Einen schönen guten Morgen!
Grüß euch!
Wie geht's euch?!
This week has been just wonderful. Like the title line says... an answer to
prayers.
So lets begin with the report!
Monday- It DUMPED rain. all day. That pretty much counts for the whole
week. Lots and lots of rain. really cold rain.
anyways- when P Day ended, we went to door out a building where a potential
supposedly lived, but we could find the name on the Klingel (door bells)-
so we doored a little bit. No luck there, so we went by on Albert, hoping
that he had returned home by that time. When we got there, Amanda let us
in, to meet her friend Melanie who was visiting her! We walked in and
Amanda said- hey these guys are the mormons. Tell her about the church! So
we came in adn taught her the restoration. It was cool! She had a million
questions for us, and it ended with Amanda saying she was going to drag her
to church with her sometime! Super cool!
tuesday, we had districts meeting, then while we were in Wien, we went by
on Martina, the friend of Wolfgang. We brought the Wien sisters with us, so
we could "pass her off", since shes technically not in our area. It was an
AMAZING lesson- so powerful as we read the passages from the Book of Mormon
that bring comfort to our lives personally- super cool! that night needed
to clean the apartment because the Hunsakers, the senior couple in charge
of apartments, were driving through Austria doing inspections! And that
brings the first prayer-answer story!
Wednesday morning, we were expecting the Hunsakers anytime before 12. But
we got invited to go do service at sister Huschners house- and our train
left at 11. So if the hunsakers didnt come before 10:30, we were in
trouble! But we couldnt get a hold of them to tell them... so we just
prayed really hard that they would come sooner! And right after we prayed,
they called us back and said they would get there by 10. Miracle! Second
miracle... it was pouring rain. And we wanted to do service with Sister
Huschner, which would become impossible if the rain kept up. so we said
another prayer, and the rain stopped just in time for us to go work at her
house! Super cool and really fun too. Her house is so Austrian. and we had
a Brettl Jousan. That just means a slab of wood with all kinds of exotic
cheeses and breads and meats, that you just kinda put together in weird
combinations. its super Austrian. That evening we taught Wolfgang again,
and a lot of his concerns came up again... about Baptism, the Word of
Wisdom, Joseph Smith, ect. Just a bunch of nit picky questions he has. So
we left that lesson pretty nervous, becasue we had a long list of questions
to answer.
Thursday morning, we had some service with Bruder Seitz planned, but it was
pouring rain the night before. So once again, we prayed that the rain would
stop so we could go serve. and it was totally clear when we woke up! So we
were so excited! But then Bruder Seitz called us and said he was busy
anyways so it fell through. So it was a miracle for nothing haha. atleast
is was pretty outside. But then, later that day...
We finally set an appointment with Andreas Glaser, an old investigator of
mine, that we found again in Bahnhof. We prayed about it, and got the
strong feeling we just needed to committ him to baptism very boldly. So we
went to the lesson with that in mind- he was happy to see us- and
immediately expressed the same concerns with Joseph Smith and money that he
had before. We pretty much ignored those, and went straight to the
challenge. We challenged him to "prove god" i guess you could say. We said
that if he would meet with us 3 times a week, read in the Book of Mormon
every day, and pray as well, and also attend church- he would KNOW 100%
without a doubt by the 12th of October that he needs to be baptised. And he
accepted the challenge! Unfortunatley he wasnt in church on sunday, but we
are meeting with him tonight, and we'll see where he is at with the "deal".
Friday we did a lot of planning, ate lunch with Schwester Sindl (which by
the way was a FULL CHICKEN! She slapped a chicken on each of our plates.
and it was stuffed with the Knödel stuff- it was AMAZING, but kinda a lot
of food haha) then we taught Kurt in the evening. pretty average day.
Saturday rained a lot as well. The weather is getting colder... and Ive
definitely noticed it takes a negative effect of the people... just like
how I noticed people got happier when it got warm, its been getting sadder
as its gets colder... its not something im excited for. But we had an
appointment with Andreas, that he didnt show up too- so we ended up going
street contacting in the rain. not our best idea ever. but we found a lady
named Josefina- she was super old, and wanted to buy the Book of Mormon off
of us- we told her we couldnt take money and she was almost afraid to take
it for free! that night was SO COOL! Wolfgang came to his lesson with his
friend Martina, and told us something awesome...
He prayed about the Word of Wisdom (like we asked him too) and as he was
reading through the story in Alma about the Lamanites burying the swords,
he realized he needs to repent, and he gave up alcohol and coffee! SO COOL!
I almost cried i was so happy, and the spirit was so strong! He still has
some disagreements about the baptism, but he is living the other
commandments, coming to church, reading and LOVING the book of mormon-
things couldnt be better! AH so miraculous!
Sunday in the church was cool- but the evening was the coolest part! We
went by on a potential- and we prayed before we left that we could help
someone, and give a book of mormon away. WELL. while we were walking out of
the apartment building of our potential, a lady was coming in. Naturally,
we started a conversation with her- turns out shes totally lost hope and is
depressed. So we promised her that if she read the book of mormon, she
would find hope and peace. At the beginning of the conversation, she
totally didnt want to talk to us, but by the end, she took the book,
promised to read, and said we could come back in a week! Super! On the way
home, a man asked us if we could help push his car, becasue it was stalled.
So we ended up pushing this guys car up a hill as hes trying to catch the
engine- it didnt really work. BUT we talked with him as well, and he said
we could come visit him and his wife! Miracles, answers to prayers, could
life get better?
Probably not.
I love you all, that was my week! I gotta go now!
Thanks for the letters this last week as well, that was great!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
Search This Blog
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Woche 32- Bikes, and other interesting adventures.
Liebe Familie (yes, I found out Ive been writing that wrong since the
beginning of my mission. I thought there was an r there... but I was wrong
haha)
Grüß euch!
