April 18, 2016

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great week! This week was transfers so it has been pretty crazy for me. But it has also been a really great too. The weather has been warming up quite a bit so that's been nice. Everyone thinks I'm crazy because I love the rain so much but it's because we don't get rain that much back home.

Montag- we got groceries and I got my hair cut. Then we went home and packed a bit for Elder Walker. In the evening we had an eating appointment with Achim and Louise Erlacher. It was really fun. We had root beer floats :):) After dinner we had a really good spiritual thought from Sister Graham about how God knows us individually. The spirit was really strong and we all shared experiences.

Dienstag- we had district meeting and district lunch. District meeting was pretty good and Elder Graham gave a really really good assignment. After district meeting we went to the town hall to unmeld Elder Walker because he was leaving Austria.

Mittwoch- we had transfer day so Elder Walker and I went to the train station early in the morning. Elder Bensing came to Linz then Elder Walker and Elder b=Bowers went to Salzburg from there. We brought Elder Bensings luggage back to the apartment but he left his bag with his iPad and other stuff back in Wels on accident so we had to take a train back to Wels and get his bag there. We ended up getting Elder Bensings hair cut and eating lunch in Wels because they had a bunch of appointments on Monday. Then we came back to Linz and had GMK. After GMK we joined the institute which was real good!

Donnerstag- in the morning we went to McDonald's for wifi to check for train times because we had a lunch appointment with Sister Hachenberger. We had a really great meal with them and a really great discussion. After that we headed to the church to play sports with the young single adults such as table tennis, volleyball and soccer. Two of the Persians were able to come so that was good! :) After, we made a bunch of calls and went home for dinner and daily planning.

Freitag- we did our morning studies then did an hour of weekly planning, ate, then did weekly planning again. We were invited by a former investigator from Norway to come to a breakfast and religious discussion with a bunch of other representatives from different religions. Some of them were Catholic, Muslim, the moony church, Lutheran and Family Ferdaretion. We called President and asked if it would be a good idea he said it would be great and that we should represent our church well. The topic was on world peace and the refugee situation. So we went over to the Graham's to plan for our presentation. It was really good and we planned on sharing President Patrick Kearons talk about refugees. After that we went home and finished weekly planning.

Samstag- in the morning we went to the religious meeting and it went really well. We ended up reading The Family Proclamation and talking about how we are all one big family and need to help each other and come together. Everyone loved The Family Proclamation so much that we even got two potentials. The meeting was really good. There was no arguing about religions. We went to the funeral of one of our ward members, which was pretty sad, but also good. Then we went to the church to print out a 30 minute lesson sheet for the members to sign up for because we had an eating appointment fall out.

Sonntag- in the morning we had choir then we talked with the members until church started. All of the meetings were themed about missionary work so both the Sisters gave talks Sister Graham said the opening prayer, Elder Bensing introduced himself and I gave the closing prayer. We even sang called to serve for the closing hymn. The rest of the classes were also good. After church Lucas Till was Ordained an Elder. It was honestly one of the coolest moments on my mission! I love that kid so much and now that he's reactivated he's going on a mission!!! There were a couple of people crying and the spirit was so strong!

 

This week was much needed and I am just so happy to be able to help people. The longer I have been out on my mission the more and more I want to help people. Serving God has definitely changed my life and it is the best way to love. Which brings me to my spiritual thought for this week, which is love. Love means everything. It is why we are here, what we are here to do and also what we need to make it through life. Our Father in Heaven loves us more than we can now.

Romans 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we
are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

April 11, 2016

Sorry I don't have very much time at all to email this week but here's a short run through of the week! :) Enjoy!

Montag- on Monday we got Elder Walkers hair cut, emailed then had an eating appointment with the Obermayers in Ansfelden.

Dienstag- we had district meeting then Elder Bensing and I went back to Wels for a Tausch. Our Tausch was great and I learned a lot which is always good! We had two lessons that night then did some finding.

Mittwoch- The next day we took a train back to Linz Tausched then Elder Walker and I got picked up by Lukas for an eating appointment with his family. Man I love that kid! It was a really good meal and we got some pictures with their family. After that we went dooring with two of our ward missionaries.

Donnerstag- I was sick so we stayed in until later that day because we had a lesson with Rogar but it fell through.
Freitag- we went to the church and had studies with Klaus and Lukas. After that we drove around in the country going by on members and did some finding. It was so cool and also pretty! It was probably the most productive day I've had on the mission.

Samstag- in the morning we had transfer calls! I'm staying for a fifth transfer in Linz and my new companion is Elder Bensing!! :D We are already good friends and I'm looking forward to being his comp! Elder Walker is going to Pforzheim Germany. After studies we went finding, did weekly planning then ate at Burgerista for dinner because it's Elder Walkers last time.

