuff already why she isn`t baptized, and apparently her dad is a seventh day adventist preacher, and in their church you have to investigate the church for 3 or 4 years before you can be baptized. so she didn`t feel she was ready for baptism, and she also works night shifts in her job so she can`t come to church because she is too tired to come right after work. Those are definitely small problems, and we are excited to help her overcome these small problems and get baptised.

            We also found this sweet investigator this week. His name is A______ M______ and he is from Ivory Coast. We found him as we were walking on the street Friday and we made out an appointment for Saturday, and then we invited him to church and the baptism on Sunday and he came to both. During Sunday school one of the members and I taught him the first lesson and gave him the baptismal commitment and he accepted. So his baptism is also planned for the 20 of November. So if I actually get to stay in an area for longer then 1 transfer then I will probably get to see a lot of baptisms soon. We are super excited. Other then that our week was awesome, and we are super excited for another super awesome week.

            Yes Bern temple is in our mission, it is about 2 hours away, but we are only allowed to go if we have a new member who invites us to come with him/her.

liebe
Elder Terry

            Well somehow I have a few extra minutes, so I decided to right (spelling again!) some more. So first, a few things I would love to have. First, when you send a package again, I need more deodorant. Another stick of stain cleaner wouldn`t be bad either. And I would love it if you could send me a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Other then that, life in Switzerland is pretty good. Sometimes I can see the Alps from our home, and it is really beautiful. It snowed on Wednesday, but it all melted and is actually pretty warm today, but I am sure that it will get cold again. I bought a hat today, because without hair my head gets cold and I get a headache. Man I really have forgotten what it is like to have such short hair. Anyways, the work is definitely moving forward here in Wetzikon, not as fast as I want, but luckily God is the one in control and not me. Other cool things.... I can`t really remember... oh we bake banana bread like once a week, you would probably be proud of me, I am pretty good at cooking and baking now, but we don`t eat very often... most the time a döner for lunch and a sandwich for dinner. There is just too much to do, and who has time to eat when peoples` souls are dwindling in unbelief? besides, Jesus said that we shouldn`t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And so far so good. hahaha just kidding mom, don`t worry, I am fairly healthy, as healthy as I can be without running every day. okay bye now
love
Elder Terry

Apartment in Wetzikon

Elder Terry and Elder Jacob

October 17, 2011

         Alright, well unfortunately this is going to be a pretty short letter, and I know you don`t like that, but it is how it has to be. Because we went hiking today. We went as a zone and it was pretty much awesome. Hiking in the Alps. Too bad the top of the mountain was like 5000 feet, right about Orem level. But it was a lot of fun. I can`t remember the name of the mountain, but it is right next to Centius, so if you look for pictures of that general area you will see what I got to see today.
        Well to answer your questions... first off I forgot to mention the coolest part of serving in Wetzikon. And that is that our bishop is Bishop Uchtdorf, the son of THE Pres. Uchtdorf. I haven`t got a chance really to talk to him because he is super busy, but I was able to snag him for a few moments and set up an appointment so that we can meet with him and see what we can do to help him. The ward and ward mission leader are great, but they look at finding new investigators as something that the missionaries should do. But we will work on that with them. We are planning on just stopping by on members when we are in the area, teaching a short 10 minute lesson and see if we through the Holy Ghost can`t knock some referrals out if them. And we are working on joint teaches as well, because they aren`t so very keen on that. But I am very optimistic, because I think they really want to help deep down, but they, like all of us, just sometimes need to be challenged to take things up a level. I`m not going to lie, the best part of being a missionary is that I don`t have to worry about stepping on peoples toes. And of course, if one has the Spirit then it is fairly easy to help them out.
         We have about 10 investigators right now. One of them has a baptism date for the 29 of October, but he still needs to start living the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. But hopefully he will make it.
        No bizarre food, I beleive there are 11 wards in St Gallen so that is 22 missionaries, zone meetings are in Winterthur, right out side Zurich.

Liebe
Elder Terry

 October 10, 2011

Wow, it sounds like it has been a busy week. Congrats to the XC team, and too bad about the badish weather. here are the answers to all of the questions you asked me.
First new address is
Elder Andrew Terry
Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Alpenländische Mission
Bahnhofstrasse 278
8623 Wetzikon
Schweiz (Switzerland)

Second of all, train ride. So my train left Wien at 6:14, so we actually stayed the night with other elders in Wien. But we had to wake up at 4:30 in order to get ready and get to the train station. I got to Munich at 10:30, and the secretary elders picked me and Elder Ronna (zone leader from Wien, he is also going to Switzerland) and rushed us to the Swiss Consolate so that we could get swiss visas. It takes 4 to 5 hours to print our visas, so we had to wait at Munich bahnhof. Elder Ronna and I talked to alot of people though, so that was alot of fun. Then we got on a train at 16:30 and got to Zurich train station at 20:45. Then it is only about 15 minutes from Zurich to our appartment. So in total about 8 or 9 hours on the train. I took some pictures this time, but sadly this internet place doesn`t let you send pictures, but I will get them to you soon.

