Week 35 of 2015-
Tuesday was a pretty long day and I can't even remember why. We basically had no appointments all day, which sucked, so we were on the street all day finding and our area really sucks for finding! The busiest part of our area goes a little something like this- speak to the only person in sight, finish the convo or just get a flat out "Kein Interesse" oder "Keine Zeit", keep walking, at least 5-10 minutes walking pass by and then there's finally a form of life, so speak to them and the pattern continues. Legit, this area is dead for finding! I love the branch and I love our investigators, but finding kills me everytime, just because the area is dead!) Anyways! Then, in the evening we went to Institute with S, (he's getting baptised on the 13th). It was super cool and Brüder U was doing the class and he does the BEST lessons EVER and I got to catch up with some of the JAE from Bonstetten, so that was cool!
Mittwoch - we had interviews with Präsident whilst doing District Meeting. As per, DM was super spiritual and yet again I had an assignment for it! Legit, I get assignments every week. I was given another one Saturday evening to do for DM tomorrow! Aarrrrgggghhhh!!! My interview with Pres was okay and then we had training with him and the Singen District. It was more a question and answer session, so that was cool! Then, we recorded Beth's Birthday video! Then we went home to finish studies and in the evening we had a lesson with the Schnyders, so it was a pretty long day again!
Thursday - we headed out and did some finding, then we finally had a dinner appointment with a member. It seems like forever since we last had a meal appointment during the week and we did a missionary work based Spiritual Thought, so we got them to do something that makes them feel a little embarassed or something difficult for them to do (like we got them to sing a hymn that isn't in the German hymn book in a foreign language). It was pretty funny! Then we compared the feelings they had doing that with members doing missionary work. Then we shared the Tommy video and they loved it! Then D&C 84:88! Then we just challenged them to bring a friend in the next month. It was pretty good!
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| Taken after Flat Inspection |
Freitag - we did studies, then we cleaned the apartment a little bit, cause it wasn't quite perfect after 4 days from last cleaning it. Then, we had our apartment inspection. Then we met with Y! It had been a while since we last met. We met in Oerlikon and she wanted to go to a restaurant and get a drink (non-alcoholic of course- she's living it before we've even taught her it) and on our walk from Bahnhof with her to this restaurant a lady notices us as missionaries and calls us
over, apparently she's a member from Aarau, so she was asking how we were and stuff. Then we went and sat down and had a lesson! It was a super cool lesson and we answered her questions. She's been studying the BOM like crazy, it's amazing. She marks her scriptures in a way that I've never seen scriptures marked before- it's so cool! Then we met with M for a couple of minutes, set up an appointment and then headed to the W's for dinner. It was amazing as per. Then we were on our way home and the tram to Bahnhof was packed. We were by some crazy guy! I think he may have been a little drunk. Well, he was! His breath reaked
of alcohol and he was talking to us. Telling us how the Church's name is conjugated wrong, blah, blah, blah. Then he was asking where we are from and I said England and he was like, 'What, really?' You look like you come from Albania! - He was a weirdo! Now I realise why we should be in our apartments for 9:30, cause after 9 all the weirdos come out!
Happy Birthday Beth! We started the day by meeting with F! It was cool! We shared an article from the April 2015 Liahona called 'It Isn't a Sin to be Weak'. It is super good! If you haven't read it, give it a read! It's amazing! Then, we did some weekly planning, finished studies and then baked brownies for Sunday, as we had lunch as a Branch, so we figured we'd take something! Then we headed out for some more finding, before coming home! Oh and we found a super cool looking chess set in our apartment, so we had a game of chess before going to bed! Palmer was thrashing me the whole game and then I got him cornered and won the
game! Mwahaha!
Sonntag was a pretty sweet day! Sacrament meeting- all of the talks were based on The Family, which made me think of mine! Sonntagschule was also super cool. It was about the Spirit. Then we had a Gemeinsameklasse for Priesthood/FHV. Our GML did it and it was based on missionary work and it was amazing. Hopefully it got the members as excited as it did us and we'll be getting some referrals in the next few weeks. Who knows! We'll be praying for it! Then Gemeindeessen! It was amazing and the brownies went down pretty well! Then we cleaned up, then studies and that was basically the day over. I don't get why days are so long sometimes, but the weeks go so fetchin' fast! It's craziness!
That is basically it! This week actually sounds pretty lame, but hey! It wasn't that bad, there just isn't much to actually say about it.
Alles Liebe,
Elder Ammon Robertson xxxxxxxxx
Week 36 of 2015-
Höi zäme!
