Still here! This week, Elder Heilmann shared the report that he was to stay in Wiesbaden for the next transfer. He did get a new companion, however. Elder Tillet was transferred to Essen... it means food "Welcome to food!" Das Essen. His new companion is Elder Chamberlain.
Elder Chamberlain is from South Jordan, Utah, and is very nice, calm, and in charge of his emotions. Elder Heilmann said it feels very nice to have a "functioning adult in the house." He was the Zone Leader, and now he is the District Leader, so Elder Heilmann is now officially "District's Frau" or District's wife. The mission has fun names, just like the Country. ;) Elder Chamberlain is responsible for the District, so Elder Heilmann said, "I am just going to sit there and look pretty." He will get to answer some of Elder Chamberlain's texts, but mostly just be an everyday missionary on the side.
So...ubergeben. That's another fun German word for ya. It means 'to give over' or 'over give' something. So to vomit is to give too much. How fitting, ya? Gross. He reports that between the 6 weeks of food poisoning, all the walking, and now this weekend, he has lost like 10-15 pounds! I think I will try to NOT ubergeben to lose that much weight, but walking sounds like a solid plan. Elder Heilmann has decided to try to 'set his face like a flint' and be strong, so this emotional and physical breakdown doesn't happen again.
The transfer experience itself was, well, quite an experience! All the missionaries moving about or receiving a new companion met in the Frankfurt train station. Elder Flaucett and Elder Lyman were assigned to the train station to wait and assist with the transfers. Elder Heilmann only had to wait for 2-3 hours for his new companion, but he said it wasn't that bad. Working at Chick-fil-a helped train him to stand for hours at a time, so he was just fine waiting, he says. Flaucett and Lyman waited in between rails 10 and 11 and assigned different missionaries to their respective trains or new companions. It was funny because Elder Heilmann paused for a long time to translate 'rails' into English. The language is starting to stick! It's exciting to witness.
While they all waited, some longer than others...Sister O'Keefe waited for 5 hours for her companion to arrive!...they had a chance to get some food. Elder Heilmann chose to purchase a TUNA PIZZA. His Papa would be proud of his food adventure, but it was not a home run. He said it was "kinda good, but kinda not. German's don't know how to make a good pizza." It resembled our family's famous Tasty Tuna Tempters, but the red pizza sauce really threw off the whole experience.
They DO have a Domino's Pizza somewhere in Germany, but he is hesitant to try it after this experience. However, he did get a chance to check out a McDonald's on a different day, and he felt like royalty! The McDonald's is super fancy, and the meals are expensive. They have a glass countertop with a case filled with "baked deliciousness." It has several stories with crystal chandeliers, so posh!
KFC is also there, and it's "phenomenal! So much better than in America." He does have to pay $10 for a meal, and they don't have his favorite, the Famous Bowl, but the chicken is simply divine!
Apparently, German's don't really eat American-style gravy and mashed potatoes, but they do have mashed potatoes and carrots together. It's called Heaven and Earth, Himel und Erde. Looking up the recipe online, it looks like it is traditionally made with potatoes and apples, which sounds sort of interesting. Elder Heilmann says the Himel und Erde he has tried is "not great."
They call mashed potatoes potato puree. Not sure about how y'all feel about that, but that sounds unappetizing to me. You can get a 'cup of mashed potatoes' like 'cup of ramen,' so that's kinda cool. They eat a lot of potato noodles that look like really big gnocchi. Most of the time, the potatoes are fried. They have a fried potatoes dish that looks like tater tots, but the consistency inside looks like mashed potatoes rather than shredded, and the instant potatoes have skins on them! It's a potato palooza!
Speaking of fabulous German food, they love to celebrate all their fabulous German food with festivals! A festival always seems to be afoot, and this week is a wine festival! Elder Heilmann said that the Oktober Fest will be weird. It's not a holiday, it's a festival, and it's not really celebrated in Wiesbaden. They are "too posh and snooty" there. The anticipation is starting to build for Christmas, though! I encouraged him to go to the commissary now to get all his American Christmas treats. "I need my pirouline's or else I can't have joy!" he said. He was very grateful to be reminded of that possibility so he could plan accordingly.
The devout Catholic German's don't celebrate pagan or drinking holidays, just religious or saint holidays. However, he also said, "the more I live here, the more I realize that Germans are basically just dwarves! Literally Lord of the Rings dwarves! They just drink and eat, and they love meat, and they're rough around the edges, but they have really, really cozy homes."