Sonntag- Sunday was good we blessed the sacrament for the first time with Lukas! :) Then the Persians were confirmed by Hadi from Hamburg Germany. It was done in their mother language so that was really cool for them. Elder Walker gave his farewell testimony. Hadi told us that there are four missionaries in the Berlin mission learning Persian. Some of us are also learning Persian! It's amazing how humble some of them are.

April 4, 2016

Diese Woche war wunderschön! Wir hatten so viel Erfolg, und wir haben Lukas kennengelernt! :) denkt daran, dass wir General Konferenz hatten. Ich habe euch lieb und Ich danke euch für euere unterstützen.

Montag- on Monday we had our district P-day her in Linz! We all
wore Trachten and went to Pöstlingberg. It was really quite fun and we took a lot of pictures! After we got back and changed we went finding as a district. I went with Elder Bowers at first and it went pretty well! Then halfway through the Wells Elders left on a train and I found with Elder Liechty. It was all and all a good day! That night the Haag Elders stayed with us because we had district meeting the next day.

Dienstag- we had district meeting in the morning which was ok but honestly not the best. Our whole zone had been planning this zone finding day for a while now so we did that. Everyone got together as districts and went finding at the same time. We brought quite a few youth along with us. I think it was a really good experience for them. I went with Jakob! He is super cool and it was awesome to see him speak dialect with the natives! Then when we got back we had to go get groceries because all the shops were closed for Easter Monday. After that we came home ate and planned.

Mittwoch- we had two lessons fall out on us. :( We went to the
church to clean some dishes because there wasn't any soap at the church when we ate there for district meeting. We had to bring some from home. After that we had an eating appointment with Klaus at Tokyo sunshine run. We go there about once a month with him. It is really good but you never feel so good afterwards, haha! Klaus came with us to go by on a potential but he wasn't home. So we decided to door. Sadly nothing turned out. :(... Then we had GMK at the church. We went home after that. Little did we know Walker left his iPad at the church. This had a really big role with the rest of the week! It was defiantly for the best! Es gibt keinen Zufall!

Donnerstag- so the next morning Elder Walker and I decided to go to the church to get his iPad and do studies there. We were almost to the church when a car drove by and some kids waved at us but we didn't see who it was. A minute later the car turned around and pulled up next to us. It was Dani and his girlfriend and one of their friends in the back seat (some members). They asked if we were going to the church. They didn't have any keys and needed the computers. So they ended up taking us to the church. I had seen the Kidd in the back seat before but I didn't know his name. He was a less active. So we let them in the church and went on the stage to start personal study. As we were studying the kid that was sitting in the back seat came in and asked us if he could study with us. I was actually really shocked! “Of course,” we told him. He got a Book of Mormon and started reading. As personal study was almost over he said his name was Lukas and that he was 19. Then he asked us if he could bear his testimony. It was so cool! He said he was born into the church but always had a lot of problems. All of his siblings are inactive including his mom. Then he said about two days ago I was talking with my friends and then all of the sudden I just knew it was true! It just all clicked. He said he knew he had to serve a mission. He is seriously the coolest kid I have ever met! He asked us if he could come finding with us so we took him. He was testifying to everyone he could talk to about how he found the truth! He is such an amazing kid! He asked us if he could come finding with us all the time and come to our lessons. And to think we would have never met this kid if Elder Walker wouldn't have left his iPad!

Freitag- we went street finding and found this really cool girl from Graz! She had lived with a Mormon family before and just loved it. She saw how they were different and wanted to be like that. So we got her number from the Graz Elders. Hopefully they are able to teach her! :) Then at 1:00 Lukas came finding with us! :D he even wore a white shirt and tie. It was pretty good! Man I love that kid!! Then we went to the church and did weekly planning before our lesson with Rogar (refugee from Nigeria). Lukas asked if he could do weekly planning with us so we all did it together. He hooked us up so much! He is asking everyone for referrals and having us over for lunch next Wednesday! :) After weekly planning we had our lesson with Rogar an hour late because he was on African time, hahaha!! We went over all of the lessons we would be teaching him and got to know him better. After our lesson we talked with one of our ward missionaries then went home.

Samstag- we went up to Lichtenberg to help Emil Ivanovski with his house. On the way we found out that there was a marathon through Linz. It was cool to see and reminded me of when my sister would run marathons! After we got home we went to the church to watch the Saturday morning conference session. We saw Lukas there, which was awesome to see. That was the rest of our day.

Sonntag- after some studying we went to the church for the rest of the day to watch conference. Other than the priesthood session everything else was live. It was really good! I have never loved conference so much until I came on my mission! And just in case you guys didn't remember, President Uchtdorf called German the Celestial language! ;) hahaha "Es gibt nicht gutes, außer man tut es."

