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

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!

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

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

Woche 27 - there is beauty all around...where the Hischmanns live

Grüß euch!!!

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

Woche 26- Hurricanes and Humidity- what more could you want?

Lieber Familie!

grüß euch!

One more week under the belt... and what do ya know, 6 months down! What is this?! Where did all the time go?? I believe tomorrow is the official 6 month mark since I entered the MTC! CRAZY.

Well, lets just get right down to business! starting with MONDAY... here... we... go!

Monday, after we wrote our letters we had a zone PDay in Wien and we all just bought junk food and played board games together at the Youth Center in Wien. It was actually SUPER fun to get to know the other Wien missionaries better! Afterwards we hurried back to St. Pölten asap to get to our lesson at 6 o'clock with Sister Dressler- a less active who is TOTALLY becoming more active since we started meeting with her! She is great! But we always meet out in her garden so we can keep the rules. Strangely enough, it was BLAZING hot ALL DAY, but suddenly when we started our lesson, despite the fact that the sun was shining, it started dumping rain! so we had to say a quick prayer and reschedule. but we had two more appointments that night, so we grabbed our umbrellas and set off to meet with Hassan Gezici, the man who has been preparing for baptism. on the way to his house however... the rain got a little worse that bad. Lets just say, it was literally worse than I have EVER seen before. we couldnt even see, and the wind started blowing too. Basically hurricane status if you asked me. but anyways, we just kept pushing through the park on the way to Hassan appartment. At first we were kinda screaming because it was just so insane, then we couldnt even see where we were walking, so we were feeling our way along the building to the door, and when we got in the doorway, dripping from head to toe, we just laughed our head off at how extreme that was! the lesson, unfortunatley took a turn for the worse. Hassan told us he likes what weve been teaching but it was just too hard to understand everthing, and that he and his son dont have desires anymore. So.. that was two of our baptismal dates gone unfortunately. But we just keep pressing on! Our last appointment of the evening fell through, so we went by on a potential investigator, turns out they gave us a fake address soo... we got super lost trying to find it, and ended up with 10 mintues to get home when we were probably 30 minutes atleast. SO we took off running through the streets! and we BOOKED it- and made it home just in time, and then just about died. Atleast i did- Elder Parkinson is a soccer player so hes used to long distance running (or should I say sprinting)! It was a miracle.

Tuesday we had distrikt meeting with the brand new distrikt- Sister Lewis (a sister in the Wien 1 ward) is ALSO from Orem- that makes three of us in the district. We are taking over Vienna! After the meeting we met with Wolfgang. I dont know if I told yall about Wolfgang, but he is our High potential investigator right now. I found him on an exchange back when I was fairly new, in my second transfer. I have kept contact with him since then, and we are finally teaching him! He has an AMAZING life story and is totally prepared. He was skeptical about meeting with us at first- but he said he knows that god led us to meet, because of all the contacts weve had the past months (aka me calling him every few weeks asking if we could meet- somehow he took that as a sign. works for me!) he has already read the first 11 chapters of nephi and knows its true! In the middle of our lesson, i shared 2 nephi 2 25 as a part of the first lesson- that we are supposed to be happy. When we opened to the page, he just stopped me and said he felt like we should read the whole chapter. So we actually read the whole chapter with him on the spot! He is a very deep thinker, and he said all his thoughts line up perfectly with what is described in 2 nephi 2! It was AMAZINGLY COOL. wow. super mind blowing spiritual moment.

Wednesday we did quite a bit of dooring- Elder Parkisons first experience! Wouldnt ya know it, the very first door he knocks- the lady opens the door and we have an amazing conversation. It must be his golden faith or something.

Thursday, we were invited by a member family to visit Mauthausend concentration camp memorial- the largest concentration camp in Austria. Is was a life changing experience- we spent the day touring the facilities- seeing the furnaces, the gas chambers, the baracks, the quarry. It was such a somber, thoughtful place. It gave me a lot to think about- its something you study all the time in school, but suddenly BEING there makes it all so real. That night after we got home, we went out to do some street contacting and we found a super cool guy named Sam! He is awesome adn we will start teaching him this week!

Friday we packed with service, a lunch with a member, and then another appointment with Sister Dressler! Plus we just did a bunch of weekly planning. It was a million degrees no worries. We sweated quite a bit.

Saturday was a finding day in Wien! Plus... it was also the day we started our mission fast- a fast that every companionship can have a baptism this transfer! We also did a special fast with Bruder Bauer for Andrea- our old investigator who got mixed up with some antimormon material. The finding day was way cool! It was super hot but we found some cool potentials for Wien.

