What do you know, its already been another week!
Yes, contrary to what some might be thinking, I have survived another week in the strange land of Austria!
Things aren't quite as ridiculous as they were last week, so this letter probably wont be so long as last week. General notes for the week though- good! German is still incredibly difficult to understand in this area, because everyone really enjoys using dialect so much, they dont even bother using Hoch Deutsch. Just a few examples so you can see how fun this is. "Wo sind wir daheim" means literally where are we to house? but it actually means are we at home or not? In dialect, it becomes "wo samma dahamm" no exagerration. Its actually on a billboard, because dogs poop all over the street so the phrase "wo samma dahamm" is kinda like- are we at home? no so dont let you dogs poop everywhere!- confusing right? especially becasue the phrase "daheim" SHOULD be zu Hause to be correct. Plus, all "a"s become "o"s and some other things, like the phrase "ein bischen" means "a little bit" but people here all say "ein bissle" or "ein bitzly" or something ridiculous like that. People are silly.
this week was a learning experience! Ill first jsut go through some daily activities and such
Monday- I finally got to go shopping for Pday, and It was so nice to buy REAL food. food isnt too expensive here... but everything is lighter, less sugerey, and less strong as in america. I think Im gonna be shocked when I taste american food again becaue it really is all a little bit dull hear, other than chocolate. OH MY chocolate is so good here. We also had a lesson with Wayne, I felt like it went SO GOOD the spirit was strong, he was asking us such good questions, but unfortunately that story has a sad ending.
Tuesday- We went to Wien to have district meeting with the elders from Wein 1 area and the senior couple in wien. that was fun to meet with them- it was blizzarding, so it was difficult to see how pretty and awesome Wien is- it really is rocking city. We also had PFK (Priestertums Furhungs Kommitee) and we had a good talk about boosting the excitement inside the ward!
Wednesday- my birthday!! whoo! I opened the presents that I took over seas with me from the mtc (thanks mom!) and wouldnt you know it, a few of my favorite things. Pictures from home, Starbursts, and JDAWG SAUCE. I almost cried I was so happy! The day was pretty rough... we had 4 appointments set and every one fell through for some reason or another. So we spent the whole day knocking on doors, with very little success. however, when all was said and done, I felt ok about everything! Working hard makes happy missionaries. funny note from my Birthday- elder janis bought a cake, and once we had one slice each, we thought it tasted funny. so we found some english on the box... turns out the cake had wine and coffee in it. so we threw it away haha. the elders say thats a really common mistake in Europe becuase they put coffee and wine in everything and dont even label it. oops! happy 19th to me!
Thursday and Friday we both fun. We taught a few lessons each day, but mostly we went dooring because appointments fell through. Apparently its culture in Austria to jsut make and drop plans at a moments notice for no reason! Needless to say, Ive knocked a lot of doors because of it! I had a cool impression though on friday- our appt with wayne fell out so we went dooring and I saw a building in the distance that I felt we needed to knock, and as we walked up I felt the strong impression we were looking for a man. the first bell we wrung, we got let it! (really shocking! we almost always knock apartment buildings, and you need to get buzzed in, so usually it takes a few to get the buzz) and it was a man with a family who was way nice! we couldnt teach him right then because he had company, but he said check after easter and he wants to hear what we have to say! so cool! Pretty much every experience Ive had knocking doors this week, everyday, its the last door we knock where someone finally shows a little interest. go figure we knock doors for 4 hours and the last house opens up! We on thursday after the whole day the last house was a lady who was a maid from romania that really wanted to hear the gospel so we gave her a way to connect with the missionaries in Romania becasue she goes back next week! awesome stuff.
Saturday we had an awesome meeting with a less active member- Schwester Zettl- she is originally from Africa, spoke french, came to Austria 25 years ago, learned german, and was baptized in 2005. she got offended and stopped coming, but she finally let us in. she was soooo hilarious and nice- with her african accented german. We had a super spiritual thought with her, and right when we got up to leave, Elder Janis went for a highfive, missed, and smashed one of her drink glasses on the floor! it was soo funny!
Sunday- Ostern!- It snowed about 8 inches. go figure. Not many people came to church because of the snow, including our two investigators with baptismal dates, Albert and Amanda, but we assume they went to catholic church to celebrate traditional Ostern. Herr Hertvogal came to church though! It was a little surprising, but he is so cool. He is a 5 year old in a 78 year old body. you should see him leap up the 3 flights of stairs for the church! Ive never seen anything like it! It was also good for him to hear all the testimony about resurrection, because thats his problem. he cant imagine life after death. After church, Bruder Bauer took us, and herr Hertvogal to Melk, a small dorf about 40 minutes away, to spend the afternoon at the familie Hirschmann! They are the heart and soul of this ward, they moved in about 6 months ago, and they are the only ones who really believe in missionary work! Br. und Sch. Hirschmann senior are anciently old, and so so so nice. Br. und Sch. hirschmann Jr. (their son) live with them and are so cool. We had a traditional german meal (goulash) and then we got ready for the musical number the elders are doing in a couple weeks. They pulled out the violins, I played the piano, and we were a right good orchestra! Melk, may be one of the prettiest places on earth. It is nestled between two mountains, has only about 200 people, and looks straight out of a fairy talk. skinny winding cobble stone road, little rivers running through the streets, houses up on rocks, everything is colorful, its insane. So darn cool.
that was my week in a nut shell! I feel like mormon, abridging the plates. I can only fit 100th of the things from teh week in the letter, but someday I hope to share everything with you all!!
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