Meeting so many people.

Hi Momo!!!

I can't believe thanksgiving is already over!!! And Christmas is really soon... I'm excited to get the letters of course :) I love the pics of the whole family back together again!! 

We just got snow today!! It was so thick! Like a blizzard! My companion and I are getting along really well now :) we just had to figure eachother out. Now things are great!! I'm glad we've both had similar experiences with distraction and such. It's funny how that always works out.

 

Im really falling in love with Austria. It's a wonderful place. My clothes are holding up fine as well. I had to get new black shoes last week though. My original ones had holes in them and such... not good XD but it's going good. We are getting lots of exercise with all the walking and biking we're doing. I feel great!! It sounds like things are pretty wonderful at home. :) and that makes me very happy. 

Helping with a move

Alright! My week this week was FULL!

Monday: We met with a guy named Markowic. He speaks Croatian. He's an elderly man with a few physical hardships. But he's also a funny lively happy old man that loves hearing about Jesus Christ. We shared the story of Joseph Smith and the Restoration with him and he said it gave him lots to think about. He wanted a Book of Mormon and started to read it. Very cool guy. He's had a hard life, but he focuses on the good things. He loves his two sons, and they come visit him often. His birthday was on Friday, so we brought him some American treats. He loved it. After that we went shopping and checked out the mall. We have a very American feeling mall here in Wienerneustadt called Fischapark. 

Tuesday: We went to Wien for a huge Zone training! We had everyone in the zone there and had some really great discussions and practiced talking to people on the street. We took home some great tips and more than a few personal things we could improve on. We are very blessed with some great zone leaders who really care about us and about the work. Afterwards we headed back to Wienerneustadt to meet with Hans once again! We had another great visit. We talked about our part in Gods plan. How we need to do our best to follow after his commandments if we want to grow spiritually. He promised he would come to church! (But he didn't... -_-) i was sad. We'll meet with him again soon. After that we were waiting for our train and Elder Kaufusi had to use the bathroom. I went with him, but waited outside the bathroom. I was thirsty some bought some bottled water from the little booth in the train station. The man by the booth addressed me and asked me who i was. I told him I was a missionary from the Mormon church and he got so excited! He said he had seen Mormons before and was wondering what all the fuss was about. He was an older man, and we talked a lot about what my mission is and why we do it. About that time his friend came over (also an old man) and took a really close look my name tag. This guy was absolutely wasted. Dead drunk. He was the funniest little old man ever. He spoke very slurred, but asked me what kind of church I was from. I told him the Mormon church and he got all excited! He asked me if we were the ones who couldn't use technology, and I impressed him by showing him our flip phone and my watch. He just kept forgetting and asks me what church I was from, and his buddy just kept saying "geez frank, he said he's Mormon. Pay attention!" About this time, elder Kaufusi came out of he bathroom and saw me taking with these two gents and walked up. The drunk man saw him and almost fell over. Because he's so tall. He then smiled tenderly and put his hands on elder Kaufusi's shoulders, proceeding then to pull him into a very tight hug. Everyone just lost it laughing. They remained that way for about two minutes, elder Kaufusi just patting his back as this drunk man he didn't know hugged him. It was so funny. Then he hugged me, but it didn't last as long. (His buddy was like: geez frank, leave em alone!) he then wanted pictures together, so we got pictures. Although I don't have them sadly. They were on the drunk guys phone. Our train was leaving so we parted ways and got home. Fun fun day. 

 

With Divine on the street.

 

Wednesday: That morning we had a big meeting with our ward mission leader. He fed us and we had a really good meeting about the people we're teaching and how we can help them. He's so passionate for the work. We're very blessed to have such a motivated GML. The food we ate was so.... interesting though... it was potato noodles rolled into a thin pod shape covered in poppy seeds and covered in some kind of sweet sauce.... I can't say I really liked it, but it was so interesting... after that we met up with the famous Piñol family and did service with a less active member. We helped him clean up a bunch of stuff after he finished plastering the outside of his house. We played Christmas songs from the car and sang along. It was a wonderful time, and we had lots of fun. Afterwards he invited us over again and said he'd cook pizza for us. After that we visited Samir, the new member! We went through the Restoration again and had a great time taking about it, and how we can apply it to our lives. He's so kind. I have no doubt he'll be a bishop or something some day. 

