And Then It Got Easier...

Rhein and Other Service Opportunities

 Elder Heilmann had quite the week! He and his companion Elder Tillett had anticipated going up North on Friday for the week to help with flood clean up but plans had to change.  Instead, they got moved to a Sunday to Sunday trip.  Hopefully that means he is there now.  Because of that though, we may not hear from him this Thursday.  The Elders that are already there serving are staying in Youth Hostels, so we just don't know what his Thursday will look like or what kind of connectivity he will have. 

  There is just so much to do in the flooded region.  The flooding of the Rhein was incredibly devastating for the people and the town itself.  Elder Heilmann said it was going to take many years to fix.  Some peoples homes got carried downstream and many train tracks were completely destroyed.  The work that is being done now is just chopping and breaking things up just to GET to homes.  It's incredibly muddy and difficult work. 

  The Sisters were able to tear down dry wall to expose bricks so the walls could be reinforced and rebuilt.  Unfortunately, some Elders came across some flood victims.  It's been a herculean effort full of sacrifice and some trauma.  

  The positive side of this tragedy is that everyone is surprised and happy to see the missionaries in the area.  Elder Heilmann said, "It's not the German way to respond to people in need.  They want to make sure that everything is prepared, set in stone, and then respond like 2 weeks later but as soon as the floods were gone, missionaries were there. Like 40-60 missionaries, I think.  Like half the mission."  The locals now refer to them as Engel Unterwegs or Angels Underway.  Basically, rescue angels.  When we talked last Thursday, he was very excited to be able to be apart of that rescue effort.  

  They are able to do some service for neighbors in their own area, too.  Elder Heilmann and Elder Tillett had the pleasure of helping move a very large and very heavy couch down some very tight apartment stairs.  Oh not just any old stairs, mind you.  That would be too easy.  These are German apartment staircases; tight, steep, gorgeous, spirals.  There was much sweat and sore muscles involved in that task....and then they had to walk it to the truck. ;)  

Missionary Work

 As for the other part of Missionary work, Elder Heilmann is happy to report that his "first two weeks were really hard. Homesickness was really bad but now I'm just vibin'!"  Did you catch that? He says, "It's not hard anymore."  Music to our ears!!! Elder Tillett thought it was the perfect opportunity to make Elder Heilmann do all the regular missionary tasks while he was sick from food poisoning so now he said it's all "sunshine and lollipops!" Talk about jumping in with both feet in the service of God.  Hallelujah!

  The companionship has had the pleasure of teaching a few new friends this week.  The first friend is Mustafa.  They met him at a Kurpark, more on that later. Mustafa is Turkish and his English is not great.  They are learning to communicate together.  He seems very interested in learning more about Jesus Christ and God but is confused by Christ's titles of Prophet and also God.  I am sure that as they continue to talk, the Spirit will be able to help all three of them communicate and get questions answered and clarified. 

  They met another friend, Jarrett, at an Italian Gelato place.  Apparently, Italian gelato is very popular as they are so near Italy and it is used as a form of 'Missionary currency' to obtain approved MP3 music files.  Again...a story for later. ;)  I promise to revisit it.  

  Jarrett is an American Military man.  He is a Calvinistic Born Again Christian.  Something I had never heard of before, nor had Elder's Heilmann and Tillett.  As far as it has been explained to them, Jarrett believes that God failed and that's why Israel was split up.  He also believes that if there is more than just the Bible, ie The Book of Mormon as another testimony of Jesus Christ, that it was also a mistake on God's part.  All in all, Jarrett is "relatively nice" and they have had many interesting conversations.  It has caused Elder Heilmann to dive more deeply into Isaiah, so it's all been a great experience. 

  Finally, they had the pleasure of talking to Kevanch whom I believe Elder Heilmann said was also from Turkey..  Kevanch has been attending the LDS Church for a year of two but has decided he won't be baptized until he can go home and tell his family all about it.  Elder Heilmann was excited to be able to extend the invitation to keep the 10 Commandments in German, his first time!

