Life in Wuppertal

August 12
There are weeks on the mission where the work seems to be unsuccessful and you feel like absolutely nothing worked out...but then you look back at the successful moments of the week and realize that miracles did actually happen. Here in Wuppertal, such a week has just past.
On Monday evening we had an appointment with a family we had found the week before. We had reached their neighborhood a little earlier than we had thought, and decided to do some street contacting with the 20 minutes that we had. We contacted a man just about to enter his apartment building. It seemed that he just saw us as another couple of preachers that weren't going to be able to answer his questions as he very curtly asked us "Who is JESUS? WHY ARE WE HERE? WHERE do we go when we die?!" For the sake of time, we told him that we couldn't explain it all right then, but that we DO have the answers to all of those questions. It was very interesting to see his 180 change of attitude toward us within seconds as he realized that we might have what he was looking for. We made an appointment out with him and will be meeting with him tomorrow. A few minutes after contacting him we also made an appointment out with a young Muslim guy who seemed to have a very genuine interest in the Book of Mormon. Its funny how there are days on a mission where we hit the streets and talk to people for hours and see nothing from it, then a couple days later are able to make out two appointments in fifteen minutes.
On Wednesday, The Düsseldorf and Dortmund zones met in Düsseldorf for a meeting with President Ninow about some new training for missionaries world wide. Preach My Gospel is staying the same, but the First Presidency and the Mission Office have changed the teaching curriculum a little bit to focus a little more on teaching skills and learning how to teach people more effectively and helping them more effectively along their personal journey towards baptism. In other words, The teaching curriculum is changing so that Missionaries can be better at teaching people, not lessons. For the rest of my time on the mission, and then on until May 2011, there's going to be a lot of related adjustments and training to put us up to speed with what is going to be taught in the MTC. I'm really excited to be a part of it because I feel like I'm being a part of new revelation for the Lord's work.
On Thursday, after some unsuccessful hours, we were sitting on a bus rather depressed. A man sitting next to us, however, turned our evening around, by taking an interest in our conversation when he heard us speaking English with each other. He answered a question we had about a stop we needed to get off at, and then we proceeded to ask him if he spoke English and where he learned it and so on. We got off the bus together and told him a little about our message. He informed us that he had already met with Missionaries from our Church, but had a half hour before his next bus and had no problem chatting with us till then. We had a great conversation with him and made an appointment out for this coming Thursday.
As the time is winding down, I'm determined to see some miracles before I go home. I'm very tired, but at the same time have a boost of urgency as my time on the mission goes shorter and shorter. I hope that you all back home are healthy and happy, and I pray for you always. Take care!

