Woche 79 von 102- Power
Week!!!
Höi!
After studies Montag morgen we
headed quickly to the shop to grab just 1 or 2 things, as we still have loads
of food to get us through this week from Deutschland last week. Then we headed
to the chapel to email before going to an appointment with one of the referrals
from the Familie U. Oh mensch! That was amazing! They are so prepared! They are
sooooo prepared for the gospel. The husband was a little Skeptisch (how do you
say that in English? ....) about religion and stuff, but his wife is like
searching for truth. He said he'd meet with us anyway once - just to find out
what his neighbours actually believe, but, oh mensch! That was like the most
intense, spiritual lesson! Like they felt it! It was incredible! They are so
Golden it's unbelievable and they both committed to read and pray about the
Book of Mormon and the message we shared today! We have a return appointment in
3 weeks’ time as the next few weeks they are super busy, but we'll be keeping
in touch with them frequently. Keep them in prayers - the Familie K! They are
so awesome! The wife told us at the end as well, that she knows it's true. What
happened today and the fact that he actually listened and accepted everything
the way he did was just an answer to her prayers so she knows from that, that
the Restoration is true! Legit, they are so prepared! Like, probably the most
prepared people I have ever met! Then we did a bit more emailing and chilling
and the day was done!
Dienstag
morgen was a strange one- as I'm coming down with something, so I
did studies in bed, drinking lots of hot vitamin drinks and blowing my nose
dry, while sneezing like goodness knows how many times. Then I managed to get
the energy to get up and ready and we headed to district meeting. Each
companionship in the district changed apart from ours, so it was interesting.
Obviously, like I know everyone in the district anyway; seen as I'm like
getting on now and have been around each Swiss Zone, so know almost every
missionary in die Schwiez. Well, we spoke about teaching simply and powerfully
and how we go about doing that and some of them were- studying and practicing
individual principles from PMG, bearing testimony often, asking clarification
questions, knowing the expectations of the investigator, using objects (one of
my personal favourite things to use), and a few others. Then we also discussed
the idea of having this light of the gospel in our lives, making it visible in
our eyes as we speak to people and teach people. Then we had district lunch and
that was nice, catching up and stuff and Sis. F made this like Ginger tea and
then added like hot chocolate powder to it and oh my goodness- it was lush!
Legit! Soooo good! Then after lunch we headed down to Stäfa. We spent quite a
bit of time in Stäfa I just realised! Haha! Anyways, so when we finally got
there, it takes forever from Winterthur to Stäfa; so we got there and had an
appointment with Schw R where we spoke about doing missionary work and tried to
role play with her. It was interesting and very long. Then when we finally left
her, we headed to M, who is a member and we went with one of her home teachers.
Legit, she is single and is like older than my parents, but looking at her
you'd guess she's probably like middle 30's at the absolute latest! She is
amazing though and she made us dinner, which was soooo good! We had a really
nice and spiritual evening together. 'Twas a good day!
So Mittwoch was a crazy day! Rush, rush, rush between
appointments! We headed over to the U's, as we had an appointment with one of
their neighbours, S and they offered their home for us to teach her. It was a
first lesson, but she is Golden! Legit, the U's are amazing! The only thing
that was a bit of a problem was her belief about Christ. She isn't sure if she
believes that Christ is the Son of God and Saviour of the world, but the
success of the lesson is that now we know what her worries are and we can work
from there! After that, we stayed a little while longer to talk to Schw. U
about the referrals and she gave us feedback from the lesson we just had and
reported to us on the feedback she got from the lesson we had on Monday. Member
work is the best! Legitimately, this is how it should be. The members prepare
and find the people and we work with them to bring their friends unto Christ.
It's just the most perfect teaching situation I've had so far, cause from day 1
they have that support system through the member family they know! It's just
great! So after all that we headed over to H. She is an E who we went by last
week in Uster and she was like over the moon to see us, as it's been forever
since she last met missionaries, so now she has like a million and one
questions cause the JW's got her in between. She hasn't joined them, but she
does meet with them... for now! So now she believes that Jehovah is Heavenly
Father and Jesus Christ is the Son of Jehovah. We tried to clear that up, but
then she had to pick her kid up from Kindergarten, so we'll have to work a
little more on that next time, but an interesting thing she said was that she
asked the JW's what the difference is between them and the Mormons and their
answer was "Nothing, it's just that they speak more about Christ and we
speak more about Jehovah". I just thought that was a pretty interesting
answer, which I would never imagine them to say. Hey! Then we did a bit of
dooring which was pretty lame. There were only like 3 people who answered out
of like 15 doors and nobody wanted to hear! So then we headed out to the
Familie Z. Oh mensch! Again, the food was amazing! It was like Spaghetti, but
with some sort of tuna and vegetable type Bolognese instead of your normal. It
was soooooo good! Legit, Bruder Z can cook! Wow! Then after that we headed back
to Wetzikon. On my mission, my testimony of the power of the priesthood has
just been increased beyond comprehension and I'm pretty sure it will continue
to be as I live worthy of it! Then we headed home and that was basically our
day. My head is killing me though and I am just dead, but no rest as tomorrow
is also looking pretty packed out! So for now an early night (10mins early)
will just have to do! I hate having a cold!
