Servus! This week has been great! It hasn't really gotten to cold here until the last two weeks. Then it got really cold! In my last email I said that I was going to Wien (Vienna) in two weeks, but I meant to say today. So I'm currently in Wien! Woooo! It is so pretty here!!! It has probably been the best p day I've had! :D we even went the biggest cathedral in Austria! There is so much that happened just here in Wien that I will have to email about it next week. Anyways here's what happened this week!
Montag- Monday was great I ate at Vapianos for the first time it was so good! I tried that calzone that Elder Stanworth has been talking up so much. He's right dass schmeckt! After that we emailed and went to get Elder Albrecht some new white shirts. Denn, hatten wir einen essen Terminen mit der Familie Bachmayer. That was pretty dang good we had pizza with corn on it again. Everyone puts corn on pizza here haha! But they gave us each some lemonade that you can only get in Berlin which was real good. It is basically the equivalent to Almdudler here. Almdudler is a way good Austrian drink btw you should try it! Then we got home planned and slept! Zzz
Dienstag- we had district meeting and then Elder Albrecht and I had a Tausch (exchange) with the Haag Elders. I got to go to to Haag with Elder Bolt from Atlanta! It took about 45 min by train to get here. The apartment is right above a Turkish betting bar, and Hooka bar haha so yeah! I like it in there it's not a big city like Linz so there is more old vintage houses/cottages around. So we got to Haag and had a meeting with the stake leaders in Haag. After that we had Abendessen, Sprach Studium and went to bed.
Mittwoch- we after studies we had an apointment with a new convert named Gunther. He is going to The tempel next week so we were kind of perparing him. One thing that I've really noticed is that people are so much nicer when you get out in the country! They actually say hello before you can haha. All of the city people look at you crazily when you say hello on the streets in Linz! So then we swapped companions back and took a train back to Linz. When we got back we took another train to Traun to visit a Romanian family that said we could come teach them but they weren't home. We doored in Traun for a while until the next train then went back to our apartment because it was already dinner by then.
Donnerstag- we went to Hauptbahnhof (the train station) to give the sisters a tie Elder Albrechts last companion left, and a Tschüss book entree because they were heading into München for training. Then we went street contacting until our lesson with Sunday. Sunday is a less active from Africa, and he really wants to come to church, but he has collage, and work so much that he doesn't have time. But when we showed up he wasn't there :( Then we went dooring in Doblerholz. At first it was "Oh es tut mir leid, ich habe keine Zeit.", "Nein danke. Ich habe keine Interesse." Oder "Ich bin Catholic/Muslim, i hob kein Interesse." But then we knocked on a door and a younger kid about my age maybe a little older opened the door. We explained our short message of what we do as missionaries and how it can bless people's lives. His friend came around the corner who was about the same age. They both said yeah we are from Croatia and have a strong belief in God and Jesus Christ can we order one of your books online or something? We explained to them it was free, and they said they wanted English ones to better their English we talked to them for a while and they thought it was so cool that we were from the states. By that time they were talking in English. So we wrote down their address! :) they are both sooo golden hopefully we can start teaching them sometime!! After them we headed back to Innenstadt on the Straßenbahn and did street contacting the rest of the night. We also cut 5 minutes into our diner time and had a choco kepab! They are soo good! :D that was our Donnerstag!
Freitag- we went street contacting for about two hours at 12:30. No One that day seemed to want to listen, but we did find a guy from Syria that was quite interested and we got his number to come by and give him an Arabish book. After finding we went to get nacho stuff for a "nacho party/lesson" that we had with the Persians and some members! :) then we came back for weekly planning and dinner because we decided to do it in the afternoon instead of in the morning.
Samstag- in the morning we went down to the church to help teach the Persians German. In turn we learn a little bit of Persian! After that we had nachos and played volleyball! :D btw nachos are my fav!!! Then we had a lesson with one of our potentials but it got dropped. But everything worked out because the sisters needed a joint teach to teach Markus anyways so we stayed at the church and taught him. We went over the baptismal interview questions with him and and went perfectly. He is so ready to the gospel it is crazy! After the lesson Markus gave us a ride to the Straßenbahn Haltestelle at Turmstraße and we went to Doblerholz to give the Book of Mormon to the Croatian people we met while dooring. We were expecting it to be the same two kids we talked to the first time but their parents were with them. We gave the person we spoke to before his English copy and talked to the dad for a little bit about what the Book of Mormon actually is and he asked for a Deutsch copy so we gave him one also. Both of the books had the first and last two paragraphs of the Einleitung (introduction) marked and also Moroni's promise in Moroni 10:3-5. He seemed really accepting of our beliefs and the Book of Mormon but we couldn't get a lesson with him. But they have our number, church address, and website so that's good! We were lucky that the first time we met them the parents weren't there or none of that would've happened! After that we came home to do our own German study, dinner, and planning.
Sonntag- in the morning we had choir then church. We actually had translation for the Persians during sacrament meeting so that was great! They have earphones that Masa would translated to them with. It's pretty cool! Elder Albrecht gave a talk in sacrament meeting. He used a poem that we have been translating from English to German called "Ladder of hope" it is a really good poem and I'm sure you've heard it before. Of course it doesn't rhyme in German but it is still pretty good. There is also a cute old lady at church that whenever someone starts to cry on the pulpit, she hands them a tissue. It happens every week haha! After sacrament we had our investigator class, and priesthood. After church we ate at the Kramesch's it was good to get to know them and their kids are so cute! After that we came home and did studies, and had pasta with 7-up. I used a frozen cola cup to make the 7-up slush, it was so good! I will always be thankful for the Hermansen family for showing me that! ;)
So my spiritual thought for this week is directed at priesthood holders. I was reading one of president Uchtdorf's talks recently and it just really made me want to magnify my calling as a missionary. Bellow is an insert from his talk
"Brethren, if we truly follow our Lord Jesus Christ, we must embrace the title: healer of souls. We who have been ordained to the priesthood of God are called to practice “the healer’s art.” It is our job to build up, repair, strengthen, uplift, and make whole. Our assignment is to follow the Savior’s example and reach out to those who suffer. We “mourn with those that mourn … and comfort those that stand in need of comfort.” We bind up the wounds of the afflicted. We “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.” As home teachers, we are healers. As priesthood leaders, we are healers. As fathers, sons, brothers, and husbands, we should be committed and dedicated healers. We carry in one hand a vial of consecrated oil for blessing the sick; in the other we carry a loaf of bread to feed the hungry; and in our hearts we carry the peaceable word of God, “which healeth the wounded soul.”
I have a testimony that when we are sad, tired, or just want to find more joy and meaning in life, the best way to do that is by serving others. The moment we can learn to get over ourselves is the moment we find joy that nothing else can give.
So that is what I learned and did this week! Thank you everyone for your support. I hope you guys have a schöne Woche! Tschüss
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