January 30, 2012

            Well this week was exciting. First of all, I lost my planner :( man I am a terrible missionary. I left it on a bus. Which is not the greatest because it just had like all of the plans, goals, and lots of numbers. But almost everything important I have already written in our area book, but it did reinforce the importance of keeping our records up to date. On a less depressing note, we tausched with the zone leaders this week. I went to Winterthur to work with Elder Alston, and Elder Sullivan came to Wetzikon. It was a lot of fun to work with Elder Alston. We met with S…….., a Catholic Priest who was (has?) an amazing testimony, but isn’t baptized, its a long story, anyways, we had a good lesson, and hopefully we helped him to understand why he only needs to worry about what God expects from him, not what others expect.

            Other than that we met with a lot of members. The stake president wants us to really start meeting more with the members and helping them do missionary work. The rest of the week was pretty exciting. We met with P……., our Jewish friend, and he was going to come to church on Sunday, but his rabbi found out and told him he isn`t allowed to go. psh... just goes to show whose church is true. Our mission president wasn`t worried about us converting to Judaism by going to a synagogue. Hahaha I am just bitter,  but it doesn`t matter, no unhallowed hand can stop the work, and sooner or later P..... is coming to church. Hopefully sooner rather then later, but we will see.

            Other spiritual experiences... oh yeah, the temple!!!! I love the temple. We did a session, and it was in German again. It is the best! And we tried to invite L……. and A……… C…… to baptism. Their mom said that first she needs to ask her church if that is okay... hahahaha man, what does she expect that her church will say?  But anyways, we are still working with them. Elder Williams met with R……. and P……… while I was gone. We did get 3 referrals in the last 2 days though. So we are excited to contact some cool new people.

            Anyways, I now have permission to go to the dentist, so I will go this week, but I am not sure how it will be paid for. The office said to just send them the bill, so they might be calling you soon. Unfortunately the mission doesn`t cover dental expenses, so we will see what happens. But this week will be an exciting one. We have transfer calls tomorrow, and then Wednesday Pres. Kopishke comes and meets with us! (he is the President of the Europe area, and he is German). So we will have a great week. Hope everything goes equally well in Zion!
Liebe
Elder Terry

January 23, 2012

            Well first of all, we are still working on the dentist thing. I need to call the nurse today and see if we have found a dentist that I can go to here in the area. Otherwise this week was pretty good.  (Elder Terry has discovered a cavity and because he lives in Switzerland he can't just go to any dentist and have insurance cover it)
            We started off on Tuesday with interviews with Pres. Miles. It was really good to get to talk to him again. Then we had an austausch and I worked with Elder Bauerfeind in Wetzikon. We had a lot of fun, and we taught P…….., our Jehovah’s Witness investigator, and C……….., a less active sister. P…….. isn`t making a lot of progress because she won`t really read in the Book of Mormon. It is so frustrating. Just read the book and pray about it. What is so hard?
            But anyways, we had a pretty rough day on Thursday, with 3 fallen out appointments, and that was super hard. But we did have some cool experiences. We went to one of our planned appointments and she wasn`t there, and we wanted to go by on another less active family, but we couldn`t find their street on our map, so we went to an active family`s house to ask if they knew where it was. Only the dad was home, and he is really inactive. But he was nice and offered to google it really quick and let us in. He still couldn`t find it, so he pulled out a phone book and looked in there, and finally found it. He told us how to get there, and we explained that we wanted to watch this short 5 minute video with this family, but first we wanted to watch it with him. He said he had no time and needed to get back to work, but eventually we persisted, and we watched a short movie, finding happiness, with him. It was way good and he loved it, and afterwards he offered to drive us to this family, which gave us time to talk with him a little more. On Sunday his wife came up to us and thanked us for talking with her husband and that it had really affected him. So hopefully he comes back to church soon.

            We also went by on another less active sister, W…….. S………... She had met with the missionaries before, but then a new set of missionaries came and they followed the rules and said that they needed to have a man come with them (if you don`t already know this, missionaries aren`t  allowed to meet with women alone. We have to bring another man) this really offended Sis. S………..., and she hasn`t met with the missionaries since. That was about one and a half years ago. So we went by on her, and she was excited to see us, and invited us in, and we asked if there was a man there, and she started to get really offended again. Apparently the missionaries before had told her that the rule was there to protect the church from lawsuits, and this made Sister S…….. mad. We explained to her that the rule is actually an opportunity for the members to come more often with us on joint teaches, and that it is really effective in getting the young men to come with us, because we can call them and tell them that it is absolutely essential that they come with us. After we explained it this way she just looked at us and said, "Wow, you have totally changed my view of this situation." We asked her if there was any service we could do for her, and she said she needed to have a couple of light fixtures changed, and we offered to come by later in the week with another man and change them and share a spiritual thought with her. Which she accepted and we were able to do. So that is another cool experience from this week.
            Yesterday was an exciting day food wise. We had lunch with the Drewlows, and we had cheese fondue. Apparently that is the most Swiss of all meals, and they were offended that I hadn`t had it yet. But it was so tasty! I loved it. Then we went to H…….’s house, she is an investigator. She invited us over to eat with her entire family. I had the lovely opportunity to eat crab legs. I still don`t like them. But we got to teach like 13 people, which was cool.  Anyways, the church is most definitely true. The Book of Mormon can change lives. It has changed mine. And the commandments are there for our blessing.
            Sometimes we all, like Sister S……., lose sight of the many, many blessings that come to us when we keep the commandments. I know, as it says in D&C 29, that there are no physical or financial or political commandments. All commandments are spiritual. And if we keep the commandments, we are guaranteed peace in this life, and eternal life in the world to come. I know this to be true. The Lord has always blessed me when I have been obedient, and I am confident that he will continue to do so. So, like Nephi, my final words are "I must obey."

