"I locked myself in the bathroom and also called her a good cake" - September 23, 2013 from Vienna

In this letter Katie mentioned a Mormon Message from a Swiss Artist, Christian Bolt.  You can watch it here.  (FYI - There are a lot of "Mormon Messages" that are brief vignettes that introduce people to the huge diversity of people around the world that are Mormons.)

Dear Family! THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE!!  Also, some of the people that I'm grateful to have heard from since I've been in Vienna:

Wait I already said thank you for a note from Sister Sherwin and a package and note from the Robin and Allie Smilanich, right? And Hailey Darger? (these ones are still from the MTC) Also,

Linds, Joey, James Hulme, Daddy, Mommy, Dave, Uncle Randal, Aunt Janie, Grandma and Grandpa, Court

Also the ward! a.k.a. Sister Bagby

  

A quote from Elder Eyring about missionary work:

"You are called to represent the Savior. Your voice to testify becomes the same as His voice, your hands to lift the same as His hands. His work is to bless His Father’s spirit children with the opportunity to choose eternal life. So, your calling is to bless lives. That will be true even in the most ordinary tasks you are assigned and in moments when you might be doing something not apparently connected to your call. Just the way you smile or the way you offer to help someone can build their faith. And should you forget who you are, just the way you speak and the way you behave can destroy faith.

Your call has eternal consequences for others and for you. In the world to come, thousands may call your name blessed, even more than the people you serve here. They will be the ancestors and the descendants of those who chose eternal life because of something you said or did, or even what you were…….. You see, there are no small callings to represent the Lord. Your call carries grave responsibility. But you need not fear, because with your call comes great promises”.

Pres Miles sent us that quote this week. You can print it for me if you want.

Did you notice in that email from his last week how he told us the technology is a ways off so quit dreaming about it and get to work?   He told us" The new technology we have talked about and hoped for since the New Mission Presidents seminar will not be introduced into our mission for a long time. Stop dreaming about it and keep working hard. " (FYI - Over time more and more missionaries will be issued iPads, iPhones etc so that they can begin to more easily use all that technology offers to teach the Gospel.)

So this week . . .

Oh I have a new new new favorite day. But don't worry, because this time it's earlier. We've had a lot of trouble just finding Jenni a baptismal date but now she's getting baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Since new converts are always confirmed in Sacrament Meeting and the following week is General Conference (FYI - "General Conference" occurs every October and April.  Church leadership gathers in Salt Lake City at the Conference Center and over two days there are four main two-hour sessions of talks.  So depending on where you live you can watch General Conference on the internet, on TV, in person, or through closed circuit TV at the local chapel.  Talks are translated live into 92 languages) and are then available for view or reading on the internet or in the next issue of the monthly Church Magazine.)  and the week after that she might be gone, this is the best way to do it. Sister Judd and I knew we shouldn't be the ones giving talks so we told her maybe we could do something else and now she has us singing together. That will be fun. Sister Judd is a way good singer. She was in the Musical Dance Theater program at BYU for a while until she changed her mind and now she's studying family life and she wants to be a therapist. I'm kind of nervous to sing on Saturday. We're singing "When Jesus Christ was baptized" and I sing the whole first verse by myself. Auf Deutsch. I have a lot of memorizing to do. And I'm just not that good of a singer. I just love Jenni. One day I showed Jenni the picture of the Frankfurt Temple in a member’s home and then both Elder Richman and I showed her temple pictures we had of the Manti and Salt Lake Temple.  I told her the people whose house we were at were sealed in the Frankfurt Temple andshe said she thought it would be so great to get married in the temple, but you’d really have to know you were marrying the right person since it would be for eternity.  Das stimmt, (that’s sure true) Jenni, Couldn’t have said it better myself! 

Fun fact: right before I came here to email you I ate octopus and eel. The sisters in the international ward were given some by a ward member who makes sushi for his job, and since Sister Clark doesn't like sushi, it's all mine! Yummmm.

