Hello, Everyone! Yes, in case you were worried, we are still alive. There has been so much that has gone on in the last week, and I've tried to write about it three times already, but each time I write the title, I lose all concentration, and end up staring at the screen blankly until I give up and do something else.
But not this time!!!
So, three weeks ago I promised the sister missionaries here that we would help them street contact. Every Tuesday they set up a poster-stand in the middle of the main Fussgaengerzone in Stuttgart, and try to make contacts with all the people that are walking by.
Two weeks ago I forgot I was supposed to help them.
But last week we didn't forget! We showed up at 10:30 a.m, just like they told us to! Unfortunately, Sister Seidel had food poisoning from eating left-out tuna salad the night before, and so the sisters weren't there. Silly sisters!! So Graydon and I hung out with the two Elder-companionships. This means that we asked them how to contact people, and then walked away into the crowd together, and tried it. I learned two important things about us:
Graydon is so good at starting conversations!
I am terrible at starting conversations, but am a little more capable when it comes to explaining why we're there after the initial contact.
We make a great companionship! Graydon had to leave at about 11:30, but before he did, we'd placed our first Book of Mormon! And I guess he left the Spirit with me or something, because shortly after he left I placed the second one! I think the Elders were thinking "WHAT is going ON over there?!" We were pretty much on fire. Now it's just up to us to pray that 1) They actually open the Book and read it, and 2) Their hearts are open to feel the healing power of the Spirit that resides therein.
Then the shadow of first-contacting talent that Graydon had left evaporated, and I spent until about 12:30 trying to talk to people who were too busy, or simply talking to thin air. With one exception: Two men from Africa came walking by, and I started talking, and they stopped walking (the first and best sign!)! Then an Elder came over (trying to steal the limelight, of course! :) It's okay, I can share the victory. Since it has nothing to do with me, anyways...), and we found out they liked English better! And the Elder, who was for the international (English-speaking) ward, got their contact information, and they agreed to have him drop by! Nice. I love this work!
I was freezing by the time it was over, however, and didn't thaw until I got home after my chem class. I got home at around 4.
I'm trying to think about all the rest of the awesome things that happened on Wednesday and Thursday. I can't remember them...but we did get Ratatouille in the mail!
On Friday I had to go to the University Vaihingen Campus (there are two in Stuttgart, one in the middle of the city and one on the outskirts--Vaihingen is on the outskirts) to attempt to take a test for the second time. It didn't work, but something beautiful happened as I was walking to the train to go home! First I will mention the cool-but-not-quite-beautiful thing: I saw our friend Paulius (the one I gave the first Lithuanian BoM to)! As I was talking to him the real beautiful thing happened: SNOW! We haven't seen snow at all here up to this time! And then all the flakes started falling, and I was so excited to buy a couple of donuts and some hot chocolate and meet Graydon at his train! Which I did.
I got to his platform half an hour early. It's cold here. And I sat outside because I'd also gone grocery shopping and didn't want the meat getting too warm. It wasn't too bad, though; I ate a couple of oranges while I waited. But then the train was thirty minutes late. The second thirty minutes is actually when I ate the second orange. And I was listening to War of the Worlds. But when the train finally arrived, my sweetheart didn't step off of it! So, I headed home trying to balance two cups of hot chocolate and a 3 kg bag of oranges on the train, and was a little worried.
Luckily, Graydon was there when I got off the train at the stop by our apartment. He'd actually caught an earlier train that had also been late, and that's how we missed each other. It was fortunate that it had snowed on him, too--the snow stopped when I got closer to the city. He thought about getting donuts and chocolate, but it was good he didn't, because I already had. :) We enjoyed that little tradition together. And then ate little bite size frozen pizzas and chicken wings, because I'd been craving meat-stuffs.
The night before we didn't have meat, so I almost cleaned the peanut-butter jar out. It was an okay-alternative.
Anyhow, when we'd gotten home the George's had called and left a message, wondering if we'd like to travel with them to the Frankfurt Temple on Saturday! They weren't 100% sure there'd be room, but it turned out there was. They have a van that they drove us up with. It was nice to spend time with them!
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The night before, even though we were happy it had actually snowed, none of it stuck! The next morning at 5:30 when we left to catch the trains to make it to Vaihingen by 6:30, there was snow on the ground! I was so excited! We crunched all the way to the train, and then all the way to the George's. I love the smell, sound and feel of the snow in the morning! In spite of this, we were both cold. :) It was colder than it has been since we've been here!
So we drove with Jen, Andrew, and their little, darling boy Davin to Frankfurt. The temple was beautiful, but it was even colder in Frankfurt than Stuttgart! This was due to a pretty heavy wind that blew the cold right through you. Inside the temple wasn't cold, though. It was nice. And we enjoyed listening to all the German.
On our way home, Jen and Andrew saw a castle up on the hillside, and said "Let's go see it!" So they pulled out their handy-dandy GPS, looked up the castle, and we drove up to it! It was really awesome. Unlike some/most castles with which you have to pay to go inside, this was a ruin, so we were at liberty to walk right in, and look around! It was really cool! Some of the places were reinforced--because it is a ruin, but there were actually only a few doors that were locked & a few places we couldn't check out. I think it's the first time I've really felt a dream coming true since I've been in Germany. I mean--I've ALWAYS wanted to run around in a castle that was thousands of years old at my own liberty! The only thing was that I'd read a book about a ruin that had only become a ruin because it was haunted...so I kept getting the creeps. But it was so cool!
The wind was also very strong, and very cold at the castle. We were able to climb the two tallest towers, one all the way to the top and the other almost-so. In the one that was open all the way to the top, you could see forever, and the wind was so strong if you faced it directly you could hardly take in breath. It made me fee like I was in Lord of the Rings or something cliche-romantic like that. I could just imagine looked over that valley a few thousand years ago when there weren't smokestacks or refineries in the distance, and the possible danger of an army coming to attack. Just the fact that you could see 360 degrees around was a great protection, not to mention the 3 walls around the castle itself. Graydon and I had a great time being adventurers, and poor Graydon's fingers were freezing by the end from taking pictures (my camera died).
So, we made it home and ordered two pizzas (we miss american pizza!), the watched a movie. I pooped out half way through the movie. Graydon stayed up for the big game, and came to bed distraught. I comforted him half-awake. He felt better the next day when he'd come up with clever come-backs for anyone who addressed him about it and had talked to his fellow Y fans in church. He makes me so happy inside!
Well, that's basically everything. The pictures in this post don't look very nice, but they're there! I'll try and post some more of the castle, too.
PS There are a few videos and all the pictures posted on facebook. So, if you can find someone with an account, go on and check it out!
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