Der geistige Gedanke für diese Woche! President Uchtdorf talked about relationships and said something to the effect of stop complaining about the weeds and water the flowers. I take this as really good advice that can help any relationship. I am defiantly going to start trying to do this. But first it takes humility. We must strive to be constantly humble through prayer and fasting. When we are humble we can notice other people's achievements and praise them for their good. I have always told myself that I want to marry someone that makes me want to become a better person. That means I have to become someone that makes other people want to become better also. The best time to start is now. :)

And just another Really good quote “Obedience is not the process of bending, twisting, and pounding our souls into something we are not, instead it is the process by which we discover what we truly are made of.” - President Uchtdorf

March 28, 2016

Diese Woche hatten wir viel Spaß. Bitte lest die folgende. :)

Montag- so there was a sale for Trachten clothes here in Linz. My comp. didn't have Lederhose yet so we planned on getting him some. But Elder Bowers from Wels didn't have any either so they came to Linz to get some too. They also had a sale on Dirndls so the Aisters also came, haha! It was a party! So they got their Lederhosen and I got a shirt
for mine. We are having district today and we are all wearing lederhosen/Dirndls! :D After shopping, for Trachten Welt, we all emailed at McDonalds. Then we went by on a less active but he wasn't home so we found the rest of the day.

Dienstag- we had district meeting in the morning which went well. Afterwards we all at Vapianos. Then we were going to have a lesson with a new investigator, Bismark, from Ghana, but it got rescheduled for Wednesday. Then we met up with the A.P.'s for an hour finding tausch because they were staying the night in Haag. Elder Hunt has never got
to tausch with me. So I went with elder Hunt and Elder Walker went with Elder Albrecht. It was honestly one of the greatest things! I probably learned more about how to find in that hour then I ever learned by myself! They are so good!!!!! Elder Hunt is one of my biggest examples and is what I want to strive to be as a missionary. We got this super cool potential Merlina. Elder Hunt asked her, "if you could ask God any question what would it be?" She said, "why do I exist?" She is such a bro, haha, that is the only way to
describe her. But after they left we went by on three members but none of them were home. And that was the rest of our day. Also on our way home some guy on the straßenbahn randomly gave us Swiss chocolate! It was awesome! :)

Mittwoch- after studies we went by on a few more members but that didn't work out. Then we had our lesson with Bismark. The lesson was on the restoration and went quite well. He is very faithful. Then we made our Fortschritts Bericht and had GMK. GMK was pretty useless cause our ward mission leader wasn't there so we didn't get anything done. Then we went home and had dinner and planned.

Donnerstag- right after lunch we went and helped our bishops dad set up his Eiskönig ice cream shop for the summer! The best part is that he gives us free ice cream! :D Then we found the rest of the day. We talked to so many people!!! No one really wanted to listen so we weren't able to get any Potential Untersucher... what matters is that we give everyone the chance! :) But yeah we got wrecked finding, hahaha.

Freitag- after studies we found then went by on some members! The members didn't have time so after that we had weekly planning and that was our day.

Samstag- after studies we had and eating appointment with Achim and Louis Erlacher. They are awesome! Louis is from England but speaks German really well. Achim was born and raised in Linz. They even got us root beer which I haven't had in forever! The food was also amazing! After, we went finding then we were going to have an appointment with Merlina but her phone doesn't really work so we couldn't get a hold of her. After that it was time to go home.

Sonntag- choir was good. We sang in sacrament meeting. The Persians came to church so that was good, haha! We had two African investigators from Nigeria there also. They want to become members! One of them, Rogar, came to church last week and liked it so much that he brought his friend Christopher this time. There was also a really cool guy
from Ghana that was a refugee to Austria. He was baptized into this ward in 1991. He lives back in Ghana now. He is really active and has been through the Temple. He is the only African I know that speaks good German. He is so funny! He is really good friends with the ward members so he goes up to them and says, "My brutha!!!", hahaha. After
church we had another eating appointment. I know crazy right! It was with Emil Ivanovski our less active from Macedonia. He is someone I will definitely miss! Him and his wife made us Easter baskets to thank us for working on their house. Emil showed us the blueprints for what it's going to look like when it's done. He wants me to come back after my mission to see. After we ate we shared the new Easter video the church made and went home for studies.

The spiritual thought today is on receiving answers. I recently watched a devotional thing with Elder Rasband and he said something about receiving an answer that I really liked. It goes really well with another spiritual thought I sent about Abrahams servant. A lot of
the time we don't know what to do. So naturally we go to the Lord. I've caught myself a lot of the time asking a question then sitting back and waiting for it to be answered. If you want to get an answer map out a plan first and then ask the Lord. It wasn't until Nephi was on his way to retrieve the plates that he received an answer of what to do. And if we have two good decisions choose one and if it's wrong the Lord will let you know. Sometimes when we go down the wrong road and find out it's wrong and get back on the right road. It's the best way to have assurance as we go on that we are on the right road.