December 7, 2015

Week 12

This week was a really good one. Mostly because it's getting closer and closer to Christmas!! :D On top of that I'm in one of the most cultured places to be during Christmas!! I can't wait! I was going to bring my study journal to write you guys some of the things I've learned this week but I totally forgot it! :P I will try to remember next week.

On Monday we went to Weihnachtsmarkt, the Christmas market, it's is so cool there! They make hand made Christmas ornaments, Austrian food and pretty much anything you could ever want in life. They have a Weihnachtsmarkt/Christkindlmarkt in every city/town but ours is one of the bigger ones. :) After I had bought a giant Debouche (gingerbread cookie) we went and ate at the Erlacher's. The Erlacher's have the cutest adopted Egyptian babies! That was pretty much our day.

On Tuesday we talked with a referral from one of our ward missionaries. He has a ponytail and works at a pawn shop. He didn’t have much time to talk but told us to call him and make out an appointment. Hopefully that works out. After that we went to the church and taught all of our Persian investigators! I love those guys so much. We attempted to teach them the restoration again. There were a ton of new people there we weren’t really able to do that. So, the lesson went a completely different direction but that's ok it happens sometimes. We had ward mission correlation meeting and ate a dönner after.



Wednesday we only had one lesson so we found pretty much all of the day. We went as far east as we could walk. Our lesson was with Brother Schopf. He is a really cool guy! He is probably in his 50s and born and raised in Linz. His brother is a bishop in Australia. He had given him a Book of Mormon with highlighted scriptures to read. We taught him the restoration and it went really well! There’s a member about his age so hopefully they become friends.

On Thursday we had exchanges with the District Leader and his companion. I stayed in Linz with Elder Carrand while my companion went to Wells. Elder Carrand is seriously the coolest guy ever, I love that kid. (He is the one on the picture) We went around town speaking with hardcore “California surfer” accents in German. That has to be the funniest thing I've ever done haha!! Elder Carrand even asked someone where the nearest beach was, it was so funny. It went as far as people asking us if we were from California, so I guess it worked. The latter part of the day we went to Auwiesen on the Straßenbahn to go dooring. We found a huge apartment complex and shared the Christmas video with a few people from last year, the older one is better. We would ask them what Christmas meant to them. The video is so good and has such a strong meaningful message. That night we are at McDonald's. We ate so much which we regretted...

Friday was really good! We ate at one of the members house for lunch. We were dreading it because she is famous for feeding giant 7 course meals. And we were still full from the McDonald's the night before!!! It wasn't to bad though. It was only a four course meal. She even made cookies for Elder Carrand and me to take hom. :) After we taught the Persians at the church. The regular translator wasn't there. Luckily one of them speaks broken English and is one knows more about the church, so we taught through him. We went through the entire restoration. It was a supper good lesson and when we bore our testimonies the spirit was so strong. They have been through a lot in their lives. What people don't realize is that the refugees don't just get up and walk out of the country, most of them have scars and have seen horrible things. It makes you really think. As soon as they can get permanent residency we can baptize them. I really hope it works out! After that lesson me and Elder Carr exchanged companions again.

Saturday was the day I've been waiting for for a while. It was the day we had Christmas Conference and Elder Meville and me would be able to see our other companion from the MTC, Elder Johnston!! :) In the morning we got transfer calls!! Elder Albrecht and me are staying in Linz. Sister Baker, from our area, is leaving to Munich. :( Elder Carr is leaving to Munich too. :(:( I'm so sad. After the transfer calls we left for an hour ride to Salzburg. Once we got there we practiced a song we were going to sing. Elder Meville and me were waiting for Elder Johnston and suddenly he walked in and gave us a hug. It was so good to see him again. I love that guy! We had our Christmas Conference, ate lunch and watched a movie on how the song silent night was made because it was writen in Salzburg. It was cool too that some of the members from the Linz ward were in it. I get to see Elder Melville quit a bit so we wished Elder Johnston luck, got our Christmas packages and went home.

On Sunday we just went to church, ate at a members house and went home to study! :P