His own home in Germany is quite a place! He lives in the basement of a really old and beautiful building that was turned into apartments. He said Wiesbaden feels like Savannah, Georgia, with that cool old feel, "just not Southern." I asked him to take a picture of his building, and he said, "....why?" He is so used to seeing it and all the fabulous other structures that it has become normal to him. Hopefully he will take a picture of it soon. There are 6 other tenants in the building and right above them is an American military family, so they can be loud. Germans need everything so quiet!
The last time we spoke, he told me about the flooding that he had in his apartment. The manager hasn't fixed the floor yet, so there's just a hole in the ground where they pulled up the planks to expose the bare concrete and dust.
They did, however, find out where the water came from. The house itself is around 150 years old, but the developed land's history is about 200+ years old. It's a German equivalent of a plantation house. The basement is part of the older section of the home as everything was just built on top. Where his living room is now was an kitchen from the 1700's-1800's. The old kitchen water run-off is behind the wall and underneath the driveway. It's a large brick tube where they would dump wastewater into. It had rained so hard and suddenly that the tube had a flash flood effect and overfilled to seep through the walls. Working around the damage and dust is interesting, so they focused on other parts of the apartment to deep clean.
The shower has caked on calc, "several millimeters of it." (It's so fun to hear him talk about measurements in millimeters, kilometers, and time in military time format). He has used so many tools to try to get it off to no avail. They don't have the same kind of caustic chemicals as we do in America, and I guess we are all just crazy like that here. The toilets are not too bad, but could be better. The German's use bowl air fresheners under the rim a lot, so he will get one for his apartment. The toilet structure is a little odd, though. He says German toilets are flat with the hole in the front, so you "kinda poop onto a plate, and it washes off. It's kinda gross." Especially when it doesn't always wash off the first flush.
Germany is full of quirks,, and Elder Heilmann is trying to absorb them all. Wiesbaden is a very rich area. They have an Armani store and a Gucci store in town. I questioned his comment because he had previously said how dirty the city was. He replied that it was "rich but still dirty. It just gets cleaned up faster in Wiesbaden." "Senile people are not inside houses, they are outside on the streets." The police are really scary and Elder Heilmann witnessed a man being pulled out of his car by gun point!
He said "If America had German town names, it would be the wierdest place! Sun Mountain, Liver Hill, Trash Windmill??....I'm not kidding." Sonnenberg means Sun Mountain. The town next to Wiesbaden is Lederberg which means Liver Mountain.
In Switzerland they speak Schweitzerdeutsch and Elder Heilmann can't understand it at all. It is pronounced so differently than Deutsch and they have such funny words for things. They don't say 'smell' they just use 'taste'. They don't have a different verb conjugation. Schmeckt means taste so they say, "Es schmeckt gut' and that can either mean it smells good or it tastes good. You just have to understand the context of the sentence. He finds that hilarious as he is still a teenage boy and he came up with all kinds of circumstances where that would sound pretty hysterical!
The missionaries aren't allowed to buy anything on the German Amazon but they can look items up. He had me purchase 3 different pairs of sunglasses for him that were "pretty dope." Aparently one Elder kinda over did it on Amazon and the resctiction was set in place. Elder Heilmann says that Elder was not really doing missionary work and listens to inappropriate music. He said, "He's been out for two years already and all he's done since he's gotten here is waste the Lords time." We had a good chat about not judging others. ;)
I said, "Maybe he's just trunky?" "Trunky! How do you know that word?" I laughed and told him that 'trunky' has been around for a LONG time. He was shocked and said, "I didn't know that they used that back then." This kid just cracks me up!
His new companion, Elder Chamberlain, is not affiliated with the military like Elder Tillet is so now Elder Heilmann gets to sponsor him on the Post so he's excited about that. Apparently there is only one other Military Elder in his mission and Elder Heilmann was on the plane to Germany with him. They had a great time connecting.
I told Elder Heilmann about his good friend Abbey's news. I said, "Hey Jules! I have some news from the Wilson family!" He replied, "I bet I could guess!" I said, "Abbey got her Mission call! Bakersfield, California, Spanish speaking! She will do 2 weeks at home MTC and then go to the Mexico City MTC!" His shocked reply was, "That is NOT what I was expecting!" He is so extactic for her!!
