HALFWAY???!!!

You know how time flies by? I thought that was only true for days and weeks, but truthfully I have felt that for this last year. On Thursday I will be hitting my year mark, and I have been told it only goes faster from here on out. Technically I am already over half way done because of the transfer system, so I will go home a week to about a month early, but I wont have to worry about that for quite some time. Still, I can’t believe it! 

Last week we got a new addition to our tiny church over here in Bayreuth. We got a new member from Utah (Of course), and is studying here to become a german teacher so she can teach back in the states! Pretty neat. After Pday last week, we paid her a visit and got to know the other Americans that came over with her, which was really nice. On the way home I heard more English, but from some Asians. One was from South Korea, Nepal, and one other place. I talked to them and 2 of them had to get off the bus, but we kept talking to the one from Nepal, and he had had contact with missionaries before. We got along really well, and he likes what we do, so maybe we will teach him sometime.

We had two days this last week that we were just not looking forward to. In one we had a full evening, but a blank day, and then the day after was 100% empty. On the first morning, I had the idea to call the Graf elders and see if I could take one of their bikes since they have a car. Everything worked out perfect! They were on their way to split back and so they brought the bike and we were on our way within 30 min. I have been using the bike ever since I got it, and am so happy to have a bike back. It makes everything so much easier and faster! The second day was, like I said; it was blank. I won’t lie to you, I was absolutely dreading that day, and neither of us wanted to go to bed just because of what we would have to wake up to. I prayed for guidance of what to do, but nothing came. Although nothing came, I kind of felt like everything would work out, even though I was still worried. After doing our study block, we had no food in the house, so we went out to eat, but the buses were all messed up because it was a holiday, and it was raining so we couldn’t take the bikes. After just missing a bus, we went to the student housing, and to our great surprise, found an old investigator at home! He had gotten back to Germany from Africa just the night before. Now what are the odds of that? 

After meeting with him, we were pretty hungry, and I was craving some fast food. As we went into one place and ordered our food, I sat down and realized that the only other customer in the shop was a former investigator that we had gone by on about 2 months ago! We had a fun talk and she was glad to see us, but we won’t be meeting again. The rest of the night, we took our media hour, and then decided we should go to the Uni to try and find a list of teachers, since we got a referral that is a teacher. His address is bad, so we figured that if we could find his info at the main office, we could find him at the end of one of his lectures. Being the only ones on campus, we saw a man over in the corner of a building reading a newspaper, and so we went to go ask him where the office was. Well, he replied in English and then took an interest in us. He had met with missionaries in the 80s and actually had a German ancestor that was one of the first Germans to join the church! Pretty neat! We talked for quite a while since we had the time, and then we got his email and he told us we could meet sometime. Never has a white day gone so well with so many plans made on the spot. 

Saturday was filled with meetings. In fact, by the end of the night we were pretty tired since we had taught back to back lessons for 6 hours! We visited Marco and Richard, and then paid a visit to Emnet, a friend studying here in Bayreuth. We were meeting in the commons room when we were asked to leave by a student that thought we were being quite disturbing to her while she was trying to study in a massive public commons room...Emnet didn’t like that and quite frankly neither did we, but I felt like I should suggest we go outside and talk. As we began our talk again, a friend of Emnets saw us, and asked if he could sit down and join us. After him, this hippie looking guy that had been over smoking the whole time says, "Actually I have a question too, may I?" It was sweet! So many awesome questions that helped us to explain all of our points so well. It just flowed. Eventually the hippie guy decided he just wanted to try and prove us wrong, but the friend saw what he was trying to do, and ended the conversation and ended the whole thing, which was good because we still had to visit Emmanuel. We got his number, and he set up a time with us to meet this Wednesday, so we are pumped for that. This week was full of blessings! 

Sunday we had about 45 people cram into our church! There was a baby blessing in the church and a ton of family and friends had come down from Leipzig. Right after we had a ward meal, and the cookies Elder Andrus and I had disappeared pretty quickly. You see, Germans make really good food, but Americans make really good sugary fatty things. Elder Andrus didn’t even get one and we brought 2 plates! 

All in all this week was a toughy, but it was super good. I should be getting my Facebook in a few weeks as well as an iPad, but I don’t know exactly when. Today I am going to check out some Lederhosen with a bunch of missionaries. Hope everyone has a good and safe week! 

Kevin