-Andy

August 23
It never ceases to amaze me how big of a crime it is to be really unified and get along really well with one's companion. After only one transfer together, Elder McArthur is being transferred to Siegen, and I'll be left in Wuppertal with a pretty new missionary to spend the next transfer running around with my head cut off. Ah well, I guess I'll have to just keep on doing what the good Dr. Thompson prescribed; "Buy the ticket, take the ride." It's been a transfer of hard work and good times, and while I'm sad to see my good friend leave just when we've only begun to really get the ball rolling in our area, I know well enough that this is all in the Lord's hands.
In any case, our last full week together turned out to be what I would call a very solid one. It started off and also ended with some very good experiences while street contacting. Earlier in the week, we decided to take advantage of the city center in the evening and talk to people there. Near the beginning of our trip, a very attractive 20-something girl came walking our way. In such situations, I usually listen to my initial "she's too pretty" instincts and keep on walking, but in my zeal to find someone to teach that evening, I instead listened to the spirit, which was telling me to talk to this girl. She was in a hurry and couldn't talk to us at the time, but gave us here contact information and said that another time she would love to talk to us about God and her faith. We haven't been able to get a hold of her yet, but I still have a really good feeling about this girl and have high hopes that we'll be able to help her come unto Christ.
On Friday we also decided to do a bit of street contacting before a dinner appointment with some members. We came across a Husband and Wife and their 6 year old son sitting on a bench whom I decided, for whatever reason, not to approach. Luckily, the man decided to approach us instead. He told us that he had seen us around quite a bit and wanted to know exactly what it was that we did. We proceeded to share our message with him and his wife seemed to know quite a bit about our church. Their son was a really bright kid and also asked a lot of questions. As we continued to talk to them a young guy about our age came walking up the pathway and interrupted our conversation, mistaking us for Scientologists at first (I guess Scientologists have missionaries that go street contacting and stuff now. Whoda thunk?) and became even more rude when he found out who we really were. As we had already made an appointment out with this family, and were now running late for our appointment, my initial reaction was to tell the young man that if he had any real interest in hearing our message, we'd love to talk to him another time, and then leave. But he continued to badger us, accuse us of being Salesman, and making accusations about our character and motives. That was when Elder McArthur and I decided that our appointment would have to wait. It was time to proclaim our message boldly and stand up for the truth...for Christ. As I kept talking to this family we had just talked to, Elder McArthur bore very powerful testimony to this young man and cleared up his stark misconceptions about our church. This family that had watched the whole thing even started defending us and our religion. What was truly great about the whole affair, however, is that at the end of this heated conversation, this young man's demeanor had completely changed because of Elder McArthur's powerful testimony. It was one of the only times of my mission where I've seen someone's bad attitude toward the church take a 180 turn around within minutes because of the undeniable power of the spirit. I'll always be grateful to Elder McArthur for teaching me how to really reprove with sharpness and show a greater amount of love afterward. I'm also looking forward to meeting with this family that we found in the process tomorrow.
Our most frustrating, yet most promising endeavors here in Wuppertal are currently with two golden families. One is Dennis and Julia, a really cool young Russian couple with two little girls who we've been teaching English to for awhile now. We've built a very strong friendship with this couple, and in our last appointment with them finally talked about how we wanted to share our message with them and their family. Dennis, who was very quiet when I first got here, really opened up and asked a lot of questions. He's a great man, who wants a solid future and foundation for him and his family. This is indeed, a golden opportunity, to teach a young family who want to hear our message. There's just one complication. We found out that they live in Remscheid, which is just barely out of our area and in Sollingen's. If we do end up teaching them more extensively, there's a good chance we'll have to hand them over to the Sollingen Elders. Normally, I wouldn't be as nervous about something like that, just bummed that I wouldn't be the one with the opportunity to teach such a great family. My real concern is that a sudden change to two completely different missionaries would hinder their progress. After all, it was our friendship with them that sparked their interest in the first place. Guess I'll just have to do everything in my power and let the Lord take care of the rest, as always.
Our other awesome family is the Husseini's. They're from Iran, and had had a baptismal date a few years ago that fell out due to lack of contact. We were able to get a hold of Frau Husseini and made an appointment out for the next evening. We found out that she had lived in Utah for awhile and loved our church and it's members. Her husband and two daughters, one 16 and one 22, were also wonderful people and listened intently to what we had to say. There is nothing we want more than to baptize this family, and we would be able to do it pretty easily if it weren't for Frau Husseini's incredibly busy work schedule. Her husband's German isn't good enough to get a job, so she is currently the only one working in the family, and works 8 hours a day every day. This makes it nearly impossible to get a hold of them, let alone meet with them on a regular basis. But, we've felt very strongly that this family needs to be baptized and will keep doing are best to get them there.
IF there's one thing I could ask for from everyone back home this week, it's your prayers. I feel a great weight on my shoulders in my new calling of taking this area over from a great missionary who has been here for almost a year, and will feel very secure knowing that the Lord is by my side every step of the way, and that you all back home are puttin' in a good word with the big man for me.
Love you all. Have a great week!