This week was so great! Elder Parkinson just had to sit down and marvel at
how great everything is going. If every week could be as cool as this one,
missions would be easy! We definitely worked our tails off, but is was so
worth is and so fun! Can i start by saying I have biked more this last week
than probably ever in my life. And Elder Parkinson is a little speed demon
with legs the size of Titans, so Im always busting beans trying to keep up
with him! It keeps things interesting though!
Now to list of the other interesting adventures of the week!
Monday after emails, we went to Wien right after to do a little sight
seeing before visiting the Stratzcenys (our Branch President. He lives
technically in the Wien 2 ward, but he is our branch president because we
dont have enough priesthood holders to have our own president.) We saw some
more cool old churches and domes and stuff- all like a 1000 years old... is
it bad that im a little desensitized to these kind of things? Its all
just... old stuff to me these days. Ive seen so many old castles and stuff
haha. But turns out we were WAY lost and we got to our presidents house
like an hour late, but we had an awesome talk about their temple mission-
they have served 8!! Its so crazy- President says its his punishment,
becuase he decided not to go on a mission when he was young, he got called
to served 8 when he got old haha. That night we slept in the Zone leaders
apartment! It was an adventure getting there... we had never been there
before so we were wandering around Wien around 8:45 trying to follow the
directions we got... we ended up taking a straßenbahn, and ubahn, and
walking over the river. somehow we found the zone leaders haha.
Tuesday, we had distrikt meeting which was cool as ever, then we came home
for our appointment with sister Dressler- which fell out like 5 minutes
before it happend. so we found some stuff to do before our PFK- which was
actually a very good one this week. Afterwards we rode the bikes out to
visit Stefan Schildböck and his girlfriend Birgit (I think I told you guys
about them last week)- turns out they werent home, so we had to reschedule,
and it was getting late by that point becasue they live pretty far outside
of town with the bikes- when it was time to come home, a storm was blowing
in, so we raced home and barely avoided the rain- that was a miracle!
Wednesday morning we went and did service in Bruder Seitz garden- we
mulched up all the plants from the whole summer- it is really turning into
Autumn here! Im still in denial a little bit, but i guess i just have to
accept it. Summer has come and gone! Sheesh! We had an appointment with a
guy named Mohammed at the bahnhof that afternoon- he didnt show up, but it
turned into a total miracle because our old investigator Andreas ran into
with his bike! He looked so much happier than when he dropped us, and said
he was ready to meet again! We would have never known if we hadnt been
standing in that exact spot! Crazy how the lord works like that! That
afternoon we rode the bikes out to Erich Scharner on the opposite side of
town for a cool visit with him, then we had German Class with Bruder
Korherr- he is so funny. Its cool to see how excited he gets to teach us
german. That evening we taught Wolfgang in the church about the Word of
Wisdom- it didnt go as good as we hoped. Hes kinda big on coffee and tea
and it didnt make sense to him. We had Bruder Jelinek there (a member i
have NEVER been able to get on a joint teach before, so that was a miracle
too!) and he bore good testimony... but it was still a little tense leaving
the lesson. I guess thats just a hard principle to swallow.
Thursday we had planned to go visit the family Seliga in Klamm- that would
have taken the whole day. BUT. last minute they called and canceled on us.
So we had NOTHING to do the whole day. We called as many people as we could
all morning to try and find someone. No go. So we ended up riding the bikes
to visit a less active family in a dorf about 10 km away- luckily it was
downhill the whole way. they werent home. So riding BACK was an adventure-
we were sweating good thats for sure by the time we got back up to the top!
We couldnt get any appointments in the afternoon either, but it all turned
into a miracle becasue our back up plan was to go by a man who lives in
Krems (a town on a mountain about 30 kms away. its straight out of a
fairytale) so we went and talked to about 1000000 people- and no one was
even giving us a second to talk. It was looking really bad for us and we
were losing morale. BUT the miracle came at the end of the day. The last
lady we talked to before getting back on our train home was named Regine.
She is also in St. Pölten and when she saw the Book of Mormon she
remembered seeing it as a little girl when the missionaries came to her
house, but doesnt remember anything else about it! So we set an appointment
in St. Pölten right there on the spot- but more about that later.
Friday,We did planning, ate lunch with Schwester Sindl (classic Austrian
meal. Knödel, Kraut, and Schweinbrat. it was so great!) then we met with
Amanda again! It was such an interesting lesson- bruder Hirschmann came
with. And we just talked and talked and talked- after a lot of beating
around the bush, she admitted she had never actually prayed to know if the
church was true or not. And she committed to do it! So we'll see what comes
of that! Bruder Bauer picked us up from the church to take us to our next
appointment with Stefan Schildböck and Birgit, but we got there about 20
min too late and they didnt want to meet anymore- it was a little sad, but
Bruder Bauer bought us schnitzel to say sorry for being late. So that was
fun to go to dinner with him.
Saturday was CRAZY. We met Regine at some café in the morning- and she
CAME! We had such a cool lesson and found out shes totally prepared to hear
the gospel, becasue she isnt really content with the catholic church
anymore and she thinks its cool that she remembers the book from 50-60
years ago! That afternoon we had another German class with Bruder Korherr,
then we changed our clothes and rode the bikes as fast as possible up this
GIANT hill to get to sister Brunnsteiners house- she had some service for
us to do. We had another appointment to catch right after so we had to go
really fast- but she ended up baking us brownies! real AMERICAN brownies!
