Weak Sauce Transfers

Received March 26,2012

So we experienced transfers last week and I think it made for one of the longest weeks ever. In our District, Elder Heinrich left to go to Salzburg (lucky) and so Elder Stokes came to take his place. That wasn't anything too special because he pretty much just hopped over the border from Tübingen's area. In Tübingen Elder Lentföhr came to fill the spot. So in all three areas, only one new person came. Apparently a lot of changes have occured in the mission overall, so we'll see where everyone is when we get the newsletter.
This week, like I said was pretty dang slow because of the weird transfer (it's usually that way when you don't get transferred). We did find someone though that may become a new investigator. His name is Christian and he is in his twenties. He left his home near Nürnberg a few months ago so that he could start a new life. Right now he has no friends, but he accepted the invitation to come with us to church. It didn't work out this week because of a demonstration in the Stuttgart train station, which stopped pretty much all travel with the trains in our area and prevented him from getting there. We'll try again.
I realized that I never did talk about the train ride to Linz (thank you Mom), so I'll give you the run down: We got on a train at about 1 pm and that was fun. We got to ride an ICE which is the nicest train of the Deutsche Bahn (also the most expensive). We travelled to Munich in plenty of comfort, although the ride is some of the more boring scenery in the mission. Upon arriving in Munich we followed the instructions given to us by the office and got in a "lovely" Cityshuttle from the Österreichische Bundes Bahn (the cheapest train of the ÖBB fleet) and settled in for a fun little ride. Well, as it turns out, we should have technically gone the cool way through Salzburg to Linz, but ended up going the nasty way through Oberbayern. The train ride was REALLY long and boring and we couldn't really see anything because it was so dark. We arrived in Linz at about 9 pm and walked from the train station to the apartment. It was really weird being back there. Upon arriving we discovered that not only we were staying the night, but also the Elders from Haag am Hausruck. So all six of us slept there that night. In the morning we got up and got ready and went all the way up to Urfahr to the Neues Rathaus where the Fremdenrecht is and we picked up my Visa. It was nice to finally get it now that I don't work there anymore, but I put it right in my wallet and walked out. We went back to the train station and got on the train (this time the right one) and took a Railjet (the nicest of the ÖBB fleet) and rode in comfort to Munich. In Munich we switched over to (the wrong train again) and took an IC to Stuttgart. It was fine, but we could have taken an ICE, but we would have gotten back a little bit later. Stepping off the train in Stuttgart I realized that we had been gone traveling or sleeping for almost a solid 24 hours. That was a whirlwind experience. We have such a large area in our mission. Ask the Elders there how they would like to be transfered to Las Vegas or have an area the size of Orange County. That's my mission.
Well this week I would like to talk about prophets. We read this week in Helaman and it contains a story about when Nephi (son of Helaman, brother of Lehi) is up on his tower in his garden. All the people stop and are wondering what he's doing up there. Well, he's remorsing over the wickedness of his people. He starts talking to them and calling them out on their stupidity (hard heartedness) and talks to them about Jesus. He says that all of the prophets have spoken of Christ and that (back then) he would come to save the people from (not in) their sins. All these prophets were ordained of God to preach His word and help in the work of salvation among all people. In these days we know that Jesus Christ has come and that he will come again. But is our reliance on modern-day prophets done away with? No! That's the most exciting part about this coming weekend. GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! I'm so excited to hear from the prophet and the apostles. It will be great. If you can watch it, do it. If you're not a member and still reading my email, firstly thank you for reading my emails, and secondly go to your Mormon friend and watch it with them. If I'm your only Mormon friend, don't go to Germany, just watch it LIVE on www.lds.org. It's gonna be great!
Well everybody, have a great week and I write again next P-day! Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüßle!