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, which is near France, so it took a long time for him to arrive in Krefeld on Transfer Day. Elder Heilmann was at the station from around 0700-1600, sending off Elder Jones and waiting for Elder Wright. He was waiting with the Zone Leaders and others, so it was a nice day. He did NOT, however, have another tuna pizza. I asked. "Never again," he says. ;) Today, they played Magic: The Gathering with Elder Heilmann's new deck, a Christmas present from Elder Jones. It's going to be a great companionship for the next 6 weeks.
Missionary Work
After snacking on his frosted lemonade and cleaning the apartment, one of the first things Elder Wright did was to help the companionship make some new goals. The main goal they set was "Never let an African person walk by without talking to them." They are so receptive to the Lord! Right after they set the goal, Elder Heilmann came across Sammy.
Sammy was walking in the park by the Elders, and before they knew it, they had taught him a lesson, given him a Book of Mormon, and invited him to read it and meet with them again! He didn't give the Elder's his address or phone number, he has an ancient "pre-flip phone," as Elder Heilmann calls it, and Sammy is not super tech-savvy. But, he said he walks in the park every day from 1400-1500 and would love to see them again on his next walk.
They also met with Michael, who didn't really listen to the lesson as he was "just in his head and worried about the future." The Elder's will try to get Michael to the hospital on Monday or Tuesday. Michael is a partially crippled man who lays on his bed all day and can't control his bowels or bladder. He needs surgery to fix his back and hips to regain his dignity, strength, and locomotion. Michael has been meeting with missionaries for a long time. He has a Book of Mormon, which he has been invited to read, but he has difficulty focusing on the scriptures because of health problems.
The Elders called an ambulance, but they wouldn't take him because it was non-emergent and told them to call a transporter instead. They didn't have much success and are thinking of asking Brother Krautser to help transport him to the hospital for surgery and a 3-week hospital stay for physical therapy. One day at a time with Michael.
Quirky Germany
While out shopping today, the Elders were walking along and saw a man lying down next to a car in the dealership parking lot. Their first impression was that he was homeless and napping, so they should leave him there. But then, they noticed he was well dressed, perhaps not homeless after all? An older couple saw him simultaneously and started tapping on him. The prone man started talking complete nonsense! The couple helped the man up to his feet, and he fell back down again. The woman looked at the Elders and said the man was hammered! They picked him up again, and the man said Danke Schon, hobbled off and fell again in the middle of the street! The Elder's quickly put their groceries down and ran into the street to pick him up and move him to a bus station. Once he was seated and steady, a woman approached...his wife? She started screaming at him in Russian and German. "You've got to stop drinking! You're crazy! You need to drink water, and breathe air, and eat normal food!!" He would stare at her blankly and repeat, "Danke Schon, Danke Schon." Elder Heilmann said he has "never seen anyone so slammed before! Just gone!" 30 min later, they returned to the bus stop, and he was gone. They hope that he was taken to the hospital by his wife. Unfortunately, detox is populous there.
On a happier and more irreverent note, Elder Heilmann shared with us some funny German words and phrases that may or may not get you in trouble. First off, Avatar in German is "The Lord of the Elements" and Elder Wright was very pleased to find another Aang obsessed family in the world. ;)
Greenie Prank:
"Tell them to go to a bakery and ask 'Zwei von davon' which means 'two from that' and don't point to anything, and the baker won't know what it means.
So the Greenies will go:
"Entschuldigung, zwei von davon, bitte"
And the baker will say: "Wavon?" which means from what?
G: Davon.
B: Wavon? |
G: Davon.
B: Wavon?
G: Davon! Zwei von davon, bitte. (From that! Two from that, please.)
We asked Elder Heilmann if anyone tied to get him to fall for that, and he said, "No, haha! I took German since middle school. I already knew too much not to fall for that." Apparently, grammatically it seems to make sense, but it's totally misleading and vague when used in that way. Stinkers.
The other ones are also pretty deceiving. "Mutterkuchen. Sounds like mothers cake. Like a cake your mom makes, right? .... it means placenta."
"Kaiserschnitt, which means emporors cut. So like, you go to the barber and ask for the emperor's cut, which sounds awesome! ....It actually means C-section. Gotta be careful with that one!"
Oh boys.
Well, I hope you enjoyed another installment of an American Missionary in Germany! Happy New Year, and watch your grammar!
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