"Schmale und gerade Pfad" - August 5, 2013 from Vienna (Wien)

Dear Family!  Ready for the million random things I have written down to tell you? Okay here goes.

First of all, last Monday on our P-Day, we went to St. Stephan's Cathedral (Stephansdom)! The other missionaries in our area were playing games on P-Day but I pretty much sort of refused. But Sister Judd was pretty much on the same page. It was so hot that no one wanted to go out but I still did! So we went to Stephan's Dome which is something most people had already done.  The girl with us is Miga, one of our ward missionaries and we're waiting on her mission call. It's coming to our apartment! We love her. She is pretty much our best friend. She's from Mongolia like Bogi and they're super close friends too.

My group of incoming missionaries was the biggest yet in our mission! And probably the biggest our mission will ever have. There were 32 of us. Some came from the Preston, England MTC, which they are going to be doing more and more for our mission. Eventually all missionaries going to our mission will go to the Preston MTC.  (FYI- There are about 15 MTCs - Missionary Training Centers - around the world)

In our mission they call us "goldens" instead of "greenies." Just so that we know for sure how valued we are. We come in with so much enthusiasm and potential, so we really are golden. (FYI – The term “greenie” is usually used for a brand new missionary just coming out of the MTC and into the field)

One cool thing that we do in my zone is every night when we do daily planning and count up our numbers from that day (how many less actives we visited, how many potential investigators we found . . .) we also count how many "wunders" we saw that day. We just count the little miracles that we are grateful for. And then we text the zone leaders our number and in the morning the zone leaders send out a text with the number of miracles that we saw the day before as a zone. Cool, huh? I love it. (FYI – I also know we are blessed when we SEARCH for and acknowledge the tender mercies of the Lord each day in our life.  When we recognize those little things that we might otherwise take for granted, we are truly happier!)

Right now I'm breathing in some serious secondhand smoke in this internet cafe. And the guy is seriously one foot away from the "Rauchen Verboten" sign. That means smoking is forbidden.

My trainer is great. This is the part where you all stop reading and say a prayer of Thanksgiving. I'm so glad I like her. She's an amazing teacher and I actually just feel like she really is who I need to learn from right now. Sometimes she feels like I ask too many questions, because I think I'm kind of demanding about it. And I expect her to know everything about the German language and about everything and I just love to ask her questions. So I'm learning that I shouldn't just feel entitled to asking questions whenever I want. Does that make sense? I hope to be able to do a lot of things like she does. Especially navigate. We ride public transportation all the time (great for contacting!) and I just still have no idea how she figures out how to get where we're going. Normal people use an app for these things but missionaries must be old-fashioned and use a map. iPads, please come soon. (Hmm, I wonder if her mission is one that will be getting iPads anytime soon….the church is rolling them out, but not all at once).

I forgot to give you a quote of the week last week! 

So here it is:

"Haben sie mich gegrüßt?" (FYI – This translates to “Did you greet me?”) So it's not really normal in big cities even in America to say hi to people you don't know. And it's definitely not normal in Wien. But I just say hi to everyone and if they're friendly I try to talk to them. Talking to everyone is harder than I thought it would be. It’s hard just because it really is scary in another language and in another culture. I'm working on getting over myself. I just know that once they start really talking I probably won't understand what they're saying. And my companion isn't always right there. And it's actually some of the friendlier people who ask you after you say hi if they know you. They all of the sudden feel like they should know who you are if you're saying hi to them. So sometimes if I ever say "grüetzi" people say "Haben sie mich gegrüßt?" And I think it's so funny. Gegrüßed is the funniest word. And I say yes and then they say "Kennen wir uns?" or "Do we know each other?" Ah it's the best. I'm still working on my answer to that but I want to get in the habit of saying that I'm just friendly because I'm a representative of Jesus Christ.

This week's quote is the "schmale und gerade Pfad," or the strait and narrow path. That was one of my favorite tall phrases (FYI - a "tall" phrase apparently has something to do with a computer program they use in the MTC to learn the language) and I was just thinking about the phrase yesterday during personal study. So I randomly started studying scriptures with the word "path." There's a lot of good ones. And I came upon D&C 112:7 "Therefore, gird up thy loins for the work.  Let thy feet be shod also, for thou art chosen, and thy path lieth among the mountains, and among many nations."   Does that sound like my mission or what?!! The D&C has soooo many good missionary scriptures and I just felt like that one was just for me.   

(FYI – The D&C stands for “The Doctrine and Covenants”. It is a book of  modern day “scripture” that contains the “revelations given to Joseph Smith, the Prophet in the 1700s, with some additions by his successors in the Presidency of the Church”)

More about my trainer. She picked me up at the train station in Wien and we rode more public transportation home and when we got to the apartment it was so nice that my bed was made with clean sheets, and that there was a really nice note from her that she had made and a lot of mini Ritter Sports on my desk to welcome me. And she even decorated my planner! I've come to learn that decorating planners is a big deal around here, and it was so fun to have one waiting for me.