Soemthing I havent had for 6 months haha. It was awesome! We changed our
clothes one more time back to business wear, and rode really quick to catch
the appointment with Erich again- we left a quick thought with him, and
rode back to the church to meet Wolfgang! We had hoped to have the
Schildböcks there, to talk about the Tithing. they had to cancel last
minute, so we had about 30 seconds to change the lesson plan- it ended up
being just fine becasue we talked a lot about his friend that he wanted us
to go teach- on SUNDAY. It was way cool to make out a game plan of how we
could best help his friend. Then we just read from the scriptures and bore
testimony of the truths we know. He is progressing so great! He told us he
has started praying to know if this is the truth for him!
Sunday was super cool! Amanda and Wolfgang were in the church, and right
after the church, we caught a train with Wolfgang to Wien to visit his
friend. Her name is Martina- and it was AMAZING! She has had a really hard
life, but she is just the sweetest lady in the world. As we introduced what
we do, she was so ready to recieve it all- to make her life better! Im so
excited to teach her some more tomorrow!
Then we just went home and ate Gulasch with Wolfgang, and listened to his
crazy Afrikan Jazz Cds... man he is so cool! He is just like a cool friend
of mine! Im so grateful that I could stay here and continual to build this
relationship. MISSIONARY WORK IS AWESOME!
Well, i am out of time. But I love you all!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
beginning of my mission. I thought there was an r there... but I was wrong
haha)
Grüß euch!
This week was so great! Elder Parkinson just had to sit down and marvel at
how great everything is going. If every week could be as cool as this one,
missions would be easy! We definitely worked our tails off, but is was so
worth is and so fun! Can i start by saying I have biked more this last week
than probably ever in my life. And Elder Parkinson is a little speed demon
with legs the size of Titans, so Im always busting beans trying to keep up
with him! It keeps things interesting though!
Now to list of the other interesting adventures of the week!
Monday after emails, we went to Wien right after to do a little sight
seeing before visiting the Stratzcenys (our Branch President. He lives
technically in the Wien 2 ward, but he is our branch president because we
dont have enough priesthood holders to have our own president.) We saw some
more cool old churches and domes and stuff- all like a 1000 years old... is
it bad that im a little desensitized to these kind of things? Its all
just... old stuff to me these days. Ive seen so many old castles and stuff
haha. But turns out we were WAY lost and we got to our presidents house
like an hour late, but we had an awesome talk about their temple mission-
they have served 8!! Its so crazy- President says its his punishment,
becuase he decided not to go on a mission when he was young, he got called
to served 8 when he got old haha. That night we slept in the Zone leaders
apartment! It was an adventure getting there... we had never been there
before so we were wandering around Wien around 8:45 trying to follow the
directions we got... we ended up taking a straßenbahn, and ubahn, and
walking over the river. somehow we found the zone leaders haha.
Tuesday, we had distrikt meeting which was cool as ever, then we came home
for our appointment with sister Dressler- which fell out like 5 minutes
before it happend. so we found some stuff to do before our PFK- which was
actually a very good one this week. Afterwards we rode the bikes out to
visit Stefan Schildböck and his girlfriend Birgit (I think I told you guys
about them last week)- turns out they werent home, so we had to reschedule,
and it was getting late by that point becasue they live pretty far outside
of town with the bikes- when it was time to come home, a storm was blowing
in, so we raced home and barely avoided the rain- that was a miracle!
Wednesday morning we went and did service in Bruder Seitz garden- we
mulched up all the plants from the whole summer- it is really turning into
Autumn here! Im still in denial a little bit, but i guess i just have to
accept it. Summer has come and gone! Sheesh! We had an appointment with a
guy named Mohammed at the bahnhof that afternoon- he didnt show up, but it
turned into a total miracle because our old investigator Andreas ran into
with his bike! He looked so much happier than when he dropped us, and said
he was ready to meet again! We would have never known if we hadnt been
standing in that exact spot! Crazy how the lord works like that! That
afternoon we rode the bikes out to Erich Scharner on the opposite side of
town for a cool visit with him, then we had German Class with Bruder
Korherr- he is so funny. Its cool to see how excited he gets to teach us
german. That evening we taught Wolfgang in the church about the Word of
Wisdom- it didnt go as good as we hoped. Hes kinda big on coffee and tea
and it didnt make sense to him. We had Bruder Jelinek there (a member i
have NEVER been able to get on a joint teach before, so that was a miracle
too!) and he bore good testimony... but it was still a little tense leaving
the lesson. I guess thats just a hard principle to swallow.
Thursday we had planned to go visit the family Seliga in Klamm- that would
have taken the whole day. BUT. last minute they called and canceled on us.
So we had NOTHING to do the whole day. We called as many people as we could
all morning to try and find someone. No go. So we ended up riding the bikes
to visit a less active family in a dorf about 10 km away- luckily it was
downhill the whole way. they werent home. So riding BACK was an adventure-
we were sweating good thats for sure by the time we got back up to the top!
We couldnt get any appointments in the afternoon either, but it all turned
into a miracle becasue our back up plan was to go by a man who lives in
Krems (a town on a mountain about 30 kms away. its straight out of a
fairytale) so we went and talked to about 1000000 people- and no one was
even giving us a second to talk. It was looking really bad for us and we
were losing morale. BUT the miracle came at the end of the day. The last
lady we talked to before getting back on our train home was named Regine.
She is also in St. Pölten and when she saw the Book of Mormon she
remembered seeing it as a little girl when the missionaries came to her
house, but doesnt remember anything else about it! So we set an appointment
in St. Pölten right there on the spot- but more about that later.
Friday,We did planning, ate lunch with Schwester Sindl (classic Austrian
meal. Knödel, Kraut, and Schweinbrat. it was so great!) then we met with
Amanda again! It was such an interesting lesson- bruder Hirschmann came
with. And we just talked and talked and talked- after a lot of beating
around the bush, she admitted she had never actually prayed to know if the
church was true or not. And she committed to do it! So we'll see what comes
of that! Bruder Bauer picked us up from the church to take us to our next
appointment with Stefan Schildböck and Birgit, but we got there about 20
min too late and they didnt want to meet anymore- it was a little sad, but
Bruder Bauer bought us schnitzel to say sorry for being late. So that was
fun to go to dinner with him.