So Donnerstag began by heading out to Wald for the appointment
which we were sure was supposed to be last week, but when we got there he said
it was this week. So we went and had more of a getting to know lesson. He is
such a cool guy and has loads of stories! Then we head to leave as we needed to
meet P in Stadelhofen for an appointment he set up for us and from Wald there's
only one train every hour, so we had to get that train. We finally got to
Stadelhofen and met P, who finally has a car. Anyways, so then we go and pick
up this less active from work who he made an appointment with for us and then
drive to her place. We made and ate mittagessen together and shared the Elder Holland
mormon message 'Always Remember Him'- it's a great video! Oh and Che. H gave us
a load of fruit, like as we were leaving her place she just gives us a giant
bag full of fruit! Sweet! Then we got P to take us home to drop off the fruit
and then drive us to our next appointment as time was pretty knapp! So we got
there with like 1 minute to spare as P got lost a few times! Haha! So we get to
Stäfa, meet our new joint teach and head over to C. She is like the sweetest
Peruvian lady ever. She is so cool! We spoke about church and shared the Elder Holland
video again. It was a really good lesson and her daughter actually stayed for
it this time and got engaged in the lesson. Then we headed back to Wetzikon for
our next appointment with T. He is so cool! So we got there and he was
preparing dinner and was like well you said you were coming at 19.00, so I
figured I'd do dinner, you know? So that was cool! Didn't have to cook at all
today! Wahey! It was a really cool evening and he's gonna come as a joint teach
for us tomorrow and Saturday! So it was a pretty awesome day! Lots of WA
work!
So Freitag morgen, doctors orders told me to stay in bed and
rest cause this stinkin cold was killing me, so not too much actually happened
until early evening when we had an appointment, so our evening was spent in
Uster. We went by a less active lady who we began to teach and then she also
had some visitors and she got up and started doing other things which was kind
of annoying, but one of her visitors got chatting with us and we managed to
lead it in to a restoration lesson, which was pretty cool and commit him to
read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We had like a less active lesson which
turned into a lesson with a potential! Not bad! Then after that, we had another
appointment with the husband of a member who we started teaching and again, it
was a restoration lesson. It was pretty cool! My mind is just all over the
place right now. We have so much going on, it's crazy! Like it is now Friday evening and
we've had 12 lessons so far this week, with at least another 3 planned for the
next two days. This week is just gonna be crazy. Like it really isn't about
numbers, but the last few weeks, it has felt so good being able to report
really good numbers just cause numbers are the only thing leaders see. Other
than the numbers, they don't see any of the work and effort that you actually
put into a week, which is really frustrating sometimes; so today has actually
turned out to be another pretty good day!
Samstag morgen after dragging myself out of bed, still
feeling dead and wanting so badly to rest a little; I got up at 6.30, did a bit
of mild frühsport and got ready for the day, had studies and headed out. So
this morning we spent with S, talked about quite a lot of different themes and
he made us lunch, so that was cool! Then we headed out to the chapel to sort a
few things out. The rest of the day we did weekly planning and then our
appointment this evening fell out, which sucked big time, so the evening kind
of sucked! But hey, you can't have a perfect week, without something going
wrong!
There isn't too much to say about Sonntag! It was just a normal
one. Started with GMK, then Sacrament meeting, of which the talks were great!
Then Sunday school was a little more about Nephi's interpretation and vision of
Lehi's vision with the additional stuff. Then obviously today was 5th Sunday of
the month, so it was a joint Priesthood/FHV Klasse, which the Bishofschaft did.
They based it on the point in the area plan Geistig und Zeitlich eigenständig
werden. No idea how that translates to English, something like spiritually and
self-reliant or something like that. They focussed more on the being self-reliant
and continuing to gain knowledge. It was actually really quite interesting.
