Grüßi von Wien

Well, this week has been very exciting! For starters, I'm in Vienna! Specifically, the 2nd Ward. We're allowed to proselyte all over Vienna, but if one of our investigators is from a different ward, we're supposed to pass them off to the other missionaries.

So I left you guys off last Sunday. The next day was full of instruction and a weird play put on by the teachers.

Tuesday was travel day! We said many goodbyes early in the morning, and then set off for the airport. Within just a few minutes of leaving, I realized that I had left my passport in the MTC office amidst all of the goodbyes. Luckily, our bus driver was kind enough to lend me his phone, I called, and my dear, sweet MTC President grabbed my passport and drove behind us to the airport and I got my packet right on time. Luckily, after that, everything went perfectly well! 

When we arrived in Munich, my mission President, his wife, and the office elders were there to greet us. They took our bags, gave us some döners, and then sent us on the train towards the mission home so we could practice contacting auf Deutsch - that was super stressful. That night, we played some games, ate some (amazing) food, had a devotional, and learned where we were going! I'm the only girl from my MTC group going to Austria, so that's fun, but I also got most of the guys which makes me happy. Fun fact: almost exactly a year ago I felt like I was going to be serving in Austria, and when I made my official guess for where is serve before I opened my mission call, I put down Vienna.

The next morning we gathered our things and left for our various assignments. The train ride was a little long, but I loved every minute of it. Trains in general are cool, but trains in Austria are even better. The landscapes were so green, and I could see the architecture gradually becoming more like eastern Europe... When we switched trains in Salzburg, I about died because it was so pretty, and I could see the castle (even the specific balcony/tower) where my family and I stood just a year ago.... Then we arrived in Vienna! I met my comp, S. Neumann, a little ball of energy from Los Angeles. Her grandparents emigrated from Germany, hence her native-sounding name. We dropped off my luggage (I live in Prater) and went straight to Mariahilferstraße to go street-contacting. It was an exhausting day.

The next few days kind of blended together - we had a few meetings, had an investigator drop us, we were fed ham sandwiches by a very nice (albeit unique) woman and her sister (named Frau Martina and Ingrid) ), I played the organ at a baptism (I did fine until they surprised me with "Wunschlieder", in which people call out whatever song they want to sing and I have to play it - I swear they intentionally called out the hardest songs to sightread), I ate schnitzel, I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting and had someone come up to me afterwards and say that I have better German than some missionaries that have been out for months,  we had a dinner appointment with a young couple named the Antonopoulos family (they guy served in Greece, s/o to S. Baird for teaching me just enough Greek to impress him), etc. 

Today, we visited Schönbrunn Palace - it was gorgeous. We just walked around the outside and up the middle gardens to a fountain. Gorgeous!

It's weird how much happens, but how little I remember. Oh! We taught a lesson to these two guys who were rolling joints throughout the meeting, and we were asked by someone on the street "you can't have sex, right?" The interesting stories begin.

Liebe Grüße, 

Sister Hamilton