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

Germany Week 84

Dear Mummzypoo,

My week was pretty good. Bonn is super awesome, though it's a little weird because we live in Euskirchen right now, which means that we have to travel an hour or so everyday in both directions to get to our actual area and back. But next transfer we should be actually moving to Bonn and then the other elders will keep working in Euskirchen. It's pretty crazy though, because just recently they made the official splitness between the Bonn ward and the Group in Euskirchen. (They're hoping to make that into an actual Branch soon and then it will be even crazier because currently all of the ward leaders are in both groups.) But, yeah, Bonn is super great and miracles are happening here, so I'm excited.

My new companion's name is Elder Coombs. He's from South Weber, which breaks my streak of having companions not from Utah. Elder Frickey is indeed still in Mainz and almost assuredly will be until he goes home. Anyway, Elder Coombs has been in Bonn for awhile and has been on his mission for a little under 18 months so this could very possibly be the only transfer I serve with him. Schauen wir mal.

So anyway, yes, Elder Newman called sometime this week and officially made it so I will be going home in June. I haven't actually gotten my visa extended, but that should hopefully be happening this week and if not then the week after. It sounds like the Ausländer Büro here in Euskirchen is fairly reasonable, so it should be good. Aber, na ja, that should be what's going down, so I should be home in June. In related news, I'm pretty sure that means I broke the system and should be having five times to call home, but that last one will be way weird because I'll basically be home for it.

Anyway,
Love you more!!!
Isaac

Germany Week 83

Dear mum,

My week was pretty good. I found I'm getting transferred to Bonn, or more specifically Euskirchen, but I've been told that soon after I get there they'll probably move us to Bonn and the other elders that live there will be still in charge of Euskirchen. That could make the whole situation with getting my Visa extended even more complicated since I'll be moving twice within the next few weeks. We'll see how that goes.

As for the rest of my week, it was pretty good. We had a lesson planned with R, that less active, but it fell through, but he was able to make it to church, so that's totally okay. Our appointment with H, that investigator from the sisters, also fell through, but we are out another appointment, so hopefully that will work out too. On Friday we had an appointment with another investigator, K, and we thought it might be our last because he hasn't been doing much, so it was kind of a make it or break it lesson. It ended up being the most spiritual lesson I've ever had with him and he now seems like he really understands why we're there and what he needs to do, and he seems to want to do it. I'm excited for him. I'm going to miss this city, but Bonn should be great too.

Also, that was my week. Love you more!!! Isaac