Grüß Euch!!!
Sorry, no pictures from me this week as I forgot my cord in the apt. Sis Alder gave me hers to get our pictures from last week's Pday when we rented bikes. We rode along the Mur for about an hour and a half. Then on the way back, we stopped in a little old church which was built in the 1200s ish. It was beautiful and I got some amazing pictures of the architecture and some of the neat memorials on the outside. I'll send those next week. They're amazing! Mom - we go to the local library for emails. In München, we went to an internet shop, but here it's free. Sis Schulthess was all about ease, not cost.
Received your card\letter and a letter from Vickie. It was like Christmas to get mail just for me. Even when we get ads I get excited. It's interesting to me, the few letters I've received read as follows (minus the one from mom)
Kiche Jesu Christi
Sis Lind
Salzlände 15\21
8700 Leoben
Österreich
Germany - - - > in case there's any confusion, I'm serving in AUSTRIA. Österreich is the German word for Austria.
This week, besides the amaying conference, not too much to report. Friday was a particularly powerful day. Every Friday, we have what's called "weekly planning" where we sit down with our area book (records of all investigators ever for the area), Preach My Gospel, and ward list and plan out the entire week as far as appointments, what we'll teach, how we'll find new investigators and how we'll get people to church. Total - - 3hrs every week. (Sis Alder and I have to take a couple breaks during that time or else we go loopy).
So finally we left our apartment and headed to an appointment in Bruck (30 min away - where we have church) and to pick up a member to take with us. We were teaching a man from Africa (all in English), but since we're sisters, we can't meet alone with him so we brought a little old lady named Sis Cseh. She's as Austrian as they come and serves for months at a time in the temple. She speaks no English. We drove to her apt and she wasn't there yet (she'd gone to get her watch fixed. We waited for awhile then decided just to leave; we'd just have to meet with Collins outside. As we got to the end of the lane, there she was, speed-walking towards us. As she got in the car she exclaimed how she felt prompted to walk down that street even though she usually took a shorter way home. If she'd gone the other way we wouldäve missed her. We get to the appointment and Sis Cseh tells him that she speaks 'a liddle English'. We are teaching about Priesthood, Sis Alder and I switching off translating for\from Sis Cseh when suddenly Sis Cseh starts bearing her testimony in ENGLISH!! Extremely broken English, but it was beautiful. It was truly powerful. Then, as we were driving away, Sis Cseh told us that she wasn't sure what she said in her testimony, she just said it. GIFT OF TONGUES ANYONE. She then told us that if we had anymore appointments today that she'd love to come with us. How did she know that we did indeed have another appointment right then. So, Sis Cseh accompanied us to meet with Erwin. He's about 45 and still lives at home with his mom (which is why it didn'T matter whether or not we had another woman to bring). He's OBSESSED with the 'oldest fish in the world...1000 years old and still living'. As he pulled out his BoM, we noticed that he stores it right alongside the fish book AND brought it out on the table for our meeting. Weird!! There's definitely a reason he's still at home. The spirit was super strong in our meeting though each time we bore testimony to him or attempted to answer his questions (from when Sis Alder met him on the street) he just laughed at us. I was getting ticked off after awhile. I do not appreciate being laughed at while I'm bearing testimony. NOT COOL! DON'T DO IT!! Sis Cseh was a great asset because she could relate to him as they are both born and raised in the area...and she has a super powerful testimony. She's been a member for 40 years and you'D think we'd brought a General Authority with us. It was a wonderful lesson...aside from his rudeness. Sis Alder was perturbed as well.
Shirley and Janosch are not doing so well. He's moved to Graz....and long story short...many things happened in Graz while we were there and now we don'T think they're getting back together anytime soon. Shirley called us Sat morning and asked us if we could find someone to watch Lukas (age 3) so she could go take a test in Berufshule. She was going to be picking Lukas back up Sun morning. We were able to get a couple in the branch to take him overnight. Long story short...she didn't show when she said she would and we come to find out (through the counselor in the branch presidency...story to follow) that she'd gone to school not for a test, but to go with friends and ended up cheating on Janosch. The members have really shown to me that they truly care about each other and the investigators. The problems with Shirley and Janosch spilled over into conference and the members stepped up and took over. When the Counselor in the Branch Presidency (age 23) and his wife (age 22) dropped us off at the train station Sat night, we unknowingly unloaded a lot of our frustrations and problems that had been building up inside of us with regards to the Shirley situation and how her calling us to find someone while she went to take a test late on a Sat then come home (4 hr train ride) and then be back at school Sun by 3 didnät make sense. When we got in the train, we felt really bad about doing that and called the counselor. He didn't answer, instead pulled us aside Sunday between sessions to tell us not to apologize. He told us that he and the Branch Pres are there for us to talk to when we need it. He knows that there are a lot of things in the branch that get piled on our shoulders and he told us to come to them whenever we need to. Janosch is still strong in his faith and we'Re more than positive we'll be able to get him baptized and receive the Priesthood by Christmas. He's so strong and through all the things that happened, he still clung on. We're so proud of him. Sis Alder was saying to me last night, that the spiritual banks of the two of them have switched. Shirley was the one that took the gospel on frist and was ready to be baptiyed. Then the missionaries were able to get Janosch to meet with them. Now, after all that's happened, he's the strong one. It's an amazing transformation. Though he's living in Graz, we'll still get to meet with him and we'll meet with Shirley here in Bruck.
CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!! But, Sis Alder and I cheated a bit....we watched it in English. Saturday, we had lunch at a members home (where they served 'milk shakes' which were really just milk with pureed bananas...odd) and then they took us to the Relief Society broadcast. We watched that in German because we didn't know there was a room set up for English. Apparently, in this area, if anyone speaks\understands English, they like to watch broadcasts in English so they can hear the actual voices. I don't blame them, hearing a 20 yr old voice out of Pres Monson and a man's voice for Sis Beck was a little disconcerting. By the time Pres Monson began to speak, we found out about the English room and dashed back there to hear his stories in English. We didn't get the gist of his talk for awhile, but then it was glorious. If you could send a transcript of that session as well, I'd appreciate it. Or the Ensign itself. (It takes an extra month and a half for us to get church magazines through the church) Then, there was an hour break before the Saturday morning session began. I don't have my notes with me, but the talk that struck me the most was Elder Holland. His power and authority blows my mind, anytime he speaks. He means it and you know it. I was also particularly touched when we started talking about the sacrifices of his parents and how grateful he is for all parents. I echo his words with my whole heart. I was also particularly affected by his statements about Sister Missionaries and couples. Sis Alder and I couldn't remember a time when they'd specifically spoken to Sisters. We'd decided to go home Sat night and sleep in our own beds instead of staying with members which was nice because then we could take time to ponder and meditate in our apt instead of being entertained (and fed) by members. I've had enough coleslaw and cucumbers to las tme a lifetime. And by cucumbers I mean cucumbers in balsalmic vinegar, then floating in vinegar. yuck! Watching the Saturday PM session Sunday morning threw me off. 4 new temples!! Amazing! Especially the ones in the Philippines and Mexico - the church is really growing down there, but don't forget what I said in a prior email...'Germany is the sleeping giant of the church. This is where the most retention is' I'm planning on writing a nice long letter with more of my conference thoughts, but that's the one I can think of at this moment. The music was especially moving. I usually write down any words or phrases that I like. I really liked the closing song from Sun AM. Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd has new meaning for me because I can apply what I'm doing to the lyrics. The scripture about the seed and exercising a particle of faith was quite a topic for the conference. I'm currently reading the BoM all the way through and that was where I was at so I truly felt prepared for the talks. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Pres Packer standing at the pulpit instead of speaking from his chair. I also noticed the Pres Monson was especially witty this time around. I really liked Pres Uchtdorf's segue into an airplane story.