Saturday was CRAZY. We met Regine at some café in the morning- and she
CAME! We had such a cool lesson and found out shes totally prepared to hear
the gospel, becasue she isnt really content with the catholic church
anymore and she thinks its cool that she remembers the book from 50-60
years ago! That afternoon we had another German class with Bruder Korherr,
then we changed our clothes and rode the bikes as fast as possible up this
GIANT hill to get to sister Brunnsteiners house- she had some service for
us to do. We had another appointment to catch right after so we had to go
really fast- but she ended up baking us brownies! real AMERICAN brownies!
Soemthing I havent had for 6 months haha. It was awesome! We changed our
clothes one more time back to business wear, and rode really quick to catch
the appointment with Erich again- we left a quick thought with him, and
rode back to the church to meet Wolfgang! We had hoped to have the
Schildböcks there, to talk about the Tithing. they had to cancel last
minute, so we had about 30 seconds to change the lesson plan- it ended up
being just fine becasue we talked a lot about his friend that he wanted us
to go teach- on SUNDAY. It was way cool to make out a game plan of how we
could best help his friend. Then we just read from the scriptures and bore
testimony of the truths we know. He is progressing so great! He told us he
has started praying to know if this is the truth for him!
Sunday was super cool! Amanda and Wolfgang were in the church, and right
after the church, we caught a train with Wolfgang to Wien to visit his
friend. Her name is Martina- and it was AMAZING! She has had a really hard
life, but she is just the sweetest lady in the world. As we introduced what
we do, she was so ready to recieve it all- to make her life better! Im so
excited to teach her some more tomorrow!
Then we just went home and ate Gulasch with Wolfgang, and listened to his
crazy Afrikan Jazz Cds... man he is so cool! He is just like a cool friend
of mine! Im so grateful that I could stay here and continual to build this
relationship. MISSIONARY WORK IS AWESOME!
Well, i am out of time. But I love you all!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
Woche 31: Alles geschiet gemäß DEM Plan
Schöne Familie!
Grüß euch!!!
What an AMAZING WEEK! My goodness gracious... things are just going swell.
Can I start off by saying I LOVE FOOD.
Brief explanation: This past week, just as we finished last weeks emails,
Elder Herzog and I got talking. He had heard of a little something called
the "Apple Cleanse". Apparently, the challenge is to only eat apples and
drink apple juice for a week, and its supposed to cleanse your system.
Well... it didnt sound like such a bad idea, and of course I love a good
challenge, so we threw caution to the wind and went for it! That means
(with the exception of an unavoidable activity sunday) I ate nothing but
apples and apple juice for the past 7 days! first off, I just prayed that I
wouldnt die, but I actually feel great! and "cleansed"... haha. Im pretty
sure I lost like 30 pounds, but whatever i guess. By the end of the week
elder Herzog and I were dying for normal food... but we made it through
together and celebrated this morning with breakfast tacos. It was great.
Now for the actual report on last week!
Monday after letters we went up on a mountain top with Br. Hirschmann- SO
COOL AND PRETTY! I dont have any pictures to show you yet because the
computer is being dumb and wont let me load them. BUT THEY ROCK! We also
got to do a little farm work again, which was so fun! That night we bought
like 20 kilos of apples, and then took a thank you letter by Sister
Brunnsteiner for buying us groceries last week! It was a picture of the
four of us... and we decorated the frame with little craft pom poms. its
was pretty darn cute.
Tuesday was Zone training in Wien- it was full of mixed emotions! I had to
say goodbye to all the awesome elders and sisters who came to Wien with me
4 transfers ago and were now leaving... it was hard, but fun to see them
off to new adventures! That night we had Gemeinderat (ward council) and
they started talking about activities all the way up till christmas! Are we
really that far into the year?! I was sad to think I will probably be gone
already! Afterwards, Bruder Bauer took us to go hometeaching on some less
actives he had never visited before and TOTAL MIRACLE! One of them was a
guy named Stefan- about 30 years old, and living with a girlfriend and son.
Well, we knocked on the door and he wasnt home- but the girlfriend was! She
told us to come in and chat with her- so we all went in and she ended up
being really curious about the church because she really knew NOTHING- and
then she invited us back! Crazy cool lesson!
Wednesday was a lot of walking around all over the place... but it was so
worth it because EVERYONE was home we went by on, and we set up a bunch of
appointments, plus we found 4 potentials on the street- which it has been a
long time since weve had real success on the street. That evening we taught
Wolfgang with Bruder hirschmann about the first few simple commandments-
and it went really well! He revealed another one of his big concerns
though- which is he wants MORE communal activities between members- which
Bruder Hirschmann totally agrees and they talked about doing all sorts of
stuff together! It was a great joint teach! After, we rode our bikes as
fast as we could to the other side of town to teach Erich, or progressing
Less Active! He was SO EXCITED for church on Suday, it was super cool!
thursday was quite a bit more walking... plus 3 fallen out appointments.
Not the best day ever- but it was still fun, because we were able to write
a bunch of thank you notes that we have been preparing for all the members
to thank them for their work!
Friday we spent most of the day planning- mixed in with a hospital visit to
see a member, plus we met a potential at a bench in the middle of the town
to give him a Russian and English Book of Mormon! He was right where he
said he would be, and he was very excited to get the books, but he left to
Germany the next day! So we got him all the information for those elders up
there! Hopefully something happens with that cause he had TONS of
potential! That evening we visited the family Schildböck, and we just
talked all about the pranks the used to pull on missionaries- they are
pretty old now, but back in the day they were pretty funny!