MY new companion is Elder Jacob, like I said. He has been on his mission for about 1 month. He had 11 days in the MTC and then 3 weeks in the field. So he is also pretty new to the area, so we are learning together. It has definitely been an interesting experience.

The church building is 5 minutes by foot away from our apartment, so really close. The terrain is pretty hilly, people not from Utah might say mountainy, but they aren`t really mountains. Our area is the south east of Zurich, along side the Zurich Sea, and it is a really beautiful area. We will be riding trains and buses. I just got my GA today, which is a pass that allows you to use all trains, buses and boats in Switzerland. Which is really handy because Switzerland has great public transportation. But it is SUPER expensive here. I already spent 142 franken to use the Zurich train and bus system for 1 week, so I am really happy to have a GA. Everything is super expensive. Clothes, transportation, and especially food. It is ridiculous. I called the financial secretaries to see if they could give me some more money, and they did, but I might have to pull from my personal money as well, we will see. I will try not to.

It has been SUPER rainy and cold the past 3 days, so it is good that I bought a coat. But I will also be buying a scarf, a umbrella ( I have already broken 2 cheap ones, so I am thinking of buying a new one) and I need a new watch, becuase somehow my watch that is 50 meters water resistant had some trouble with a little rain, and now there is water inside it, so it doesn`t work. And there is no better place to buy a watch then Switzerland. But don`t worry mom, I will do my best to not spend personal money.  Anyways, the other new thing is the language. You see, in Switzerland they don`t really speak German, they speak so called "Swiss German". It is about as close to German as English is. There are some words that are the same, and the general word order is the same, but the majority of the words and pronounciation is very different. Even my German companion can`t understand them. So that has definitely been a challenge. But we will get over it. Needless to say, this has definitely been a learning experience this past week, but I have definitely felt the Lord`s love and support. I know this church is true, and I love you! Have a great week!
Liebe
Elder Terry

Access GRANTED!!!

October 3, 2011

            So, I believe I failed to mention this last week, but this week was transfer calls, and I got transferred. TO SWITZERLAND!!! If you are wondering why I am excited, its because Switzerland is like the forbidden forest of our mission. Since the problems with visas Switzerland has practically been its own mission, because we couldn`t get visas for missionaries to get transferred there. So I`m not exactly sure how I got in, either they have a visa for me, or I will only be there for 90 days, either way, I`m going to Wetzikon ward, in the St. Gallen stake. My new companion is Elder Jacob, he is from Germany, and has been on his mission for 3 weeks, and has been a member for 1 year. Man I am so excited to be working with a German companion. Finally I will learn GERMAN!!!  

            Anyways, we will be following the new training program, so that will be exciting, and I am staying district leader. So this will definitely be a very busy transfer. I am really excited for it though, in case you can`t tell. And I am really excited for another ridiculously long train ride, once again through München. hahaha every transfer day I go to München. It is pretty ridiculous. Oh well. Oh and let Abbie know that I got her letter today, so not to worry, I got it before I got transferred, and tell Brooke I say hi, and that she is the best!
            Anyways, about conference. So because we are like 8 hours ahead of Utah time wise, we watched the Saturday morning session live at 6 pm here. It was a great session. I love Elder Scott, he is the best! I really liked his talk. And also Pres. Uchtdorf´s talk, it was also one of my favorites. Oh and we watched it in English at the church. Then Sunday we watched the priesthood session at 11 am, once again in English at the church. Priesthood session is the best! sorry I don`t mean to offend any women or make them feel like they missed out, because they can watch it and read it later, but it was really great. I loved all of the talks. Elder Holland was his good ol´ crazy self, calling us to war, and the entire first presidency spoke. It was pretty much crazy. I loved it! Then we had lunch, and then we watched the Saturday afternoon session at 2, also in English. Then we drove and picked up an investigator, Anton Bozesky, and brought him to the Sunday morning session which we watched at 6 pm, and this time in German because we had investigators to sit by. It was a great experience, but I`m not going to lie, I like watching them in English more than German. It is better to hear the real voices of the apostles and prophet as they speak. But that is just my opinion. But we missed the Sunday afternoon session. but thanks to the wonders of technology I just downloaded all of the sessions of conference to my mp3 player and now I can listen to them whenever I want! It is going to be great.
            Well this week was awesome, it went by really fast because we were super busy. We did 2 service projects, one was stacking wood and the other was digging holes, both things that I am super good at, thanks to my higher education I got at college. Anyways, I hope that this week goes well. Enjoy the fall weather! Oh and I haven`t bought a coat yet, but probably today, because things in Switzerland are super expensive, so I will probably buy it here in Austria. Anyways, I love you, the church is true, Pres. Monson is most definitely THE living prophet today. And if we follow his counsel then we can stand assured that we will receive the blessings promised us by an unchanging and infinitely loving Heavenly Father. I love you!
Liebe
Elder Terry

