Friday 28 August 2015

Diesldorf 10/8/15 - 24/8/15 Golden Untersucherin, Tauftermin gesetztund einem Mittelalterfest!

Week 33 of 2015
Dienstag comes around and I forgot I had a DM assignment. This one was about ‘Why following through with goals is so important’. So my Personal Study was just full of planning for that. Then we headed to Pfahlhaus for DM. It was another spiritual one! Legit, I've always had really good District Meetings, but since I've been in Dielsdorf every DM is super spiritual! Then my assignment comes around. DM is supposed to be auf Deutsch, but if we really want to, we can do our assignment in English. Cause mine was so last minutely planned, I planned it all in English, but the time is handed to me and I just start speaking it all auf Deutsch! It’s so weird how that happens! Like, I'm looking at my English written notes, but I'm speaking German! The gift of tongues is real! Then, because we had so many brownies left over, we brought some to DM, as I would get extremely fat, as Palmer can barely even eat a piece of it! As tempting as that was .. and the district loved it! Then we headed to the middle of nowhere to drop the brownies off at this members’ home and on the way, the route took us through Kaiserstuhl (a little dorf in the north of our area) and we had like 20 mins til our next connection, so we took a look around. It is such a beautiful dorf and it has a cool little castle, so we took pictures! I'll send them to you! Then in the evening we headed to the Maurers’ for dinner. It was fetchin' amazing! I can't remember what it was called, but it tasted soooooo good, so I'll see if I can get the recipe at some point! Then for our Spiritual Thought we did the Jenga one and oh my word, it went on forever! It was fun, but we were all struggling by the end to come up with things that make our foundations weak! They loved it!
So, our plan on Wednesday would have brought us 4 lessons if everything went to schedule. We began with our lesson with Y, in the park, as it was a nice day and we couldn't find a JT. It was a pretty good lesson. We finished off the Plan of Salvation with her and she seemed to like it. Although, she had loooaadddssss of questions and it went on for like 2 hours, which wasn't the best, but hey! Then we set up another appointment and spent the rest of the day going by people who should have been home, but weren't, so we just doored their buildings and we found a super cool guy who was just leaving to go to the airport, but wants us to come back this week. So that was cool!
Donnerstag was another super-hot day! Legit! The last few months we've been dying! Dad sends us the weather with temperatures, but the humidity over here is ridiculous. It’s pure evil! Plus, it hasn't rained since the end of May apparently, so we got mail from the local Gemeinde telling us we need to be careful with using water and controlling how much we use, as they are apparently having a shortage. Like come on! We're in Switzerland .. they can just hike a mountain and melt a glacier or something!! haha! We had another lesson with Y in the park and this time we taught the first 2 points of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; so Faith and Repentance. It went really well and she loved it. Lots of questions again, but we kept this one to an hour and at the end, we asked if she was free on Sunday and she was like ‘Yep, I was wondering actually is there like a program or service at your church I can come to?’; so of course we invited her. Then she mentioned how she read somewhere that we don't drink tea of coffee and asked if she should stop drinking it as well. Like, what a Golden investigator!!! She’s the BEST! We also headed to another part of the area that I haven't worked in before to do some Tür zu Tür and this area also has a castle, so we checked it out and got some more photos. Plus, it only cost CHF1 to climb the tower, so we figured why not seen as it was dinner time, so we just took a bit of dinner time off to climb the tower. It was beautiful and this dorf was like in the middle of our area, so when you look around from the top of the tower it’s basically all our area that you can see! Lots of fields, lots of dorfs! It’s cool!





