"&*%$#@&%?" - August 25, 2013 - From Vienna

FIrst of all, I have to gladly report that despite my last post of coming to terms with the fact that there was NO REAL letter, it turns out  there really WAS a letter in the mail to us.  Sad, but true,  it really did get lost.  Kate has a tendency to lose things, but the fact that she passed this tendency on to the Austrian/US postal service is truly distressing!

Family!  I'm honestly heartbroken that my letter hasn't gotten to you. Yes I did write you a paper letter!! I don't know what I did wrong!

The quote of the week is from when one of our investigators swore during an appointment and I repeated what she said, except I repeated it with a question mark at the end. I was asking what it meant. But Sister Judd and the elders just looked at me in horror, and then I remembered what it meant.

Zone conference was amazing!  I got to spend more time with Pres. and Sister Miles and we even shared a lesson with them on Saturday!   They are both very inspiring. I called you last night and left a message, but I did commit someone to baptism this week! It was during in appointment at the church that we had on Saturday right after you and Sister Miles left. The investigator's name is Jenni. She didn't want to set a date yet and Saturday was only our second lesson with her, but she is very prepared to receive the gospel. We will see her again today. She has a copy of the gospel principles book and has already read more than half of it.

Both Pres. and Sister Miles sincerely asked me on Friday how I'm doing. And I told them that I'm doing really well, because I really am!  But I still have a concern about how tired I am. I know that all missionaries are tired sometimes.  I just am kind of concerned, and I know Sister Judd is too, because I have a hard time staying alert during some of our meetings. And I'm just really tired a lot of the time. Do you have any recommendations?

My other big news is I committed someone to baptism this week.... Jenni!  I  She's totally golden. (FYI - "Golden" is a term missionaries use to describe someone who the Lord has really prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  When they meet the missionaries, things just fall into place and they are ready to have the spirit testify to them that the Gospel is true).   We met her after church one day on the bus because she was meeting one of our members who actually doesn't come to our ward very often because he usually goes to church with his parents in Wells.  We had an appointment with her on Saturday night at the church right after Pres. and Sister Miles left.  She didn't want to set a date yet and Saturday was only our second lesson with her, but she is very prepared to receive the gospel. We will see her again today (Monday). She has a copy of the gospel principles book and has already read more than half of it. (FYI - "Gospel Principles" is a book written in an easy to read format which explains the beliefs of the LDS Church on 47 topics such as the atonement, baptism, the fall of Adam and Eve, Eternal Marriage, the Law of Chastity, the Law of tithing etc).  

I told you more about her in a letter that I'm working on that you'll probably get in two weeks, if you get it at all! Ugh. That letter had better get to you! It is also my journal! At least part of it! Hey so have you done any Vienna research? If you have, and you want to share it with me, that would be great.

You asked why the first picture you saw of Sister Judd she had dark hair and the rest she's blond.  Sister Judd is a hair dyer. Kind of like Ashley. Her hair just likes to change colors. She wasn't going to dye it on her mission but she did and that's why her hair was dark in the picture and blondish in real life.

Not last week but the week before we went to the Donauturm (Danube Tower)  for P-Day. It was great because you get a good view of the city. Vienna is huge. 

Sister Judd and I are the only German-Speaking sister missionaries in Vienna, so we have to reach everyone!! It's cool because we actually work with a lot of different wards and in a lot of different areas because some people want to see sisters. We're still primarily in our ward and in our area, but we are also spread out. (FYI - This is a good time to explain about what a ward is. A ward is a congregation.  What makes it very different in the LDS Church is that you don't go "congregation shopping".  Your church records are with the ward according to where you live.  This is actually really important because a core value of the church is that we take care of each other.   Every family has a pair of men in the ward that are responsible for your family.  They visit at least once a month and should be aware of any challenges you are facing.  If you need help, they are there for you.  Every adult woman in the church has Visiting Teachers...a pair of women that visit her at least once a month and have similar responsibilities.) Do you remember how I told you there are elders from Sankt Polten in my district? Well we are teaching one woman who lives there. She was referred by a member (yessss!) and the member thought she should meet with sisters because she's going through a really messy divorce. So she really just needs peace and comfort. And we finally met with her last week in Sankt Polten and she's really great. She really wanted our appointment this week to be on Tuesday because she has to go to court on Wednesday and she thinks it will give her strength. So we're meeting with her tomorrow. Cool, huh? Right now I think she thinks of us more as therapists I think but I'm really hopeful that she'll embrace the gospel. And her kids! That would be unreal. I got the jist of what she said in our first lesson, but she talked a lot and her accent is different.

