Goodbye Ludwigsburg! - Week 11

Montag 27 Juli  

Today was an interesting day. We had our studies and shopping to start off the day. Afterwards, we came back and hung around the apartment for an hour or two. Afterwards, we went to Stuttgart and played some frisbee and soccer with the Zone Leaders and the International elders. We also climbed the tower at Killesberg when it was raining sideways, so that was a cool experience. I'll attach a picture from that. I haven't cut my hair for a long time because I am broke as crap, so don't judge. Afterwards, we emailed and then went to the other apartment. We grabbed a couple books, one to take to a member who asked for one, and one to take to district meeting. That was our day for the most part. Oh, I talked to a crazy guy on the Bahnhof bench, and he and I had a great conversation about traveling. It was an interesting conversation to have. He was nice enough though. Fun day.

Dienstag 28 Juli 

Woo! What a day! We woke up, and got some studies done, then traveled over to Pforzheim for district meeting and a finding day. The Heilbronn elders had a 30 minute delay on their train, which was too bad because it took time away from what we wanted to get done, but so be it. We had district meeting in the Pforzheim apartment and it was really fun. It was a good meeting, we had to cut short a little bit, but that was fine. We worked out the finding day assignments and then went over to a Chinese Buffet. Yay. It was so good, but extremely filling and man did we all get bloated. Woo. Afterwards, we went finding and I was with Elder Bates. We talked to so many people and a lot of them were good conversations, but just didn't get anywhere in the end. We went for about 2 hours. It was fun though! I had a great time. Afterwards, we came back to Ludwigsburg to go to an eating appointment. I was sure I wouldn't survive. She cooked for 4 missionaries because she forgot there was just 2 of us now. There was so much food. Oh man. It was the Schiwek family, and they are cool. They've got 3 kids, and they actually met while she was on her mission, because he was her ward mission leader. They fell in love and got married after she went home. Since then, he's gone way inactive and apostate as well. He and I don't mix well...

He was extremely against his daughter being baptized when she turned 8, and he is always looking for ways to bash on the church. I had only talked to him once before, and he was pretty nice when there was 4 of us elders there. So we went over with Johann, another member.

He proceeded to start the plural marriage argument, along with some highly false doctrinal arguments, and my companion is still brand new so he couldn't understand. I was ignoring him the best I could. His wife hates it when he does this, so she was like, "I think you've said enough honey." But he just kept going. I know he was trying to get underneath my skin, and I hate that I let it get to me. I was doing my absolute best to move the conversation along, and then he looks at me and goes, "I guess your German just isn't good enough to talk to me." Now THAT was it. I couldn't take it anymore. We exchanged cross words for a little while when the kids left the room and we could say what we wanted to say. He then he started talking about his new Evangelical church he goes to, and how there he doesn't have to live a health code, he doesn't have to pay tithing, and several other things, and then I got him good. I said, "Oh so you just go where there's nothing expected of you?" he left the room. I was so happy to get out of there.

... I've been steaming for the past couple hours now. Partly because this morning I weighed 178, and tonight I weighed 187. Dang it. Hahaha. It was a really good day though, and I'm happy I don't have to look back and wish I had said something to Brother Schiwek. Maybe that'll spark something in him. Who knows? Great day.

Mittwoch 29 Juli 

Wow. Well, today was pretty good. We both woke up so sick. I thought I was dying. My inside wanted to be on my outside, courtesy of Brian Regan. We studied, then I took a nap instead of eating lunch, and we went out. We had a lesson with Theresa, and it went really well. The Spirit was really powerful and we talked about the restoration more in depth with her. It was a great lesson. Afterwards we came back to do language study and then went dooring a little bit in our area, before heading over to the church for our meeting with Bruder Westrich. We had an awesome discussion and set some more foundation for what we are trying to do. The great thing I think was that he had a computer out and was taking notes and very attentive, as opposed to the other GML's I've had on my mission who don't really care. That was cool. Afterwards we came back, and I worked out. That was the day. It sucks to be sick, but I promised myself at the very beginning, that there will be no 'days off'. Every day I gotta give my all, regardless of whether I'm feeling well or not. Tomorrow is a very full day though, so I hope I feel better!

