19.05.2014

Grüezi wohl! 

The Mission is such an adventure these days! We got to go to many wonderful places and spaces :) My time is short to explain it all, but we had fun, taught some great lessons and found a few people along the way :) Interviews with President Miles were awesome :) He`s such a good man. He`s getting trunky because of his soon approaching going home, but he`s still great :) 

This week in brief: G______ was taught twice and he`s doing great! Still on for his first covenant on the 7th :) We contacted a referral in the sweetest small town FAR FAR away ever :) He was nice but not interested...but the trip there was wonderful nontheless :) The place is called Zweidlen and it`s in the Aargau canton (which by itself means it`s kinda far away from Dielsdorf). I dare you to google it. You won`t find much. 

Then, we also found some amazing people to teach! One family in particular who was taught by Missionaries a few times back in the ealry 2000s. As we went by their place, the family had just gotten home from grocery shopping and they unloaded their car. When they saw us, they were just so happy! They remembered the names of the Missionaries who taught them, like 12 years ago! It was awesome :) We scheduled an appointment. They are super busy but they also understand that families are best taught together, so we have an appointment scheduled for early June with the entire family :) 

Random AGSM Moment: In our tiny little branch, we have a monthly news booklet (I don`t want to call it newspaper) called the Leitstern. We decided to write an article for the June issue. And I was challenged to quote in it a hymn that is exclusive to the German hymnbook. No one really knows it or ever sings it, but it has become a favorite in our district (and I credit myself with this achievement). The hymn is called "So jemand spricht, ich liebe Gott". We also call it the "You`re going to hell" song. Because that`s the message of it. Pretty much all it says is that you`re going to hell if you`re not nice to everyone *for the right reasons*. No one I`ve talked to could ever explain how this song made it into the hymnbook, but I took the challenge and quoted it for the article. I wrote first about how it`s important that we welcome people at Church and that the members should be nice to everyone. And then I wrote that the lyrics of the hymn herebefore spoken of come to mind: "Such a one speaks that he loves God, but yet he hates his brethren. He mocks God`s truth and outrightly destroys it. A judgment of wrath will come upon those who are not merciful..." I think I did well! Elder Marshall also got me permission to read it in district meeting tomorrow. Hooray! I`m totally going to troll and brainwash everyone into thinking that this hymn is actually great and well-known! :) 

This is it for the week! Thanks also for all the personal e-mails I received! They mean a lot to me :) I love you all!! :)

Elder Friedmann 

12.05.2014

My dear beloved friends! :) (and acquaintances, and enemies, and random neutral strangers)

My first Mothers Day in the field has passed! Calling home wasn`t as emotional as I thought it would be, maybe because it`s only been two months since I left. However, those were some of the most exciting, challenging and refining months of my life! I shall ever be grateful for the experiences I`ve made thus far and anyone who is undecided about serving a Mission among you and is worthy and able should definitely do it. As I said, regardless of how numerically successful you are, it is an amazingly rewarding experience that I would not trade for anything in the world :)

Now on to the real stuff. This week was a little slower than I had expected. A lot of area book and potential list work. And a lot of contacting potentials. It was quite successful though! We found two new potential investigators who look promising and who want to meet, so this is exciting. G____ is still up for baptism on the 7th next month but he`ll have to stretch. There`s a lot we still need to teach him, but I know he can do it! He`s still golden :) 

As I said, we did a lot of finding because appointments fell through. Let me tell you the amazingly cool story of how we met one of our two new potential investigators, P______. We were on the bus to Bülach for an appointment (which happened to fall through) and quickly went over the lesson. We were going to present the Book of Mormon, read the introduction together, commit to 1 Nephi 1, etc. Just the usual stuff. Anyways, as we were talking, a guy sitting next to Elder Marshall turned around and asked us if we were from a Church. And if we had something to read for him. Needless to say, the answer was YES! We gave him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and exchanged numbers. We set up an appointment but he had to cancel because of work. Anyways, on Saturday we went to Bülach again to contact some former investigators, and at the train station on the way back, we saw P______ again! Crazy, huh? He talked to us and said how much he wanted to meet and how sorry he was that the appointment fell through. We`ll keep in touch and meet for sure :) 

Now, finally...this was pretty much the only really cool thing that happened, besides skyping home. We were with Familie Ryser. THEY ARE SO GREAT! :) I loved being in the same MTC group as their daughter, and now I actually get to be so close with them! :) Definitely one of my favorite families in the branch. 

Random AGSM Moment: Switzerland is composed of 29 states, or cantons. The smallest of them is called Appenzell-Innerrhoden, with a population of perhaps 10,000 people and half a million cows. It`s quite close to St. Gallen where Elder Marshall served prior to coming to Dielsdorf, but it`s really...a different world. Almost 100% Catholic. They didn`t give women the right to vote until 1990. And arranged marriages are still quite commonplace from what I hear. In combination with cows, this reminds me a little of Johnny Lingo :) And they make world-famous cheese (to mention something good for a change). Anyways, one of my dreams was not so much to ever go there, but to see a license plate from that place. This week, I accomplished that goal! We were walking down a street in Oerlikon and there it was, a car with an "AI" license plate! :) It made my day! These words cannot capture how cool it was. 

I love you all! :)    

Elder Friedmann