Okay so the stake patriarch (FYI - a STAKE is a group of WARDS (congregations) that are linked together under a leadership umbrella.  The organization of the LDS Church is an amazing thing actually.  It is a way to ensure that everyone is accounted for and watched over and that there is a network of individuals to work together in support of each other.  There is NO paid ministry or leadership in the LDS Church so every role, whether it is a financial clerk, a membership clerk, a Sunday School teacher, a Bishop or a Stake President is a voluntary position called by God and issued to that individual.  Each stake has a Patriarch called and ordained. This individual has the specific responsibility to give "patriarchal blessings" to members who seek them.  Every member of the church can receive a patriarchal blessing at some point in their lives.  Each such blessing is unique and specific for that individual through the inspiration the patriarch receives through the spirit.  Most individuals ask for their Patriarchal blessing in their teenage years, but it up to each individual to determine when they would like to receive that blessing.) is in our ward and he's actually our bishop's father. He and his wife are great people and raised a great family and they had us over for dinner one time and we just really like them. So we asked if they would be there for a lesson with Jenni and then they offered to just have all of us, including Benjamin, over and they said they would feed us and we could have a lesson. So we talked about the ten commandments. And I've thought this before but Brother/Patriarch Souchek just reminds me of Grosvati! And that's not just because he's an old European grandpa who speaks German. I now know  several old European grandpas who speak German. They sound alike and he definitely sounds like Grosvati when he speaks English. And they just act alike! They're disapproving of the same things, and they disapprove in the same way (like when Benjamin is sitting there playing with his water bottle and not listening to what you're saying). He is just such a rock in the gospel! And teaching the 10 commandments with him was so fun! Everyone talked, but it was actually me and Brother Souchek who talked the most. Sister Judd told me it was my best lesson yet. I felt sort of like I did a joint teach with Grosvati, except he was LDS. Brother Souchek has really studied the scriptures, in both German and English, and I'm sure he's studied a lot of other things too. Which is exactly what Grosvati would do. It was just cool. It will be so awesome when my Grosvati chooses to embrace the fullness of the gospel.

So David wants me to email about non-church stuff so this is what I sent to him….

Dave - Thanks so much for the email. Most things I do have to do with church in one way or another, but I will tell you about the music in my life. So sometimes we go shopping on P-Days (today my goal is to find a winter coat) and I love the music in the stores! There's definitely a lot of techno. Also sometimes people have good tunes blasting from their cars. And people on the public transportation often have headphones in, and sometimes we can hear their music. The other day on the U-Bahn (an underground train) someone was listening to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga really loud. And both Sister Judd and I tried to figure out who was listening to it. It became clear that it was none other than the gray-haired, very old man standing next to us. That was funny. The music we chose to listen to has to be spiritually uplifting but Sister Judd has some CD's from Christian Rock Bands that are good. I shared a quote about that bible story where Jesus meets a woman at a well from one of those bands once. I just remember the first time I heard real music in a store here and I was pretty excited. Obviously I didn't hear any normal music while I was in the MTC. I love you!

Love,

Kate

Oh yeah quote of the week: "I locked myself in the bathroom and called her a good cake." Yes, Elder Richman, you did do both of those things at our dinner appointment (cook and cake sound similar, and he was trying to say she was a good cook ....and we still aren't totally sure what happened with the bathroom door when he locked himself in).

This is complicated, but I saw in a talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook that Elder Marion D. Hanks had this statement by Ugo Betti framed on his wall: "To believe in God is to know that all the rules will be fair, and that there will be wonderful surprises." I love that, and I really believe it.

It's time for me to start wearing tights . . . I've been avoiding it because I know as soon as I start I'll be wearing tights every day until May. Also, I love hearing church bells ringing while I’m sitting in church on Sundays.  I love being a missionary.  I’m so glad I’m here.  This place definitely feels right. 

I pray for every member of our family every night! I love you all!

To Lindsey she emailed :

Vienna is the coolest. Almost every day I ride a strassenbahn (streetcar) that goes right next to Stephan's Dome. We're doing this thing in our ward where we're going to try to eventually give all of the members all of the lessons that we teach to investigators. We're just starting and we don't spend all our time doing that so it will take a while, but it's a great project. Our ward mission leader is awesome. He's going to make a puzzle out of a picture of our ward and people can add a piece after we've taught them a lesson. It was cool because we have always been really on board as missionaries but not all of the ward council were huge fans. The relief society (FYI - LDS Church Women's service organization) president was one who wasn't quite as sold, but we were there for dinner yesterday and taught her the first lesson and she LOVED it. The Spirit was strong and she was totally feeling it. So now she's all for it.