Saturday and Sunday were two of the craziest days of my mission.
We left early saturday morning to help sister Brunnsteiner with her garden-
and it took quite a bit longer than we thought- but i was able to talk with
her about her neighbor that she really wants to share the gospel with! She
is super excited to share the gospel she just has no idea how to do it, so
we brainstormed ideas together, and we are going to make out a battle plan
this week! We ran home from that, showered, and then hopped on the bikes to
get to the other side of town... I officially had my first bike wreck. Dont
worry, nothings hurt but my pride haha. Elder Parkinson took a sharp turn
for a short cut across a grocery store parkinglot- i tried the same turn,
hit the curb, and did a graceful flip over the bars onto my butt- just for
all the store patrons to see. As I laid there on the pavement contemplating
what just happened, a lady came and yelled at me about how bike riding was
forbidden anyways and I got what I deserved. So much for pity for the
injured eh? We still made it to the appointment ok, but it fell out anyways
when we got there! So we rode back to the store so I could get something to
clean up. then we met with Bruder Korherr really quick- he was late- then
we rode as fast as we could to our appointment with Wolfgang and Bruder
Bauer- we started off answering some questions he had about the apostasy
(seriously, he has some of the hardest questions! He has really taught me
how to find answers in the scriptures though!) and then we taught Chastity-
pretty easy stuff for him. BUT THE COOL PART! We were about to ask him if
he had any friends we could teach- when he starts talking about a women he
shared his Book of Mormon with, who has tons of interest, and wants to
start meeting with us! SO COOL! We rode our bikes once again across town to
visit Erich to pump him up for church! Such a crazy day!
Sunday... best church day EVER! We walked to Erich really early in the
morning (he probably lives 4 km away from the church atleast) and then we
walked to church together! Then in the church we had a bunch of visitors
from the stake, plus Wolfgang came again and LOVED IT! and surprise
surprise... AMANDA! The investigator who dropped us 5 weeks ago came to
church and wants to start meeting again! YES!!! After church, the young
women cooked a lunch for the ward- and everyone stayed and had a great
time! It was probably the funnest week Ive ever had in church! That
afternoon we had a German class with Bruder Korherr the less active! He
called us and offered to start teaching the missionaries German class! It
was super helpful to learn from him, and its a total sign of progress back
to the church for him!
AH everything is so good. Im so glad the Lord allowed me to stay and see
the ward change and get so active and lively again! The Lord has blessed us
so much and things are GREAT!
Thanks so much for your support, I love you all so much!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
Grüß euch!!!
What an AMAZING WEEK! My goodness gracious... things are just going swell.
Can I start off by saying I LOVE FOOD.
Brief explanation: This past week, just as we finished last weeks emails,
Elder Herzog and I got talking. He had heard of a little something called
the "Apple Cleanse". Apparently, the challenge is to only eat apples and
drink apple juice for a week, and its supposed to cleanse your system.
Well... it didnt sound like such a bad idea, and of course I love a good
challenge, so we threw caution to the wind and went for it! That means
(with the exception of an unavoidable activity sunday) I ate nothing but
apples and apple juice for the past 7 days! first off, I just prayed that I
wouldnt die, but I actually feel great! and "cleansed"... haha. Im pretty
sure I lost like 30 pounds, but whatever i guess. By the end of the week
elder Herzog and I were dying for normal food... but we made it through
together and celebrated this morning with breakfast tacos. It was great.
Now for the actual report on last week!
Monday after letters we went up on a mountain top with Br. Hirschmann- SO
COOL AND PRETTY! I dont have any pictures to show you yet because the
computer is being dumb and wont let me load them. BUT THEY ROCK! We also
got to do a little farm work again, which was so fun! That night we bought
like 20 kilos of apples, and then took a thank you letter by Sister
Brunnsteiner for buying us groceries last week! It was a picture of the
four of us... and we decorated the frame with little craft pom poms. its
was pretty darn cute.
Tuesday was Zone training in Wien- it was full of mixed emotions! I had to
say goodbye to all the awesome elders and sisters who came to Wien with me
4 transfers ago and were now leaving... it was hard, but fun to see them
off to new adventures! That night we had Gemeinderat (ward council) and
they started talking about activities all the way up till christmas! Are we
really that far into the year?! I was sad to think I will probably be gone
already! Afterwards, Bruder Bauer took us to go hometeaching on some less
actives he had never visited before and TOTAL MIRACLE! One of them was a
guy named Stefan- about 30 years old, and living with a girlfriend and son.
Well, we knocked on the door and he wasnt home- but the girlfriend was! She
told us to come in and chat with her- so we all went in and she ended up
being really curious about the church because she really knew NOTHING- and
then she invited us back! Crazy cool lesson!
Wednesday was a lot of walking around all over the place... but it was so
worth it because EVERYONE was home we went by on, and we set up a bunch of
appointments, plus we found 4 potentials on the street- which it has been a
long time since weve had real success on the street. That evening we taught
Wolfgang with Bruder hirschmann about the first few simple commandments-
and it went really well! He revealed another one of his big concerns
though- which is he wants MORE communal activities between members- which
Bruder Hirschmann totally agrees and they talked about doing all sorts of
stuff together! It was a great joint teach! After, we rode our bikes as
fast as we could to the other side of town to teach Erich, or progressing
Less Active! He was SO EXCITED for church on Suday, it was super cool!
thursday was quite a bit more walking... plus 3 fallen out appointments.
Not the best day ever- but it was still fun, because we were able to write
a bunch of thank you notes that we have been preparing for all the members
to thank them for their work!
Friday we spent most of the day planning- mixed in with a hospital visit to
see a member, plus we met a potential at a bench in the middle of the town
to give him a Russian and English Book of Mormon! He was right where he
said he would be, and he was very excited to get the books, but he left to
Germany the next day! So we got him all the information for those elders up
there! Hopefully something happens with that cause he had TONS of
potential! That evening we visited the family Schildböck, and we just
talked all about the pranks the used to pull on missionaries- they are
pretty old now, but back in the day they were pretty funny!
