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