So, what did we do on Monday... Ahh, that's right- we headed off to Deutschland again... Who knows if we're allowed to go this often in one transfer, but hey! This time we headed to Konstanz, as we fancied a change again. We bumped into the Kreuzlingen Elders who work in Konstanz and Elder Byrom is in Kreuzlingen- I love that kid! I believe he's one of those friends that Mom was talking about last week! So, we had some pictures- by the Bodensee and it was a B-E-A-UTIFUL day! (I sent those pics last week as promised in last weeks email). Then in the evening we did finding- always finding! We started with a bit of Tür zu Tür aber es gibt nichts. So, I suggested we move to the street and we did. Still no potentials found, but we got a good few conversations out of it. When you get out of that comfort zone and speak with the people it feels soooo good! Plus, it shows how much my Deutsch has progressed. It's still not great, but I can actually hold good conversations with people and understand almost everything, but it does feel amazing to actually speak with people and getting out of that comfort zone you were speaking about!
Moving on to Dienstag... So, after Personal and Comp Study we headed off to Schwamendingen for District Meeting and as per usual it was amazing and the spirit was super strong. This week I got the joy of doing Deutschtipp, so I got to give it in English (It's the only part of DM that we can do in English). It went well! I can't even remember what I taught, but it was super basic stuff! Like Word Order/Sentence Structure. Elder Marley did a great assignment on Nächstenliebe (No idea auf Englisch- sorry) and how love is necessary for everything, without it, everything else is pointless. It got me thinking quite a bit whether I actually love the people I meet on the street, before I even stop them to speak, whether I actually love the people we teach. Yes, I do, but I can love them, so much more than I do and as we have that love for them we can have so much more success! So, my goal this week is to love the people more, even when they are rude and verbally abusive- kill their anger with love! After DM we headed out and did a bit of finding and it rained- just beautiful! Luckily, I remembered my umbrella- my Golden on the other hand forgot his, so we went to get him another one! It's like the 3rd umbrella he's bought in the last 2 transfers- hahaha! Then after a bit more finding we headed home for the 12 week program and dinner, before heading back to Pfahlhaus for Insti with Stefan! It was awesome and as per Brüder Uchtdorf's class. This weeks was basically about the War in Heaven. It was so interesting! I love getting to go to Insti with Investigators!
On to Mittwoch! It was a pretty cool day! We made cupcakes to P-touch some members, as it's been a while since our last P-touch and then off to meet the Schaffhausen Elders, as Elder Murray was doing S's Taufinterview! It went swimmingly! He is so fetchin' prepared it's untrue! Just one week to go! I am beyond excited for him! Then more finding and home to finish studies and finally eat something for the day!
Donnerstag was another pretty good day! Lots of studies! Then to M! We ended up reading with him in the BofM. He read, but he didn't read much and it had been like over a week since we last met. Plus, he still hasn't come to church, which totally sucks, cause we will more than likely have to push his date back now! Then we did a load of finding between Glattbrug and Oerlikon. Then we headed to Niederhasli and did a bit more finding there before heading to give blood! So, the story goes- on Wednesday I had a major desire to just give blood! I miss getting blood drained from my arm, it's the BEST! So, I messaged President Kohler to ask if I could give blood and he replies saying 'Yeah sure, just make sure it's a safe place and to not do it more than recommended!' So, we headed to the chapel and searched where we could go - Service activity and all! It just so happened that the very next day (so today, Thursday) they were in Niederhasli. So, we planned it and went. I filled out all the paper work, get my blood pressure checked, temperature, iron level, etc. and then have the interview part when they go through the questionnaire thing with you - you know the drill! .. and they straight out refused me! Apparently because I was in the UK for 6 months or more between the years of 1980 to the end of 1996 (bearing in mind I was only there for the very first 6 months of my life during this period of time) and it's all because of Jakob's disease (Is that mad cow disease?) .. because apparently they aren't sure if it can be transmitted and lay dormant in the blood. So, they just flat out refused me, even though I've never had the disease! Pure Racism! I was well annoyed, cause I just wanted to give blood, but they did feel bad, so gave me a couple of freebies! Nicht Schlecht! Then we headed back, did the 12 week program and I got my Golden to make his mormon.org profile, whilst I made one auf Deutsch.
