WONDERFUL DAY

Hi Everyone,

We had a wonderful district meeting with the mission president and his wife.  Pres. Miles has been  traveling all over the mission doing interviews with each missionary.  It takes him and his wife (who always travels with him) three weeks to make all the rounds of the entire mission.

He shared with us that he loves the couple missionaries and requested 6 more couples from Salt Lake, but was told he already has more than any mission in the world (22 couples) and had to be content with us for now.

It was such an interesting experience that Sister Miles basically ran the district meeting while her husband was conducting the interviews.  

She shared her experience going to an area meeting for mission presidents under the direction of Elder Ballard and Elder Oaks.  She just happens to be the daughter of Elder Nelson.   She is a very engaging and down to earth lady.  She and Pres. Miles interviewed us when it came to our turn.  Her main message from the mission presidents meeting was that "nothing is too hard".   The motto for the missionaries should be "I can do hard things".  That has so many interesting implications.  We certainly have to take that to heart.

President and Sister Miles

We have had days when the most mundane things seem to flummux us.  We struggle with the dialect, we get lost all the time, we can't seem to figure out the appliances in our little kitchen, the YSA aren't comfortable with us yet.  We have so much to do and are often lost as to where to start.  But Br. Didenhover reminds me that we have to be patient and remember: "I can do hard things!"

I was able to share our love for the missionaries in our meeting today. They are an inspiration to us with their enthusiasm and faith.  It is so easy to love them...each and every unique one.  We have a lot to learn from them!

Yesterday morning we got a frantic call from one of the elders asking us to help him out. He had dropped his camera and lost his battery.   The elders have a threesome going right now, so two of his companions went to an appointment and we picked this elder up.  He had us go across town to an area we didn't know existed.  He had a large area to look at along a field, but he found it right away.

We can do hard things.

 I mentioned to him that he must have prayed, and he was so glad for his "little miracle" for that day.  He happens to be the district leader from Switzerland.  He has 9 siblings and has lived all over the world.  He said his family is the largest and noisiest family of his small village of 500 people in Switzerland.   His family currently lives in Hungary.  He came to this mission and his first training companion was his older brother.  How often does that happen?   This lanky, tall young man is a ball of energy and full of the Spirit.  What fun he is!

I finally think I might have one of my problems solved.  One of the YSA, a young man, offered to teach me to cook.   His first lesson will be a Thai curry recipe.  He has just recently become more active with  the group.   Maybe I won't scare away any more young people with my cooking.  How humbling.

Thats it for now.   We send all our love.   You are in our thoughts and heart!
                            Love, MOM and DAD

OUR NEW LIFE

This is our lovely living room.  We love the light coming in from the balcony we have.

We are enjoying studying together.  We will be teaching Institute the next two weeks.   One week it will be done in English and another will be in German.


Our days are also busy taking care of the missionaries.  There are 281 in our mission currently, with nine of them in our district.  We have a multicultural group.  We have one sister from Taiwan with the challenge of learning English and German,  another sister is from Hungary, one elder from Germany and another from Switzerland. 


We visit their apartments every six weeks to inspect their housekeeping skills and replace and or repair any item that needs it.  The sisters in Linz (one building away from us) called to say their smoke alarm is going off in the middle of the night and could we help.  We are on our way!


We keep getting lost even with the GPS.  But we have discovered that almost all roads lead to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and that is where we usually have to go to help missionaries going and coming. 

Almost all roads lead to the Hauptbahnhof.

 We finally figured out what the "Ding Ding" sound is in our car.  The GPS is telling us that we are going above the speed limit, even if it's just one kilometer over the limit.

We have had so many wonderful learning moments and good people show us the how to do things that are new to us.  We feel  especially  blessed to work with the area CES director who is in our ward.  He came to our apartment for a two hour training session.  He is a young man with quite an amazing commitment being in the stake presidency as well as overseeing seminary and institute in 3 stakes.