Then we chilled and chatted with a few members. Then we headed for our
traditional Sonntag Mittagpause at the Familie D. 'Twas cool! Then headed off
to Wald! So what did we do in Wald.... Well, we went to take someone the
Sacrament, as they asked earlier in the week and Bishop said it was fine. So we
went all the way to Wald for them to be too ill to let us in, so that sucked!
Then we went by another WA, but she wasn't home, so we headed home to study and
the after that the day was done!
Just so you know- next Monday as
in the 8th Feb, we are having Interviews and Training with President, so
p-day will be on another day, I assume it will be Tuesday instead, so you can
still send your emails for Monday, but I won't be sending my email until the
day we have p-day. It sucks, but hey! ... Well, have a brilliant week! Love you
loads and loads and loads
Alles liebe,
Elder Ammon Robertson xxxxxxxxxx
Woche 80 von 102- Tauftermine,
Skype und Interviews!
Grüezi wohl!
Oh, Montag! So P-day wasn't quite a proper P-day, so we did general 3
hour block of studies and then headed to the Familie U to teach S (one of the
neighbours we are teaching- the one with the awesome dream). It was an
interesting appointment, but basically she dropped us! That sucked, but hey ho!
One day she'll get baptised! After that we headed to the chapel and sent off a
couple of emails before having a skype lesson with R. He's in Thailand for 2
months, until Easter and so we have arranged to keep in touch and teach him via
skype. Whilst we were at the chapel he noticed we were online and just called
us for a chat, so we ended up having another lesson on P-day! Sweet! So after
that we did a bit more emailing, sorted a few things and then headed out to
meet P in Stadelhofen, as we were then going with him to the Familie DR! Oh mensch!
What an evening! I love their family! They are just soo cool!) So dinner was
incredible and the dinner time convo was just hilarious! Then we did the
spiritual thought as going around and everyone naming one thing in which they
have seen the hand of God in their lives today. That’s always a really cool one
to do; like the spirit is just so strong as each person in the room shares just
one thing and it really makes you think of how many times you've actually seen
a blessing in your life that day! 'Tis awesome! Then we were super late home as
P drove us and it ended up that he took us to Stadelhofen instead of Wetzikon,
but hey!
Dienstag was pretty darn sweet! The start was alright and after studies
we headed off to Winterthur for District Meeting. I got the great pleasure of
doing DeutschTipp- so I turned it into a game and we played Bang; but with
questions instead, which they battled to give the right answer first! 'Twas
alright! Then the rest of DM was alright too. I don't actually remember too much;
there was a bit about effective daily planning, a part about scripture study, a
little role play for the first lesson and something else, but I don't remember.
Then we had mittags together, so we cheekily asked the Sisters this morning if
they fancied making lunch for us, haha. We managed to con them into it, so we
bought a few things with us and then they made it for us. Oh my goodness! We
had Sweet and Sour Chicken and it was like the best sweet and sour I have had
in my entire life and they made it from scratch! It was lush! Then we did a bit
of finding as a district in Winti, so I went with Elder Redmond and we found
like nobody who was interested, but we had a good chat together about life and
all. 'Twas cool! Then we headed to the chapel for an appointment with A. My
comp found him a few months back with his previous comp, but never taught him.
They messaged a bit and invited him to church a few times but he never had time
and then they lost contact. Then on Sunday he just rocks up to church, so we
set up to meet with him today. We met at the chapel and gave a tour of the
building, got to the baptismal font and spoke a bit about baptism and what it
means for us and he's just like, oh, I think I'd like to get baptised and make
this promise with God. We're like, well that is basically our job to help
people prepare for that, do you want to set a date and we can help you work
towards that and he's all for it and so we set a date for the 27th Feb and then go into
teaching him the Restoration. We taught up to but not including the First Vision,
as then we had to catch a bus to another appointment, but he just soaked it all
up and it made complete sense to him and everything. We're meeting again tomorrow with him, but
oh mensch! I am so excited for him. He is so cool! Then we headed out to the
Familie O for Abendessen. It's a family we have never been to before, but it
was a really cool appointment. We played who am I (the game with the post-it on
the forehead and you ask questions to work out who you are) for the spiritual
thought and then shared 1 Samuel 16:7. It was actually really good. Then we
headed to the chapel to do our little surprise for Sorella Robertson. Oh
mensch, I love President Kohler. Getting to skype Ash to welcome her home and
chat about stuff was so good! I loved it! So todays’ highlights were A's
Taufdatum and Skyping Ash!
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| I wore my Italian Name Badge in Ashleighs honour |
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| I got to Skype Ashleigh |
Mittwoch after studies, we did a bit of personal touch prep as we plan
on dropping some round to some people tomorrow! So after that we
headed to the chapel to meet with A again. Legit, he is so cool! So we finished
off the Resto and he said it makes complete sense. We also watched the video
with him. Oh mensch! He is so cool and so ready! We then touched a bit on the Word
of Wisdom and set some goals with him. Please pray for him! He can do it with
the Lord’s help, but obviously prayers are always appreciated and a great
strength! Something he said which was so cool to hear, was that his spirit is
more important to him than his body, so if partaking of these things are bad
for his spirit then he'll stop, even if science says that some things are good
for the body (a glass of wine a day is good for the heart and all that stuff).
Then we had our skype appointment with R, although it didn't work out, we tried
and tried and tried, but it turns out that when there is stormy weather, the
internet goes kaput, so he couldn't even get any connection until the storm
passed, by which time we weren't at the chapel anymore. Sucks! I guess that’s
what happens when he's on a tiny Island just off the coast of
Thailand... So after that, it was getting late; so we had an Abentagsessen
(that’s just my made-up way of saying linner or dunch! Haha). Well, as it was
getting late we then headed out for a bit, before popping by S this evening.
Then home and the day was quickly over! I loved seeing the pictures of Ash
arriving home though – that made my day!
Soooo... Donnerstag after studies we headed out a bit, before going by
Schw. R (an Italian Sister in the ward) for Mittags. The thing that sucked is
that she couldn't find another guy to be there, so she basically just gave us
what she made in a bag and sent us on our merry way! It was really sad that we
couldn't eat with her, but oh mensch! She made pizza and it was lush! After
finding somewhere to eat it, we popped by Schw. M to drop a few things off for
her and invited her to an activity next Saturday. Then we headed over
to Meilen and when we finally got there, we went by the B's and helped Schw. B
with a few things, as she had an operation a few days ago. We helped with a few
things.
I'll begin Freitag with something from my personal study. With the new
mission BOM read again, I am finishing it from my own personal reading as well
as starting the mission plan. I'm in like 2 different parts of it at the
moment, so there was a verse which I found pretty interesting this morning in
the mission reading part. It's 1 Nephi 6:6, so I'm studying it in German again,
so I just read it in English to mention it to you, but it sounds a little
better in German. Anyways, it basically just says that Nephi will command his
posterity to not write anything on the plates that have no worth unto the
children of men. I just thought that was really cool, cause sometimes you read
the Book of Mormon and think like, what can I learn from that? Or what is with
all of the war chapters? .. but that verse just shows that everything that is
written has some sort of worth for us. Every verse is there for us to learn
something. Often we don't recognise it, but it is there for us to learn and
grow, as we study with a prayerful heart and willing mind. Well, we have 2
options for today- I can tell you how it really was, or how it was supposed to
be.... Well, here’s how it was supposed to look .... So after Sprach we were
going to have an early lunch before popping to the chapel to try and have a
spontan skype lesson with R, as in the evenings he has wifi, which is early
afternoon for us. We were gonna try that whilst doing weekly planning and when
he was online we'd take a break to teach before continuing weekly planning.
Then we were gonna head off to Uster early to get a lesson in with a couple of
less actives and do a bit of finding before popping to our appointment this
evening. Now back to how it actually was; so it gets to the time where we
really need to leave to get to our appointment and finally we get to our
appointment. It was actually very interesting and we got to know his concerns,
so now we have a point to work from and we had dinner with them before heading
home!
Samstag studies, before heading to the chapel to meet A for our third
lesson this week! Oh mensch! He just wants to know everything! It is sooo cool,
so we reviewed what we've covered so far, and then explained the addiction
recovery program to him and did a little crash course, using the new 12 step
videos. Then he had a load of questions, so we answered his questions and so,
so we ended up having quite a long lesson. 'Twas good though! Then we tried to
skype R, but his internet was messing up, so we messaged him a bit to see how
things were and tried to set an appointment up; although it's difficult, cause
his internet isn't very reliable. Then we went home to get lunch, although it
was a very late lunch. Tried to find a mitbelehrung for tonight, although
nobody was available as there was a wedding today, so we searched and searched
and felt prompted to ask A if he happens to have time tonight to help us out. He
did, so we had another appointment with him and Schw. M. She made Rösti for
dinner and it was the best Rösti I have had so far! Oh mensch! Then we went
through the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. A was full of questions as usual,
which was brilliant because Schw M never really asks questions, so we never
really know how much she really understands, but A was just the best and we
worked out today what is holding her back from getting baptised. (She's been
investigating for over a year and has had all of the lessons a number of times,
so now we know what is really holding her back, so can work from there). A was a
life saver today and he is just soo ready! We're super excited for him!