Then let's move to Freitag! So, we began the day with Comp study, planning for Y. Met her, had a pretty intense lesson, but it was pretty amazing. We went through so much with her. She has so many questions, but they always link into what we plan to teach, which is beautiful and we committed her to baptism and she agreed. If she feels she is ready, she is gonna be baptised on the 17th October! I am soo excited, it's untrue! She is the most Golden person I have ever met and she can totally be ready by that date! So, I am super stoked about it! Then we did weekly planning whilst doing our washing .. Fridays are our wash days in our apartment building. Basically there is like 1 or 2 washing rooms and each apartment in the building has a certain day, which they can do washing, but luckily our day is weekly planning day, so it sort of works out. It just makes Weekly Planning a little longer and interrupts it a little. Then we headed to Nkederhasli again to go to one of my all time favorite families for dinner! The Rysers! They are the BEST! We did the Tommy video spiritual thought, which I told you about last week. It went so well! We followed up by asking about their Family Mission Plan and they told us all about it and it sounds amazing. They have some brilliant ideas on there! Then without us even asking, E (about 8) and L (about 5) just start telling us all about how they do missionary work at school and some experiences they've had! It was soooo cute and soooo amazing! Kids really are the BEST missionaries out there! So, my Commitment I will extend to you this week is if you don't have a Family Mission Plan- make one!
So, what did we do on Monday... Ahh, that's right- we headed off to Deutschland again... Who knows if we're allowed to go this often in one transfer, but hey! This time we headed to Konstanz, as we fancied a change again. We bumped into the Kreuzlingen Elders who work in Konstanz and Elder Byrom is in Kreuzlingen- I love that kid! I believe he's one of those friends that Mom was talking about last week! So, we had some pictures- by the Bodensee and it was a B-E-A-UTIFUL day! (I sent those pics last week as promised in last weeks email). Then in the evening we did finding- always finding! We started with a bit of Tür zu Tür aber es gibt nichts. So, I suggested we move to the street and we did. Still no potentials found, but we got a good few conversations out of it. When you get out of that comfort zone and speak with the people it feels soooo good! Plus, it shows how much my Deutsch has progressed. It's still not great, but I can actually hold good conversations with people and understand almost everything, but it does feel amazing to actually speak with people and getting out of that comfort zone you were speaking about!
Moving on to Dienstag... So, after Personal and Comp Study we headed off to Schwamendingen for District Meeting and as per usual it was amazing and the spirit was super strong. This week I got the joy of doing Deutschtipp, so I got to give it in English (It's the only part of DM that we can do in English). It went well! I can't even remember what I taught, but it was super basic stuff! Like Word Order/Sentence Structure. Elder Marley did a great assignment on Nächstenliebe (No idea auf Englisch- sorry) and how love is necessary for everything, without it, everything else is pointless. It got me thinking quite a bit whether I actually love the people I meet on the street, before I even stop them to speak, whether I actually love the people we teach. Yes, I do, but I can love them, so much more than I do and as we have that love for them we can have so much more success! So, my goal this week is to love the people more, even when they are rude and verbally abusive- kill their anger with love! After DM we headed out and did a bit of finding and it rained- just beautiful! Luckily, I remembered my umbrella- my Golden on the other hand forgot his, so we went to get him another one! It's like the 3rd umbrella he's bought in the last 2 transfers- hahaha! Then after a bit more finding we headed home for the 12 week program and dinner, before heading back to Pfahlhaus for Insti with Stefan! It was awesome and as per Brüder Uchtdorf's class. This weeks was basically about the War in Heaven. It was so interesting! I love getting to go to Insti with Investigators!
On to Mittwoch! It was a pretty cool day! We made cupcakes to P-touch some members, as it's been a while since our last P-touch and then off to meet the Schaffhausen Elders, as Elder Murray was doing S's Taufinterview! It went swimmingly! He is so fetchin' prepared it's untrue! Just one week to go! I am beyond excited for him! Then more finding and home to finish studies and finally eat something for the day!
Donnerstag was another pretty good day! Lots of studies! Then to M! We ended up reading with him in the BofM. He read, but he didn't read much and it had been like over a week since we last met. Plus, he still hasn't come to church, which totally sucks, cause we will more than likely have to push his date back now! Then we did a load of finding between Glattbrug and Oerlikon. Then we headed to Niederhasli and did a bit more finding there before heading to give blood! So, the story goes- on Wednesday I had a major desire to just give blood! I miss getting blood drained from my arm, it's the BEST! So, I messaged President Kohler to ask if I could give blood and he replies saying 'Yeah sure, just make sure it's a safe place and to not do it more than recommended!' So, we headed to the chapel and searched where we could go - Service activity and all! It just so happened that the very next day (so today, Thursday) they were in Niederhasli. So, we planned it and went. I filled out all the paper work, get my blood pressure checked, temperature, iron level, etc. and then have the interview part when they go through the questionnaire thing with you - you know the drill! .. and they straight out refused me! Apparently because I was in the UK for 6 months or more between the years of 1980 to the end of 1996 (bearing in mind I was only there for the very first 6 months of my life during this period of time) and it's all because of Jakob's disease (Is that mad cow disease?) .. because apparently they aren't sure if it can be transmitted and lay dormant in the blood. So, they just flat out refused me, even though I've never had the disease! Pure Racism! I was well annoyed, cause I just wanted to give blood, but they did feel bad, so gave me a couple of freebies! Nicht Schlecht! Then we headed back, did the 12 week program and I got my Golden to make his mormon.org profile, whilst I made one auf Deutsch.
