By the time of this Journal entry I had already done a couple of work overs with other Elders, had attended a few district meetings and had even taught a couple of English classes to some Swiss citizens in Basel. The mission was off to a fast start and I felt like I was just trying to catch up. I love this journal entry though because the week of this journal entry was a week where my mission started to change. It was the first week where I had really seen the spirit intervene in our work. Needless to say, once I saw this happen my mission was never the same afterwards.
May 21, 1999 -- Basel, Switzerland
This journal entry is going to be a long one, so embrace yourself...
The Lord blows me away. What better way to start this entry than that. I have to admit, our program here in Basel has been struggling. If the truth is known, I've been struggling. I haven't fallen in love with the work, up until this week. Why has this week been different? I honestly believe that it is because I've worked harder this week than at any other point on my mission so far. Elder Bohm and I have been heading out the door at 9:00am everyday and have been getting home close to 9:00pm at night ready to hit our pillows. What a wonderful feeling. It's amazing how missionary work can fill your life. It truly does consume you, and it has definitely consumed me this week.
As I mentioned in my past journal entry, Elder Shurtliff (MTC Companion) and I have gotten the chance to work together a few times because we're in the same district, and working with him has really helped me. He's so enthusiastic about the work, and when I'm with him we seem to have some great success. Working with him has really helped perk up the week.
My greatest experience this week though occurred on Thursday. Bohmie and I had a work over with the Elders from Dornach, Elder Shupe, Elder Bateman & the new guy Elder Dairman. It was a cool work over and we had a lot of fun together. Elder Shupe, Bateman and I had decided to go to a French City near Saint Louis where we have some members. It's the only French city in our mission so we thought it would be a fun experience to go do some doors in France and visit our members there, but as we were getting on the tram we all felt strongly that France wasn't in the cards for the day, so we decided to stay in Basel instead and do some contacting, so that's what we did. They asked me where I felt we should go since we were in my area, but I honestly had no specific idea. So I told them that we should just start walking and see where the spirit would lead us. We hadn't walked very far when I decided that we should try some doors on Holbeinstrasse. Honestly, it just looked like a nice peaceful street. I wish I could say that it was all through inspiration that I would lead us to that street, but it wasn't. Honestly my thought process was just me looking at the street, and thinking that it looked peaceful, let's do some doors. So, we went door to door and started to work our way up the street. All we received was a lot of "Kein Intresse" (not interested) and "Keine Zeit" (no time to talk) which was frustrating. We weren't getting through to anyone. Well, okay there was 1 exception, we met a really nice Catholic lady who talked to us for about 20 minutes but she ended up just telling us that we should go talk to her preacher. We even met a spacey Australian lady who spoke English with us (which I appreciated) but she was a little loony and we didn't get anywhere with her.
Then we came to an apartment almost at the end of the street and met a lady who told us that she had been to Utah before, but that she had no interest in becoming a Mormon. So, we left and proceeded to finish the street. We then met a scary crazy man who chased us out of the entire apartment complex (I learned a lot of "colorful" German words from him) and wow, we were so frustrated! But, as we were leaving Holbeinstrasse we noticed that the lady who had told us that she had been to Utah was following us down the street, so we stopped and she started to ask us questions about Joseph Smith. I gave her a Joseph Smith pamphlet and a Book of Mormon, and then she made an appointment with me for Friday. So on Friday Elder Bohm and I visited her and we had an amazing appointment! She said that she wants to learn more and wants to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She is also going to come to stake conference with us. I was so happy! She is now a solid investigator and the first true investigator that I can say I found. I really hope that all goes well with her, we'll just have to see.
Elder Bohm and I have talked about her a lot and I really believe that the spirit lead her back to us after she had turned us away. The Lord works wonders! Well, we had a cool street display today and some neat stuff happened, but I'll write about that tomorrow. I've got to get to bed.
Tchuss
--Elder Q
Here are some pics I took on one of my P-Days while in Basel, they're of a Castle in Loerrach, Germany:
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