Germany Week 89

Dear Mum,

I do indeed live in Bonn now, but I'm not sure what my address is... Well, it's Rosenhain 16, Bonn, but I've got no idea on the zip code thingy.  As for my visa, that's a little crazy.  I should be having an appointment to get that done sometime this week (specifically Thursday) to extend it, but this week is also insane.  You see, we got transfer calls on Saturday and Elder Coombs got transferred, so have to deal with that as well as some other random meetings.  And of course all of those things have to be in the morning, which also happens to be the only time of day our Persian friends can meet with us, so hopefully that all comes together.

As for all of the people that we're working with, they're doing great.  Two of them, a mother and father of four adorable children, accepted the challenge to be baptized last week when we met with them.  We were originally thinking sometime in April, but they more or less said that that was too far away, so now they should be getting baptized on the 19th, which means between us and the sisters there will probably be five people in Bonn getting baptized on that day.  Should be super awesome.  Also two of our other Persians that are also getting baptized that day asked us if it was okay to bring someone to church, and when we assured them it was, they brought another guy on Sunday.  These people are the coolest. 

Anyway, love you more!

Isaac

Germany Week 88

Dear Mum,

Well, that's awkward. I totally sent you an email last week. Something weird happened and I wasn't sure it sent, but then my iPad assured me it had, so I thought that it was fine. Guess not. Hope everyone else got their emails... Sorry.

Now I just feel guilty and can't remember what happened this week. Uh... Our Neubekehrt, C, is a boss. He brought like four people to church last week and we taught them all this week. They're all way cool and Persian, so we can't understand anything they say, so we have to have one of our Persian members, H, there every time we meet. Then this Sunday they all came to church and what's more C brought another friend of his, who we're also going to meet with this week. #BonnisCanaan #IlovePersians

Love,
Isaac

Drachenburg! (And Bonn in the background.)

P.S. Some pictures to make up for the iPad failing?

Drachenfels! (And not my companion)

Germany Week 87

No Letter from Isaac this week.

Germany Week 86

Dearest Mum,

I feel like this week is best summed up in a scripture I read this morning, namely Ether 2:7, where the Lord tells the people that He's not wanting them to stay where they are in the wilderness, but to go to the promised land, because Bonn is the promised land. And it's pretty much just because the members are the best ever. Yesterday morning we were leaving Geminderat, which we had right before church, and I was saying hi to people when one of our Neubekehrts, C, walked up to me a little stressed because he had brought a family with him, but they only speak Persian and, while he speaks good enough German, he didn't feel comfortable translating and he couldn't find H, the guy who usually translates. But that's just because he was in Geminderat with us, so then we solved all that and he helped them out and then made an appointment out for us to go help him teach them. (Not entirely sure how that works, since we literally cannot communicate at all. From what I hear about the other Persians that recently got baptized, basically Hamed just teaches them and then we help Hamed make sure he taught them everything.) So that should be epic.

Anyway, the rest of Sacrament Meeting was also epic because we had the Testimonies in literally four different mother tongues. Super cool. I feel like other stuff happened this week, but the stuff with C and H was the coolest so it kind of blotted out everything else. But I'm still out on a limb with my Visa and with those other referrals, so yeah. But hey, Church is true and members are awesome and can make anywhere into the Promised Land. But especially Bonn.

Love you more!!!
Isaac

Germany Week 85

Dear Mum,

My week was pretty good. I have not yet received my extension, but when I finished anmelding they told me they would send me a letter telling me everything I need to do and need to have, so hopefully that will come soon and be able to be done quickly, but we'll see. Thankfully German Bureaucracy tends to be faster than American bureaucracy. As for my address it's:

Saarstraße 84
53879 Euskirchen
Deutschland

But unless you're going to send me anything in the next week (if that) it doesn't really matter because we're moving to Bonn. We got the okay to move to the new appartment on the 15th of February, so we'll probably move a few days after that. We'll have to talk to the Tech Elders to see exactly when we'll be moving, but it should be happening soon and then we'll actually live where we work! What's more, we'll live only about 10 minutes away from the church (which is indeed in Bonn) which will be a nice change for the hour or so it takes now. Of course it's not too bad anyway because church starts at 10:00.

Anyway, the week was good. Probably the coolest part was on Tuesday when we recieved two random referals. One of them was a German Forgein exchange student in America who said that he wants to get baptized when he gets back. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get in contact with either of them, but that's what this next week is for. The rest of the week was pretty bland. I can't specifically remember anything that happened, but I'm sure it was exciting.

Love you more!
Isaac