Nov. 7, 2011

 

            Our week was definitely interesting. First of all one of our investigators, M___, was not showing up to any of our appointments, so we pretty much dropped him. Then he called us and said he still wanted to get baptized, and I told him that means we need to meet. So we met that day and set a plan for his baptism. Unfortunately part of that plan was that he had to come to church on Sunday, which he didn`t do, so we will see what happens. One of our other investigators, K___, decided he wanted to stay in the reformed church, so he dropped us.  

            I had a really cool experience on Thursday. I was doing another companionship exchange, and this time I was working with elder Forbush. He is American, and it was weird to be able to speak English with him. But that is besides the point. We had an appointment with A___, the investigator we found a few weeks ago, and at the end of the appointment I tried to get A____ to pray. He hasn`t prayed in our appointments yet because he always says that he has too much to think about, and he wants to be able to really focus on his prayers. But this time I really felt that it was time that he prayed. So when he said again that he had too much to think about and his thoughts were too muddled, I just told him that he needed to pray, and that we were going to wait here until he prayed. Then I folded my arms and closed my eyes and waited for him to pray, as I was fervently praying silently that he would pray. We sat there for at least 7 or 8 minutes and A___ kept saying "man, I can`t pray. Help me." over and over and over. But finally he prayed. And wow it was such a great prayer, and the spirit was so strong. Missionary work is just the best!
            Later that same day elder Forbush and I were on a train, and this really dirty drunk guy gets on the train, and starts playing his guitar and singing "Bear Necessities" from Jungle Book. It sounded really good, and it was just super funny. I was laughing so hard. Missionary adventures are awesome. Other than that we have had an okay week.   

            We have been losing investigators, either we drop them or they drop us, and once again we had no one at church yesterday (that is the worst feeling in the world. No investigators at church) but it definitely means that Elder Jacob and I are going to be finding some pretty awesome people this week, so keep us in your prayers.

            Anyways this week on Thursday is leadership training, so we will see if Pres. Miles says the same thing about staying in areas longer. (Andrew’s cousin said his mission president was told by the First Presidency to leave missionaries in one area for 6 months to a year)  A lot of missionaries in our mission do stay in the same area for a while, its just me who gets transferred every transfer. hahaha transfer calls are on Friday, so we will see what happens. I got your birthday package, and I haven`t opened anything yet, but I haven`t gotten the deoderant yet. And I got a birthday letter from Tay today, so thanks Tay and Tori and Sis. Thomas, you guys are the best!

            Oh and dinner appointments... well we get normally 2 a week or so. That is probably because I don`t want to go to them. Evening is prime missionary time, and we normally have appointments for almost every evening, so that makes it hard for members to invite us over, but oh well, I came on a mission to bring others to Christ, not just to chill out with members. Yes I know that members are super important and I am actually focusing on working more with them, so no one flip out and think I am going apostate.

            To answer your other questions, I think we get 310 Swiss francen, which is A LOT of money, pretty much equal with how much I have to pay every month, so that is ridiculous. I have no idea how much rent is because we don`t deal with that, but if I had to guess probably about 900 or 1000 francen a month. Switzerland is super expensive, like I said. For example... toast (or what Americans refer to as bread... yes there is a difference, and I`ll explain it when I get home) costs about 45 cents in euro in Germany, 50 cents in euro in Austria, and 1.05 francen in Switzerland. So with conversion rates it is hard to tell but about 1.5 times as much as in Austria. Chocolate, although ridiculously good, costs TONS. Milka is like 75 cents in Austria but 1.50 in Switzerland. Or a kägi-fret, the Swiss improvement on the kitkat costs 90 cents in Austria but 1.70 in Switzerland. And it is made in Switzerland. Wierd huh? oh and my favorite, the Döner. In Austria 3.50. in Germany 4.50, and in Switzerland 8.50. Man what a rip. Someone who takes economics should tell me how Switzerland has survived because it doesn`t make any sense to me. We normally buy things together, so that means we alternate every week who buys, but we normally spend about 70 francen a week on groceries. But that is enough about money, that stuff isn`t even important. I still need a Christmas wish list. I thought about buying you chocolates filled with alcohol as a joke, but then I realized it is in German so you wouldn`t be able to read it, and might actually eat it, so that is a bad idea. But otherwise all you are getting is a kg of frey chocolate. What I really want for Christmas is just some Christmas music. I am dying without Christmas music. So if you could burn me a cd with Manheim Steamroller and other good Christmas music, I would love it. (pres. Miles says we can choose if the music is worthy of our calling, so I am saying most of our Christmas music is, except for relient k and some of the songs from Muppets probably aren`t so great, ie Marley and Marley, but pretty much the ones that talk about Christ are great. So a cd of that would be great.

            On and with the recipes... do you want to google where I could buy brown sugar in Switzerland? for some reason they haven`t heard of that. Any other recipes would be welcomed. And a crock pot is a good idea, I will have to look in to that. Anyways, thanks so much, you are the bestest mom in the whole world, I love love love you, and have a great week!
Liebe
Elder Terry