Goodbye Switzerland

Italy

Last week we traveled to Italy for 5 days. Below are some pictures and video from Venice, Pisa, Tuscany, and Milan.


Venice, Italy

Click here for some video I recorded in Venice.

Venice, Italy (can anyone say bird flu?)

Click here for another video.

Tuscany (and the evil cat that stalks it),Pisa and Milan, Italy

A film is 50% visual, 50% sound.

New Short Film

My new short film is titled "In an Instant." It is a crime-suspense drama. Please share your thoughts. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH
Length: 5 minutes

Elizabeth

Thank you so much to everyone that has visited Elizabeth while she is in the hospital!

It is hard being over-seas while she is ill, but we know she is being taken good care of. Everything should be figured out soon.

Thanks again! *BIG HUG TO YOU ALL*

Fahren um Deutschland

It's been a few weeks. Been busy, in and out, up and down, left and right, over and under, through and around... (I can't think of any others)

There was a freestyle sport competition in Zurich September 22-24. My dad and I went on the last day for the finals. It is Europes equivalent of the X-Games. Freeski, skateboard, Moto-X, and best of all, snowboarding. I compiled the video I recorded of the snowboard finals. Watch it here!

I had a slow start to the service month because of getting settled and all, so I had a big push the last week of September. I went out every day. I started a study with a young African refugee from Tanzania. He is so appreciative of the Bible and for help in understanding it. The last few weeks, though, he has been depressed. There was a voting not long ago on immigration policy and he may be exported from the country, along with hundreds of others. He had left Tanzania because of political oppression so he cannot be sent back there, so he has to figure out where to go. He is going to have to start his whole life over, he said. My mother and I were able to give him some scriptural encouragement and it seemed to cheer him up a bit. I heard that many refugees actually burn there passports and other documents once they reach Switzerland so they cannot be sent back. I also just started a study with two young Hindu men who have never read the Bible, but are eager to study it.

Such horrible things going on in the world today. These school shootings are so unbelievable, three in one week. Five young Amish girls age 6-13 bound and shot. It must be terrifying for every parent to send their child to school every day, knowing how random this all is.

We are in Germany right now. My Oma (grandma) flew over here to see the places she was born and grew up. So we have been driving all over Germany through her life. It's pretty fascinating. She was born and raised during the time of WWII, in Germany. If you can imagine what that would be like. At a young age she left the town she was living in with family friends to get away from danger. The next day that town was bombed and leveled, killing her aunt as she was running from her store to a shelter. At a youth shelter near the end of the war, she was sleeping one night when released Polish prisoners who obtained rifles broke into the shelter to steal food and supplies out of desperation. She had the gunmans flashlight right on her and still kept her composure. "There is an American guard down the hall," she said in German to try and scare the man. She escaped without harm. She is a brave one. Amazing resilience.

Some of you are off to West Virginia for unassigned territory today. Have a great week! Drive safely. To everyone: I miss you all very much! I enjoy reading all of your comments and posts. To the Gaidens crew: The stories are looking fantastic! A new one seems to roll out every few days; it's awesome. I better get writing!

Tschuess!

The Swiss Alps

On the Precipice: Part II is complete. It is posted on the Gaidens blog. Enjoy!

Part I - Part II

"Diese gute Botschaft vom Königreich"

Welcome to the new service year everyone! The congregation is so warm and encouraging over here, just as you all are. I promised to tell about the congregation and how the ministry works over here, so here I go.

The English congregation has around 80 publishers, 3 regular pioneers, and 1 regular auxiliary pioneer. There are 6 Gilead graduates. The territory covers all of Zurich and the city outskirts. The territory is worked by searching for English names in the city directory or by going from apartment building to apartment building looking at the names on the door buzzers. Our congregation also looks for Indian and African names, as many of them speak English in the city. The territory is worked over once every 2-3 years, so many people have moved in and out in that time, so the search continues. Many times we are unable to find English speaking ones after a few hours of service, so we do street work. We listen for English and look for African people, as they all mostly speak English here. Also, there is only one meeting for service a week, Saturdays at 9:30 am. To go out during the weekdays we set up oppointments for service with whomever is going out, setting date, time, and place to meet near the territory.