We recently received a very fun story and wonderful personal testimony of the Book of Mormon from another couple in Austria just about to go home:


"Dear Friends and Family,

How do I love him? Let me count the ways...[My husband Tracy] posted this publicly on Facebook yesterday, so I will share it with you, too:

Every day the Book of Mormon brings people closer to their Redeemer! Today while I was waiting at the tire store in Klagenfurt for my winter tires to be exchanged for my summer tires (required by law in Austria), an 89-year old veteran of World War II who was there for the same reason struck up a conversation with me. He lost his left elbow to a bullet at Normandy, where he also lost many, many of his friends. I told him that my uncle came ashore at Normandy, and I hoped that it wasn't my uncle who shot him. He was fascinated, actually tickled with the possibility--a delightful, forgiving person. I asked him if he liked to read: he said he reads everything. So I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, explaining how it was another witness for Jesus Christ. He opened it and dove right into the middle, fascinated with Abinadi's denunciation of the wicked priests of King Noah. He gave me his name and address and gladly accepted my invitation to have the young elders visit him.

 Question from the Facebook page: How did you gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon?

[Tracy wrote] was about 14, reading the Book of Mormon for the first time as an assignment in Seminary. I was fascinated with the great hero Nephi: gangster-slayer, peacemaker, spirit traveler, visionary, seer, bow and sling hunter, escape artist, metallurgist, subduer of rebellious brothers, ship builder, temple builder, prophet-kin, and civilization-founder. He tested my patience in 2 Nephi with his lengthy quotation from Isaiah, but I persisted and was rewarded with his last words, which reveal the greatness of his soul. As I read how his tears for his people watered his pillow at night, I suddenly felt the overwhelming love of God and began to cry. Nephi had spoken to my soul from the dust by the power of the Holy Ghost, and I knew that I could trust in that same God who had delivered his soul from Hell. I look forward someday to thanking Nephi in person for leading me to the Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer.

Love to all, Sister Helen Hall"

LETTER FROM HOME

A friend back home wrote:

"Just got done reading your blog and seeing your pictures!! Amazing!! Can't wait for the time [we] might go!  I am thankful you are doing the blog as I plan to read it on Sundays.  It is such an uplifting Sabbath day activity!  I love to see how the church is doing in other areas of the world.  Seems wherever you are, the church is indeed true.  I was surprised at how large the branch was.  So that will be a lot of new friends in the gospel. Fun how you already have connections with others you are serving with.  Well, enjoyed your update and look forward to more!! Have a great week."

Enjoy reading missionary blogs on Sunday.

We wrote back:
Thanks for the kind words.  

We had stake conference over the weekend. We are in the Salzburg Stake, but the conference was held in Wels because it has a large hall to meet in. We had the Frankfurt temple president and his wife speak (amazingly inspirational),  the area medical doctor who is responsible for 2000 missionaries in 24 countries, and our mission president and his wife. 

We heard from the Frankfurt temple president and his wife at our Stake Conference.

The stake president and most of the stake leaders come from the ward in Linz.  Linz has an average of 200 active members.  The people we have met have been warm and welcoming. 

We will be speaking in sacrament meeting next Sunday. I am getting used to the Austrian dialect.  If they speak really fast I don't understand a word.  They seem to swallow a lot of their words.  John does great.  He is his usual quiet self, but gets by just fine.


We are still trying to get the lay of the land.  Driving here has it's own challenges.  Our car makes a ding/ ding sound every time you need to shift, but it's an automatic.  We just scratch our heads and hope it won't blow up.


 Who would think that my biggest challenge would be cooking?  We  provide a meal each Monday for Young Single Adults Family Home Evening. 

None of the usual ingredients are the same.  We go to the grocery store and just stare at stuff wondering what it really is.   Spaghetti sauce is not like what we expect at home.  Garlic powder is granules that look like tiny seeds that have no flavor or smell.

We go to the grocery store and just stare at stuff, wondering what it really is.

The  bread and chocolate are great.  You always find something wonderful at the bakeries and the candy aisle.  But that doesn't help my dilemma with cooking.  I don't want to scare away the kids that do show up.  That's the other challenge...we never know how many will show up and we have an  undefined budget and a kitchen with an ancient stove that is almost impossible to  figure out.   There is definitely a learning curve for us.

We love the missionaries in our district.  We have 4 sisters and 5 elders. They take good care of us and call us often to see how we are doing.  They invited us to share P-day with them today.  We walked to a park close by hoping to meet them, but discovered they meant another park...so we walked further.  We watched like proud parents as they played basketball and frisbee.  They have so much energy!

