Woche 14- Alles Gute zum Mutterstag!

Ich danke euch viel für Gestern. Es bedeudet mir viel euch zu sehen und auch mit euch zu sprechen. Es tut mir Leid das wir nicht so viel Ziet hatten, aber trotzdem, vielen Dank! Nächstes Mal, zum Weihnachten, werden wir unsere Ziet einbischen besser nutzen, oder? Sieben Monate sind nicht so lang! Keine Sorgen da.

Have fun punching that into google translator... I thought you could all enjoy reading a little bit of German! Now imagine the book of mormon written like that, and all the street signs, shopping labels, public ANYTHING written the same... oh Austria, wie ich dich liebe.

This past week was great! So many miracles, but Im just so excited Im going to share what happened Saturday night first!

This man is called Rade. He is from Bosnia, hes about 50, and just really having a hard time. Hes not divorced, but his wife left with the kids a couple years ago. He is trying to get a job, but he is waiting on some documents to come from the government, so he just sits around all day everyday becasue he has no job, no friends, nothing. kinda sad. Well, the missionaries found him in february, and after meeting with them twice way back then, he told them no more, Im not interested at all. Well, like i think I wrote last week, I was going through the area book a while ago, trying to find names of people we could talk to, and go meet with again. Rade was the last name I put on my list just because I felt like it. Well, the entire list kinda slammed the door in our faces, until we came to that last name, Rade. He let us in and we talked about how he has had thoughts of ending his life, how its too late to change, how he just smokes and drinks his life away. Not very happy. We invited him to church and he said hed think about it. Well, a week later (on tuesday this week I believe) I felt like calling him and giving it another try. We met on thursday, and talked about faith repentance and the atonement. It was amazing to see a true DESIRE to believe in his eyes. He wants to change so bad, he just doesnt know where to go. We came back saturday night and finished teaching him about how baptism means we leave our old selves in the water, and come up new. He accepted the committment to prepare to be baptized on the 13th of July, 2013!!!! That was my first baptismal date Ive had the opportunity to set on my mission! It was so powerful!

The next morning, we came to pick him up for church, and the transformation was incredible. When I first met him, he had a scruffy beard, long hair, he was in sweats and a bathrobe. Now, he had combed his hair, shaved, and even put on a nice pair of slacks and a good shirt!! He was nervous, that was obvious, but church went well. It was a little overwhelming for him, but I think he enjoyed the chance to meet people and start making friends. We'll be meeting again on Tuesday!

Now a rundown of the other occurances of the week...

We had a FHA by the family Brunnsteiner on monday... that was way fun! The father is not a member, and the missionaries have been trying unsuccesfully for years to talk with him. He showed up about 20 minutes before we left... we think its important to build a slow relationship with him. just casual and fun first, because he is pretty much a goofball, not very mature!

Tuesday we spent a lot of the day finally finishing (mostly) the apartment for the two new elders coming next transfer! It was a ton of work, and we are almost there!! That night, two elders from the Salzburg stayed the night because of Mission Tour on wednesday... and it was Elder Robbins! He is Elder Janis' MTC companion, and I think his mom is also in dads class? It was fun to finally meet him after hearing so much about him.

Wednesday was mission tour with Elder Teixiera from the 70- he was powerful and life changing when he spoke! He gave us some really good methods of improving our finding efforts and we are pumped to put them into action! We spent the night in Wien because we recieved permission to visit a free outdoor classical music concert at Rathaus (city hall) for the 8th of May! That is a huge holiday here, and it was way fun!

Thursday, Friday, Saturday consisted of a few good appointments, mostly fallen out ones though, and a lot of time to walk around and try and find people! those times are some of the funnest though, because we have some sweet conversations!

Sunday we called home... what a wild emotional experience! 1 from 4 times... a strange milestone? We also finally taught the first lesson to Edeltraud also! Because she showed up right as church was finishing, and came to hirschmanns to celebrate mothersday with us. We havent gotten a date on her yet, but she will probably accept one when we teach her later today!

That was our week! a few other interesting cultural, geographical tidbits...

We did some service in the garden of a member this week, down in what we fondly call "Gartendorf". Almost every city or dorf has a little mini city inside, where tons of people own gardens right next to eachother. imagine that for a moment. And each garden lot has a mini shed thing there too... some are just sheds, but some are actually mini houses where the old people move during the summer and literally live in the garden all day every day for the summer. Crazy.

Its been freezing and raining all week. It rains probably 3/7 days a week. probably why its so green here.

Well thats the update this week! Sure love you guys! Keep up the good work where ever you are and thanks for the prayers!!!

Adventure is out there!!

Elder Bartholomew