Friday I worked in territory and street work with a pioneer sister named Jane, who moved here with her husband from Africa. We found one English speaking man home. We talked with him for a few minutes and read a few scriptures, but in the end he was not interested. But hey, we did find someone who spoke English!

Saturday I met the field service group. I worked with a 16 year old brother named Jason. He has a sister and the nicest family. We are in their bookstudy. He is really outgoing and likes to talk alot, which is nice. He is the only young brother in the Hall, so he informed me I must stay in Zurich longer then 2 months! We had a good time in service. We did street work for 2 hours, and talked the whole time as we were on the lookout for ones to speak to. We were talking when two English speaking girls walked right by us. We didn't even realize they spoke Enlgish until about 5 seconds after they passed us, then we looked at eachother, realizing we missed them. We were going to turn around and run after them, but we realized it may look strange if two guys were running after two girls, plus the polizei were driving by at that moment. So we just scolded ourselves for not paying better attention, lol. But, a few minutes later we approached an African man who spoke English (yay!) and talked with him for a moment. It turned out that he already was being contacted by a witness. We saw some French brothers doing street work, too, and greeted them. Jason is a cool kid. He loves soccer, and ping pong. So we have a ping pong match after bookstudy at his house.

Monday I met a pioneer sister named July (pronounced Yu-ly) on the outskirts of the city in the residential areas. It was a short train ride out there. I went on a Bible study with her. She is studying with a mother in the Bible Teach book, but on this study we studied in the Great Teacher book in the chapters on death, because her young children had been asking her about death recently and she wanted to know how to talk to them. The grandfather sat in on the study too, which was great, except when he started helping us teach. It was pretty funny, but he was actually very knowledgable of the Bible. The mother kept on saying to the grandfather after he spoke, "I want her (July) to teach me!" It was pretty funny. He was a nice older man though. Great study, too. July told me she even came to the memorial this year.

There are so many Bible studies that come to the meetings, it is so encouraging to see! There are so many great experiences to hear from the brothers and sisters of return visits, Bible studies and experiences from missionary work. My mom and I were invited to a regular pioneer meeting this Friday so we are going to that this week. The ministry is great here, a great experience to see how the preaching work is done in other parts of the world, and in foreign language territories.

I started working on part II of my story On the Precipice. Read part I first by clicking here. Below is a link to a short video I took of our street as I was walking home from service on Monday. Also, some more pictures. Gute Nacht!


VIDEO CLIP


Lake Zurich




































The SMART car. A Mini could beat it in any race, but not in a park in in this six foot long parking space contest! It is practical...















But not powerful! Muahaha!

Leben auf Magnolienstrasse

Long flight. I slept, read, and listened to my iPod. The reading lights on the plane were broken, they would randomly flicker on and off. Everyone thought they were bumping the switch on the arm rest, or that they were going crazy. I think the people were going crazy. Muahaha! Jk... So they finally shut them all off.

I don't think I really realize I am here yet, it's a strange feeling. I'm sure in a week or so I will feel settled and I'll say "hey, I'm a thousand miles from home!" I love it here so far though, but miss all of you.

Zurich is a beautiful city. We can walk anywhere we need to get, or take the tram. Went to my first meeting tonight. The congregation is so warm. All the accents are so neat to listen to. Field service is alot different over here. I am going out on Saturday, so I will tell more about it later. I haven't taken any pictures of the city yet, but here are a few of our apartment and Kingdom Hall.


German, English, Tamil, Italian, Spanish, Turkish and Yugoslavian congregations.





































A few pics of our apartment in the city. My room on the bottom.

Deliverance At Hand!

I think the finish line's a good place we could start

At the end of a good, long week of service, there is nothing I look forward to more than soccer on Sunday with my friends!

I am moving to Zurich, Switzerland for 2 months. My dad's job wanted him in Europe for some time so my mom and I are going to live with him there so he is not alone. My parents are already over there, so I fly over alone on the 28th of this month, the morning after the convention. I am excited about living there, it will be a great experience. I put in my regular pioneer application a short while ago, so I will be starting off the service year over there, which I am excited to start. My dad found the English congregation in the city for us.

I will miss all of you!

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune



It may happen.

Your glare is killing me

Long weekend. But a good one. Soccer was great! We played at a new field up by Mike Vergara's house. It is bigger and better. Note to self: bring more water next time.