P-day frisbee and basketball in the park--fun to watch.

We truly feel blessed to be here.   We have so much to learn.  My soul is expanding with the love I feel for those I meet.


All my love,   Angie (Sister D.)

SMALL WORLD

Yesterday we had our first zone meeting in Salzburg. 

  

We took the train with the other missionaries since John wasn't up to driving just yet.

 There were 40 missionaries there plus the mission president and his wife. There are 22 couples in our mission!  

As we met the mission president, we discovered that John and he had served in the same mission at the same time years ago.  And as we met another couple, the elder said he had served in Ravensburg  in the 1960's  and remembered me as an investigator.  The church is truly a small world!.

Today we were finally able to unpack and check out what we have in our apartment.  We feel so fortunate to have such a nice apartment.  It is on the top floor with a large balcony.  Thank goodness, we have access to an elevator.  We did have to climb all the stairs one time because the other couple still had the access key to the elevator. 

Thank goodness we have access to an elevator.

The sister missionaries live across the street in another building that is much taller.  They do not have an elevator and every  six weeks, we are required to inspect all the missionary apartments in Linz, Wels, and Haag. So, we are not exempt from stairs.

Brea would be thrilled to know that I am walking so much more.She is my personal trainer from far away. She ran 14 miles Saturday for fun and made it all the way to the DC temple.  

This weekend is Stake Conference here.  Eventually, we hope to meet more of the ward members.  The Linz ward has 400 members, with 180 attending each Sunday.  We have had a chance to meet a few of the YSA  on Monday for FHE.

We will be responsible to fix yummy meals each Monday and could use recipe ideas.

We will be responsible to fix yummy meals for large groups each Monday. Any recipes that involve finger foods or anything appealing to a young adult crowd (no soup!)  would be appreciated.  I was told they like chilli or white chilli beans.Meat is extremely expensive here, so you have to get creative.

That's it for now.    Hi to all.  

WILLKOMMEN AUF IHRE MISSION!

The day we arrived in Muchen Brother and Sister Hunsaker from the mission office picked us up.

Immediately upon our arrival at the mission office we were given an orientation overview.

Then we were whisked off to the train station and had lunch (real Wienerschnitzel).

  

Two elders from the office showed up to help us get on the train.

We noticed people all around with Lederhosen and Dirndl on (leather pants and Austrian costumes).
It was explained to us that it was the last week of Oktoberfest.

We had our picture taken in front of a store offering inexpensive dresses (above)
along with two agreeable strangers that posed for us in costume

Off we went to Linz! Once we got there we had only two minutes to get all our luggage (six pieces) off

the train before it left for Vienna. The elders and the missionary couple were there to help, thank goodness.

John was freaking out that our luggage would leave with us (which has happened to other missionaries,

never to be found again.)

Brother and Sister Weidman have been amazing, giving us the directions to all the places we needed to go.

They speak no German, but have made a great success of their mission.

We have been up at 6:30 AM and going all day long.

Tonight was Family Home Evening.  We fixed soft shell tacos for the singles and had a tearful good-bye to the Weidmans.

Tomorrow will be the same, except we leave for Salzburg for a zone meeting. This requires an all-day event

with a train ride and bus ride to the chapel there. The Weidmans will continue on to Munchen.

We will have our first day without any support. We will see how it goes...

A MISSION MOVES FORWARD FROM PRAYER TO PRAYER

Hi. We are on our way. We will be at SLC airport tomorrow at 6:00 AM to fly to Atlanta,

and from there directly to Munchen.

This has been a crazy, hectic few days at the MTC. There were 120 senior missionary

couples, and about 300 young missionaries with 500 new ones arriving yesterday.

From the long hours of instruction we have gleaned one main thought: A mission

moves forward from prayer to prayer. Also, John and I discovered we make an excellent

teaching team.

The first night I fell asleep by 7:30 in the evening. The last night, I made it to 8:00 PM.

We were put into districts with Brother Didenhover as the district supervisor. It was so

easy to love our new missionary district friends. I hope we keep in touch.

What a positive environment the MTC is!  We felt the spirit often as we were taught

by many different people. We were constantly reassured and reinforced with every effort

we made.

Now the real work begins in Linz, Austria!