Freitag, mensch! Einen Wünderbares tag! We started after studies with a bit of finding in Seebach/Oerlikon area with no luck, so grabbed some lunch before heading off to M! We had an awesome lesson! We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he really liked it and we committed him to baptism again for the 26th September and this time he accepted!!! Miracles! He still hasn't got around to speaking to his pastor, but if he’s ready on the 26th, he's gonna get baptised! Then we went by a member to see how they were doing and spent a bit of time with them! Then back home for weekly planning and to send an email to the Branch to thank them for their prayers for M and to tell them we set a date and ask them to keep praying for him! This branch is the best! Legit! When you work together with the members, miracles happen!
Saturday was an interesting day! We headed back to Kaiserstuhl to do a bit of dooring, as it isn't too big of a dorf and we could easily door the whole place in a few hours. On our way there we met a lady who’s telling us how we are only missionaries because we've been forced to and how God doesn't exist and all sorts of stuff. It was peculiar. We basically bore our testimonies to her, but she was having none of it! Weird! .. but she gave us her details and told us to come round some time for a chat and coffee! Haha! Not sure if we'll actually go round! Definitely be bringing a member with us! Preferably a convert as well! So, we got to Kaiserstuhl and it turns out that they're having a  (Middle Age Festival), so we have to pay CHF7 to get into the place! So, we did it anyway! It was pretty cool! They were all dressed up - they had a market and sword fights and ahhhh! It was so cool and we had quite a few cool conversations with people, so it was a cool day! Then we needed to catch up with the 12 week thing! We aren't behind, we just had loads left to do for week 8 and only had Saturday and Sunday to do it!
Sonntag was a cool day! Y came to church and we taught her again with a couple of members, which was super cool! They answered some of her questions way better than we could have, plus one of the members only joined 2 years ago, so she got a converts perspective as well, which was super cool! She is so Golden and she said to a few members that she'll see them next Sunday, which was the BEST thing to hear, ever! Then home for studies, before heading to the Beever’s for dinner! It was really good! Then we had a really, quick GMK with him, as his wife was sick and he needed to get the boys to bed for school tomorrow – and that was our Sunday basically!
So, in general it’s been a pretty cool week! 
Oh and this weeks’ name from President Kohler is Glänzenden Steinen (Shiny Stones).
Grüessech! (Just felt like a bit of a Bärnerdütsch greeting today)
Week 34 of 2015
Montag war einen kühles tag! We headed out nice and early to get to Deutschland to do a bit of shopping. Basically, this month sucks and we have like no money left, so we headed to Germany to get some food to try and survive for the rest of the month. So far so good! I think! Hopefully it will last until we next get money! Dannach, we did emails! Then our lesson cancelled on us, so we just headed out and did some dooring. It was a nice evening, even if we found nobody, but we did find another super pretty area in our area... so that was cool!
Dienstag war auch einen sehr Schönes tag! So, we headed out straight after personal study to get the train to Singen, Deutschland. We did Zone Training in Singen this time, just because of the zone changing and us now having a pretty big part of Germany in our zone.It's to save them having to pay Swiss train tickets, so instead we had to pay for our train tickets instead, but it was DeutscheBahn prices, so it's nothing in comparison to SBB prices! Then we get there and one of the Senior Couples sorts lunch for the whole zone. Itwas amazing and our zone is pretty big, as we went from being 18 missionaries in the Zürich zone last transfer to like 30 odd, so it was pretty cool! Zone Training was brilliant and the STLs assignment was amazing! It has to have been my favorite part of ZT! Althoughit was all super good! Then headed home! Legit question- Why are Sister missionaries so amazing??
We were on the train back home and we got the same train as the Aarau Sisters and Wettingen Elders. It was pretty busy, so we were sitting separately from the other companionships, but we were all like one set of 4 seats behind each other and the Aarau
Sisters were behind us and one of the Sisters who is in her 4th transfer and spoke no German before the mission, just sits down and starts a conversation with the guy sitting opposite them, transitioning it perfectly from a random topic to the gospel, in like the most perfect German I have heard from a 4th transfer old missionary! Legit I was well impressed! I can't even do i that smoothly and I'm in my 9th transfer! Like what the fetch!! #humblingexperience Then we got back and did 12 week program and Sprach! Zone Training in Singen legit takes up an entire day, but it was super good and super spiritual!
