August 26th: A Week of Strange Firsts

Another week brought some strange firsts for Elder Heilmann.  First Transfer, first time being called names, first time being threatened, first time trying Oat milk, and more!

Elder Heilmann is, well....tired.  He loves being a missionary so much and it's also exceptionally exhausting. 

Transfers came and went and Elder's Tillett and Heilmann are still together in Wiesbaden.  Zone conference was delayed again.  Sister Hammon, President Hammon's wife, had a medical emergency and had to go back to America for the next 5 weeks.  

The Elders are still in search of friends to connect with and teach. In one month, he has only personally found and taught one person that can be considered an investigator (or friend, as they call them).  More often than not, it's been just one time visits or meetings without any continuation or interest.  Mustafa is still not quite an investigator yet.  The Calvinistic Christian friend likes to continue having appointments with the missionaries but mostly just to try to prove them wrong. However, the Sister missionaries have about 7 investigator/friends. Elder Heilmann said that "the Sisters have a special juice.  Cute girl go up to boy on bus or weird boy go up to boy on bus? Who is going to talk to whom?  The boy is gonna talk to the girl!  'This cute girl is talking to me! Oooooo!!'" Everyone loves the sister missionaries.

Speaking of not feeling the love, he said one of the weirdest things about being a missionary is that, "we want them to come to our Church but we're supposed to strengthen their faith in Christ. So if you have strength in Christ but don't want to join our church, yay.  So if you're Muslim and you believe in Allah.  Great!  It's the same God so we just help them strengthen their faith in God." It feels like a hard thing to balance and not feel discouraged about.   

Another first was being yelled at at the park by a guy who was smoking a hookah.  I think he mentioned him before.  It was the man who Elder Heilmann sensed an evil spirit about his countenance.  The man was yelling at them with his lip curled calling them names and saying things like "So pretty. 19.  So good. You are not going down the path of darkness.  So influenceable.  So pure."  Then he would say "Schauspieler! Actors! You don't know God!" A man that was with them said, "Dude.  Stop yelling at the kids!"  Elder Heilmann said that in the past he would have cried a lot. But now he just felt bad for the man.  He said, "Don't feel bad for Satan or his angels, feel compassion for the people who are being influenced by them."  It was definitely a first. 

They ran into Oliver again at the park. He is the Scottish gentleman that yells "if you get vaccinated you die".  Elder Heilmann mentioned that he has a buzz cut now.  So he looked a bit different but was on the same rant.  Oliver was yelling that people are getting dragged out of their homes and getting them impfent (vaccinated).  "I'm not going to go down without a fight!", he'd say. 

Oliver has a nurse puppet that he talks to.  He told the Elders, "I got miles above the legal limit of marijuana.  Cannabis makes me forget." and Elder Heilmann said, "Maybe you should stop smoking it?" Oliver only laughed.  He was wearing only a kilt and tighty-whities, spread out like a model at the time.  Elder Heilmann said, "but I should say spread out like a German. They go to the park and don't wear much and sun bathe."  Nakedness is totally acceptable in the park but most people distance themselves from others anyway.  

Oliver speaks German and Scottish-English at the same time.  It's often hard to understand him.  He said he was reading from his Book of Prophets and he said, "According to the Bible, I can't talk to you!" and then he continued talking to them. 
"Your book's wrong! It's not from Jerusalem", Oliver said.
Elder Heilmann asked "Where does it say that in the Bible that if it's not from Jerusalem it's wrong?"
"Uh, I don't know I am reading in Second Samuel."
To which Elder Heilmann replied, "Ya, me too."
and Oliver replied, "Huh, you read the Bible?"
"Ya. I do read the Bible."  

Elder Heilmann said he hadn't seen him since and said he probably got arrested or something but he'll be back.  Quite an interesting gentleman to be sure. 

I asked him if people were generally friendly in Germany or do they just keep to themselves.  He just made a face and chuckled then said, "They keep to themselves.  It's pretty funny.  Most of the time if you try to talk to somebody, they are like, 'Do I know you?'" He said Germans are just really closed off and act grumpy that the missionaries are talking to them.  That day, in 6 hours, only 2 people allowed them to talk to them long enough to extend an invitation. 

I asked about the refugee situation and Elder Heilmann said that they were getting a lot of Afghan refugees in the area.  One Muslim man approached them and said to them, "It would be better for your safety if you were Muslim".  Elder Heilmann thought "Yikes! Is that a threat?" That was another uncomfortable first of the week. 

Elder Heilmann also said, "German children scare me!  They dress like adults. 12 year old's dress like inappropriate teenagers.  They wear what teenagers wear.  Like just bras or crop tops that are really tight.  The age of consent is 16 so sometimes teenagers are with adults.  The kids talk really formally, too. It's really strange."  It's definitely a drastic culture difference for him and he is finding it quite startling. 

He also mentioned an age group called called Jungs.  They are the young adults in the area.  He said they "are just a bunch of clowns".  They dress really strange.  They try new things and new stuff. "I buzzed all the hair on my head except just the front and dyed it...just because."  

Amidst all of this he kept feeling this nagging anxiety.  He said he couldn't feel calm and felt grumpy.  He decided he would start a "scrubbing of his soul"  He started writing down things as he thought of them so he could repent and change.  He would think of small little things- small lies from his youth.  He wanted to just be free of all of it so he has been praying a lot and has felt a lightening of his soul.

And he is feeling GREAT! AND to make that greatness even more memorable, Germany has started it's Christmas season!! They don't celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving (obviously) so they celebrate Easter in April, and Christmas in December.  As a mission, they are reading the Gospels and Jesus the Christ (in English) before Christmas.  Christmas season in Germany is beautiful and he is enjoying all the holiday food.  

Speaking of food, he hasn't found pecan's yet in Germany.  He really wants to make pralines or gophers.  He misses his Savannah home.  When people ask him where he is from, he says he's from the South or from Savannah, Georgia. Being such a gypsy most of his life, he really could claim just about anywhere he has lived. I asked if he was homesick and he said "I don't think I will get more homesick, but I don't think I will get less homesick"  

Some fun food firsts of German has been mustard, it's not American yellow mustard.  It has horseradish in it.  The wasabi with his grocery store sushi was super dark green and tasted different from what he's used to.  He tried Oat milk for the first time since he is trying to eliminate animal products except fish to see it helps with his guts.  He got a box of AppleJax from an American family and that was awesome. OH and one more strange thing is that comas and periods are swapped in Germany. 1,000 is 1.000
It's very confusing. 

While Elder Heilmann and I were talking, his little sister, Aveline started to feel very ignored.  I will leave you with their little conversation.

Aveline: Julian! Julian! What do you got?  

Elder Heilmann: What do I got?

A: YA what do you got? I got Tookless. 

E: You got Toothless?

A: No Tookless!  Tookless is her name!

E: Oh HER name.  Got it.  I got a tag! (He shows her his missionary tag)

A: Oh! I like that!  I like that tag.

E: I like it too. I can play it like a kazoo. (demonstrates)

A: That's funny, Julian!