  Generally, street contacting has resulted in being shouted at by a lot of German's, so having the opportunity to teach has been very special and exciting. 

Mission President Hammon

    Elder Heilmann's Mission President says that this is one of the hardest missions in the world so their is a lot of strict obedience to the rules.  President Hammon will say, "If you do this? You're going home.  If you do that? You're going home."  Their is no room for error there.  And you know what? Elder Heilmann LOVES IT!  He loves his Mission President's inspiring passion for the work and dedication to God's laws. The field is white and ready to harvest or as President Hammon puts it, "Rev up your big daddy 5000 and start harvesting!"

  So harvest they go and do.  However, baptisms are an entirely different endeavor in Germany.  Immigrants to Germany have to go through many government hoops to be able to get baptized and if the man is Muslim, it can take years.  The Muslim people have to be very cautious about that decision as well for if they get baptized and then go home, they will be killed.  So, the Missionaries are not allowed to proselyte to them for they could be putting that man or woman's life in jeopardy.

German and American Wards

  When the Elder's do have an opportunity to teach someone new you can imagine how exciting it is.  For the most part, so far, they spend a fair bit of time with the members of the local Wards.  Elder Heilmann said that there are not a lot of German members but the ones they do have are really strong and missionary minded.  

  The German Wards had some trouble with the Missionaries in the past that has caused a level of distrust so they are hesitant to allow Missionaries into the Wards.  They instead get assigned to the American Wards first, of which their are many; 200+ people a Ward across many American Wards.  Elder Heilmann has been asked to give a talk on HIS BIRTHDAY, August 15th.  Not sure if he will be speaking in an American or German Ward yet. We forgot to ask.

  Elder Heilmann was able to attend a German Ward once so far and he really enjoyed his experience.  Bishop Tiebing was delightful.  Elder Heilmann got a kick out of him.  Bishop came up to the Elder's and Sister's and said, "I like to be safe in my Ward." and he made them separate to opposite sides of the chapel.  But before he separated them, he said to Elder Heilmann, "du shaust vie Sister Grey heist!" (not sure on my German spelling) but basically, he said to Elder Heilmann that he looked like Sister Grey was named.  He was still suffering from his food poisoning at the time.  Poor guy! 

  As for eating now, he is much better and really enjoys the food in Germany!  He has been able to get on 2 different Military Bases' so far, Clay Kaserna, the American Headquarters in Germany and also a more residential Post where he was able to stop at the Commissary and the PX.  He is enjoying the fact that he can sign on his companion to get on Post since he has his Military ID.  For both occasions, the Elder's were invited to American members homes for BBQ's and dinner.  

  The Military Wards have a lot of Dentists.  That cracked Elder Heilmann up.  He said that their are 8 dentists in one Military Ward and that the Elders Quorum President is an Orthopedic Surgeon... Brother Pepper.  With a name like Pepper, you are kind of duty bound to a Doctor, are you not? ;)

  Apparently, the American's invite missionaries over a lot.  German homes not so much.  When they do, it's a fairly brief visit.  "Oh you probably have to go don't you.  Oh it's time to go!" German houses are private places.  He is getting used to that.  He is enjoying getting to know the German culture and customs.  

German-isms

  Some other fun things he has learned so far is that German's don't say "hey friend."  They just say hi or good day and some just say, day; "Tag."  Shevous (spelled as phonetically as I could muster) has no meaning. It's derived from and Italian word for slave. It's just a cultural slang word used as a greeting.  And the Northerners say Moin Moin as a greeting. 

  Elder Heilmann ran into someone who spoke OK English but really wanted to practice his English...like many German's do...and asked him "Where you from? Your name is German!" We told Elder Heilmann he would probably run into that often before he left and there it was!  Week three! But that wasn't all.  He also ran into a gentleman named Jerg (Boxler or something like that) that has made several YouTube movies about traveling in Germany. Elder Heilmann used to watch them before his mission, so it was fun to run into him.  He told Jerg that his family was from Hammburg and Jerg started talking to him in a Hammburg accent.  Elder Heilmann said it sounded like gibberish and he was thinking about how his Great Grandfather must have sounded when he first came to America!  It was a cool experience. 

