Amazing Scenery on P Day.

Happy New Year!

It is 2017!!! Now I can actually say: I'll be home next year. o.O Crazy!!  A little New Year tradition they do sometimes here is every time the clock ticks down to 12 they put a grape in their mouth until they get all twelve in. And if you don't laugh or spit them out your wishes come true!! Something that we would do, I feel like.  

"Looks like home"  me & Elder Ormsby.

Our week was just amazing. So hard, but SO rewarding. God really took care of me this week. My companion is adjusting well! He still misses his girlfriend, but he's an amazing guy, missionary, and friend of mine. We get along super, and he has a very strong Spirit. It's actually a lot warmer this week!! Still no snow... 

How about rain?

 Sounds like everyone is having fun and enjoying vacation as long as it lasts :) I've actually been sick for the last 4 weeks straight. Headaches, stuffy nose, sore throat. It's ridiculous. I'm gonna grab a blessing from my companion tonight, so i can be back up to full capacity. I miss singing with you all... It's not the same alone. But I'm just improving until then!!! I've been thinking A LOT about my career... And singing has actually been coming back to me, almost naggingly. It's not something I'm sure I want to do for a career... But It's sounding more appealing every day.

That's awesome about Rob surprising you and Skylar!! And the homemade pizza! It looks delicious... When I get home I can teach you both Schnitzel and Spätzle. :D I love making them. I'm pretty sure Leavenworth should have Schnitzel, but I'm not sure about Spätzle. That's a very regional special one. 

Well I can tell you about my week!

Monday: In the morning we skyped (You were there) ;) And after that our Bishop took us to his sister in law's house, where we celebrated Christmas day and it was AMAZING. We had a huge lunch, and then we stayed all day playing board games and having an amazing time with the Family. We played Poker, Uno, Ligretto, and Werewolf! (If you've ever played Mafia, it's the same thing) It was an amazing time and it made me Happy/Sad because it felt like being home with the Family playing board games... But it was a great day. 

Tuesday: We had District meeting in Wien! It was good to see the other missionaries and such, and I tried helping everyone better memorize the main topics in the first lesson. We played Pictionary xD It was cool. After that we got back to Wienerneustadt and had a cool appointment with the Enenkel family. They have such a nice family, and we had a good dinner and found out their son is ENGAGED! Wooo! We've become pretty good friends with him, so that was really exciting! 

"I love beautiful Austria".

Wednesday: We had a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader in which we found out which members in our ward were less actives, and we have plans to visit them and bring them home :) After that we had a meeting with Klaus (The really tired one) and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. We talked about why we have it, how we have it, and what we can do with it. In the end he decided he would have to find out if it's true or not, and said he would read it and find out. It was very nice to hear :) 

Thursday: We had lunch with a sweet old lady named Sister Pillman. She is a wonderful old lady that has been a member of the church for many many years and loves telling life stories. She told us her stylist told her she talks too much! But she said she does that because no one comes to visit her and she wants people to talk to. So we just listened to all her amazing stories. It was awesome. She made us some really good food too. It was some kind of Gulasch. After that we had German Class! I'm actually starting to really love teaching German. I love the language, and teaching it is actually exciting. 

Tower like in Nebraska!

Out on the overlook!  AAAH.

The view down.

See where I went!  I did it!

Bro. Pinol helping my shaky legs walk back!

Friday: Friday was the biggest day of the week.... It was the hardest, but the best day of my entire time in Wienerneustadt so far. Let me give a little bit of background. We go out and talk to lot's of people. We go door to door a LOT. But I've been having a really tough in Wienerneustadt, because for the last 6 weeks we have not found ONE person who wants to listen to what we have to say. Not one new investigator. Normally that's no problem, I just move on. But for this long it was really wearing down on me. On me and Elder Ormsby both. We woke up this day, and our one appointment canceled for the day, so the day ahead of us was just going door to door. We just felt hopeless. We decided we'd visit a man we've been teaching for a while, but when we got to Bahnhof, the train door wouldn't open and we missed the train. I felt horrible. I just sat down and tried to clear my head. And what happened next is why I love my companion. He looked up and said: We are taking the next train that hits this platform and getting off at the second stop. Then we are going door to door. To be honest at first I was not feeling it. I felt so discouraged. But (trying to be the strong all knowing trainer) I said sounds good! We looked at the board, and the next train was coming in ten minutes. The second stop was a place called Neunkirchen. I was speechless. Neunkirchen was a place members have been telling us we should visit for the past two weeks, we had just never "gotten around to it." Right then and there we decided to pray. When we did I felt the strongest Spirit. I felt calm, and confident. We then sprung on to the train and took off! When we got there we chose a direction and went along. We hit this really nice neighborhood with some really nice houses. Within the first hour we had two people that wanted us to come back!! We were there for probably 4 hours, and it was one of the funnest dooring times of my mission. Just nice people, nice neighborhood, and beautiful weather. Then if that wasn't enough... We were about ready to head back, feeling incredible, when we decided to knock on just one more door. 

