Just for your information, I will be posting a few pictures of my adventures at Schloss Marienburg (A castle in the Hildesheim area). I may add other pictures too, I don't know, we'll see haha. It may be a lot of pictures, so I hope that it still works okay!
Let's start with a week ago yesterday. I had the opportunity that Sunday to TRANSLATE! Crazy huh? So there is a member here that speaks only English and it was my turn to translate for him. I had never translated before and so naturally it was really intimidating! I wasn't sure that I could actually do it! He asked me to translate for him, and I accepted. It was a really good experience. I have gained a better understanding of what it must be like to translate for the Spanish Branch in the Carson Valley 2nd Ward, or anywhere for that matter. It takes complete attention, and it was difficult to try and hear what people are saying, and translate it in a way that makes sense on the spot. Just like any language, it cannot be translated word for word, so sometimes I would have to wait until a few sentences are finished before it can make complete sense in English. Then, I had to listen while I was saying it in English so that I could continue to translate later. It was really interesting! I didn't expect to ever have to do that as a missionary, haha! I am glad I had that experience though.
This last week was definitely an interesting week. To start out with, we had a lot of time to walk the streets and talk to people. So we did so. We made out so many more appointments this week than the previous one's. I realized that we were able to do this with an increased faith on God, and that he will help us find those who are ready. I realized I was slowly falling into a false thought that it's nearly impossible to find people in this area! I was wrong. The members sometimes like to tell us this is a difficult place to find people, but our district leader proved that otherwise. I was able to learn a lot by going on an exchange with him on Wednesday in Nienburg. Talk about a Faith builder!
Next, I must talk about our day on Thursday. Thursday was a Holiday here in Germany. It's called "Christi Himmel Fahrt" (or Christ's ascension to Heaven). It also kind of doubles as Vater Tag, or Father's Day, but it doesn't mean the same thing as the American Father's day. As it was explained to me by a German, this holiday is a holiday meant only for going out as males and getting drunk. It is specifically a male get drunk day. That being said, you can imagine what two guys with white shirts and ties look like to a bunch of drunk people. In Germany, it's quite common for everyone to be drunk out on the streets, just sitting on benches, walking around the city, or sitting on the curb at an intersection. So, we had plenty of people to talk to. We were invited to parties, invited to smoke Hookah, and yelled at all over the place. It was really quite interesting! There are many many many Jehovah's Whitnesses in this area, and so most people yelled at us at first thinking we are the JW's. Of course, after a quick clarification, they were set straight on what our name was, and it was time to ask questions. You can imagine how intelligent these questions must have been considering everybody was intoxicated. We met two guys that night who insisted that we continue talking to them. We talked to them for a long time! I mean, multiple hours. Maybe an hour and a half on the street, and then they invited us over to their place later that night. They wanted to hear what we would normally teach somebody. So, we showed up outside their apartment complex at the allotted time, and come to find out, they had been gathering people on the streets to "Come listen to the Mormons!" (in German of course). They gathered quite a crowd! They were even reading to each other out of the Book of Mormon we had given them. As soon as we walked up the crowd disappeared and it was just the original two guys. One of the two guys insisted on finding more people to listen to us, so he is just yelling at everyone on the street. Finally, one person agrees and we ended up going to HIS apartment instead! We walk up to his apartment complex at the top floor and talk with the three of them. We explain the Book of Mormon a little bit, but mostly they just wanted to tell us their problems they have in life. So we couldn't say a whole lot. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it is true or not. Then, the guy who had been gathering the poeple on the street, spoke up suddenly, "Es ist wahr!" ("It is true!"). Such an interesting meeting. We tried to leave, but the guy who told us the Book of Mormon is true wanted us to meet his wife. So we walk over to another apartment, go up the stairs, meet his wife (who wasn't drunk, fortunately), and then leave to go home. It was definitely a crazy day! haha.
Now, I must say that we had dinner on Sunday with some members. It was so delicious! The best tasting meal I have eaten since I have been in Germany! The two we met with are travelers and love traveling all over the place, so they made this meal up from several different cultures' foods. It was amazing. They even said that they bet that we haven't eaten something like it in Germany before because it's definitely not a typical German dish. I just wanted to throw that in there, that I had some delicious food that you probably didn't have, haha.
Alles Gute! Have a great week! Until next time,
