Where did summer go?

Okay, so it's the 1st of August and I wear a coat and scarf daily...NOT COOL!
This week I got to go back to Bruck an der Mur...it'S been a whole year since I served there. I went because we were on an Austausch (24 hr Exchange) with Sister Downs. She and I are mission 'Sisters' meaning that we were trained by the same person. It was so nice to serve with her and really made me appreciate working with experienced Sisters...it makes things go A LOT faster and easier because you just 'know the flow'. Got to teach someone that I found while still there and see a couple of the members as they came on Joint-teaches. Manuela is coming back into activity. Remember the extreme Anti Martina and how we were teaching Manuela and Anton (the reason I had to be transferred out)? Apparently, Martina got them back into her clutches and Manuela requested her name to be removed from the records. She started coming back, though Anton is still gone, and luckily the request to have her name removed never made it to Salt Lake so she may not need to be baptized again. It was kind of weird to go back even for the 24hrs. Things physically were the same, but I felt so funky being there again.

Sis Downs and I were talking up a storm on the 2hr train to and from Bruck and we realized that in 2 weeks we are the oldest Sisters in the mission. Then, we counted how many Sisters are going home in 2 weeks...8!!!!! There are also 6 coming in. We then speculated (grandpa and grandma would be so proud) about who would train. There are 7 possibilities. Sis Downs is convinced it'll be me, but I think it'll be her. We'll see. Everyone else is a definite, just not the last one. There's a can of Almdudler (like Gingerale) and a Candybar on the line so we'll see.

President Miles came for Leadership Training (usually just Zone- and District- Leaders, but Sisters are always asked to come as well). It was really great. Right after the training I left for Bruck with Sis Downs, and President ended up going to a couple of appointments with Sis Chapple and 24hr companion. He even came to our ward on Sunday. He is really a WONDERFUL person and very open and personable with everyone. I really feel that he cares about each and every individual. I'm pretty sure I'm staying in the international ward and it would really be silly to train someone in an ENGLISH speaking ward.

Parviz is still progressing in leaps and bounds. The ward is just swallowing him up and are really great with him. He just has the kind of personality that he says doesn'T really like to be around all kinds of other people so he usually just hangs aorund us on SUnday and in the Institute Center. We're working on getting members to come to all appointments. Last Monday, we spent the day with him wandering around the sights in Vienna and then he took us to a Persian restaurant for dinner. THe food was...interesting. We got to see the Mozart gardens and go up to a lookout tower and have ice cream in a rotating cafe up top. SCARY!!!

No exciting stories to tell. SOrry!

Sister Covey is now officially home from her mission. She and her family were at the church on SUnday (we go to all 3 hours of the German ward now). Her dad, Stephen M.R. Covey gave a fireside about trust from his book 'The Speed of Trust'. It was really a great seminar and President Miles told us to come since all of the YSA are out of town for the week for a Temple trip. Dad, you would find his book really interesting.

PIc 1 - Mozart garden
Pic 2 - that is way high up...beeellliiieeeevvveee me
Pic 3 - Me and Sister Downs (my mission older Sister...Sis Dietz is our little sister)

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Alles Liebe SISTER CHOCOLATE