Donnerstag 30 Juli 

Well today has been pretty good. I felt a lot better this morning even though I got about 2 hours of sleep. That's the life. You'd think you could escape the high school/college late nights by coming on a mission, but no. Well, today, we had studies, then went over to Marbach, a little ways away down the S4 line. We were in service clothes to help Peter and Bettina move some stuff to their Keller. He's a member who has some real disciplinary issues right now, and she's a non member. She's also Ms. Germany. Just saying. She won Ms. Germany a few years back. Out in Marbach, they had a Floh-Markt going. A 'flea market', which is American for 'a poor man's shopping dream', and missionary for 'dream come true'. We were just walking through, and I saw a good looking watch, and Elder Monson broke my other one about 3 months ago. So I grabbed it. It's some pretty cool bling. Anywho, we went over to Peter's and helped him for about an hour. He's got a real cool house and it's right in the middle of the city market. His basement is like a medieval dungeon, which is not rare at all here. The area where I'm at was around 1200 years ago. Crazy right? Afterwards, Peter wanted me to explain baseball to him. He's a big sports guy. He was the women's national ice hockey coach here in Germany. So we had a fun conversation. Then Ms. Germany Bettina came home. She wants to get baptized, but they're living together, and there's too many problems at this point, along with a lack of desire on Peter's part to make progress. Baby steps. But we got to teach Ms. Germany. Now that was cool. Not many other missionaries will say that. It was fun, really good start to the day. Then we went over to the church so I could write our ward email and get some stuff done on the computer, then we went home, got dressed into regular clothes, and went to our dinner appointment with the Zimmers. It was awesome. They are both super cool. They're that old married couple that argues but loves each other so much they just can't stand it. Her dinner was really good. We had a great lesson with them, and they invited us over for Elder Sorensen's birthday next month. That will be good.

Freitag 31 Juli 

So July comes to an end. Wow. Never imagined being here. If any of you can find the button that stops time, hit me with it. Today was great. The Ehepaar called this morning and we went over and helped fix up the other apartment to get it ready for the sisters. We're for sure getting sisters now. (: that will be cool. After all that, (it took hours), we went to Familie Stein for dinner. It was so good. He grilled for us and made corn on the cob, it was unreal. I was feeling right at home. Well, tomorrow is transfer calls, so we will see what happens with that. I'm feeling that we will both stay! I hope I stay.

Samstag 1 August

August already? Man. Well, it's still early morning, but we got transfer calls bright and early. President called. I'm going to Munich to be a Zone Leader with Elder Croft, and Elder Sorensen stays here and gets Elder Barnhart!!!! Wow. Such a cool transfer call. Sisters Poll and Cook are coming here. I wish I could stay and see it here, but Munich will be awesome. I'm really excited. Maybe I can Tausch back into Passau!! (: I will also be in Munich for Oktoberfest!!! Gotta get me some Lederhosen or something. It will be way cool. So today we taught Theresa about prayer and how it helps. She said a prayer for us at the end and did a great job with it. She's pretty upset that I'm leaving. Most people do get upset when missionaries leave. Afterwards, we went to Bruder Cataldo's, and my stupid set in. I checked the bus schedule for Monday-Friday instead of Saturday. So we got one of our priests to go with us, and we were waiting for the bus, and I was having a great conversation with some guy on the bus bench, when Bruder Cataldo calls, and tells me it's Saturday, there is no bus. Dang it. I was ready to cancel the appointment and go home, but he goes, "I even bought pizza for you." Double dang it. I didn't want to put it to waste, so I admitted the defeat that we would be home late, and we made the hour long walk out to his place to eat pizza and read in the scriptures with him. We got there at about 8. Stayed till 9:30, and we were going to make the hour long walk back, but he called a taxi without us knowing and put 12€ in my hand. I tried to pay him back, and he got mad. Like he was going into rage mode. So we admitted defeat and I took my first taxi ride on a mission. Triple dang it. Pizza was good though.

Sonntag 2 August

Today was my goodbye to the Ward. It was good. I gave my testimony and it was awesome. We had great classes and what not. Then we did studies the rest of the day. That was it. Good week!