Week 1:
Legit
I don't actually know where to start with this week! It has been such a week
it's unbelievable!!! Last Monday we legit just chilled at the chapel again with
Richterswil! It was a fun day and my FHE lesson went pretty well, I think! Nice
and sweet and one of the members brought with them some Italian thing. It's like a cake that’s got fruits and nuts
in it, but it is like really light. Apparently
his Mother bought it and got it imported from Italy for him and it cost her a
bomb!!!! It did taste absolutely amazing!!!!!
Tuesday was an awesome missionary day!!!! We started the day by meeting
the Dielsdorf Elders in Zürich Hauptbahnhof to give them a couple of copies of
the French Book of Mormon. Then we did a few vorbeis, which weren't actually
where these people lived, but it happens! Then we went to Family Brown’s for
Lunch! It was awesome and we played 'Who Said... Book of Mormon', which I
bought last week at the temple to play with families with young kids! It was
pretty cool and then we chilled and got to know the family a little better!!!
Then from theirs, we went to Altstetten to meet with Jeffrey and we had a super
awesomely spiritual lesson with him! It was beautiful how strong the spirit
was!!! Then we had splits and both of us had an appointment with investigators,
so two member present lessons and one was a new investigator! Awesome!!! It was
such a brilliant day!!!
Wednesday, not too much happened! Crazy how the days change, but we did
a language assessment as our mission is being used by the missionary department
to test the learning and growth of missionaries in their mission languages to
see how they can improve training before the MTC, during the MTC and within the
mission field, so we do that individually just on the computer answering questions
and responding to typical missionary situations in German!!! It's fun!! Then we
had a lesson and that was that, really!
Thursday was a full on morning! I hate these types of mornings, but we
did 3 hours studies, then lunch, then 3 hours weekly planning! Then we had a
lesson with a French lady, who the Dielsdorf Elders found, but lives in our
area; so we had them as our joint teach.
Elder Huby can translate to French for us!!! It was a pretty cool lesson
and she was such a gold mine!!! Legit, she was like... next time I'll bring my
cousin to our lesson and is your church over in Africa, cause I'd like
missionaries like you to go and teach my son!!!!! It was awesome!!!! Then we
had another lesson in the evening with Familie Baumann! I'm sure I've spoken about them before! They
are the friends of a family in the Ward, who we are just practicing teaching
with.
Friday was one crazy day, so we did studies, lunch and then headed to
Zürich HB to take train connections to München Hbf!!!! We did a train to Lindau
Hbf, then a RegioBahn to Buchloe (which went all the way through the Kaufbeuren
area, like so many little dorfs that we worked in when I was there it was
awesome). Then another RegioBahn from
Buchloe to München Hbf! It took forever, but it was a super fun train ride,
although it was packed with missionaries, as all of the Swiss missionaries were
on the same trains!!!!! Then we all met in München Hbf, as everyone was coming
in! The whole mission was meeting on Friday night, except for the München Zone!
It would really suck to be in the München zone, knowing the whole mission were
together but you!!! But it was awesome and we caught up with loads of people
and had pictures! Hence one of them that sent with the last email was just a
small portion of our MTC group, who we haven't seen in ages!!! So cool!! Then
we went to grab dinner - so many unorganised tausches happen when you're in big
groups of missionaries! So Elder Paulsen was with some of the other Elders, as
I was talking to Elder Dewey and everyone was heading out to get dinner, so I
just went in a dritt with the AP’s for the evening!! Not too bad, especially
since I got to ride in the car to the chapel instead of walking it!!!!
Mwahaha!! So we all met at the chapel, not too far from Bahnhof and met with
President and Sister Kohler! I love the Kohlers, they are legit the Best!!! So
we had a pretty cool evening, just organising everything for the next day! Then
to the hostel and we barely got any sleep, but it was an awesome evening!!!
Saturday!!! Oh man!!! So, we left the hostel at like 7.50 to get to the
München Stake Centre! With just a bit of crazy travel and absolutely packing
out buses, we made it! It was so cool seeing everyone!!! Soooo many Missionaries!!
We have like about 280 missionaries I think!!!!! It's crazy!!! Then the Conference!!!!