A beautiful friendly black German Shepherd

Thursday: We met with the most interesting man I have ever met in my life.... his name is Rudolph Dietrich. We didn't know before we met him, but apparently he's a pretty well known celebrity in Austria. He's one of the richest men in Austria, and he's also a genius. I don't just mean he's smart. He's like Sherlock Holmes. Literally, he can tell you everything about yourself to a tee after like ten minutes talking with you. By your body language, the way you talk, and everything. He's really old, but really sharp. It was such an interesting visit. He used to give motivational speeches to audiences. Now he's a "fortune teller" really he's just super good at reading people. And he just buys up huge stocks of items and flip sells them. We just got to know each other and talked about ourselves. At the end he gave me a gold watch! He said I needed it... XD (during the meeting he told me I lacked confidence. He said I had a huge mind with lots of potential but I didn't use it to my best ability.) he gave me a bunch of tips on how to carry myself more confidently. Such a cool guy. He also thinks everyone in the world should be Mormon... so that's cool. He said they make he most sense to him. Although he's not baptized and he's been meeting with missionaries for a long time... we'll see. Cool guy though! 

 

My gold watch, yo.

 

After that we met with another really interesting man! His name is Klaus. We found him on the street last week, and made an appointment with him. We showed up and he let us in. He's only 26, really clean cut, and lives in a really nice house. But it was weird at first... because it was very apparent he was very drugged up. He looked so tired, and talked so slurred. But it's ok, because we found out he was in a bad accident, and he has a really intense problem with his right leg, and has to take really intense medicine for it. He said he'd been taking it for about a week. He's so cool though! He's a totally normal guy, but it's hilarious because he is so drugged up all the time. He'll fall asleep right in front of us sometimes XD but he loves what we're teaching and wants so badly to learn more. He tries really hard to participate and everything. (Despite his drowsiness)we talked about the teachings of Jesus Christ. He even introduced us to his mother! He called us: His friends from Jesus Christ. Such a nice guy. After that we went to the church to teach our German Class! We had more people show up this time, and had a much better lesson planned. Samir came! But he mainly wanted to learn some Englisch (his German is already really good) so Elder Kaufusi and Sister Mclellen taught him Englisch while Sister Gudnason and I handled the German class. (In the same room of course) it was so much fun! After that we went to the Piñols to celebrate... yes... THANKSGIVING!! They made the whole shibang! Turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, sweet potatoes, pie. Oh, it was delicious. We ate it with them and all of the young single adults in the ward. I'll send pics. 

 

Thanksgiving!!

Yum.

 

Friday: we met with Klaus again, and continued talking about the Doctrine of Christ. He was just as tired, because he has to take his meds 12 times a day! But we got through a lot more and had a wonderful time. I found out he's into a lot of the stuff I'm into! He loves game, and tennis, and ping pong! We decided we'd play when he was off his meds. After that we went and talked to people on the street and delivered our birthday present to Markowic :) then we planned for the next week and ate some food. I've made my own meal thing as I've been here that I really like. You fry up sliced sausage with diced bell peppers, and then scramble eggs to mix in. Adding some garlic powder is really good. And salt. Then I melt three pieces of cheese on it and mix it up. Then I mix a little ketchup in with it and we eat! We've had it a few times. It's really good. 

 

The arctic wolf dogs

 

Saturday: We went to help a less active member move at 8:30 in the morning until about ten thirty. This member had the most beautiful dogs. She had some mixed breed ARCTIC WOLVES. They were the nicest big dogs I've ever seen. So beautiful. They were almost full wolf. After that we were invited over to eat with Sister Pillman. She made us egg and cheese casserole! Just like yours!! Apparently it's an Austrian meal! It was very good, and she made us the best ice cream and it tasted just like he very berry milkshakes at Costco. After that we went to talk with people on the street. That day was so hard. We got to the middle of town and just felt the bad mood of everyone there... we had absolutely no success. No one would even let us talk, and one guy even pushed me when I said I was from the church. Sometimes taking to people is really hard. The only thing that kept me from sitting down and crying after two hours was the beautiful Christmas trees that were set up and someone playing a really beautiful flute instrument on the street I was walking down. After that we bought some pastries to make us feel better and went to our next appointment. We met with a member named Django. He's our ward missionary, and really famous! He's one of the most famous people in Austria, turns out! Django is his stage name. His real name is Lorenzo. He's from Africa. He performs as an MC at concerts and sings as well. Very cool. Him and his wife just had their first baby :) they fed us delicious meat loaf and mashed potatoes, and we shared a nice video about Christmas with them. 

 

At Django's house.

Django's house.

 

Sunday: Elder Kaufusi gave an amazing talk during sacrament meeting about joy. After church we had a visitor who took home a Book of Mormon in Englisch and Deutsch! We also had another visitor who gave us his number, and wants to meet. So many blessings. After that we were invited to eat with the Enenkel family. Get this... their son and I are like the same guy. We both make costumes, love guns, collect swords (and lightsabers) and stuff like that. They made us some really good meat and knödel, and we shared with them a thought about Christmas. Before we left, he let us hold his guns :D he's in the military, so he has lots of them... after that we did our studies. 

 

 

It snowed today!! Really hard :) I have pics and such.

Service Project.  Sister Gunderson was there on exchange!

 

Well mom I better go. Thank you so much for always emailing me :) it does me a lot of good. 

Until next week!!