Mittwoch hat ziemlich gut gegangen! We met with Frank in the morning and had a nice lesson with him. We shared the talk from Elder Bednar- 'Bear up their Burdens with Ease', from the April 2014 General Conference. It's a great talk! Give it a read through if you don't remember it! Then we had a second lesson with P, who we first met a couple weeks back! It was all auf Schwizerdeutsch, so that was fun! Luckily we had a member with us, so it ended up all good! Then we finished studies before heading back out to do some vorbeis and we finally met a guy who we have been trying to get in contact with for the last few weeks, so that was sweet! We had a doorstep Resto lesson with him, which was cool!
Donnerstag war ziemlich schlimm! All of our appointments fällt aus! . .. and nobody wanted to listen to us, so Thursday sucked!
Freitag war okay! We began the day by doing some finding! So, our area really sucks, as it is the place where people live, but nobody really hangs out there as there is like nothing! Our area borders with the ZLs area at Oerlikon Bhf and our side of Bahnhof is where there are apartments and the ZLs side is where there are shops and offices and stuff and their side is always packed and ours is super dead! We talked on Thursday evening, cause finding here sucks and we figured that all of the people who actually live in our area, if we want to find them, then we need to go to where they are, which will be with the shops and offices, so we went finding on the ZLs side of Bahnhof, as the people there more than likely actually live in our area! Well, we actually had a really good couple of hours finding, so I think we'll chat with President about it during interviews and see if he will give us permission to do it more often. It makes sense in my mind... So we shall see! Then we did Weekly Planning and the day was basically over! Sometimes the days go so
slow, but when you look back at a week it flew by!
Samstag war einen ganz Schönes tag! Tempeltag! Another early start to get to the temple, cause for some reason the last session at the Swiss temple is at 11.30 on a Saturday. Like super random, so we did the 10.30 session! It was so packed out! Like, I have never seen the temple so full, but it was beautiful! I love being able to go to the temple once a transfer. It really is a blessing and I got a few answers to things that have been on my mind recently. It really is the best thing ever! I love the temple and cannot wait to be able to go again with my family when I get back! That will be the BEST! We also bumped into Laura again! (My mom's cousin) We went for a walk around the temple as there was still time before our train and I thought I saw her, but wasn't sure, so we just went up and said hi anyway and it was! That was cool! We had a good chat and then she took some pics. 
Meeting Laura at the Bern Temple
Outside Bahnhof in Bern
Then we headed back into Bern and had like half an hour until our train, so I took 
Palmer around a little bit of Bern. Oh mensch! It felt so good to walk those streets again! I miss Bern like crazy amounts! I just get this home like feeling whenever I go to Bern! I LOVE it and I couldn't not be outside in Bern and not get a picture, so I got one outside Bahnhof, so I'll attach it!  Then we got home and finished studies! Oh!.. and I found a new way to help! We both hate doing train contacting, so I came up with an idea that basically, whenever we are on the train we do a typical missionary situation roleplay! Yeah, we look like weirdos, but hey, missionaries always look like weirdos and people are always listening in to our roleplays! It's not train contacting, but it's better than just sitting there doing nothing whenever we are on the train and it does spark some peoples interest! So that's a new tactic we are using!
Palmer around a little bit of Bern. Oh mensch! It felt so good to walk those streets again! I miss Bern like crazy amounts! I just get this home like feeling whenever I go to Bern! I LOVE it and I couldn't not be outside in Bern and not get a picture, so I got one outside Bahnhof, so I'll attach it!  Then we got home and finished studies! Oh!.. and I found a new way to help! We both hate doing train contacting, so I came up with an idea that basically, whenever we are on the train we do a typical missionary situation roleplay! Yeah, we look like weirdos, but hey, missionaries always look like weirdos and people are always listening in to our roleplays! It's not train contacting, but it's better than just sitting there doing nothing whenever we are on the train and it does spark some peoples interest! So that's a new tactic we are using!
 
 
Sonntag war auch einen kühles tag! In sacrament meeting the Young Women did all of the talks and a musical item (kind of like the Primary program, but the YW instead). It was cool and a really spiritual meeting! Then we had lunch with Schw. M! It was super good as per ... and that was basically the week!
Sonntag war auch einen kühles tag! In sacrament meeting the Young Women did all of the talks and a musical item (kind of like the Primary program, but the YW instead). It was cool and a really spiritual meeting! Then we had lunch with Schw. M! It was super good as per ... and that was basically the week!
  
Alles Liebe,
 
 
Elder Robertson xxxxxxxxxxxxx