Hike up a mountain to the top peak

 

September 22, 2020 36 Weeks

Yo family 

Not much of interest going on. I feel like I’m a broken record because we do about the same thing every day which is not much. 

We did have two member appointments on the weekend and I’m happy to say we have several more member appointments lined up for this week. Saturday we are also planning to go on a ward hike so hopefully we can get to know more of the members. 

I’m still a bit nervous about my German I don’t feel I’m very fluent and so I am very self-conscious about communicating. 

We may have a potential investigator, we met with him last week and are scheduled to meet again. I really rely on my companion Elder Benge and appreciate him. I’m thankful for his ability to speak German so well. I am really going to miss him if he and I are split up at transfers. 

This Friday we are having another zone meeting so it should be fun meeting up with other elders. We had a fun excursion today with those Elders in our district. We rode up a gondola kind of like a ski lift and then hike up to the top of one of the peaks. I was a little disappointed that the fog came in and so we only had a view for a short time. I enjoyed hanging out, getting out of the apartment and seeing beautiful Switzerland. Enjoy the pictures. Have a good week

Love you Elder Carson 

What I see in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland - September 15,20

Blimp over Kreuzlingen Switzerland 

Big bottle of pickles or cornchons 

Like how I have decorated by room

Check out these not so baby, Babybel cheese wheels 

Beautiful Sky in Kreuzlingen

Cat on the grass below our apartment

On P-Day we have fun playing Catan(boardgames)-It is in German so I am doing language study at the same time. 

 

September 15,20 -8 Months

Hi everyone
Not really doing a lot this week, but happy that today is my eight month mark. We did go to church this week tried to schedule appointments as we talk to several members I think we only have one for sure scheduled on the weekend. 

We travel to St Gallen where we met with the zone leaders and did splints. We really didn’t do much we had no appointments did some personal study and a little bit of language training. I’m still really frustrated I’m not doing very well with my German. Not really learning from the study guide I have. I have a couple of good apps to learn German but I have to have Internet. While we were in St Gallen we went to the elders house they had some weight and we did a little bit of lifting I’m discouraged because I’m really weak. We met with our district council, not so fond of the one district leader but still had fun doing some arm wrestling and I got to play the piano while we were at the church. 

We had a lesson with a member family who has an eight-year-old being baptized Saturday. I read some of the lesson and think I did OK. I’m really enjoying reading the church book “the Saints” it’s been really interesting to learn church history. Not doing much I’m afraid the next week ahead we don’t have much planned but hope you have a good week
Love you 
Elder Carson 

Zone Conference - Sept. 1, 20

Bodensee Obersee- Lake by Kreuzlingen

Post card of Kreuzlingen 

Zone Conference the MTC buddies - Elder Cockrill, Elder Gallagher, Sister Martin

Zone Conference 

Eating Lunch with Senior Couple - Elder and Sister Lloyd. They are great to run the office. Companion Elder Benge 

 

September 5,2020

 Carson sent a voice recording this week so I did my best to dictate some of his thoughts. As he was talking I could hear music. He was sitting out on his deck outside and there was a party going on close by. He said “ Germany has a quiet rule where the government determines that between 10pm and 6am any behavior that disturbed sleep can be fined. They must not have that rule in Switzerland because loud music playing and it is late. This week has been a good week, a little more to do.  We had interviews with mission president on Monday and zone conference on Tuesday.  We had 4 different member appointments which were good. We would eat dinner with the family’s and share a message. Elder Benge speaks fluent German so it is difficult to follow the conversations. They speak really fast and I’m struggling with the Swiss German.  Monday as we traveled to interviews we got stopped on the train a few times so we were late to our appointment with President but he was really behind. We went into Zurich with another elder companionship. We got some lunch together. It was good to talk to the other missionaries, one was a former AP and was really set on doing Facebook.  I was happy to hear him say that contacting through members is a better way to contact than Facebook so a bit of a turn around. I really enjoyed meeting with President  Naatjes this was really my first interview with a president because of COVID.  I really have never had a face to face interview. He is cool and as he shared his testimony he said some profound things, I felt I was listening to an apostle. I enjoyed Sister Naatjes talk as well. She told us about their crazy travel into the country through Czechia. The best part of zone conference I got to see several old companions but I was really happy to see my MTC buddies - Elder Cockrill and Elder Gallagher. Sister Martin was there too she is the one I traveled with from Salt Lake City to Preston England MTC.  I am still feeling really inferior on my German and fear I could be assigned to be a trainer and I don’t know how to speak.  I also worry about if the missionary work is ever going to go back to normal, and with no improvement in near future it is hard to stay motivated.  My companion has had a bad head cold the last two days and worried I’m sick too- we didn’t go to church today. Love you and I will try to count my blessings, grateful for my family. Thanks for your prayers and support” 

Elder carson