It was, oh man! It's indescribable how amazing it was! The spirit was the most
intense spirit I have ever felt!!! It was so, just, indescribably, brilliantly,
beautifully, amazing!!!!! The words just aren't even available to describe the
atmosphere of that Conference! It was such a confirming witness to me that this
work is true, it is the Lord’s work!!
This
church is true! I don't just believe it, I know it! It is true and I know that
with every fibre of my being! There is no doubt within me that this church is
led by a living Prophet, Seer and Revelator and that the Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles are also men called and chosen to be Special Witnesses of Christ, as
Prophets, Seers and Revelators! It is so true! Just hearing Elder Bednar speak
- you just know! There was no doubt about it! It was an amazing Conference! It
was really a discussion atmosphere! He asked questions that prompted spiritual
revelation for us to share with him. The room was just full of the spirit! Then
before lunch we had a ‘Question and Answer’ session and it was amazing! He answered every question so perfectly; there
was just no doubt about it! It was weird cause the whole Conference was, but
wasn't about iPads; it was a focus of how we can better ourselves as
missionaries, how we can use all of the tools that we have to further the work
of salvation! It was amazing! One thing he said that really helped me see
choices in a different light was something along the lines of "There is no
such thing as agency anymore. We used our agency when we entered the waters of
baptism; when we passed through the veil of the holy temple; as we made those
sacred covenants - from that time forth it became just 'covenant breaking'!"
How true is that!!!!! It made me realise how true it really is! I've reflected
on that statement again and again! We really did use up our agency at that time,
when we made those sacred covenants; when we promised to keep the commandments
and take upon us the name of Christ! Now it really is just doing what we chose
we should do, or breaking our covenants! I think that statement is something
that will stay with me for the rest of my life! It is truth!
Then we ended the day with a crazy trip back to München Hbf to get the
bus back to Zürich HB! We got back pretty late! Then Sunday was church! We did
a beautiful musical item as the Ward Choir for Sacrament meeting! It was 'Be
still my Soul', which actually isn't in the German hymn book, but we got a translation
of it and it was so cool - and we had an investigator at church! Wahey!!! Then
a dinner appointment, which was amazing food!!! Then we called up a former
investigator to see if we could meet with him and he was like ‘Yeah, sure! Meet
me at this place!’ So we went and met with him and he had a friend with him,
who was awesome and so prepared to hear the gospel, so we had an awesome lesson
and our numbers were like the best they have ever been and we were only in our
area working for like 3 and a half days in total!!! It's amazing!!! Miracles
really happen!!!!
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| MTC Group Reunion |
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| At the All Mission Conference |
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| Making our way to the Munich Chapel for Conference |
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| Missionaries from Zurich Zones |
I got my package from home at the Conference, which was a devil to get
back to Zürich, but hey, now I get to enjoy its contents! I'm actually wearing
my Griffindor tie right now! haha!!! The plan was that we would get iPads at
the Conference, but there seems to have been a bit of a delay, so they should
be here within the next 2 weeks or so! The cases have arrived at the office
already, so we are definitely getting them!!!
Well, that is about it for this week!!! Have a brilliant week! I love
you all a tonne!!!!
Elder Ammon Robertson xxxxxxxx
Week 2:
So Montag, P-day! Not too much actually happened. It was pretty chilled,
which was nice!!! So we did emails and then went to take a boat trip on the
Zürisee! We did it with the Richterswil, Wetzikon and Ebnat Elders and the
Winterthur Sisters! We just chilled on the boat for a few hours, playing games,
chilling, chatting! It was perfect really, cause we aren't allowed to go to
other zones to hang out on P-day, but the Zürisee is shared between our zone
and the St Gallen zone, so we just did that!!! It was a fun day! Then back to
the chapel for FHE!!!
Dienstag- Oh Mensch!!!! So District Meeting was in Chur- and it was our
first actual district meeting this transfer, crazy much! We've just been crazy
busy with Zone Training, Interviews and the Mission Conference with Elder
Bednar!! So we finally had our first DM of this transfer!! So it was in Chur
and as I've said, Chur takes FOREVER to get to! So our root is the S9 to Zug,
then the InterCity to Thalwil and then the RegioExpress to Chur! It's the
quickest way we have from where we live to get there at the time we need! So we
get to Zug fine, then our InterCity has like a 15 minute delay, which means
we'd miss the RE, so clever me decides we'll take the S24 to Thalwil, which
would get us there in time for the RE, but NO! The S24 driver then decided to
do a Network WM (West Midlands) bus driver speciality and takes his KitKat break!!!!
