Skip to main content

Jan. 27 Welcome to Germany!

Daily Doings

The mister had a hectic day and could only call us right before bed. It was almost 10pm his time when we ended our call. Needless to say, it was short and sweet. It was LOVELY to have so many people on our late-night video chat. It was lively entertainment for sure. We had Cousin Miriam in Idaho, Me, Tristan, Emery, and Aveline at home in Virginia, and Daddy driving home from Maryland. It was loud, raucous, and fabulous.  

Elder Heilmann told us about a naughty cat named Diamond that likes to open doors and jump onto shoulders. It's a Devon Rex cat. It sounds like my kind of cat! Never heard of one, and now I am in love.  

Elders' Heilmann and Wright had to spend most of their Pday registering Elder Wright into Krefeld. They will have to de-register him in a few weeks as he prepares to go home, but rules are rules! The registration is not a complex process, just time-consuming at times. 

They also had time for a quick haircut, and now the companionship is dapper and ready to go share the Gospel.  


After errands, registration, and haircuts, they took a bus out to the woods of Hulser Berg to visit with the member of the Elder's Quorum Presidency.  They were supposed to have a mission correlation meeting, but the brother was exhausted after a long day of work, so they just spent time with the family and had dinner. 

Quirky Germany 

  • Germany is trying to get everyone vaccinated even though the general population is super superstitious. Elder Heilmann has heard things like: 'It has cobalt in it! It's going to turn you into an alien!'   Also, 'I don't need to be vaccinated. I have God. I trust God. If you get vaccinated, you don't trust God.' Elder Heilman said that the last statement is "really inconvenient for missionaries since we all got vaccinated. LOL God gave you the vaccine, silly!" God is helping...by inspiring a vaccine to protect us all. At the train station, there was a woman asking people if they were vaccinated and if they weren't, an on-the-spot vaccine was offered!  Wow!
  • "Welcome to Germany; we're stuck in the '80s!" He loves all the puffy hair and puffy bangs, the roller skates, and diners. He even loves the puffy vests and bell-bottom jeans. It's quite a place.
  • Schluckauf is the word for hiccup and it reminds Elder Heilmann of the word gluckouf (I have no idea how to spell it) which is a miner's term of good luck. German words are so cool!


This is the fortress Burg Linn and there is a MUSEUM inside!  Seriously...someone get me a ticket to this magical land our Missionary calls home. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1: First Day in Germany

 Elder Heilmann has arrived and is ready to go!  I will be brief in my comments since I included portions of the first email from his Mission President. We are all so excited for Julian....Elder Heilmann...he looks nervous and excited.  Can't wait to hear from him soon.   Reminder: If you want to be included in the group email from Elder Heilmann, let me know.   Dear  Brother & Sister Heilmann ,    We are happy to report that  Elder   Heilmann   arrived safely in the Germany Frankfurt Mission. Sister Hammon and I met all the new missionaries at the Frankfurt airport, and your  son   looked good and was happy to be here. We are always grateful to have new missionaries come into the field as they bring a sense of excitement and a spirit of great faith. It inspires and energizes the whole mission.  Later, Sister Hammon and I both spent some time getting acquainted with your  son . I also took a few min...
2 comments
Read more

August 12th: Some Fun Tales From the Mission

    The last post was heavy!  Let's face it.  Last WEEK was heavy for Elder Heilmann.  But, in the midst of it all, he was able to share some fun little quips here and there.       On one of the first days of serving in Ahrweiler, Elder Heilmann was given a granola bar from the Government agency that was there to help feed the village and volunteers.    He realized that it had a peanut in it after he started eating it.  He didn't realize that the German word for peanut is "earth nut" or erdnuss.  He went back to the food tent and did his best to tell the agent that he had a peanut allergy so the agent gave him an entire tub of Haribo gummy snakes instead.  He got such a kick out of that!       Speaking of food he is really enjoying the cuisine in Germany but has really limited his consumption of meat.  It was making him feel a bit ill.  So instead, he is eating a lot of soups, breads...
1 comment
Read more

A Doozy of a Week

  First full week in Germany was a bit of a doozy.  Food poisoning, train ride, District Counsel, opposition, and some homesickness.  We get to talk to Elder Heilmann tomorrow so there will be another update in a few days, but let's revisit last week.     Let's start with the gross stuff.  FOOD POISONING!  Ugh.  Elder Heilmann was exhausted from his early morning flight and then a 10 hour delay in Dallas, Texas so when he was finally on his international flight to Germany he was a bit out of it.  He was given a Chobani yogurt and immediately dug in.  "It was chunky and gross but I was so hungry, plus jet lag, plus stress..." enter stomach cramps and fatigue. :(     "I've been waking up, I eat something and then I immediately have to lay down and fall back asleep because it hurts.  I'm super nauseous, hard to balance, so I've lost a few pounds because I am not able to eat anything. BUT, I'm better now...mostly." ...
1 comment
Read more