Elder Heilmann was also excited to report that Sister Maddy Webb recognized him at the Elder Bednar Conference. "You're in Abbey's class right?" "Ya, you're just in the class ahead of me." They had never talked before in America. Elder Heilmann was always pretty intimidated by her in Seminary and apparently the intimidation hasn't changed. He said "Her eyes stare into your soul!! She wears black eyeliner and black mascara and her eyes are the brightest blue! Now that I got to meet her, I think she is a nice girl. She's super sporty." He's glad to have a nice new friend and a connection to home.
He hasn't had the opportunity to watch all of General Conference yet. They have to watch it in parts. He was so excited about Sister Eubanks talk! She talked about the Rhein clean up efforts in Ahrweiler. An Elder in Elder Heilmann's district was in the picture she shared during her talk. He said that the picture was taken a week before he personally arrived in Ahrweiler but he knows the other Elder's in the picture, Elder Clay and Elder Hill. Elder Heilmann flew with Elder Hill to Germany. Elder Hill had been sent home with Asthma to protect him from the Corono virus. He fought to go back after he recovered. He was only out for 9 months and he was able to go back to finish his mission in Germany. Sister Eubanks also mentioned President Hammon's name and Elder Heilmann felt super cool to be a part of that.
As for the work of the Lord this week, it was a big one! Kevanch gets home on Sunday and they are excited to talk to him about his baptismal date. The Elders' haven't had time to talk to Brother Elosi on the phone nor did they get to see him on Saturday. Elder Tillett felt frustrated that he had to leave before that was resolved and Elder Heilmann is hoping to see him soon.
On the first day of the new companionship, the Elder's had a "very long series of unfortunate events" to get to the Deutche Bahn. They were looking for Platz der Deutschen Einheit "Place of German Unity" and they couldn't tell which stop it was until they got off to see the sign. They have a "Place of German Unity" in every town. It's a reference to the wall. There are 5 different stops in that area and they missed three busses trying to get there. They eventually got a bus and went to a random train station and stepped out into a super cute little wine town, Rudesheim am Rhein. (He said this little town was far enough away from the flooding to not be affected). The streets are really smooth and there are bars and pubs everywhere. He said it "literally looks like Diagon Alley. A lot of small towns in Germany look like Diagon Alley. It's super pretty and nice." "I am American, and I miss my country," but I do love Germany.
They went there to meet an African gentleman that seemed really flakey but it turned out that things were just lost in translation. He has only seen missionaries one time so they really weren't expecting anything. This gentleman is from Camaroon and sounds like Elder Heilmann's Preschool teacher, Teacher Christine. He immediately fell in love with his accent because of it.
Elder Heilmann offered to get him a Book of Mormon in French but he said he doesn't speak French, only English and he's learning German. He is living in Germany right now to study Economics at University. He then proceeded to tell the Elder's a story.
One Sunday, he decided to attend our Church services and said, "This is right! This is true." He had no idea how to get a Book for Mormon but had read the title page and new that it was the Word of God. The Elder's showed him how to get the Gospel library on his phone and he was very excited. He continued. "Ya, I've been trying to get to church every single Sunday" They were flabbergasted! He had been trying to figure out the bus system since neither the Elder's nor he has a car. By bus, it takes an hour and a half to get to church and the bus comes at 12pm but Church starts at 10am!
He said, "I've heard about baptism. Is that how you become a member of you Church?"
"YA it promises stuff."
"Ya, ya covenants. I've heard of them. Promises with God, right?"
"How did you hear about this?"
"I just studied. I want to get baptized How do I do that?"
Elder Heilmann was so smiley! "I will tell you how, brother!"
He said, "Mom, do you know why he wants to get baptized? Because he want to to the temple. Not to SEE it. He wants to make covenants. He wants to obtain the highest glory!
"How did you even hear about all of this?" Elder Heilmann exclaimed.
Then he said, "He's only read the title page of the Book of Mormon! That's all he's read! He read it and was like, 'ya this is true'. It's pretty sweet! That was just yesterday!! Transfer just started! So hopefully we can baptize him before I leave."
Elder Heilmann has found that most of the people he teaches in Germany are not Germans's. He finds that most people from Africa are also very faithful and feel gospel truths very profoundly.
All's well that ends well. The week started out a bit rocky but ended beautifully! I am excited for this adventure and spiritual high that Elder Heilmann is on right now. I hope that his testimony continues to grow and that he becomes more and more at peace with Serving the Lord in Germany!
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