September 25, 2011

                 First of all, $200 should be enough. I`m looking for a coat in about the 50€ price range, so that is about 70 or 80 dollars I believe. Anyways, I guess I will answer your question now. I have enough time to read the emails from my friends. I don`t print them, because it costs 10 cents a page to print, which is rather expensive, so I just read them. But please keep sending them to me.
               I am glad that Tanner finally got to speak in church. He is such a stud. I am excited to read his talk.
Anyways, I am glad to hear that BYU won, finally. That's good. And no, I don`t need more vitamins, and it would definitely be cheaper if I just bought them here then if you sent them to me. I am in Europe, not in Mexico. We are semi civilized over here. (Ouch!)
              This week was definitely a great one. Like I said last week, it was pretty cold here on Monday, and also on Tuesday. I was pretty cold. Tuesday we didn`t have district meeting becuase we had leadership training later in the week, but we had another austausch. This time I stayed in Wiener Neustadt and Elder Greve came here and worked with me. It was great. Elder Greve is awesome. He was my zone leader when I first got into the field, and now he is in his last transfer, he will be going home in 1 week. But he worked here in Wiener Neustadt for 3 transfers, so he told me about some potential investigators that we could go by on. We had a lot of fun and got a lot of missionary work done as well, even though Elder Greve is pretty sick. But he refuses to stay inside, which is awesome. Somehow I have avoided the sickness, almost everyone else in our district has had it, but I have lucked out, (knock on wood). Maybe all those days of running outside no matter what the weather has toughened my body and immune system. Anyways it is warm again, so no worries. We are hoping to enjoy a few more weeks of good weather before it gets too bad.
               On Friday we had our leadership training meeting in Wien, which was changed into a pretty much a zone conference, becuase there was only one companionship that wouldn`t be invited. You see, all district leaders, trainers, there companions obviously, and all sisters are invited to leadership training, and there are so many people being trained in wien that that is pretty much everyone. So the one set of elders that wouldn`t of normally come were invited, and Pres Miles taught us about the new training program that is being introduced all over the world. you have probably read about it in everyone elses emails, so I will spare you the boring details, but pretty much the plan is that the new missionaries should be able to train after 12 weeks. So the new missionaries and their companions will stay together for 12 weeks or 2 transfers, and they will have 2 hours of companionship study instead of 1. A lot of the focus is on improved teaching, and part of that is that missionaries will be watching clips from The District 1 and 2. And that means......(drum roll) that every companionship was rewarded with a portable DVD player! Wow, missionary work is going hi tech! It is pretty exciting though, and we were all really suprised. One step closer to missionaries with ipads!
                Anyways, more about the actual missionary work, we had a really great week. We were able to change our pattern of meeting with C_______, so we shortened our appointments and meet 3 times a week. I think it has helped a lot, and this next week it should definitely help a lot, because between 3 times with us and general conference she is going to be flooded with the gospel and the spirit. It will be awesome! It is going to be exactly what she needs to jump start some changes in her life. We also met with Herr S______, and he is doing well, he had a really wierd question about the word of wisdom though. He totally agrees with the word of wisdom and knows that it is true, but he won`t admit it is revelation becuase he feels like it goes against what Jesus said when he told the Pharisees that it wasn`t what went in the mouth but what came out that defiled a man. He feels like that means that it doesn`t matter to God what we eat or do with our bodies. We explained it as well as we could, but it all comes back to whether Joseph Smith was a prophet or not, so we commited him to pray about it, and hopefully we will be able to talk more about it this week. We also finally got to meet with G_______, an ewige untersucher (eternal investigator ?)who we haven`t been able to meet with for like 10 weeks. And A______ came to church this week, and hopefully next weekend we will be able to meet with him between conference sessions, and help him progress towards baptism!
        Wiener Neustadt is just the best area ever! and Elder Talbot is great! Transfer calls are this week so we will see what happens... anyways have a great week, make sure to watch conference becuase it is the best thing ever, and I love you!
Liebe
Elder Terry