Saturday and Sunday were two of the craziest days of my mission.
We left early saturday morning to help sister Brunnsteiner with her garden-
and it took quite a bit longer than we thought- but i was able to talk with
her about her neighbor that she really wants to share the gospel with! She
is super excited to share the gospel she just has no idea how to do it, so
we brainstormed ideas together, and we are going to make out a battle plan
this week! We ran home from that, showered, and then hopped on the bikes to
get to the other side of town... I officially had my first bike wreck. Dont
worry, nothings hurt but my pride haha. Elder Parkinson took a sharp turn
for a short cut across a grocery store parkinglot- i tried the same turn,
hit the curb, and did a graceful flip over the bars onto my butt- just for
all the store patrons to see. As I laid there on the pavement contemplating
what just happened, a lady came and yelled at me about how bike riding was
forbidden anyways and I got what I deserved. So much for pity for the
injured eh? We still made it to the appointment ok, but it fell out anyways
when we got there! So we rode back to the store so I could get something to
clean up. then we met with Bruder Korherr really quick- he was late- then
we rode as fast as we could to our appointment with Wolfgang and Bruder
Bauer- we started off answering some questions he had about the apostasy
(seriously, he has some of the hardest questions! He has really taught me
how to find answers in the scriptures though!) and then we taught Chastity-
pretty easy stuff for him. BUT THE COOL PART! We were about to ask him if
he had any friends we could teach- when he starts talking about a women he
shared his Book of Mormon with, who has tons of interest, and wants to
start meeting with us! SO COOL! We rode our bikes once again across town to
visit Erich to pump him up for church! Such a crazy day!
Sunday... best church day EVER! We walked to Erich really early in the
morning (he probably lives 4 km away from the church atleast) and then we
walked to church together! Then in the church we had a bunch of visitors
from the stake, plus Wolfgang came again and LOVED IT! and surprise
surprise... AMANDA! The investigator who dropped us 5 weeks ago came to
church and wants to start meeting again! YES!!! After church, the young
women cooked a lunch for the ward- and everyone stayed and had a great
time! It was probably the funnest week Ive ever had in church! That
afternoon we had a German class with Bruder Korherr the less active! He
called us and offered to start teaching the missionaries German class! It
was super helpful to learn from him, and its a total sign of progress back
to the church for him!
AH everything is so good. Im so glad the Lord allowed me to stay and see
the ward change and get so active and lively again! The Lord has blessed us
so much and things are GREAT!
Thanks so much for your support, I love you all so much!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
Week 30
Servus people of Orem!
Lieber Famile!
Grüß euch!
It was great to hear from some family members this week, and it sounds like
everything is coming alot great with the start of school and everything. I
cant believe the kids here are going back to school today! Its all been a
blur- I remember back when it was snowing everyday and the kids still had 3
months of school left... then it got warm and HOT and the school got out...
now school has started again and its COLD again. waking up this morning and
realizing how cold it was... ive almost been through a whole weather cycle,
all here in St. Pölten! and i guess thats an appropriate lead in to my big
announcement....
IM STAYING!!! Whoo! We had transfer calls on friday, and Im staying 6 more
weeks to finish training elder Parkinson. That means Ill have been here 7
months total by the time Im finished here (which is almost 99% positive,
next transfer) but I see it as a blessing because if I had left, I wouldnt
get to help Wolfgang prepare for Baptism!
I dont have loads of time, so Ill get right down to the nitty gritty.
Last monday I dropped like a million Euro on winter gear. Yay for
ridiculous Austrian prices. But now Im suited up for the cold weather! I
also had to buy a shoulder bag because of the new dress code. But we still
had a decently enjoyable Pday nonetheless!
Tuesday was our last distrikt meeting of the transfer, so, like tradition
states, WE ATE AT HERBS! My goodness, every time I am amazing. about 30
pounds of schnitzel later... its so good. We had an Austausch afterwards so
I stayed in Wien with Elder Niedens, and Elder Richman went back to ST.
Pölten with elder Parkinson. It was the first time in 3 transfers that I
didnt stay and work in my area... I was having a little bit of trust issues
handing over the keys to two Goldens, but they did alright. Elder Niedens
and I went and taught a bunch of really old less actives that afternoon
(one of them was really nice, and really liked me for some reason. when I
left and told him I wouldnt be coming back because I was in another ward,
he made me write down his email and house address and promise to write him
a letter, so I guess Ill do that this week. oh the things we do for
members) And then we talk German class at the Zentrum. I was teaching the
beginning German class to non-english speakers (yep, our only way to
communicate was through the language that these people hadnt exactly
learned yet) but we had lots of fun learning how to make phone calls!
The next day we taught some more less actives and did some streeting on a
main street in Wien- it always feels great to contact in Wien becasue there
are SO MANY PEOPLE. St. Pölten feels so empty sometimes. especially in
August- vacation month.
I got back to ST. Pölten alive, and the other two managed not to burn the
apartment down, so we call the exchange a success. That night we taught
Wolfgang- amazing as usual- then we were getting ready to go to a LEss
active appointment, when it started to DUMP rain. and we were about 30
minutes away... by bike. so we suited up and set out in the rain. we were
only SOAKED when we got there- super spiritual lesson though so it was
worth it! And when we got home, Sister Brunnsteiner came over. she had
bought us a GANG LOAD of groceries! SO COOL!
Thursday we took a 2 hour train out to meet a man named Aman. when we
showed up in his little dorf... surprise surprise. phone off. no response.
So we had to wait for a train going back and just ride back to st. Pölten.
