Elder Heilmann: Adventures in Serving the Lord

Elder Heilmann's wishes for your New Year Daily Doings Christmas has come and gone, and now it's time to prepare for the New Year! The Elder's will go to bed on time and have a typical Missionary day on New Years Day, but they already have plans for the next phase in their mission. Phase 1, lose the 8 lbs gained over Christmas. In Elder Heilmann's words, "It's called German food." They got rid of all the sugary things in the apartment and bought a bunch of veggies and fruit. But, Elder Heilmann also purchased some ice cream and lemons to make his new companion, Elder Wright, a proper Chick-fil-a frosted lemonade!!   20 yr old Elder Wright is going home to Arizona at the end of this transfer. In Mission slang, Elder Heilmann is "killing him off." Elder Wright is a lot different from Elder Jones. He is very energetic for finding friends and doing the work. He got to the apartment and immediately started cleaning up. YAY! He was serving in Trier, wh...

Daily Doings Elder Heilmann called us on the 23rd from the Krefeld Chapel. We answered as he was playing on the chapel piano his iconic playlist. I love all the songs that he learned how to play by ear. The "Lord of the Rings" songs are some of my favorites to hear him play. It was so much fun to listen to my baby's music again.   We could only speak for about 5 min as he had lots of things to do to get ready for Christmas Day. We were lucky enough to be able to hear from him again then, so we didn't worry too much.   For this next transfer, Elder Jones is going to Ansbach in Byern in the middle of nowhere. His new companion will be Elder Shasha, whom everybody loves. He is a big Polynesian kid with a fabulous accent and is known as the 'sweetheart of the mission.' Elder Heilmann will receive Elder Wright and stay in Krefeld for another 6 weeks. Elder Wright is 5'5", looks like he's 12, and is also a "very, very nice boy." Elder Wrig...

Daily Doings His Nana said it, so you know it's the truth! "Do you know what I see? I see light in your eyes. You have the Spirit. I can see it." Yay, Elder Heilmann!! And he's really back, friends. The Elders had a wonderful and successful week. They met a guy from New Castle, a town close to Poole, England, where Elder Jones is from. The gentleman is a former British soldier. During wartime, he came to Germany, married a local German woman, and stayed. Totally reminds me of that great movie,  "In Love and War"   He is an English Professor. He teaches local Germans how to speak English. The New Castle accent is very slow and deliberate, and the Elders thought it was a real treat to hear him speak. Listening to Elder Heilmann's version of his accent was a treat, too, like a proper little  accent chameleon .  Speaking of languages, Elder Jones introduced Elder Heilmann to the Pidgin language. It's a Nigerian dialect and just may be my favorite languag...

Bit of a short chat today with the mister. Only 35 min long. It worked out alright, though. I had just pulled over to get gas, and he called, and Tim was just taking a break, so we all three got to chat together. It was just perfect. Daily Doing Elder Heilmann cut his hair, and then the clippers broke. Dang. But he did manage to give himself a pretty good fade. He has decided to just go back to the Turkish haircut plan. After the haircut, the Elders went to the Christmas Market. What an experience!! It was so vast that he only took a few pictures, which was why our chat was short. But, I am glad about that.  I want him to take advantage of all the amazing things to see and experience in Germany.  The Market was FULL of delicious food to eat. SO MUCH sausage! Elder Heilmann thought it was pretty hilarious how many varieties of sausage there were available. He was going to get some souvenirs, but they were all pretty expensive for a missionary, so he opted for churros and pictur...

(Krefeld Hauptbahnhof- complete with floating shoe ) Daily Doings The first thing we noticed this week was that Elder Heilmann looks like his light is back! He has been looking better every week, and this week he is shining bright! We asked him about it (Tim and I), and he said, "This week was GOOD! I had a really good week. It feels like my Mission has  started ! I don't know. It just feels like I finally got into a groove." YAY!   Oh, there you are, Peter !! My baby is back!  Elder Heilmann was able to sign up in the City of Krefeld, so he is now legal and officially a missionary in the area. Each new city requires you to register, and they give you a card that you have to carry around stating that you are legit able to proselyte in the area. This city registration cost $112! The registrar liked Elder Heilmann's passport because she said she didn't see many American ones come past her desk.   Now that he is officially official, it is time to start enjoying the...