-Andy


August 30
I've officially survived my first week in Wuppertal without Elder McArthur. It's a tough gig, but it's like I always say, you can get busy workin', or get busy dyin' (said in a narrative Morgan Freeman voice). Naw, but in all seriousness, it's been pretty chill. Elder Durrant is a really cool guy and I'm sure we'll be getting along just fine. It's wierd to be working with someone so young on their mission again. He's in his fifth transfer right now, and leaves a lot of the talking to me, which I can handle. It's just a bit of a new experience.

The first couple days of the week consisted of elder McArthur seeing some last sights before he left Wuppertal and saying his goodbyes. Being transferred from areas I've loved has become almost second nature for me, but for Elder McArthur I could tell it was somewhat of a new and strange experience. He's only had three area's and was in Wuppertal for almost a year. I could tell it was very depressing and shocking for him to be leaving HIS city...his second home where he worked so hard for so long. As bad as I felt for him, however, I must say that I was grateful for the opportunity to be the one staying in the area again. President Ninow doesn't move people around as much as President Condie did, so the chances of me staying in Wuppertal until the end are pretty good. But as I've learned countless times before, you never do quite know what's going to happen.

Elder Durrant and I have been doing a lot of street contacting and going by less actives for the past few days. We haven't seen a lot of success, but had some really good conversations with some great people, as is always the case with street contacting in my experience. It's starting to really get to me, because I know there is someone in this city that is ready to accept the gospel and enter the waters of baptism, I just can't seem to find 'em.

...And as much as I have a vision for the investigators that we already had, they also prove to be a little weary. Wang is still Wang, interested first in improving his English, and second learning a little bit about God. The guy has so much potential, but just can't see the need for having God in his life at this point in time. One thing about him that never ceases to amaze me, though, is the way he prays. His words are always so honest and pure. He literally offers up the thoughts in his mind and the desires of his heart to God in a way that I've never heard any member of the church do. It's amazing how much one learns from investigators as one teaches them.

On Saturday we met with Dennis and Julia. As it often goes on the mission, our lesson with them did turn out exactly as I had hoped. The spirit was there, and I could tell that Julia was feeling something and listening intently, but Dennis, despite his desires to believe in something higher, and find a good foundation for his family, told us three or four times that he would have an extremely hard time believing something he could not see. He told us that as a child he saw some things that caused him to stop praying and believing in God, and since then as not really been able to believe in much of anything. At the end of our lesson I could tell that I was frustrated, which made me feel terrible, like I had perhaps, in my zeal to help this wonderful family, pushed him to hard. I hope and pray that the testimony I bore and the invitations I extended him were taken as they were meant to be given...out of love, and that I didn't hinder our relationship with them in any way.

for the next few days we'll have a brand new missionary, only four days in the field, working with us. His companion will be in Frankfurt for leadership training for he next few days, so I've got a fairly new missionary AND a greeny on my hands. What a circus! Hope all is well with everyone back home. Have a great week!

-Andy

September 6
Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe with the staunch smell of cigarette smoke giving me an irritating headache. The walls are of a soft spongy like material....Like a twinky....like a twinky.

....Sorry, keep starting my emails with Morgan Freeman narrating moments. Now to get down to the meat and potatoes.

We had another tough week here in Wuppertal. The situation is thus; No matter how much finding time we put in, we can't seem to find anyone with interest, and the investigators we already have aren't making any progress and not meeting with us regularly enough. I'm reaching a very challenging and frustrating time of my mission. I want to lead someone to baptism more than anything before I go home, but can't seem to find that person no matter what I do. I feel a great weight on my shoulders at this time, but I think I just need to rely more on the Lord, exercise a little patience, and trust in the fact that if I do everything in my power, all will be well.

The only investigator we were really able to meet with this week was Wang. He's doing as well as ever. Elder Durrant and I decided that the only way we're going to get him to make any progress is by actually extending commitments to him again (duh). On Thursday we gave him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read until our next visit. I think that as he reads the book of Mormon on his own and prays about it he will feel the spirit and develop the beginnings of a desire to actually take on the gospel. If that doesn't work than I have no idea what would.

Elder Durrant and I are having a good time together. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to work with him and that I once again have a companion that I can work hard and play hard with. We've been trying to be really diligent and have had some pretty funny adventures along the way. We had a really interesting three days with Elder Telfer, the greeny that we took care of while his companion went to the leadership training in Frankfurt. The poor guy had only been in Germany for five day when he came to us and was still smack dab in the middle of the greeny freaked out and scared of everything like a deer in the headlights phase. On the first evening we told him to feel free to get whatever he wanted to eat and he poured himself a bowl of frosted flakes and started eating 'em try in fear of asking for some milk. I finally told him "Hey man, you can have some milk with that if you want." and he timidly replied "Um...yeah...that would probably be a good idea." Man oh man, that first transfer in the field is quite the nerve-racking experience. It was also quite the experience for me this past week to look back at what it's like to be so new when I'm near the end. Made me realize how much I've changed and how much progress I've made.

On Thursday we met with Kenneth, a pretty new convert in our Ward from Nigeria, and had some pretty interesting food. It was rice, with a sauce that consisted of bones with a little meat around the outside of them (Kenneth can eat those things whole, I don't know how he does it), chicken hearts (which were actually pretty tasty) and some type of fish. I always love the way Africans just throw a bunch of stuff in a pot and cook it.

Well, I think that'll do it for this week. Elder Durrant and I are going to check out the Zoo here in Wuppertal. Love you all! Take care!

-Andy

September 20
Unfortunately I was struck with a cold this week, which slowed things down quite a bit. But the week turned out to be better than the last, despite the restrictions.
Wang is still Wang, but is starting to realize the importance of our message. I think he's realizing that the world is a confusing place, and his desire to have a more stable foundation in his life is growing. He always prays at the end of our meetings and every time he prays the spirit is very strong. I've never heard more honest and sincere prayers from anyone in my whole life. It's amazing how someone with no religious background whatsoever can pray like he does.
On Wednesday we met with Rupert Wenniger, a man in our ward who was baptized in 2005 but never confirmed. He has a few big concerns, tithing being one of them, that have kept him from making his baptism complete and enduring to the end, but when we met with him on Wednesday we asked him about how he came in contact with the church and how he gained a testimony, and I think it reminded him of what he had felt when he made the decision to be baptized in the first place. We committed him to meet with us regularly and gave him a soft commitment to be re-baptized and become active in the church again, to which he accepted. He's been pretty flaky with other missionaries in the past, but I've never been the one to let things like that discourage me from working with people who have real potential.
This Sunday we had lunch at the Barluscke's, and awesome family in our ward with tons of potential to do some great missionary work. After lunch we shared a spiritual thought with them and invited them to decide as a family on three or four names of friends or acquaintances they have with whom they'd like to prepare to meet with us. They accepted the invitation and seemed really sincere in they're desire to work with us. For me, this meeting with this family was a particularly poignant experience. As I bore my testimony to them that I knew that there were prepared people in Wuppertal whom we needed to work together to find, the spirit confirmed to me very strongly that what I was saying was true, and in turn bore witness to this family. It was just the boost I needed to continue in all perseverance and diligence in my work here in Wuppertal.
I'm in the middle of a very challenging part of my mission. I'm more tired than ever, and feel often times that I'm runnin' on fumes. The lack of success in our work, combined with my health problems this week, have also caused me to have a few moments of wanting to just give up. But in the depths of such moments, the Holy Ghost has reminded me that the job is not yet done, and that there are still people that I need to help, and most importantly, that the Lord is with me every step of the way. A truly wonderful thing about agency is that when bad things happen to us that our out of our control, it gives us the opportunity to sit back and say, "Ok, what can I learn from this that will make me stronger?"
I'm looking forward to this week, and hope that it treats you all well back home as well. Take care all,

-Andy