Waste of my life haha. We did have a sweet member lesson with the
Brunnsteiners though! So it wasnt a total flop.
Friday, after a lot of planning, we had some appointments with Kurt and
Schwester Dressler- and found an AWESOME potential named Anton. he was the
one guy we singled out in the crowd to talk to... and he was so interested!
Miracles!
Saturday we spent the morning with the family Seliga- he is less active and
we just started teaching his wife who isnt a member! They live about 2
hours away in a BEAUTIFUL place called Klamm- my goodness it is amazing.
They are the nicest people and the only reason he doesnt come to church is
because its so far away. But we are working on it! And his wife is
decently interested in hearing about what we believe- and they invited us
back in a week! That evening we had a lesson wiht Wolfgang again, and we
didnt even need to ask- he just announced he was coming to church. and HE
DID! It was his first time in the church and he loved it! He participated a
ton in the sunday school, and even quoted the BoM a couple times! AMAZING
it was sweet satisfaction that the last day of the transfer, after all of
our prayer and study and work that he came to church! He is so close and Im
so lucky to have the chance to work with him! I love missionary work! The
gospel is true!
Wish me luck as we begin the FIFTH TRANSFER! WHOOO!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
Ps. I put a gang load of pics on dropbox. Also- Happy Birthday to Nickelle!
Lieber Famile!
Grüß euch!
It was great to hear from some family members this week, and it sounds like
everything is coming alot great with the start of school and everything. I
cant believe the kids here are going back to school today! Its all been a
blur- I remember back when it was snowing everyday and the kids still had 3
months of school left... then it got warm and HOT and the school got out...
now school has started again and its COLD again. waking up this morning and
realizing how cold it was... ive almost been through a whole weather cycle,
all here in St. Pölten! and i guess thats an appropriate lead in to my big
announcement....
IM STAYING!!! Whoo! We had transfer calls on friday, and Im staying 6 more
weeks to finish training elder Parkinson. That means Ill have been here 7
months total by the time Im finished here (which is almost 99% positive,
next transfer) but I see it as a blessing because if I had left, I wouldnt
get to help Wolfgang prepare for Baptism!
I dont have loads of time, so Ill get right down to the nitty gritty.
Last monday I dropped like a million Euro on winter gear. Yay for
ridiculous Austrian prices. But now Im suited up for the cold weather! I
also had to buy a shoulder bag because of the new dress code. But we still
had a decently enjoyable Pday nonetheless!
Tuesday was our last distrikt meeting of the transfer, so, like tradition
states, WE ATE AT HERBS! My goodness, every time I am amazing. about 30
pounds of schnitzel later... its so good. We had an Austausch afterwards so
I stayed in Wien with Elder Niedens, and Elder Richman went back to ST.
Pölten with elder Parkinson. It was the first time in 3 transfers that I
didnt stay and work in my area... I was having a little bit of trust issues
handing over the keys to two Goldens, but they did alright. Elder Niedens
and I went and taught a bunch of really old less actives that afternoon
(one of them was really nice, and really liked me for some reason. when I
left and told him I wouldnt be coming back because I was in another ward,
he made me write down his email and house address and promise to write him
a letter, so I guess Ill do that this week. oh the things we do for
members) And then we talk German class at the Zentrum. I was teaching the
beginning German class to non-english speakers (yep, our only way to
communicate was through the language that these people hadnt exactly
learned yet) but we had lots of fun learning how to make phone calls!
The next day we taught some more less actives and did some streeting on a
main street in Wien- it always feels great to contact in Wien becasue there
are SO MANY PEOPLE. St. Pölten feels so empty sometimes. especially in
August- vacation month.
I got back to ST. Pölten alive, and the other two managed not to burn the
apartment down, so we call the exchange a success. That night we taught
Wolfgang- amazing as usual- then we were getting ready to go to a LEss
active appointment, when it started to DUMP rain. and we were about 30
minutes away... by bike. so we suited up and set out in the rain. we were
only SOAKED when we got there- super spiritual lesson though so it was
worth it! And when we got home, Sister Brunnsteiner came over. she had
bought us a GANG LOAD of groceries! SO COOL!
Thursday we took a 2 hour train out to meet a man named Aman. when we
showed up in his little dorf... surprise surprise. phone off. no response.
So we had to wait for a train going back and just ride back to st. Pölten.
Waste of my life haha. We did have a sweet member lesson with the
Brunnsteiners though! So it wasnt a total flop.
Friday, after a lot of planning, we had some appointments with Kurt and
Schwester Dressler- and found an AWESOME potential named Anton. he was the
one guy we singled out in the crowd to talk to... and he was so interested!
Miracles!
Saturday we spent the morning with the family Seliga- he is less active and
we just started teaching his wife who isnt a member! They live about 2
hours away in a BEAUTIFUL place called Klamm- my goodness it is amazing.
They are the nicest people and the only reason he doesnt come to church is
because its so far away. But we are working on it! And his wife is
decently interested in hearing about what we believe- and they invited us
back in a week! That evening we had a lesson wiht Wolfgang again, and we
didnt even need to ask- he just announced he was coming to church. and HE
DID! It was his first time in the church and he loved it! He participated a
ton in the sunday school, and even quoted the BoM a couple times! AMAZING
it was sweet satisfaction that the last day of the transfer, after all of
our prayer and study and work that he came to church! He is so close and Im
so lucky to have the chance to work with him! I love missionary work! The
gospel is true!
Wish me luck as we begin the FIFTH TRANSFER! WHOOO!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
Ps. I put a gang load of pics on dropbox. Also- Happy Birthday to Nickelle!
Week 29
Schöne Familie, wie gehts euch?!?!
Things here are just fantastic! I better get typing though, because I have
a lot to say, but Im paying by the minute here so Ill be fast!