Thats my week in a nutshell! I hope you enjoyed reading! A lot of cool experiences... and a lot of opportunities to grow! Just pray for us to find more people to teach! We need it!

Thanks for the support and love!

Adventure is out there!

Elder Bartholomew

P.s. Happy aniversary Scott and Julie! and happy birthday to Noah!

Woche 25- Neue Golden--- nochmal!

 Hi Everyone,
I ran that first part through google translate, and this is what it said:
(hmm?  companion?)
Dear Family,
Say hello to you!
This last week was REALLY cool. I got a new employee! 

Lieber Familie,

Grüß euch!

Diese letzte woche war ECHT cool. Ich habe einen neuen Mitarbeiter bekommen!

Im going to have to write fast to kinda relay all the info from this last week because it was an exciting one!

Tuesday we had our last district meeting together- and we said goodbye to Sister Linford- shes been here since my first transfer and she is going home! It was so weird to talk to her the day before her mission was finished. She really didnt know what to say- it hadnt really hit her yet that she was done. She didnt seem like she wanted to go home. In district meeting, Sister Judd shared a though about obediance, and she had us imagine the preexistence, and think about why we chose to come to earth- what our personal reason might have been. It was such a strong spirit as she testified that we knew why we wanted to come, and we knew it would be WORTH it to be obediant, becaquse we could see the prize too.

Wednesday we woke up super early because we got invited to come offer some service on a farm in a little dorf called Böheim Kirchen- but we still wanted to work out before because we are crazy like that, so we got up EXTRA early to work out, then we caught a train at 6:30 to Böheim Kirchen to stack Hay rolls in a barn- its was super fun. It made me want to be on a farm someday! That day we had 4 lessons in a row, plus a dinner with a member for Elder Horlachers last day. Then we came home to do some last minute packing to get elder Horlacher ready to go to Stuttgart!

Thursday was the transfer day... we went to Wien early in the morning to say goodbye to E. Horlacher and the others. There were a couple who were going HOME- like they were done. It was emotional for them- its super weird to see these missionaries who are my friends and imagine that right now they are sitting at home in America. WEIRD!  Elder Mongia and I spent the day together, getting the apartment ready and baking cinamon rolls (ok I didnt actually do any of the baking, but I cleaned while he cooked) then we went back in the evening to pick up our new companions! Elder Mongia got Elder Herzog and I got...

ELDER PARKINSON!!!!

My new Golden- he is from New Mexico, and he is super cool! He went to a year of BYU, but he lived in Heleman so I never actually met him. He is super excited to be here, and its nice because he never complains and he does pretty much everything I ask him too- dont worry im not abusing the power. Im still doing pretty much everything while hes getting used to life here, but when I feel like he can handle it I give him tasks and he does them gladly. ITs great. That night after we unpacked him for 20 minutes, we got out the door to go CONTACTING! It was super fun and I could tell he liked the experience even though we didnt even find any potentials. As long as hes happy I think were good.

Friday we had lunch with Sindl- she made a traditional Austria salad- Wurst Salat. Its pretty much 3/4 diced onions (Austrians love onions) and a little bit of meat slices- all in basalmic oil. Its interesting. Poor Elder Parkinson didnt understand any of her crazy Austrian German. He had a fun time though.

Saturday we had a meeting in Wien, and on the way we actually had someone come talk to us on the train! and he spoke english, so that was good for Elder Parkinson.

Sunday it was 39°... sheesh that is so hot. we are roasting like toasted cheese curds here. Someone just needs to send Europe a memo and say its time to get AC! We had an impromptu lunch with the hirschman family, and it was actually a miraculous experience! Elder Parkinson and I rode the bus to their house because they didnt have enough room in the car- and Br. Hirschman just went straight up to the bus driver and started bearing his testimony of the book of mormon! That dude is a missionary through and through- they he introduced us! at first the driver was super skeptical, but we he heard out testimonies, he got really quiet and serious- super strong spirit! At lunch, they invited all their neighbors over to play music and sing with us- and a couple came! We sang hymns from the hymn book together, and suddenly in the middle of it all, Br. Hirschmann announced that I was resonsible in the church for giving "sermons" to those who want to learn more about Christ, and that I sermon prepared for them (all the catholic neighbors)- luckily they had Jesus der Christus close by, and I pulled out a section I had read the day before and talked about the strenth christ gives us to perform miracles through us- its was super fun. one of the neighbors actually filmed me to watch me later! It was a funny experience.

Well thats this week! Thanks for the prayers- we really appreciate them! The work is going forward! The church is true!

Adventure is out there!

Elder Bartholomew