Well, this week was super awesome!
I guess the highlights start Wednesday when I got to spend a day in
good old East Germany! I was on an exchange with Elder Purdy, and we
had some very East German experiences. We even spent an hour just
talking about "DDR Zeit," in an old train station that got converted
into a house! It was super cool to be back in the East, and just see
how different it is. We met with some cool old ladies who fed us way
too much food, met with a member named Jörn who also fed us too much
food, and just had a grand ole time.
Then on Thursday we ended up having interviews with President Fingerle
in Hannover. That went really well, and we got a picture with Sister
Fingerle. Sadly on the way back to the train with my District I ended
up walking full speed into a pole on the sidewalk. Hahaha it was
actually pretty funny, and I got a nice goose egg on my forehead for a
while.
Friday was madness, with all sorts of appointments! It seems like
those are our money days. We had a member that came with us to two
appointments, and in both of them we taught really well and the people
seemed really interested. One, a really old guy that we met at the
hospital, is named Herr Bosch. He was super interested and I have a
feeling that he will make some good progress. The other is a really
cool student from Cameroon named Mardiel. They both were really
excited for the Book of Mormon, and I look forward to meeting with
them next Friday.
Saturday we accidentally ended up stranded in a tiny little town in
the middle of nowhere. We made an appointment with this guy who has
randomly been showing up to church, and then he wasn't home... we
looked and saw that the next bus came in 3 hours. Bus we called him
and he told us that he was in the main part of town, so we called up
some members who came and got us. And then they took us to their house
and we had a lesson there! They helped us out so well, and our lesson
ended up going fantastically! Donald, the random guy, should be making
progress and hopefully we will set a baptismal date for him soon.
Sunday was also good, had a very chaotic lesson in the second hour.
Way too many languages at once... we had Turkish, French, German,
English, and a little bit of Farsi (?).
This week I listened to my favourite talk by President Faust a couple
times, and it always is a motivator for me. It is called "The
Weightier Matters," and my favourite quote is "when I pray, I don't
pray for justice, I pray for mercy." And I think that is something we
all can work on giving one another. We should all be merciful to each
other, and work especially on being merciful in our minds. It's
comforting to me that our Savior is merciful, that he truly loves us.
I would encourage you all to listen to/ watch that talk from President
Faust, because it really changes my perspective every time I hear it.
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Openshaw
The pictures this week are of the random bus station that we were in
to hide from the cold when we were stranded,
Sister Fingerle and the district,
And me trying to find us a way home.
