Well, I turned to my companion on thursday
(who was officially in Austria for 2 weeks!) and said to him... (after
counting in my head)- yeah its been 21 weeks for me. Thats when I
realized time flies- if you havent already noticed!
This weeks was great, so I just want to get to the highlights!
Monday
we returned to visit Schönbrunn schloss in Wien with the new guys- and
it was about 39.9° in Wien... so we all did our fair share of sweating.
We stayed in Wien that night for a while because we had found a girl who
was visitng her mother in St. Pölten and she wanted to meet us in Wien,
so we got permission to meet her there before passing off her info...
WELL she didnt show after we went to all the trouble to arange the whole
thing and get the Wien elders to come too. Oh well. We caught a train
to St. Pölten and thought we would stop by our new potential Sam! He
gladly invited us in, and was SO nice to us! He is about 40, and is the
friendliest guy ever! He wanted to order a Pizza for us right there- we
had already eaten a ton in Wien though- we taught him a quick
restoration and he seemed fairly interested. Super cool guy!
Tuesday,
we met with Bruder Korherr in the afternoon (the less active) and we
ended up walking all over the city, because he is afraid to let us
inside he apartment.. but he bought us drinks! He is super interesting.
But the worlds standards, he is a little eccentric and looks a little
creepy, but if you just give him a chance he is such a nice guy! the
ward seems to have given up hope on him, but we havent! We have finally
built a relationship with him that the missionaries havent got in years!
He told me he really respects the sacrifices I made to come here, and
that he feels like I really care about him. It was really cool to hear
that from him. Mini miracle update- while walking with him, we ran into 2
girls from the Dominican Republic who are members, visiting St. Pölten
austria (who on earth knows why...) but they were praying they would be
able to find the church address and we ran into them in the most obscure
part of town! So we gave it to them! Hopefully we will see them at
church while they are here! That day we had a lesson with Wolfgang- he
is SO close to gettting his answer. We watched the restoration film and
read 2 Nephi 31 together... he told us he cant be baptised until god
tells him to do it. So we are really praying he can get his answer!
Wednesday
was a LIFE changing Zone Training Meeting- we talked about how to study
more effectively- it was seriously mission changing! I feel like I
should have been doing it this way the whole time, I just never had it
rightly explained to me. It was very spiritual, because during the
meeting they had us break up into companionships and actually practice
what we learned- and we studied for someone who really needs help. Well,
we studied for Wolfgang. Turns out we realized we never taught him to
pray correctly, and he will never get an answer from God if he isnt
praying- so it was real inspiration and revelation how to help him! We
had an austausch afterwards, and I took Elder Richman back to St. Pölten
with me (hes from Orem! He grew up right behind the Allens... i think
they made it a kneaders now?) but we had a blast that night- we had some
sweet lessons with a less active and an investigator!
Thursday,
after studies we had planned to do some dooring, because we couldnt get
any lessons in... but it turned out to be unneccisary because we
stopped by an old investigator just to see if he was there, and he let
us right in and we taught him again and he said he wanted to come to
church again! Total miracle! Afterwards we switched companions back, and
Elder Parkinson and I spent the afternoon checking up on several
adresses we had recieved... turns out we had a couple fakes ones. But
underway, we found a guy named Josef- it was an answer to prayers,
because we have been struggling lately to find people interested in
hearing from us. That night, we got a call from the Hirschmann Sr. who
told us he had an appointment to visit a less active and his non member
wife the next day, and he wanted us to come along. So---
Friday,
we got on a train at 10 to head down to a small dorf called Klamm- very
long story short, we took a train ride through BEAUTIFUL countryside-
and we ended missing our connection so we had to ride backwards again,
and we had a sweet conversation with the traindrive while we waited. He
wasnt very interested, but he didnt hear our breif run down of the first
vision. pretty cool. one more train, and two buses later, we make it to
Klamm- the tiny dorf nestled in the mountains of Lower Austria. We had a
delicious soup with Bruder Seliga and his wife- He is fairly active at
heart- its jsut the fact that he lives 2-3 hours away from church and
his health isnt so good. He still believes on everything, and was even
doing geneology the other day! Well, he asked us if we would introduce
the faith to his wife, so impromptu we dove right in and started
teaching the discussions- SEVERAL hours later we had to go, but she
totally wanted us to come back. She told us "Im not going to convert,
but I appreciate you introducing my husbands faith" plus she really just
liked us alot. I think when we go back, the spirit will touch her!
Saturday,
the Hirschmanns had ANOTHER trip in mind, to meet several of the less
active families in the area. So we did splits, and Elder Herzog and I
went with the Hirschmanns again and drove all over the place to visit a
bunch of families- we got in with 2 actually- both with really positive
responses. One has just been going through hard times, but said he would
come if we would ride with him... the other man was a little harder. He
seemed very active at heart, and he would make an awesome member if he
came back. But it was reveal that there were definitely offences made in
the past, and that a few bitter feelings still remained between him and
the members. We are going to work on that. As soon as we got back in
St. Pölten, we ran to our dinner appointment. Bruder Seitz took us out
to a fancy Chinese Restraunt- WOW it was incredible. I ate Duck for the
first time with some sweet asian noodles and vegitable mix. Who knew
that duck is AMAZING. its like the best tasting meat ever! Plus, I ate
the whole meal with chop sticks- I was pretty proud of myself. Saturday
wasnt quite over yet! the YOUNGER brother hirschmann picked us up after
dinner to go do some more service on his friends farm! We were stacking
hay and straw rolls- on a farm. ON TOP OF A MOUNTAIN. it was gorgeous
up there, and doing the farm work was just so much fun! The family was
super nice and baked us a "farm pizza"- it tasted so good! It was with
cheese, green, red, and spicy peppers, mushrooms, corn, cucumbers,
tomatoes, and a little bit of sausage. sheesh it was so tasty. And that
wrapped up the day for us! Quite the adventure!
AAAAAAAAAnd thats a wrap!
This week was just GREAT!
Things are going along well, we just need to keep praying to find more
investigators, and expecially pray that Wolfgang can progress and come
to church this next week! He is SO golden and ready, he just needs an
answer!
I love you all! Thanks for your support!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
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