So that was 5 minutes late; meaning, just as we pulled into Thalwil, the RE was
just pulling off, which really sucked!!! That is like the first time that Swiss
Trains have let me down! I legit felt like I was back in Germany, but cause I'm
such an awesome, clever guy, I worked out that it may be quicker to take an
S-bahn to Ziegelbrücke then from Ziegelbrücke, another to Sargans, then we can
catch an InterCity from Sargans to Chur .. and my master plan worked out
perfectly!!! And we got to Chur only an hour late, but hey .. it's better than
the hour and a half it would have been if we'd have waited for the next Regio.
Stupid trains, but District Meeting was so much fun!!! We just have like the
best district!!! So I did German Tip and I did it on Nouns and Gender and a few
rules that help you predict the definite articles for nouns. It legit is what
missionaries need; the amount of times we speak about something to a member and
it's like is it "die something oder der something" and they just
reply "das"- it's so bad! So my tip was definitely needed and I did a
game with it to put the rules into practise!!! Then Elder Byrom’s assignment
was on ‘Following the Spirit’ and he did a pretty awesome activity to go with
it! So, over in Switzerland near enough every chapel has translation sets, so
we used that and a couple of us were blindfolded with translation headset on
and the rest were around the translation microphone - and one person was
guiding us to a prize and the others were tricking us; so the aim was to work
out which voice was the spirit according to the attributes that are listed in
PMG; of which the spirit will communicate with you!!!! It was pretty awesome!!!
Then we met Jeffrey after work at the airport and we brought him a birthday
gift!! We had such an awesome, spiritual lesson!! I just love Jeffrey!!!
Mittwoch, not much happened, but my back is bad again, so I called Sis
Kohler; to call the nurse! The nurse legit just gave me more "natural
remedies" to do and told me to take extra Ibuprofen, but it’s good to know
that she isn't trying to kill me, by going against the instructions in the
packet and getting me to take a really high dose! But yeah, that was the news
of Wednesday!!
Donnerstag, we had a couple of super awesome appointments, so that was
cool and we finally got paid for this month – so, cause we had no money on
Monday, we didn't shop; so we had to do a quick shop on Thursday just to
survive the week, as we had literally nothing!!!
Freitag- not too much again! Although we went to a member’s for dinner
and they also invited a friend from Uni! It was so cool and their friend was
super open and it was awesome!!
Samstag was another - not too much happened day! We went to the Apotheke,
cause I needed more Ibuprofen. Ibuprofen
is ridiculously expensive over here! I paid like 9.70 and that was the
cheapest!!! Talk about a scam!!! Then, I hate not doing anything, so I made us
go out and do some vorbeis on some less actives, which was okay! Then I called
up the nurse again, as the Pharmacist recommended I see a doctor with it being
so long since the initial injury! So I told her and she was like, give me a few
minutes! About 40 mins later she calls back and says her husband who’s a doctor
spoke to a colleague from back home, who is a specialist in back and spinal
injuries, so I've been booked in to get a few X-rays, so they can see if anything is
broken. The Mission Doctor says it may just be a torn ligament or muscle, but since
it's been so long and is causing me so much pain, there is a slight chance
there is a broken or chipped bone! He says even a chip as fine as a hair could
cause pain with the spine, so I just need to wait for my X-ray appointment and
we shall see! Who knows what happens then!!!
Und Sonntag!!! What an awesome day! Church was amazing! Testimony
meeting was beautiful! Then home to eat and then back to church, as there’s a JAE
Singles Ward in Bonstetten, so we went along as Jeffrey was bringing a Less
Active, who he is friends with!!! So that was awesome! It was a really
spiritual meeting and then the Bishop and his wife from Richterswil Ward taught
the joint RS/Priesthood lesson and it was soooo good! Plus Singles Wards are
tri-stake things, so I saw a whole load of YSA from when I was an Insti Elder
in Bern, it was so cool!!!!
Well, that was my week!!! I am so excited for next Sunday! Skyping homel!!!!
Ahhhhhh!!! So excited!!!! Have a brilliant week!!!
All my Love,
Elder Ammon Robertson xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
