November 24: Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! (I seriously did start this on Thanksgiving day)

We talk weekly, but my updates are MONTHS behind. So, here is a fast-forward update on how he is doing. 

Daily Doings

Elder Heilmann called us on Thanksgiving Day TWICE! We felt so lucky. It was extra special because Emery was home! Elder Heilmann calls us every Thursday around 10am, and Emery is always at school, so they never get to chat. Em was able to tell Elder Heilmann about his friends, his school name, his teacher's name, and a bit about Minecraft, naturally. Emery said, "My friends like me." It was SO CUTE!

Elder Heilmann got a kick out of talking to Aveline, also (she's 4 and fabulous). He said to her, "Aveline, where does your fabulous pink sparkle energy come from?" Her reply, with a Valley-Girl accent, was, "YA know, I just buy my sparkly dresses from the store, and I get them from the closet."

Apparently, her sparkle energy comes from clothes! Haha!  Then she showed Elder Heilmann her Hello Kitty jewelry box from her Auntie and ALL the jewelry inside...and her pink flosser....from the "Tooth Dentist." She loves her big brother and loves sharing her good news and precious artifacts. I can't WAIT to see these two interact in person. It's going to be nothing short of EPIC!

Today, the missionaries enjoyed a huge Zone Thanksgiving dinner at the church. Elder Heilmann and his companion, Elder Stuart, made a LOT of pie! They made them in 9x13 foil pans!! Cherry pie, 4 huge apple pies, and fresh cream. They made too many apples, so they also made an apple crumble. They can't possibly eat them all, so they decided to leave the leftover pies at the church for the Institute attendees to eat later in the week. 

He also made a pecan pie and declared it the best pie he had ever made. It was reportedly "SO GOOD!" I said, "Oh! Pekanus pie!" He replied that Germans don't really have a name for pie as they don't do sweet pies. There isn't really a word for pie that he is aware of, at least not in the context of fruit pie.  

One of the sister missionaries in the Zone is from Birmingham, England, and she made Yorkshire Pudding! Elder Heilmann said it was like bread nuggets with chicken and gravy. Sounds kind of amazing to me! He also made note that there is no turkey in Germany. They have to be imported! A turkey-less Thanksgiving. A previous companion of his, Elder Farrin, made cinnamon rolls, and they were a hit!  

I told him I bought his favorite German cookie at Lidl.  It's gingerbread covered in chocolate and sometimes has an apricot filling.  I called them what I thought they were called and he just looked at me sideways for a moment, paused, and said..."What???  Liver cake??  That sounds gross!!" Lebkuchen was what I was TRYING to say.  Apparently, what I ACTUALLY said was Leberkuchen...which means nothing really together, but separately means 'liver cake'.  LOL  I would be in so much trouble in Germany.  LOL!!!  

They do like liver in Germany, however, and they do have many liver dishes.  Um...no thanks. As a kid, I did enjoy eating Braunschweiger, ewe, and Elder Heilmann told me that means "brown silence" or "a brown silencer" like someone who silences brown.  Which makes no sense whatsoever.  LOL  We were all laughing about it and Elder Heilmann said, "I don't know who or what this brown thing is, but we need to shut him up!"  Just so funny.  More about funny German town names later!!

Missionary Work

Tschuss books. Each Missionary has one. They are like Mission Yearbooks without the dorky pictures. Each Missionary gathers memories from friends while on the Mission to have and to hold from this day forward,... Anyway, Elder Heilmann was writing a page in a sister's book, got 3 sentences in, and sat there for about 15 min in total writer's block. So, instead, he drew a scene with stick figure ninjas, gave his email, and signed it. He is a man of few words. Thus the necessity of the blog...although I am a woman of TOO many words and little time to write them all down. *le sigh*

Even though he doesn't write weekly emails (cough, cough), he still has magnificent experiences. Elder Heilmann had the opportunity while picking up his previous companion, Elder Potter, to be a part of the "initiation" process of a new Missionary in the field. This new 'greenie' was assigned to go finding with Elder Heilmann for one hour as a "welcome to Germany and the Mission field...GO!" hour. 

I will share the story in (mostly) his words:

"We were on a train, and I gave him all my 'wisdoms.' When you start your mission, you're scared, and you don't know what's going on. Halfway through your mission, you're not scared anymore, but you still don't know what's going on. At the end of your mission, you realize nobody else knows what's going on either.  

So we were on the street train, and I said, 'Ok, I want you to go talk to someone, and I will be by you, and I will support you.' and he was like, 'Oh, that's scary!' and I was like, 'What's the worst thing that can happen that they say no?' And he was like, 'Ya! That's right! I'm gonna go talk to him!' In his words, 'Elder Heilmann encouraged me, so I went for it. I went to talk to the guy, and I started speaking, and I realized I couldn't make it past the first sentence. I couldn't understand what the guy was saying, so I looked around for Elder Heilmann, and he was GONE!' I was not GONE; I was in his blind spot. It was so funny."  

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Side Note:  Later, when reflecting on this story from Elder Heilmann, I thought about how much it related to me and my relationship with Christ. Jesus is always with me, but sometimes, I turn away enough that He is in my blind spot, and I feel temporarily alone and scared. But just like Elder Heilmann, Jesus is always by my side. 

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Elder Heilmann then showed us around the Church building. It has beautiful tile floors. Most German church buildings do. He then said, "I'll show you the Capel. Oh my gosh, the Capel. That's German and English at the same time!" Ger-glish? LOL He then shared with us that there was not enough money to refurbish the building, so the members were given money by an Angel! I would love to know the rest of that story and the background, but that's all we got. Amazing, though.  

It's incredible to me to hear Elder Heilmann talk about his mission and miracles as if he expects them to happen. It's beautiful to watch his faith in Christ grow so big! He has experienced personal miracles, growth, and hard times and is rising up and changing. As he put it, "Sometimes [the Lord] takes the burden, and sometimes he shapes the backs of the burdens to fit." He is definitely shaping into a wonderful man of God.

Quirky Germany

As promised, here are some funny German town names. Julian was in Hamm...which means hammer, but their town motto is "We're elephentastish" or, in English, Elephan-tastic.

"They like elephants! I don't know why!" 

Dortmund means "There mouth," like there's a mouth, and it's over there. 

Dusseldorf means "Idiot village." Actual story to it... At the beginning of Carnival, the Fool, the Idiot, wakes up. A giant pot is sat in the middle of town, and a guy dressed up like a jester, or The Fool, comes out, sits at the top of the pot, and mouths off whatever he wants like a loose cannon. He also throws candy and thus starts Carnival season. From then on, people dress up in random costumes as they go about their day. Because,..why not?

In closing...you know that song, 99 Red Balloons. Well, playing that song is "like getting Rick-Rolled in Germany. They hate it! Ugh, Turn it off!!" Of course, Elder Heilmann sang it for us in German, to our utter delight. 

Until next time, when ere that may be...I hope you enjoyed this latest installment of an American Missionary in Germany!