Monday evening turning into ANOTHER hurricane- seriously. it was very wet.
But we wentout anyways to visit a fewpeople. No one was really outside, but
we went by Sam and actually got contact with him!HE said we could come back
this week! Then we went to Albert and HE was home! we were able to teach a
sweet lesson, and get a return appointment! We ended up walking home in the
pouring rain and Elder Parkinsons umbrella broke. Poor guy got soaked!
Tuesday morning, we left the apartment early to go pick up Elder Parkinsons
VISA... and it was early morning. like 7:30- I had never actually tried
street contacting so early in themorning before! I wasnt really feeling
like it, but I really feltlikeI couldnt just let the people walk by- so we
starting talking to people. turns out people are actually suprisingly happy
so early in the morning! We found 3 people in an hour that morning! we came
home to have studies, then we taught Wolfgang again that afternoon. We read
2 Nephi 2 again together- MY GOODNESS he is so insightful but teaching his
is so stressful. He is not afraid at anypoint to just say STOP, EXPLAIN. so
trying to explain 2 Nephi 2 the best I could in german... i think it was
acceptable, because he seemed satisfied with the answers. He had some big
questions we had to study for though- like how forordination works, and how
free agency played a roll in the pre earth life. seriously deep guy. He has
just always had these questions that other religions couldnt answer, but he
feels like we do have the answer. So pretty much every lesson I walk away
with a new list of questions to study for. Sometimes I wish I could just
call dad because I know he has all the answers! Its good though to study
and find them ourselves- its helped me learn alot. We had a PFK afterwards
all about missionary work and how the ward can help. We are making slow
progress, but the ward is finally getting a little excited!
Wednesday we gave out Books of Mormon in Turkisch, Albanian, and Romanian,
but none in German haha. we also met with several less actives! Its great
to see the less actives progressing to coming back to church! This area is
so great! after being 'dead' for so long, we are teaching people and less
actives are starting to come back!! Its awesome!
Thursday we did service for Schwester Sindl to finally earn our lunch with
her! It was actually really fun, she is probably one of my favorite sisters
in the ward. The afternoon was a little harder though... all three of our
appointments fell out. so we ended up walking all over the place and
nothing worked out. a little dissapointing, but we made it through!
Friday was awesome! Zone konferenz all day in Wien, we learned SO MUCH!
Saturday went AMAZING! We had a great planning session, and then 4
appointments back to back! It felt like the old days with Elder Janis! Plus
one of those was with Wolfgang, and Bruder Bauer came. He agreed also that
Wolfgang is legit! We are getting the support of the members!
Sunday after church we had a lunch with the Hirschmanns, and wolfgang
came!! He sat down and started reading the Joseph Smith teachings book
while we sang hymns as a family- he seemed to really enjoy it! Everything
is progressing so well with him! Its a miracle!!
I love you all! The church is true!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
Things here are just fantastic! I better get typing though, because I have
a lot to say, but Im paying by the minute here so Ill be fast!
Monday evening turning into ANOTHER hurricane- seriously. it was very wet.
But we wentout anyways to visit a fewpeople. No one was really outside, but
we went by Sam and actually got contact with him!HE said we could come back
this week! Then we went to Albert and HE was home! we were able to teach a
sweet lesson, and get a return appointment! We ended up walking home in the
pouring rain and Elder Parkinsons umbrella broke. Poor guy got soaked!
Tuesday morning, we left the apartment early to go pick up Elder Parkinsons
VISA... and it was early morning. like 7:30- I had never actually tried
street contacting so early in themorning before! I wasnt really feeling
like it, but I really feltlikeI couldnt just let the people walk by- so we
starting talking to people. turns out people are actually suprisingly happy
so early in the morning! We found 3 people in an hour that morning! we came
home to have studies, then we taught Wolfgang again that afternoon. We read
2 Nephi 2 again together- MY GOODNESS he is so insightful but teaching his
is so stressful. He is not afraid at anypoint to just say STOP, EXPLAIN. so
trying to explain 2 Nephi 2 the best I could in german... i think it was
acceptable, because he seemed satisfied with the answers. He had some big
questions we had to study for though- like how forordination works, and how
free agency played a roll in the pre earth life. seriously deep guy. He has
just always had these questions that other religions couldnt answer, but he
feels like we do have the answer. So pretty much every lesson I walk away
with a new list of questions to study for. Sometimes I wish I could just
call dad because I know he has all the answers! Its good though to study
and find them ourselves- its helped me learn alot. We had a PFK afterwards
all about missionary work and how the ward can help. We are making slow
progress, but the ward is finally getting a little excited!
Wednesday we gave out Books of Mormon in Turkisch, Albanian, and Romanian,
but none in German haha. we also met with several less actives! Its great
to see the less actives progressing to coming back to church! This area is
so great! after being 'dead' for so long, we are teaching people and less
actives are starting to come back!! Its awesome!
Thursday we did service for Schwester Sindl to finally earn our lunch with
her! It was actually really fun, she is probably one of my favorite sisters
in the ward. The afternoon was a little harder though... all three of our
appointments fell out. so we ended up walking all over the place and
nothing worked out. a little dissapointing, but we made it through!
Friday was awesome! Zone konferenz all day in Wien, we learned SO MUCH!
Saturday went AMAZING! We had a great planning session, and then 4
appointments back to back! It felt like the old days with Elder Janis! Plus
one of those was with Wolfgang, and Bruder Bauer came. He agreed also that
Wolfgang is legit! We are getting the support of the members!
Sunday after church we had a lunch with the Hirschmanns, and wolfgang
came!! He sat down and started reading the Joseph Smith teachings book
while we sang hymns as a family- he seemed to really enjoy it! Everything
is progressing so well with him! Its a miracle!!
I love you all! The church is true!
Adventure is out there!
Elder Bartholomew
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)