I have a new vegetable that I really like. It's called Kohlrabi. We stopped by a member's house (he's an old man that we come do service for occasionally) and he loaded us up with fresh veggies. Note to dad for growing tomatoes. Stick a stake in the ground and tie a fishing line to a green house style roof (tie the tomato plant up to the roof). Don't let them grow out in the open and they'll produce better fruit. Keep them partially shielded from the elements. Also, I've decided that I love anything made with Marillen (Apricots). Sis Kaiser gave us a huge jar of homemade jam and that's about gone and then Sis Cseh gave us Marillen Krapfens (Berliners). Oh, and Muesli is the way to go. Sis Alder and I discovered Strawberry Muesli with white chocolate shavings while in Vienna and the Sisters there gave us the box to bring home. It's like a fancy dessert for breakfast....except with half the sugar of American desserts.
What's the status on the PA temple? We were watching the news thing between sessions and they were talking about the Ukraine temple and the solar-powered church and I just thought 'I wonder how the PA temple is coming'.
Mom - DO NOT WEAR BLACK AND BLUE TOGETHER!!!!!!! 'Don't bruise yourself by matching black with blues' Wear the scarf with green, camel, burnt orange, or even red. Fall colors mainly. To wear it the Austrian way, just tie it in a knot at the back of your neck (like a bib). If that's too cowboy for you, pull the knot just around the front till it reaches your collarbone. For you, put the knot on your right side (since you're married). I on the otherhand would put it on the left since I'm single. I have to be careful whenever I wear my colorful scarves that I don't put the knot in the wrong place or else we get funny looks. I'll take a picture of me in my edelweiß scarf as a demo (though mine's the baby of yours).
We have interviews with Pres Condie this week so any mail sent to the office will be brought down to me. We get ten minutes each to talk about things with him and then we can ask him about any quiestion we want to and bring up any concerns. We're traveling up to Vienna again since that'S our Stake center and the Zone location.
Here's a link Sis Condie sent us with a map of Austria - Graz is right by the word Austria.
http://maps.google.at/maps?q=austria+map&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=%C3%96sterreich&gl=at&ei=QtupTNviA5HOswaRkZygDA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ8gEwAA
I haven't even thought about Christmas. I'm just living one week at a time. It's getting colder and I'm glad I bought some really warm Strumpfhosen before I left München. They're my best friends on two different occasions - a) it's cold b) I forget to shave.
Sorry, no pictures from me this week as I forgot my cord in the apt. Sis Alder gave me hers to get our pictures from last week's Pday when we rented bikes. We rode along the Mur for about an hour and a half. Then on the way back, we stopped in a little old church which was built in the 1200s ish. It was beautiful and I got some amazing pictures of the architecture and some of the neat memorials on the outside. I'll send those next week. They're amazing! Mom - we go to the local library for emails. In München, we went to an internet shop, but here it's free. Sis Schulthess was all about ease, not cost.
Received your card\letter and a letter from Vickie. It was like Christmas to get mail just for me. Even when we get ads I get excited. It's interesting to me, the few letters I've received read as follows (minus the one from mom)
Kiche Jesu Christi
Sis Lind
Salzlände 15\21
8700 Leoben
Österreich
Germany - - - > in case there's any confusion, I'm serving in AUSTRIA. Österreich is the German word for Austria.
This week, besides the amaying conference, not too much to report. Friday was a particularly powerful day. Every Friday, we have what's called "weekly planning" where we sit down with our area book (records of all investigators ever for the area), Preach My Gospel, and ward list and plan out the entire week as far as appointments, what we'll teach, how we'll find new investigators and how we'll get people to church. Total - - 3hrs every week. (Sis Alder and I have to take a couple breaks during that time or else we go loopy).
