Day 366 of being a missionary began bright and early on the train, a stash of oatmeal cookies most definitely stowed away in our purses. We joined the elders and headed for an hour across the plains from Augsburg to Donauwörth and Donauwörth to Möttingen.
"The travel plan was wrong!" one of the missionaries panicked. "The bus to Oettingen isn't running!"
"We could take the train to Nördlingen instead... It's not too far from here, close to the edge of our area. But the next train doesn't even come for another hour!"
"I don't see a problem with that," my findingtastic companion replied. "We're here to share the gospel with everyone!"
And so the day began spontaneously in a small village, where every house had an aggressive guard dog but every person who turned us away was extremely nice.
Once we arrived in Nördlingen, we climbed the ancient fortification wall (complete with arrow-shooting niches and everything) on the way over to a cheap lunch, and then we split up.
Although the historic city center was quaint and colorful, the outside suburbs were industrial. Door to door we went, smiles wide, Book of Mormon in hand, ready. Street to street we knocked, doing this crazy thing because the joy the faith has brought us is something we want to share.
"Hello, we're from the Church of Jesus Christ and we--"
"Children," the lady interrupted, wagging her finger. "You cute little girls. No. You can go along and visit other people, but not me." Alright then.
Some other responses, which I COULD ACTUALLY 100% UNDERSTAND:
- "That's alright, I'm not super interested. I was in the middle of my afternoon nap." - "Oh thank you! But I can't right now, I'm about to take so-and-so to the hospital."
Yet a different woman and her son invited us in. We shared an Easter video and offered our service, and though she was devout in her own her own faith and had no interest, she was incredibly kind and offered us water.
After a couple hours we caught another train on which we chatted with some young guys from Pakistan who were extremely excited about the fact that I am American, haha. "Which state are you from: New York or California?" (As if those are the only two.) We invited them to our sport night, so of course another guy who had apparently been listening in on us asked if he could also join. The more the merrier!
We exited the train out in the rolling country hills and crossed the gurgling creek over to the teeny-tiny town of Katzenstein (translation: catstone). Katzenstein has surely never seen missionaries before and still exists probably for the sake of its geese products. We rang every doorbell before strolling back over the little bridge to the adjacent village, which is overlooked by a magnificent castle. By the time the train came to pick us back up, energy still surged through me and I could have continued on for hours. Forget the rejection! Forget the hours spent on foot! There are some days when no matter what, the love of the gospel just overpowers all.
But we headed back to Augsburg before the sun could slip down beneath the Bayrische-forested horizon. The day ended with some studies and a big-ole scoop of Mozart-Kügel gelato.
Oh, the life of a missionary.
Love Always,
Sister Lundgreen
Love Always,
Sister Lundgreen
Some pics from last week's District P-day in Munich:
