Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

This week was a bit of a ride… it was an interesting one. Tuesday we decided to go somewhere new, so we took a bus an hour out to a place called Hartenstein! It had the closest thing to a mountain that I’ve seen since Provo. We had a less active that lived there but when we went by, the lady’s mom told us to get lost, so then we had some more time to do some finding. We hiked up the “hills” a little bit and ran into an old castle, bombed out, but it was really cool, the gates were locked but we peeked over the wall and took some pics.

Then we went to do some doors… never my favorite but the Lord knows that and after the 3rd one, a lady in her garden asked if we wanted something to drink! We ended up sharing the 2 minute restoration video with her, and it turns out she’s already read the Book of Mormon. However she said all she needs is the Bible but we could always come and talk more another time (so we will). Then I realized what time it was… we had 10 minutes to make it back to the city center before our bus left (the only one for the day) so we full on sprinted, even ran through some newly paved black top, with the unhappy looks from construction workers we made it just before it left!

Thursday we went by some less actives and one of the members that we always go by is never home, but her neighbor was walking into the building so we asked her if she knew her, and BOY she gave it to us! (Understanding German has its downsides.) She started to get in my face about it and about started poking my chest. I decided I could be a little sassy about it or just be nice. Well I chose to be nice, but then I had to hold back from laughing because of how rude she was being so I ended up smiling at her. Then my understanding of German went away for a moment I guess – because the next thing I knew we had talked for 10 minutes about her grandkids, faith, GDR, WWII, and how terrible guns are (everyday topic.)  In the end she wished us to hold strong to our beliefs and good health! A little bit of a Christlike attitude can go a long way!

For the 4th we met with our eternal investigator in the morning, the date he chose to quit smoking, also turns out to be the date that he married his ex-wife… so now he wants to change it. He also asked us for a Book of Mormon that he can give to his daughter. He has a testimony of it. It’s kind of weird, we asked him how long he’s really been meeting with the missionaries and he first had contact in 1996. It can be quite hard to know what to teach because he knows it all. He’s a great guy and came to church the next day.

Afterwards we went to the city, we couldn’t find anyone to talk to, and we thought it was because it was 100 degrees, but it turns out there was just a giant Red Bull event for old mopeds in the city square! It was super rad. That night we roasted S’mores and made Hamburgers, with English muffin buns… haha but it was great.

Sunday we only had 2 hours of church because it was too hot, with no a/c.

I am grateful that I come from the Promise Land. America will always be the best, as a district we sent quotes from famous presidents the entire day, one elder even texted us the ENTIRE declaration of independence. The night ended with a district call singing the national anthem.

God Bless the USA!

Elder Winkel