I can't wait for the convention! Just a few more weeks.

My electric guitar amp was delivered today. It is super portable and has a great sound for its size. $7 on eBay. No joke. Just because it had a little scratch on the top and some guy used it a few times. Mechanically, it is fine. To my sister in the next room behind the paper-thin walls of our house, not fine. I should crank it up at midnight. Then I'll end up sleeping in the garage. Haha!

Michael Piercy and I worked at the SCC booth today from 8 to 1:30. It was great. 2 people came up. Placed 3 books with one guy and 1 book and 1 magazine with the other guy. And we got to read a bunch of scriptures to them and talk for a few minutes. Woohoo!

Eric came over to hang out after. Played ping pong, guitar, basketball, pool, skydived, basejumped, extreme rock climbed, bear hunted, alligator restled then we got bored of all that and went shark diving.

A big grouped helped put the convention address labels on the convention invitations at the Campbell's home. We did 7,200 invitations! Now we got to go place them all.

My sister got this CD of a singer who was on tour with Jack Johnson named Matt Costa. I am learning the song Astair on the guitar.

Below are some photographs from Ryan Clohesy's graduation party.

I miss the snow!

Soccer was great today! Our team worked on our passing and we got more scoring opportunities. It was super humid out, but fun.

I just got back from the carwash. My sisters car needed a good cleaning. Ah, aren't carwashes fun?! I got that pink soap from the cleaning brush on me.

I bought this tape adapter thing for my iPod. You connect it to your iPod then put the tape into the tape deck and it plays the music through your car speakers. $9 at Walmart. It works great. No need for an 80 dollar iPod FM transmitter.

My frisbee currently resides on the neighbors roof

What a strange week. My mother was away in Vermont. Then both my sisters left Wednesday morning around 5 to go to Vermont. Then my dad left the same day at 10 for Switzerland. Then my mom flew back to Florida that same day and her flight was delayed so she didn't get back until 6 a.m. the next morning. Everyone in the family but me has been going all over the place! It was neat, though, because I was home alone all day Wednesday through Thursday morning. PARTY!!!

Just kidding. Actually, Eric and Mike came over and played tennis then we came back to the house and ordered pizza and watched T.V.

Guitar lessons have been fun. Teaching myself was fine and I learned alot, but having someone to play with and learn from is more enjoyable.

Jonathan conducted Watchtower study tonight. He did a great job. And thanks man, also, for helping cook the hot dogs!

I had a fever Tuesday night. That stunk. Now I have a horrible cough. This stinks. We aren't going down to Okeechobee tomorrow because my mom got really sick today. I feel bad, she probably caught it from me.

Well, I am off to bed. Looks like we are off to the beach tomorrow!

I could tell you the wildest of tales
My friend the giant and traveling sales
Tell you all the times that I failed
The years all behind me
The stories exhaled

And I'm drying out
Crying out
This isn't how I go

I could tell you of a man not so tall
Who said life's a circus and so we are small
Tell you of a girl that I saw
I froze in the moment and she changed it all

And I'm drying out
Crying out
This isn't how I go
Hurry now
Lay me down
And I let these waters flow
Flow

Son I am not everything you thought that I would be
But every story I have told is part of me

And you keep the air in my lungs
Floating along as a melody comes
And my heart beats like timpani drums
Keeping the time while a symphony strums

And I'm drying out
Crying out
This isn't how I go
Hurry now
Lay me down
And let these waters flow
Flow
Let it flow
Flow
Let it flow

Son I am not everything you thought that I would be
But every story I have told is part of me
Son I leave you now but you have so much more to do
And every story I have told is part of you

La te da!

SpiderFilm has been in hiatus for almost a year now. But after today it looks like its heading towards being back in business. Someone called me up with a story idea and asked if it would work. I told him to write it up and give it to me. The idea sounds awesome. I'll tell more about it once it is confirmed.

I also researched some more video cameras today. Our poor old Sony is in the grave. I have actually only made 4 true short films. The rest have been experimental or just skits. So I'm excited that a bigger project may be coming.

Well, I just wanted to share that bit.

supersonic clock

Vermont has been nice. It's been quiet and relaxing. I was changing my old guitar strings at 11 pm while watching Lost. Nevertheless, I got distracted, over-tightened the string, and POP! So frustrating. I got more and now it's replaced.