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| Freebies from "Not" Giving blood! |
Then let's move to Freitag! So, we began the day with Comp study, planning for Y. Met her, had a pretty intense lesson, but it was pretty amazing. We went through so much with her. She has so many questions, but they always link into what we plan to teach, which is beautiful and we committed her to baptism and she agreed. If she feels she is ready, she is gonna be baptised on the 17th October! I am soo excited, it's untrue! She is the most Golden person I have ever met and she can totally be ready by that date! So, I am super stoked about it! Then we did weekly planning whilst doing our washing .. Fridays are our wash days in our apartment building. Basically there is like 1 or 2 washing rooms and each apartment in the building has a certain day, which they can do washing, but luckily our day is weekly planning day, so it sort of works out. It just makes Weekly Planning a little longer and interrupts it a little. Then we headed to Nkederhasli again to go to one of my all time favorite families for dinner! The Rysers! They are the BEST! We did the Tommy video spiritual thought, which I told you about last week. It went so well! We followed up by asking about their Family Mission Plan and they told us all about it and it sounds amazing. They have some brilliant ideas on there! Then without us even asking, E (about 8) and L (about 5) just start telling us all about how they do missionary work at school and some experiences they've had! It was soooo cute and soooo amazing! Kids really are the BEST missionaries out there! So, my Commitment I will extend to you this week is if you don't have a Family Mission Plan- make one!
And Samstag rolls around. Seriously, this week has gone pretty fast! It's crazy! So, we began the day by heading out to see F! We had a pretty good lesson with him and he said how he is feeling much better after the blessing we gave him last week! Then we headed quickly to Schwamendingen to meet the ZL's, so I could get my package. Wahey -and it's great! Thank you! You are the BEST! So, we took it home and grabbed lunch before heading back out to go by a Potential I found with Elder Vasicek, when I was in Bonstetten. I handed this guys' info onto Dielsdorf back when I realised he lived in the area, but they did nothing about it, so we figured we should probably try it out. Unfortunately he no longer lives there! Then we went by a referral we received from Bonstetten, whilst we were at F's this morning. He lives in a student building, so it was super difficult to find which apartment was actually his! So, we just left a note for him on the notice board in the building. Hopefully he'll get in touch; if not we'll go by again next week! Then a few more Vorbeis before heading home to finish studies and we just finished week 11 of the 12 week program! Can't wait to finish it and get an extra hour to work again and I believe that was our Saturday!
Moving on to Sonntag and we began the day with church. We kind of had to skip out on our meeting to try to get a Weniger Aktiven to church, unfortunately it never worked out, but we had an amazing fast and testimony meeting. Sonntagschule was great and Priesthood was also amazing! Both were taught by members of my favorite family! So, of course it was brilliant! Then we headed to Schwester Marty's for Lunch! It was crazy long, but super good as per usual! We did our Tommy Video Spiritual Thought again! Everyone thinks he's super sweet! He's the Best! Makes getting members excited about missionary work a lot easier! Then she told us she has a new church movie, which is super good. So she goes to play it and it's only the '2008 Worldwide Leadership Training Broadcast' auf Deutsch! Oh my goodness! We were dying! Bless her! She is the Best! Then by the time we got home we had like just enough time for Sprachstudium before meeting with our GML for GMK! It was good, so all in all we had a great day!
Today I'm not entirely sure what we're doing! We want to head to the zoo, but I don't believe I have money, so we shall see! Other than that, we have a relatively busy week planned, but you shall learn all about that in next week's email! I can't believe transfer calls are nearly here! My little boy will be all grown up next week and ready to take on Dielsdorf! That's crazy! (Unless we stay for another, but I doubt it)! All will be revealed on Saturday!
But until then.. I'll leave you with my testimony-
That I know with my whole heart and mind that this Church is true! I know with full knowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world! I know that it is only through Christ that we can return to God, our Heavenly Father. I know that God has a plan for us. We are his Children and He loves us more than we could understand. I am so thankful for this knowledge. I am so thankful that I know the family is eternal. I am so thankful to be
a missionary, that I can serve the people in Switzerland and share the Gospel with them. There is nothing better than missionary work! It is wonderful. I see the miracles that appear in peoples lives as we share the gospel with them.
Alles Liebe,
Elder Ammon Robertson xxxxxx