So this week was my first austausch (FYI - Austauch means "exchange" and an exchange is when you trade out companions for a day or so.) and my first zone conference! I served in the international ward on austausch with Sister Harman (P.S. it's Kristine Harman and Shaedee Woods . . . actually I can't remember how you spell it). So I taught in English that day and it was great.

So because we had zone conference President and Sister Miles were in town (also Sister Kervinen and she got to sleep over again!). So zone conference was on Friday and on Saturday President and Sister Miles had some time to do joint teaches. So we asked them to come to our appointment with Mary -name has been changed- (have I told you about her?). We love her so much.  So she had flaked on an appointment earlier in the week but she was acting way excited about this appointment on Saturday and we felt like it would be great if President and Sister Miles were there. She loves people and she would love them and they would love her. But the appointment fell out at the last minute. We were heartbroken and President and Sister Miles were already on their way. We were already at the church having GMK (no idea what that is) and it was just so stressful. And this is kind of funny, probably just because I'm so immature, but what we had planned to teach Mary was about the law of chastity and repentance. The last time we met she had confided in us that she felt broken because of past sins and she talked about how much she looks up to her parents for how true they are to one another (I'm not really sure any of this should go on the internet). And she has already been taught all the lessons and it was really ready for the next logical step. But it's time for our appointment and there's no Mary.  But President and Sister Miles are there feeling bad for us because we're so sad about Mary. And we tell them all about her and about why we had chosen this lesson and then President Miles says he wants us to teach them the lesson we had prepared for Mary. Now how many of you can say that you and your companion taught your mission president and his wife the law of chastity? Well, I can now say that. President Miles had a great time asking us hard questions about everything. Repentance is really important (obviously) and he really made us explain it in detail. He's so great. He and Sister Miles both are. But it was kinda funny! They told Sister Judd and me that we teach really well together and that I contributed a lot even though I'm not very confident in my German yet. They told me to be more confident and not look to Sister Judd for confirmation because I can communicate even if my grammar isn't perfect.

We still haven't really talked to Mary. She cancelled on us twice last week, and that wasn't the first time, so obviously she doesn't get (A) that we really do have busy schedules but we're just willing to turn our world upside down for her because we like her so much and (B) that this message is really important! This is her salvation! And all of the peace and happiness that she wants! So hopefully she'll come around but we know that she needs to know for herself that's it's important enough for her to follow through. She had a baptismal date and everything when I got here and then she went on vacations (I haven't been appreciating these long and very frequent European vacations. It's okay though because it has helped us to be extra good about finding new investigators).

Vienna Zone Conference - All the Sisters
Armstrong, Kervinen, Lewis, Judd, Woods, Harman, Miles, Winters & Scoggin

Everyone in the ZONE at Zone Conference -
I'm liking that I can pick her out quick in that pretty coral blouse! 

Our mission president sent us this quote this week. I love it. Wanna print it and send it to me? Also want to print that Ghandi quote that you sent me for me again? You should include this with the blog post.

“Anyone who does any kind on missionary work will have occasion to ask, why is it so hard? Why doesn't it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaked wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

“You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ this is the truth and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.”

-Jeffery R. Holland MTC talk @ Provo MTC June 20, 2000

Lindsey I did get your letter! I loved it so much! It was perfect! Thank you so much. I want more letters. Except I don't have time to write anyone so it doesn't really work.

Family I love you sooooo much. I put a bunch of random pictures in Dropbox, and I lot of them are ugly. Ha ha don't use them all. And for some reason the more recent ones aren't on there. Love you!