Woche 16... shon?!

Grüßt euch!

Ich hoffe das alles läuft immernoch gut bei euch!

This past week has just FLOWN past... and total lesson (with investigators, members, and less actives) we got 18!! It was a stellar week! plus... we had 5 investigators in church on sunday! thats more than we've ever had! It was such a miraculous week!

Now that Ive got yall excited ill get to the more nitty gritty details of the week- hopefully i can get to it all, not much time this week. We're about to go visit Shön Brunn castle in Wien...ill pop up some pictures next week cause supposedly is amazing pretty. No big deal.

So, last sunday we found a guy named Mentor- he is from Cosova. He has one of the saddest stories ever... he is living alone, and his wife and children live about 20 km away. they were married happily, but her parents didnt like their marriage, so they pulled some strings in the government and forced them to get a divorce, and took away everything that he owns, so now he lives in a run down apartment for the last two years, and can only see his kids once a week. He has pretty much no background in christianity, but he loves the idea of a modern day prophet, because he read the Quran. We taught him monday night and again on Friday, and he came to church! We have to go slowly, but hes really interested!

Tuesday was crazy... because we had an Austausch, and this time I had to bring Elder Niedens here to St. Polten. So this was my first day as "senior companion" so I had to have the phone, make the calls, lead the lessons, etc. PRESSURE! it went ok though... we visited a member in the hospital, and then went to the church to meet with Amanda for the first time is weeks. She just came back from vacation and so this lesson was critical, because really the last time we spoke she was "done". She came, and Br. Hirschmann, our ward mission leader, basically laid the smack down on her, and she told us she'd come back to church, and start praying about the Book of Mormon again. The real problem is just tithing. its too high for her... but shes making progress. That night, it was POURING RAIN. its actually been dumping rain all week, and its been FREEZING. it is so cold here... and its almost june! what is going on! But, the decision was on me... we had about 30 minutes, and we could have gone home with good excuse because there was pretty much rivers going down the streets, or we could stay out. So I told elder Niedens we are gonna wear our big boy pants and go by on a less active member. It was about a 20 minute walk, and we were soaked, but he was home and we got an appt. for wednesday! worth it!

Wednesday Elder Horlacher was so sick and throwing up all night and day, so Elder Janis and I took their two lessons, along with ours for the day. One of our lessons was with Bruder Korherr, the less active from the rain. He actually let us inside, for the first time since I got here! We talked a little about Alma 5, and rekindling testimonies. He told us he didnt believe Joseph Smith was a prophet anymore and invited us to leave. Kinda  a bummer there. But we went to Rade after and had a sweet lesson by him. He gave us some food actually... is was a huge block of "weichkäse" or light cheese, and a knife and told us to eat it. So we downed the entire block... so much cheese.

Thursday we had two member appointments, one with Schwester Sindl, and one with Schwester Brunnsteiner. They are both notorious for feeding the elders TONS of food, so we had to buckle up to gain a few pounds that day. They are both the coolest ladies- both their husbands arent members unfortunately, but they are both way strong members. We had some amazing Gulasch, and then this stuff called Topfen. It is a kind of yoghurt, cream stuff that is actually illegal in the states because it has too much bacteria or something... anyways its incredibly delicious, so im sorry you guys can never try it!

Friday, we met with Bruder Korherr again, and this is where the miracle happened. He came out of his house with two huge chocolate bars. He told us he didnt have a lot of time then, but he wanted to apologize for lying. He said that he prayed a while back (the day he randomly showed up at the church during one of our lessons, if you guys can remember back that far) and recieved a definite answer that the Book of Mormon was true and Joseph Smith was a prophet. He told us sorry like five times, but told us he is still afraid to come back to church, because he has been away for about 18 years. We are working with him though. Saturday was pretty cool... Amanda called us in the morning and told us she had a concert that night and she had already bought us tickets. so we walked to town to pick those up from her, and on the way we ran into Albert, her son! The night before, we had planned to go by on him, because while we were planning, totally randomly, his house just burst into my mind and the image of it just burned in my brain, so I wrote it down in the plan to go see him. Then the next day we ran into him! It was so cool! He seems so much happier, and possibly ready to meet with us again!

Sunday in the church we had five investigators! So crazy! Including Edeltraud! Turns out she had been avoiding all week because she wanted to prove to us that we could trust her. Things are basically perfect with her... she is going to be baptised on the 8 of june, and she was even trying to convince the other investigators too! So cool!

this was great week!

Well, time is gone, but I sure love you guys, and thank you for your prayers! church is true!

Adventure is out there!

Elder Bartholomew