Liebe
Elder Terry

January 16, 2012

HALLO!!!!

            This week was very interesting. Let’s start at the beginning. Approximately 5 hours after I sent my letter last week, I completely lost my voice. It was super weird because I was talking fine earlier, and then we went to an appointment, and all of a sudden by the end of the appointment I couldn`t talk anymore. And it was like that for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and kinda’ Friday. And let me tell you, there is nothing worse then being a missionary and not being able to talk. But it did make me really appreciative for the ability to talk, and it made me want to use that ability better to bless more people and talk more about Christ. Like Elder Holland said at the last General Conference, I need to be a voice for God. Anyways, that definitely made things super weird. We still had quite a few appointments, and mostly Elder Williams had to teach them and I would try and help, but I could only whisper.

            Anyways, we met with our Jehovah’s Witness investigator, P……. again, and she has been reading in the Book of Mormon, but no answer yet. So we talked about that a little bit. Also we met with R……., the eternal investigator again, and he was kinda upset because he hasn`t gotten a super strong spiritual answer either, and he feels that he has done enough. So we talked a lot about what is required of us to get spiritual revelation, and the different ways it can come, and so on. The frustrating thing is that he didn`t even come to church this week. How can you expect God to give you an answer if you can`t even find the time to come to his house and worship him? We are most likely going to have a pretty long talk this week.

Other then that, we went by on a random less active man, and he let us in and gave us Mormon coffee, or Caro, which is made from roasted barley, has no caffeine, and tastes like shoes, at least in my opinion. But we survived. Yesterday we had an eating appointment with a less active family, and we were able to talk a lot about prayer. The father, who is not a member, really opened up a lot, and Elder Williams and I are really excited for him. As well we had dinner with an investigator, H……., she is from Haiti. She made this salad, and told us it was really really hot, but we pretty much ignored her because people here say things are hot, but they really aren`t, but this salad was really hot. I was dying.

Anyways, we just spent most of our p day with the zone leaders. Elder Alston is sick so they have had to stay home the last 2 days, and they really needed food, so we went and Elder Williams stayed with Elder Alston and Elder Sullivan and I went shopping, and then we hung out with them and played some card games. It was fun, and hopefully they won`t go crazy. Being stuck inside is the worst.

Anyways, we have interviews with Pres. Miles tomorrow, so I am super excited. And I love reading the Book of Mormon. It is the best. 2 Ne 9 is so good!!! Like the last ten people I have talked to have all said that they believe on reincarnation, and I wasn`t sure how to answer them, but he answer is 2 Ne 9. Read it and you will know the truth! So we will see how that goes. Anyways, I love you and wish the best week possible!

Liebe

Elder Terry

January 9, 2012

HOLA!!!!

            Hello mi madre, how are you doing? I am doing good, sorry that I am lame and didn`t tell you much about how holiday adventures, that is because we really didn`t do much. Chinese fondue takes like an hour and a half to eat, so to do much else. We ate Chinese fondue 3 times over the holidays. The Monday after Christmas we went with Elder Sullivan and Elder Alston to an eating appointment with them in Winterthur. It was fun. It was a big family get together, and it was cool to eat food. Then we went to the Maglio family, and had Chinese fondue, and talked, and ate, and talked and ate. That is what Swiss people do.