Life in Germany

  I mentioned before the Kurparks, or Cure Parks.  They are beautiful, open, green spaces that are meant for the health of the body and mind.  Elder Heilmann has noticed that the German people are generally quite health minded and environmentally friendly.  The Elder's do a lot of street contacting in the Kurparks and enjoy the peace there. 

  The area he lives in is very pretty overall.  They have half timber houses- timber and plaster- with either slate tiles or terra cotta tiles.  No American style shingles to be seen in his area.  He finds it to be very charming, indeed!  The Elders themselves live in what Elder Heilmann calls "basically a castle".  They live in the basement and it has bars on the windows so we said he lives in the dungeon.  He liked that. 

  Speaking of dungeons, the Elder's went to a "nerd store" on PDay where Elder Heilmann was able to buy a card game called Boss Monster.  It's the mini boss edition and it's all in German.  He is excited to play it.  He did see his favorite game, Anachrony, but for $100 USD, he had to pass.  He also said the store had huge racks of Dungeons & Dragons books.  The district keeps wanting to play a game of D&D but Elder Heilmann said they would have to take an entire PDay just to make a character and that's not a great use of their PDay.  Very wise. ;)

  The missionaries are allowed to listen to approved music but are not allowed to search and download it for themselves so any music that they have is sent to them in MP3 format by family or local members.  Elder Heilmann requested a few songs last week, one being Baba Yetu and he said he listens to it often and it gives him courage and strength.  Another song he is enjoying from my latest MP3 email is a song called Stronger.  Because music is so hard to come by, the missionaries have devised a funny little game.  They will say to each other, "buy me an ice cream and I'll send you a song."  It's an all around win.  Everyone gets gelato and music is shared.  Haha!!

   As for the rest of his food, Elder Heilmann has confirmed that KFC doesn't have his favorite, the Famous Bowl, but the chicken is good.  After experiencing his food poisoning from the bad yogurt, eating remained a bit uncomfortable.  He decided to stop eating as much meat and he started to feel much better.  So, instead he has corn flakes for breakfast every morning or Muesli mixed with corn flakes.  They go back to their apartment for lunch where Elder Heilmann will typically eat bread or soup and dinners are at Members homes if they can get an appointment there.  

  At the super market he found a Ritter Sport display.  This was his favorite chocolate in the US and he has fast access to it in Germany.  It makes him very happy! What makes him even more delighted is the price.  It's less than 1 USD there whereas he was paying up to 5 USD at home.  He can also get individual Lindt chocolate balls.  Basically, he is in chocolate heaven.

              

  A few more fun facts from this week.  Elder Heilmann has been using Duolingo for German practice and his Nana keeps giving him high fives through the app.  He is LOVING that connection to his Nana at home and hopes she keeps it up. ;) (hint, hint)  He is also practicing Japanese on the app because he wants to be able to listen and understand his Manga when he gets back home.  Such a cool kid!

  We also confirmed that indeed, ties are not typically worn in Germany so he only really wears his ties for church or other meetings.  His daily attire is either a white or blue dress shirt opened at the top. So there's that.

  In his weekly email this past Thursday, he also talked about a hike that he went on with his District.  If you would like to receive his weekly emails, just comment below and I will gladly add you to the list.  In the meantime, you can enjoy his pics he took of a Russian Orthodox Church in Neroberg.

              

     

  For our final parting words for your week three update, I will leave a quote from Elder Heilmann himself clarifying the shipping issue we have come up against.  Have a fabulous week and keep praying for all the Missionaries safety around the globe.  

Much love and thanks for reading!
Liv and Tim

Shipping

"If you send me stuff now, it will be taken to a post office because I don't have ID and I won't be able to pick it up...because I don't have ID. German's are very specific here.  Every time you make a purchase you sign your name and check ID and all sorts of stuff. It would probably be best to send stuff to the *mission home and I can pick it up at Zone Conference."

*for the mission home address email Liv at oeheilmann@gmail.com