January 11, 2023: It's like a movie

 But it's really kind of life-like

Another week is gone already, only 2 more in the transfer somehow! 

German mission tip- don't go door knocking at 8pm. Last Friday we decided to do that, because we were outside and didn't know what else to do other than go home. The people do not like it. 3 people complained to us about it being too late and their kids were going to sleep, and then an old lady (who we saw through her window that she was just watching TV) opened the door and said "in dieser Zeit?!" Or "at this hour?!" I should've just said "Yes!" But we decided to call it done after that.

On Saturday we had 3 lessons fall through, and had a whole day to go finding. We decided to go to a new city in our area, Xanten! It was super dope actually! Its a bit smaller than Wesel, but there's a lot more historical stuff and just wayyy prettier. We got a couple numbers, and got the first success from finding we've had in a while. 

Church was wild this week. It was fast and testimony meeting, our new member Mike leaned over to my comp and whispered "am I allowed to go up there?" And he said yes of course, anyone can bear their testimony. So he got up a couple minutes later, and just talked about his life for about 15 minutes, causing the meeting to go 10 minutes over time it was wonderful. We also had an interesting Sunday school afterwards that he got to participate in a lot which was great.

After church, Schwester Ebbert invited us to eat waffles with her, her sister, and their 100 year old mother, for a late lunch? My companion decided it was worthy to break our fast, for the once in a lifetime opportunity to eat waffles in a room with 3 Omas with a combined age of over 250. I asked them if it was normally a breakfast food, (because waffles for us are for breakfast, and maybe dinner if your in the mood, never for lunch), and they were appalled. It's too sweet for breakfast apparently, even though all we did was put jam on them and effectively make toast. It was scrumptious.

We did some finding in the city of Emmereich am Rhein on Monday, and it was beautiful. We did some contacting and then ended up just taking a stroll on the Rhein during the sunset. I'll keep tabs on the place if I ever meet a nice lady German tennis player.

All of the trains from Wesel have been canceled for the past week, and to add to that there's a country wide strike that's going on and none of the regional trains are driving anywhere now. We had an exchange with Krefeld on Tuesday, and everything went well at first, but then we tried to come back together, und alles ist zu Grunde gegangen. From Krefeld Elder Stucki and I did OK, and arrived about 15 minutes later than we expected. But the Elders on exchange in Wesel had the bikes break on them, missed 2 busses, took a wrong bus, and eventually made it about 2 hours late. We came back together and Elder Hill and I headed to a meal appointment with Schwester Klucken, but Google maps lead us on top of a roof on a random building rather than the bus we were supposed to take, so we took a street train instead, which got delayed about 30 minutes. Eventually they just made all of us get off in the middle of nowhere, and we waited another 30 minutes until the next one came. We eventually made it to the meal appointment what was supposed to be lunch but now was a dinner appointment. Aber, es hat sich doch gelohnt. She had tacos ready for us! 

She had no idea how to eat tacos, but she knew that we like them in America. She just took the taco shells and broke them, making a taco salad, not understanding that that's actually not just tacos anymore but another dish entirely. We just followed suit and made taco salad too, and it was heavenly after a day of standing on crowded trains and not eating anything all day (We didn't eat breakfast, expecting to have eaten a lot earlier).

Also fun fact- Alfredo sauce is completely made up by Americans and is not Italian (sorry Lindee). They also eat pasta and Lasagna as an appetizer, not a main dish. (Schwester Klucken is Italian)

I finally had my dream P-Day today! I played tennis!!! It was incredible, and although I was super rusty, didn't have any of the equipment I usually have, and was on a new surface (a clay like rubber court), it was so fun! I would've stayed out there until I dropped if I could, but we only had the court for an hour. Our Bishop was kind enough to rent a court and play with us, and for that I'm so very thankful. I tried for about 10 minutes to hit a serve, and could not make contact with the ball whatsoever, which is a little sad because that was one of my favorite and best parts of my game, but it is what it is. The forehand is still there though .

We've been having Schwester Ebbert drive us around everywhere because the local busses are super slow and it takes 30 minutes to walk to the bus stop from our house, and it's sits at around 20°F constantly, so we aren't sure what else to do before my bike is fixed. We're waiting on getting an estimate right now, but it's in pretty bad shape. 

Ether 12:6

And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.

I know this scripture to be true, as my faith has been tested and tried over the past 6.5 months. I've never had so many questions, so many trials, and so many crazy things happen before in my life, but through every single one I come out stronger through faith in Jesus Christ and God. I know that as we look unto him in every thought, than we will see true growth in every situation we are placed in.

Much love!! Sorry this is a long one! Good stuff is happening :)

Elder Tage Rex

Some pics from Xanten and Emmereich am Rhein

My desk legos

You're waiting for a train...

Tacos 

Tennis!