Sonntag
morgen began with heading to the chapel and greeting everyone. We arrived
pretty early today as we had no GMK this morning, so we got to do the good old
welcoming party! It was really nice and I loved getting the temple selfie from
home. I was wondering earlier in the week what happened to the weekly Sunday
Selfies and then you sent one (wasn't quite Sunday selfie, although it was a
trillion times better). A came to church again, which was awesome! Testimony
meeting was great. There was a huge focus about seeing the little blessings,
the little acts which have the hand of the Lord in them. It was a really nice
testimony meeting. Then for Sonntagschule we went to the JAE one, which was an
on the spot lesson with no actual teacher, so we had it as each member of the
class chooses and shares a mormon message and then explains a little about it
afterwards. Kind of like a spiritual thought, but each member of the class got
to do it. Obviously it wasn't the lesson that was supposed to be today, but
they wanted a JAE class as there was a decent sized group of them today, so
that’s what they did and it was actually a really nice experience. Then for
Priesthood we had a Kollegiumsrat! The first Sunday of the month in Priesthood,
the lesson is based on the home teaching message and how we can best help the
families on each companionships list and we also discuss how things are going
in the quorum and how we can all work together better as a quorum. It's
actually really good and today’s lesson was great! Then after the meetings we gave
Schw. H a blessing as she is going into Reha tomorrow! That was a really
nice experience again. Priesthood blessings are just amazing things to witness
and be a part of. Each one is so different, but each one is filled with such
indescribably strong love from a Father in Heaven. It's incredible! Then we
chatted with members and sorted a few appointments out and then waited for like
10 minutes after everyone had left for Präsident Kohler to turn up. S mentioned
a few weeks back how he'd like to meet our "boss" and seen as Pres.
was coming to die Schweiz this week, we thought we'd try and make it possible
for him. Sunday
afternoon worked out best for Pres., so we set it up and went to S with
Präsident Kohler for the afternoon! Oh mensch! Pres. basically just led the
whole lesson (as that was the reason we were there) and oh man, I learnt so
much from that. Präsident Kohler is such a brilliant teacher. Like he is
incredible; some parts of it he was very bold (as you have to be with S
sometimes), but the amount of love that you could see behind that boldness was
incredible! Wow! Teaching with PK is an experience not to be forgotten! Just,
WOW!!! That appointment went on for a couple of hours .. just a little long.
Then we walked Pres. back to the chapel as that’s where he parked. Then we came
home to have studies and eat! .. and those were the wonders of our Sabbath!
I guess I can also include Montag in here this week seen as P-day is
Dienstag! So after studies we headed over to St Gallen, which took like 2hrs;
well just less than and we went another way, which for that time of day worked
out quicker and more perfect for the time we needed to be there. It was definitely
the more attractive way, as we had to take the Voralpen Express which goes like
right through with beautiful mountain views. Unfortunately I took no pictures!
So anyways, we finally get to the chapel and chat for a bit as President was
still doing interviews for the Bonstetten district, who were in the morning.
Then we finally began with the specialised training session as our district and
the Bonstetten district, which was finally getting to watch the worldwide
missionary broadcast from last month, which Ash has already seen. I prefer
handwritten notes when watching things, so I'll type them up later at some
point – but it was really good! Then we said Tschäu to the other district and
had our interviews with district meeting. It's always a strange DM when we have
interviews as someone is constantly out having their interview and to make it
worse – it all started later than planned, so companionships had to leave
because of appointments and stuff, so it was weird. We ended up going last,
cause our appointment cancelled on us this evening, but interviews were really
good this time. Like really, really good! I loved it! One of the best
interviews. Then Pres asked us if he could drop us off somewhere as it was like
gone 19uhr at this point.
So he dropped us off at St Gallen Hauptbahnhof, which was the perfect time to
grab something to eat before getting our train/s home. That was basically our
Monday cause we didn't even get home until gone 21uhr, but it was a real
good day! And P-day is tomorrow!
So P-day is today and we found out yesterday, that from April, transfer
days will now become Wednesdays instead of Thursdays, so basically my final
transfer day will be the 6th July, therefore I will be flying home on the 7th July, NOT the 8th, which was
originally planned!
Have a great week! Love you loads and loads-
Alles Liebe,
Elder Ammon Robertson xxxxxxxxx