Also, that address is where I live. Google Earth it or something. I live in Wien's 17th district. I feel like the part of Wien I live in looks a little like San Francisco.

This is for Daddy. Sister Judd and her dad do this thing where they study the same chapter of Jesus the Christ every week and write each other about it. Do you want to do something like that? I was thinking we could maybe do it with either Jesus the Christ or Our Search for Happiness. And we don't have to talk a lot about it. It would just be cool to know that we're reading the same thing. And it shouldn't take too much time because I have a lot to study during personal study but I would like to do that. What do you think?

Also for Daddy: The other day in companionship study I told Sister Judd how I really feel like other people's prayers have been bouying me up (uh is that how you spell that? I miss spell check. Pathetic, I know.) and I told her that I just know that especially my daddy is praying hard for me. I know you all are, this isn't supposed to make anyone feel bad, but after I said that Sister Judd said "Have you told him that?" And I realized that I hadn't. So I'm telling you.

I forgot to tell you that I cashed in on my free haircut in the MTC. It turned out fine. I think.

Wanna know something cool? The 3 Nephi 5:13 scripture as it turns out is my mission theme scripture. I'm inspired ha ha. (FYI - In our chapel building each missionary out from that ward (congregation) has a plaque like the one below displayed during the time that they are serving.  It includes a scripture of the missionary's choosing.  Katie chose 3 Nephi 5:13 from the Book of Mormon which reads "Behod, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  I have been called of him to declare his work among his people that they might have everlasting life".)

So a typical day.  We're supposed to get in 4 hours of study every day, except P-Day and Friday because it's weekly planning. But that's one hour of personal study, one hour of companionship study, one hour of language study, and one hour of training. We have hardly ever had time for training, which is probably bad because I need training. But I'm not really sure what takes us so long. We spend a lot of time on public transportation because we're going all around Vienna. But we have this goal in our ward that we're eventually going to teach all the members of the ward the first three lessons. And just develop really good relationships with the ward that way. And even have them pretend to be investigators so that we can practice. We've had a lot of older people who are lonely invite us over and they just talk our ears off. But it's good for them.

Okay this is cool. When James gets his letter from last week he will call you and tell you about it. I talked about Alex (who, by the way, update, responded to this text we sent him with a scripture reference by saying "You need to overcome the Mormon church." And he hasn't been responding to the elders. The adversary has gotten to him.). And when we met with Alex I got to talk a tiny bit about my experience studying abroad in Jerusalem. That was one of the first times. It has come up so many times! We meet quite a few Muslims. And I feel like it gives me some credibility with a lot of people when I mention that I studied religion in Jerusalem for four months in the fall. A lot of the people who are nice enough to talk to us are foreigners. Not that Austrians aren't nice, but they're generally less up for talking to strangers (everyone remember, referals are the better way). We met someone the other day who said he was Muslim and we got his information and met him again and gave him an Arabic Book of Mormon. He's from Egypt. But he's in the process of moving to Wien. It turned out he was really Muslim and was fasting for Ramadan and everything, but he still took the book and we had a good conversation about the similarties between our religions. He had even done some studying on Mormonism before our appointment.  

The following is from the letter Katie referred to that James received :

My most memorable lesson so far is with a man who is basically anti-Mormon but he still wants to meet with the missionaries.  For this lesson there were sisters and elders, because that is what he asked for.  We spoke a lot in English because his English is perfect and he wanted me and the newer Elders to understand.  So I taught a lot.  He’s studied a lot of religion and it’s something that really fascinates him and I think I helped him because I  talked about the religious study I had done on study abroad in Jerusalem.  I told him that I agreed that many religions have truth and that there are a lot of holy books.  But  Itold him if I could read a book  with some truth or a book that was all true, I would spend more of my time on the book that was all true. A.K.A. the Book of Mormon.  He refuses to read it which is strange because if you are into studying religion why wouldn’t you just read it?  I honestly think he’s afraid of what he might feel.  I know he feels the spirit in the lessons.  I saw it in his face and the spirit was so strong.  (FYI – it is not really uncommon for people to want to meet with the missionaries to “talk them out of their faith”. But  missionaries know that the spirit departs when there is contention, so teaching someone is one thing, but debating is typically not helpful).

My mission president is wonderful. Everything I have heard about him and observed is just really positive. I think he does a really good job. And Sister Miles too.

Also, Mommy will you get a hold of Ashley Bunker's Honduras address for me? She should still be in Peru but by the time I send her a letter I think I should send it to Honduras.

Also, the week I left the MTC 982 other missionaries also did. Crazy, huh? Family I love you so much. Thank you for your prayers. Alles gute! Jesus is coming again!