            Anyways, about the German food, I have no idea what German meatloaf is, but I have eaten meatloafy kinda stuff that had hard boiled eggs in it, as well as pickles. It was pretty good. I would actually prefer real fleishkäse. I don`t really know how to explain it, other then it is a loaf of meat. You bake it like you would bake a loaf of bread. We always buy it premade, but you can also buy the ready to bake kind here. I have no clue how to make it though, but the internet would know for sure. Spätzle is super good. I love it. When we, as missionaries eat it, we fry it, then as it is frying pour scrambled eggs on it, and then melt cheese on the top. But you have to spice it pretty heavily if you do that. Otherwise I would suggest you eat spätzle with gulash. I have no clue how you would make gulash, it is meat, potatoes, other vegetables, all in a stewy broth. But spätzle tastes really good like that. Or google schwabish spätzle. Zweiback rolls are good, but I have never had cinnamon swirl cake or apple Plachinga. Things that I would suggest.... hm... swabish maltaschen are the best, by far my favorite thing to eat. you could also try salz kuchen, or salt cake. That was pretty good as well. I was only in Germany for 7 weeks, so its hard to remember what we ate. But those are the things I remember the most. Spätzle with gulash and maltaschen. (Our family is having an FHE with extended family and we thought it would be fun to try some of the foods Elder Terry is eating on his mission.  So I found some recipes and asked Elder Terry what he thought.  The preceding were his thoughts on the matter.  The only problem is we don't live in a place that sells German ingredients so our choices were limited)
            No Leichtenstein today.... :( we will have to see maybe in a few weeks. It takes a little bit of planning, and the zone leaders keep saying they will plan it, but they don`t have time. I will plan it and then invite them. But probably not until end of January or so.  And we get the Liahona in both German and English.
            Now a little bit about our week. This week was pretty awesome. First of all we went by on a part member family from Brazil, and their cousin was over. We were able to give him the first lesson, the Book of Mormon, and got his number to give to the missionaries where he lives. (he also lives in Switzerland, just not in our area.)
            Then on Tuesday we went by on a former investigator that we have been trying for the entire last transfer to contact. She let us up because she thought we were her son, and as we came up the stairs and to her apartment she was smoking a cigarette. As soon as she saw us she threw the cigarette away and told us that she had just lost her job, and was at her wits end, and prayed to God that He would send help, and 5 minutes later we show up. So that was super cool. We were able to teach her and her 16 year old son, and an 18 year old girl that lives there with them.
            Then as well we visited C........, a less active sister who is super active now, and gave her a blessing because she was sick. We also taught her daughter to prepare her for baptism. She is 7. We are also working on teaching her husband, who is not a member.
            Then we also met with the C......... family from Eritria again. They are doing great. It is super hard because the mom doesn`t really understand what we are teaching, but the kids love it. We talked about baptism and asked if they would be baptized, and the mom said they needed to pray about it. So they definitely need some prayers in their behalf. Both both of the kids came to church yesterday, so that is a good sign. Anyways, things are starting to pick up again after the holiday season, and hopefully we will get a few baptisms in soon. We have a long way to go to reach our mission goal of 300+! I know this church is true, and I am so excited to help people learn that for themselves! The Book of Mormon rocks and I love you!

Liebe
Elder Terry

January 2, 2012

Hallo meine Leibe Familie!
            Wie gehts? I am doing really good. Turns out today is Stephanstag, so that means we didn`t go to Leichtenstein because the passport stamping office would be closed. So maybe next week.

            Anyways, this week was an interesting week. Monday was a holiday, and I told you all about that already. Tuesday we had a mini p-day, in that we went shopping and sent emails. The rest of the week we worked hard, but there just seemed to be no one we could really work with. It was depressing. Everyone was out of town. And there wasn`t a big rush of new people wanting to listen to us either. We did talk to one guy, Esak Waldeyesus, he comes from Eretria, and we had an appointment with him, but he doesn`t speak the best German, and just wanted help finding a new apartment. So that was rough.

            But we are super excited to have a week where there won`t be so many silly holidays. We had a great new year though. Bishop Uchtdorf invited us over to lunch on the 31, and we had Chinese fondue, which is this really awesome meat that you stick on a skewer and then put in a pot of oil and cook it, and then there are like a lot of different sauces that we can use to dip it in. We had that on Christmas Eve as well, and we also had it on the 26th. It is definitely my new favorite meal. It is so good. But it takes a long time to eat. Anyways, then we spent New Year’s Eve night at the Drewlows.  President Miles gave us permission to stay up late if we were by active members, so we got to stay up for the New Year. People in Switzerland really like to celebrate the new year with fireworks. There were tons of fireworks going off, and for a long time. At least for 30 minutes after 12.

            Then the next day we had church, and L-------, our favorite 11 year old investigator, came to church. It was awesome. She is so cool. We only had Sacrament Meeting, but then we went to the Ramsey family for lunch and had tacos. It is surprising how much I miss Mexican food. Anyways, then yesterday evening we were invited back to the Jägers. (they had us over on Christmas day as well) and this time Bru. Jäger had Swiss army knives that he gave us as new years presents. He is ridiculous. But don`t worry mom, you taught me well, and we have given everyone who invited us homemade chocolate chip cookies and thank you cards. You definitely taught me well. Thanks :) anyways, we are really hoping for a better week this week, which won`t be too hard. I love you all and I wish you all a great week! Have fun going back to school!!!!!
Liebe
Elder Terry