So finally we left our apartment and headed to an appointment in Bruck (30 min away - where we have church) and to pick up a member to take with us. We were teaching a man from Africa (all in English), but since we're sisters, we can't meet alone with him so we brought a little old lady named Sis Cseh. She's as Austrian as they come and serves for months at a time in the temple. She speaks no English. We drove to her apt and she wasn't there yet (she'd gone to get her watch fixed. We waited for awhile then decided just to leave; we'd just have to meet with Collins outside. As we got to the end of the lane, there she was, speed-walking towards us. As she got in the car she exclaimed how she felt prompted to walk down that street even though she usually took a shorter way home. If she'd gone the other way we wouldäve missed her. We get to the appointment and Sis Cseh tells him that she speaks 'a liddle English'. We are teaching about Priesthood, Sis Alder and I switching off translating for\from Sis Cseh when suddenly Sis Cseh starts bearing her testimony in ENGLISH!! Extremely broken English, but it was beautiful. It was truly powerful. Then, as we were driving away, Sis Cseh told us that she wasn't sure what she said in her testimony, she just said it. GIFT OF TONGUES ANYONE. She then told us that if we had anymore appointments today that she'd love to come with us. How did she know that we did indeed have another appointment right then. So, Sis Cseh accompanied us to meet with Erwin. He's about 45 and still lives at home with his mom (which is why it didn'T matter whether or not we had another woman to bring). He's OBSESSED with the 'oldest fish in the world...1000 years old and still living'. As he pulled out his BoM, we noticed that he stores it right alongside the fish book AND brought it out on the table for our meeting. Weird!! There's definitely a reason he's still at home. The spirit was super strong in our meeting though each time we bore testimony to him or attempted to answer his questions (from when Sis Alder met him on the street) he just laughed at us. I was getting ticked off after awhile. I do not appreciate being laughed at while I'm bearing testimony. NOT COOL! DON'T DO IT!! Sis Cseh was a great asset because she could relate to him as they are both born and raised in the area...and she has a super powerful testimony. She's been a member for 40 years and you'D think we'd brought a General Authority with us. It was a wonderful lesson...aside from his rudeness. Sis Alder was perturbed as well.
Shirley and Janosch are not doing so well. He's moved to Graz....and long story short...many things happened in Graz while we were there and now we don'T think they're getting back together anytime soon. Shirley called us Sat morning and asked us if we could find someone to watch Lukas (age 3) so she could go take a test in Berufshule. She was going to be picking Lukas back up Sun morning. We were able to get a couple in the branch to take him overnight. Long story short...she didn't show when she said she would and we come to find out (through the counselor in the branch presidency...story to follow) that she'd gone to school not for a test, but to go with friends and ended up cheating on Janosch. The members have really shown to me that they truly care about each other and the investigators. The problems with Shirley and Janosch spilled over into conference and the members stepped up and took over. When the Counselor in the Branch Presidency (age 23) and his wife (age 22) dropped us off at the train station Sat night, we unknowingly unloaded a lot of our frustrations and problems that had been building up inside of us with regards to the Shirley situation and how her calling us to find someone while she went to take a test late on a Sat then come home (4 hr train ride) and then be back at school Sun by 3 didnät make sense. When we got in the train, we felt really bad about doing that and called the counselor. He didn't answer, instead pulled us aside Sunday between sessions to tell us not to apologize. He told us that he and the Branch Pres are there for us to talk to when we need it. He knows that there are a lot of things in the branch that get piled on our shoulders and he told us to come to them whenever we need to. Janosch is still strong in his faith and we'Re more than positive we'll be able to get him baptized and receive the Priesthood by Christmas. He's so strong and through all the things that happened, he still clung on. We're so proud of him. Sis Alder was saying to me last night, that the spiritual banks of the two of them have switched. Shirley was the one that took the gospel on frist and was ready to be baptiyed. Then the missionaries were able to get Janosch to meet with them. Now, after all that's happened, he's the strong one. It's an amazing transformation. Though he's living in Graz, we'll still get to meet with him and we'll meet with Shirley here in Bruck.
CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!! But, Sis Alder and I cheated a bit....we watched it in English. Saturday, we had lunch at a members home (where they served 'milk shakes' which were really just milk with pureed bananas...odd) and then they took us to the Relief Society broadcast. We watched that in German because we didn't know there was a room set up for English. Apparently, in this area, if anyone speaks\understands English, they like to watch broadcasts in English so they can hear the actual voices. I don't blame them, hearing a 20 yr old voice out of Pres Monson and a man's voice for Sis Beck was a little disconcerting. By the time Pres Monson began to speak, we found out about the English room and dashed back there to hear his stories in English. We didn't get the gist of his talk for awhile, but then it was glorious. If you could send a transcript of that session as well, I'd appreciate it. Or the Ensign itself. (It takes an extra month and a half for us to get church magazines through the church) Then, there was an hour break before the Saturday morning session began. I don't have my notes with me, but the talk that struck me the most was Elder Holland. His power and authority blows my mind, anytime he speaks. He means it and you know it. I was also particularly touched when we started talking about the sacrifices of his parents and how grateful he is for all parents. I echo his words with my whole heart. I was also particularly affected by his statements about Sister Missionaries and couples. Sis Alder and I couldn't remember a time when they'd specifically spoken to Sisters. We'd decided to go home Sat night and sleep in our own beds instead of staying with members which was nice because then we could take time to ponder and meditate in our apt instead of being entertained (and fed) by members. I've had enough coleslaw and cucumbers to las tme a lifetime. And by cucumbers I mean cucumbers in balsalmic vinegar, then floating in vinegar. yuck! Watching the Saturday PM session Sunday morning threw me off. 4 new temples!! Amazing! Especially the ones in the Philippines and Mexico - the church is really growing down there, but don't forget what I said in a prior email...'Germany is the sleeping giant of the church. This is where the most retention is' I'm planning on writing a nice long letter with more of my conference thoughts, but that's the one I can think of at this moment. The music was especially moving. I usually write down any words or phrases that I like. I really liked the closing song from Sun AM. Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd has new meaning for me because I can apply what I'm doing to the lyrics. The scripture about the seed and exercising a particle of faith was quite a topic for the conference. I'm currently reading the BoM all the way through and that was where I was at so I truly felt prepared for the talks. I was also pleasantly surprised to see Pres Packer standing at the pulpit instead of speaking from his chair. I also noticed the Pres Monson was especially witty this time around. I really liked Pres Uchtdorf's segue into an airplane story.
I have a new vegetable that I really like. It's called Kohlrabi. We stopped by a member's house (he's an old man that we come do service for occasionally) and he loaded us up with fresh veggies. Note to dad for growing tomatoes. Stick a stake in the ground and tie a fishing line to a green house style roof (tie the tomato plant up to the roof). Don't let them grow out in the open and they'll produce better fruit. Keep them partially shielded from the elements. Also, I've decided that I love anything made with Marillen (Apricots). Sis Kaiser gave us a huge jar of homemade jam and that's about gone and then Sis Cseh gave us Marillen Krapfens (Berliners). Oh, and Muesli is the way to go. Sis Alder and I discovered Strawberry Muesli with white chocolate shavings while in Vienna and the Sisters there gave us the box to bring home. It's like a fancy dessert for breakfast....except with half the sugar of American desserts.
What's the status on the PA temple? We were watching the news thing between sessions and they were talking about the Ukraine temple and the solar-powered church and I just thought 'I wonder how the PA temple is coming'.
Mom - DO NOT WEAR BLACK AND BLUE TOGETHER!!!!!!! 'Don't bruise yourself by matching black with blues' Wear the scarf with green, camel, burnt orange, or even red. Fall colors mainly. To wear it the Austrian way, just tie it in a knot at the back of your neck (like a bib). If that's too cowboy for you, pull the knot just around the front till it reaches your collarbone. For you, put the knot on your right side (since you're married). I on the otherhand would put it on the left since I'm single. I have to be careful whenever I wear my colorful scarves that I don't put the knot in the wrong place or else we get funny looks. I'll take a picture of me in my edelweiß scarf as a demo (though mine's the baby of yours).
We have interviews with Pres Condie this week so any mail sent to the office will be brought down to me. We get ten minutes each to talk about things with him and then we can ask him about any quiestion we want to and bring up any concerns. We're traveling up to Vienna again since that'S our Stake center and the Zone location.
Here's a link Sis Condie sent us with a map of Austria - Graz is right by the word Austria.
http://maps.google.at/maps?q=austria+map&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=%C3%96sterreich&gl=at&ei=QtupTNviA5HOswaRkZygDA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ8gEwAA
I haven't even thought about Christmas. I'm just living one week at a time. It's getting colder and I'm glad I bought some really warm Strumpfhosen before I left München. They're my best friends on two different occasions - a) it's cold b) I forget to shave.
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