It's always nice when you are feeling down about something, then a good friend calls, you tell them the problem, and in 5 minutes you have completely gotten your mind off of it.

Eric had his first number 4 talk tonight. I was not present but I heard from my family it was fantastic! Great job, Eric!

You know this system of things is going downhill extremely fast when you read this headline in the news: "Twenty-five people were injured in an annual cheese-rolling competition, where daredevils chase giant cheeses down a steep slope in western England." Thank you, Elizabeth, for sending me the link to this news article. Apparently people from Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and all over England come to watch this event. Sounds intriguing. No, no, that's a lie. Sounds stupid.


"It's going in circles,
The clock must keep ticking if we are to sit."

Rainy days and coffee cups.

We went roofing last weekend again in South Florida. We got to work with primarily the same crew as we had last month which was great.

Monday, I went to Epcot with my sisters. We had alot of fun. We didn't die on Mission: Space. We went on Test Track and the part where you almost hit the wall, my sister had the funniest look on her face, we cracked up when we saw the photo after! They went back to nursing school today.

I had a quiet day today. I woke up at 10, completed some schoolwork, played guitar for a while, studied for the meeting, took a nap, drank some hot chocolate. Aren't rainy days great?

Watchtower study last Friday was great. A bunch of us played guitar and bass after. Kelly and Eric played the song they are working on, Colin played a song he wrote, which is awesome, Nina played great, and my sister even played a song. I played a song I am working on by Snow Patrol. I got their new album, it's great.

Betty the Super Squirrel (story within...)

Synapse to synapse

I completed my American School U.S. History course! Sure, it took 3 months to complete 1 course, but hey, I was motivationally challenged this semester. What really stinks is I cannot return to SCC until I graduate from high school (Seminole's dual enrollment program has different rules.) So much for dual enrollment! Well, I got to do Geometry, American Lit., Civics, and 2 Foreign Language credits to graduate. I had taken ASL 1 as a language in Brevard. But now I can't get back into SCC to take ASL 2 because I have not graduated. So, I have to pick a new language and go back to the start. Curse you Seminole County laws! Muahaha. Ok, my frustration is vented.

I. hate. shopping. for. clothes. Seriously, it is torture. Well, I went today. Needed more shorts and shirts.

I have a new story posted on the Gaidens blog. Please read it.

My music interest range is very wide. I can be listening to Death Cab or Iron and Wine one minute and then switch over to Linkin Park or Maroon 5 the next. The Shins and then Switchfoot. Coldplay then Weezer. So I guess I'd have to say I like just about anything (accept rap, heavy metal, opera, light rock, and on, and on, and on...)

I am going to buy an iPod. I knew I wanted a portable mp3 player, so I was looking at a bunch (outside of Apple.) But there are so many that are 100 bucks and have only 512 mb, or are 299 bucks and have 20 gb or so but are poor quality. So, I decided on an iPod. Yeah, I sort of put Apple last because it is a trend these days and I wanted to check the quality of others first (I am my parents child.) Well, in the end, I found that a 299 dollar iPod Video 30gb was a better deal with more features than others. I have never owned an iPod, so does anyone have any tips on how to buy it, where to buy it, what a good skin or case is to get, and how to take care of it best?

A nail gun is haunting me

This past weekend we headed down to South Florida for roofing. We left Saturday at 4 am. We did two roofs that day and another on Sunday. The same crew worked together both days, which was nice. I was amazed when we finished Sunday that we had completed 3 roofs. Hard work, but rewarding. When we started, all the stuff I had learned from roofing last year flowed back, which was nice. Nail guns are fun. Driving home Sunday night I tried closing my eyes to nap but I kept on seeing myself shooting a nail gun. I burst out laughing for some reason. Yeah, I think I was tired. Haha. Hospitality was wonderful, like always, at the sisters home we stayed at. I kept on thinking to myself, "What other people can enter each others homes as complete strangers and feel comfortable and loved?" John 13:35 is so, so true.

Everyone on the roof worked so hard and was skilled, too. That's definately why the roofs were completed so quickly: everyone worked hard and well, and still had fun. My mom took some photos; here are a few.