Dooring in Neunkirchen.

A lady opened the door just a crack and wanted to know what we wanted. I introduced us as Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ, and I said we had an wonderful message for her about Jesus Christ and his Restored Gospel. She opened the door wide with a huge grin on her face and shook our hands! She told us she was so excited that we were there and that we had a wonderful message for her. She even yelled up the stairs to her 15 year old son saying: Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ are here and they have a wonderful message!! come down here!! We sat down and talked for a while about her and her family, and Jesus Christ. After a while, she asked us about our message. We proceeded to relay the story of the Restoration of the Gospel to her. It was amazing. The spirit was so strong... She asked so many good questions and made some amazing observations and comments. In the end we told her about the Book of Mormon. I asked her if she believed that it could be true, and she said: for sure!! She just had to read and find out! She told us she would love to read the book. At the end she tried giving the book back but we told her it was for her, and she smiled so bright and said: Another Christmas gift, holy cow! She was an amazing lady. We're going back this week on Friday to see how it went. She agreed to pray to know if the book was true or not. We left on great terms feeling like we were on cloud nine. She said she always wanted to meet with Mormons! Elder Ormsby and I were grinning from ear to ear as we went home, and it was an amazing day. I testify to you that God answers prayers. Not when we want. Not how we want. In his time, in his way. Because he knows his children. 

Saturday: We went back to Neunkirchen to make some more progress, and were there dooring until about 4:30. It was also an amazing experience. We found no one the whole day, but kept pushing through until the end. At the end, we were feeling a little pooped out, but we decided to go and have a companionship prayer in the forest down the way. So we did. It was so still and calm as we thanked our Heavenly Father for what we had, and relayed our experiences to him. After we rose, we felt an amazing peace, and we felt like we had done good that day. Then (wouldnt ya know it) at the station waiting for our train we met a young man from Hungary. We had a great conversation about life (He was a nerd too, I can relate ;)) and we talked about our church and he was pretty excited to hear about a church where young people like us enjoy it too!!! He was funny. We invited him to discuss it and he took it! So at the end of the day, we found a cool guy, not even where we were looking. But we found him because we were trying. 

Sunday: We had a good day at church!! I started feeling sicker again, AND i had to translate the entire sacrament meeting from German to Englisch for a couple people that couldn't speak German. I had the biggest headache. And Translating is like the hardest thing in the world. ESPECIALLY when someone starts speaking really fast. Or reading scripture. WAAH. But thats ok. After that the Plattners had us over for lunch with the Pinol family. It was a good Sunday. 

Small Zipline.

Monday: Monday was one of the funnest Pdays of my mission!!! Brother Pinol took us to a huge mountain with a bunch of snow on it!! We got to take some amazing pictures and play in snow!! We threw lot's of Snowballs and had a great time slipping all over the ice, climbing a huge tower, and facing our fears!! You should be proud of me.... There was a balcony that lead out over the CLIFF of the HUGE MOUNTAIN. It was literally flat all the way down. And guess what... I walked out on it!!! And even took pictures!! I just almost fainted, and my legs were shaking so bad. I was breathing heavy, but I did it. It was AWESOME! I'll send pics. It was crazy. Brother Pinol said I was his hero xD hahaha. We went down some slides, zip lines (tiny ones) and elder Ormsby and i raced to see who could climb a rope the fastest with just our arms. I won >:D.

At a Paragliding Launch Site.  Amazing view.

Beautiful

After that the Bishop had us over for food. We all grilled our own meat and potatoes over a little grill in the middle of the table and melted cheese on it... it was so good. Wish i took pictures. 

And that was our week. :) Glad I could share it with you. 

I love you all very much, and I hope I hear from you soon!! Till next week!

Elder Larson