Woche 28- Insert clever tag line here...

For lack of something funny to write- I guess it was just your standard Austrian week! Which in all honesty, is anything but standard!

Grüß euch!!!

Once again I find myself sitting at a computer trying to comprehend how we got here and how another week is already past. The other difference is that this week the computers in the church hause are broken down, so we are sitting in a dingy Internet Cafe being smoked on by Turks. and we are paying 3 Euro an hour to do it!

Monday, monday, monday... well it was awesome to say the least. After P-Day we taught Sister Dressler- a great lesson- then we got a call from Bruder Bauer- He wanted us to come visit a member with him, but it would take him a half hour to get to us. SO we were already at our apartment and we had a choice to make. either we wait 30 minutes OR we go back outside and find something to do quick. WELL I felt strongly to go outside, so we decided to take our freshly written letters to the post box around the corner from our complex. we said a quick prayer to help us find someone on the way- and the FIRST lady we talked to outside our building was very interested in taking a book and reading it. she didnt want to give us the info right there, but it was still a small miracle to see the power of prayer. After that we went and shared that experience with the members we visited, and they got so excited too and told us about their plans with their neighbors- SUPER cool.

Tuesday was distrikt meeting- very uplifting as usual. We got to share our investigators, and brainstorm solutions to their concerns- so naturally we brought up Wolfgang and got some sweet advice. then we went straight home and taught him! we had an AMAZING lesson- as usual. he has already read through 2 nephi and finds everything good and says its exactly what he believes. We made some huge progress, because he invited back again for saturday! Thats the first time we have met twice in a week! That night in PFK meeting, most of the members were absent, due to vacation season, and we actually had the most spiritual, uplifting PFK Ive ever been to!

Wednesday, we did a service project with the hirschmanns- helping them move around their house. It was nice to be able to serve them a little after all the service they do for us! That evening we met again with Erich Scharner- a very nice less active we just got in contact with. Hes great and super willing to make progress back to the church.

Thursday we went to help Bruder Seitz with his garden- he is probably my favorite 94 year old man on the face of the planet. He is so funny and speaks such heavy dialect. Im probably the only missionary here now who can understand him, just because Ive been around him so long. Me, being the genius I am, dove straight into a bush of stinging nettle in the garden. it only stung for a little while! Then we met with Kurt Haidvogel- and he talked our ears off as usual. Lots of war stories and such. Poor elder Parkinson fell asleep.

Friday was our finding day in Sankt Pölten! the whole distrikt came together here and we prayed about an area to go and door- not HUGE sucess- but a lot of funny stories. Got chased out by a couple dogs and such. BUT after the finding day, we had a lesson lined up with a potential- Jamal. We were waiting for him at the park, when an investigator of the other elders, Heinz, shows up (I had met him before)- and we ended teaching him a lesson in stead! it was way cool because the other elders had lost contact with him, but through our lesson, they were able to begin teaching him again!

Saturday was the day for our next appointment with Wolfgang- and it was big, because Wolfgang finally was comfortable with us inviting a member with us- so this was his first contact with the church. Bruder Hischmann came with us and we taught the 2nd lesson- it turned into Bruder Hischmann teaching all sorts of crazy church doctrine- but hopefully wolfgang wasnt weirded out. He seemed to take it all well, and at the end of the lesson, he handed me a journal and said- 'he is my bible study journal. if you want to know whats been going on inside my head, go ahead an read' WHAAAAAT!?! It was so cool. Ive been pouring over it ever since, trying to finding something that could help us.

Unfortunately though, Wolfgang couldnt come to church again on sunday. that is really the only problem ith him- he is so hard to get to church! he just says 'im not quite ready yet'- so our next task is to get him to th church!

Aaaaand thats everything I think! It all just blurs together, but its just great! Im just happy and content with the way things are. We are giving our all, and bearing testimony to everyone we see. and most importantly, im starting to see how christ like service, and selflessness, is really what being a missionary is all about. Loving others and Christ, more than ourselves. Then we are truly happy!

I love you all and I cant wait to hear from you again!

Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew