Hey Family!
Well another crazy week with stories to tell. It
started off actually really well!
Where to start... I think a noteworthy day for our history
here in Flensburg was on Tuesday. So on Tuesday, we had most of our
appointments because we had a meeting on Thursday in Berlin and so that meant
that we would be traveling most of the week. So we planned most of our
appointments for last Tuesday. We had 3 appointments with all single women.
And if you know anything about missionary work, we are not allowed to visit
single women. So we called and called and begged to get some members to
come with us, but they were all either working or studying because they had
exams this last week. So we went into planning this day kind of just
assuming that they would all fall out because we had no one to come with
us.
So we planned some really good back up plans. So, as the day
came, things just started to fall into place. Our first appointment was
with a college student who moved from Kenya. She wanted to invite a
friend over but her friend couldn't come, so she asked us if we could meet at a
little cafe because she would not feel comfortable to have just us in her
apartment. We happily agreed and we were able to teach her more at this
little cafe.
The second lady, a old widow, as we came to her house for
our appointment, we rang the bell to see if she would answer and some random
guy answered the bell and let us in. Turns out, he was a friend of hers
and she just invited him over during the time we were supposed to come by. That
was cool, so we were able to stay and teach her and him. The third lesson
is with a high school student who moved from Spain. And as we were going to her
appointment, a member called us back and said that he found the time to come
with us. So that was really cool. The first day where no appointments
fell through! Woohoo. But the thanks goes all to God. I feel that we were
truly blessed to see miracles like that because we were prepared. It was
retaught to me the principle of being prepared.
Then the traveling began. We left Wednesday afternoon to
travel to Hamburg in order to catch a ICE train to get us to Berlin. We
had about a 1 hour delay in Hamburg and so you know me and my relationship to
hamburg. We went out to see the town hall and a little bit of the
city. And then grabbed quick food and got onto the train for
Berlin. We stayed the night in Berlin and then on Thursday we had a
trainer trainee meeting in the mission home. Pictures should come soon,
but that was a nice little meeting. It was more centered on the new
missionaries. It was funny to see all the trainers raising their hands to
answer questions, but they really weren't called on. and I think President
Fingerle even said one time in the meeting that it was primarily focused on the
new missionaries.
I was able to do a little bit of family history and I
have been finding a huge success with a part of our family tree from a little
town in Northern Germany called Schwerin. The Baumann family. the line of
the wife of Karl August Gottleib Bretzing. So that has been fun and I
found a whole bunch of ancestors, but I need a my heritage account to see
more. Do you have a my heritage account mom? I have a free one so I
can go into it a little bit. Then we hit the road again for Flensburg, but
sadly we would not of been able to make it back, so we stayed the night in
Kiel. And that is when I realized that my voice was really shaky and I
couldn't really speak very well and then on Friday morning, when I woke up, my
voice was completely gone. I had no idea what happened. and to put the
cherry on the top, we had district meeting on Friday. So as we had
district meeting, it was probably the quietest one I have ever had because i
could barely whisper. And then when I got home, I had barely no energy
and had headaches for some reason. So I was in bed from Saturday to
Sunday evening. Everything feels a little better and my voice is a little
raspy, but i think its going ok. We are still taking it a little slow,
but I have most of my strength back.
It was weird not to go to church in almost 19 months.
That was really weird for me. but that was our week. This week is pretty
empty because I have been out of commission for the past few days, but we are
going to work on filling it up.
Ok, so trip ideas. I am happy that President Fingerle
approved you to come pick me up. So the plan ideas. If we were to do
it for a couple of weeks, I would be ok with that, but like maximum 3. I
would love to visit both temples in Germany and if we would want to visit any
other ones in Europe. Like I would be down to go and see London. I
would love to also see Munchen in Bayern and Salzburg in Austria. And even
Switzerland. but then I cannot speak that German, I will just have to ask
everyone to speak either English or High German. I would love to maybe
see Italy. But we can do it if you want to see Paris. I would also
like to spend a few days in Hamburg and Berlin and Dresden and maybe visit with
members there. But that is my thoughts about it, otherwise be creative
and have fun with the planning of it. Just keep me in the loop of things,
but not to often.
Well ok, now I am going to go and try to talk to people
again, or at least have my companion do all the talking Ill just write stuff
down and use hand signals! I love you all and have fun and until next
week!
Love,
Elder Bretzing
