Quartier Belvedere
District p-day was basically my favorite so far - I've said it before, but living with one person immer is really teaching me how to appreciate my circle of friends. Not that I didn't before, but I've learned how much I depended on them for emotional support, haha.
That night, we taught Zohreh. She is truly an angel! We taught her the Second Lesson (the Plan of Salvation), and when we were at the Spirit World she got so excited that her family (back home in a country without religious freedom) would have a chance to learn about Christ. At the end, we invited her to be baptised, and she said she had already been baptised in Salzburg. She showed us a video, even. We told her that was great and then explained that our church has the proper authority, and then she accepted! She was so happy when she left. :)
We had exchanges from Thursday to Friday, so S. Neumann went down to Graz, and I stayed in Wien. I kind of wanted to go to Graz, because nature, but the train ride to meet in the middle led us through mountains and trees and quaint little dorfs, so in the end it still filled my soul. :) It also reminded me how much I miss not being in a city. But it's okay! I have the rest of my life to not live in Vienna, so I'll just enjoy it for now. ;) Anyway, so Tausch - it was good in a couple of ways. I learned that I have already developed a habit of just GOING. I didn't realize how abnormal it was to walk up the escalators instead of standing, or to always fill your time with something. I'm very grateful to S. Neumann for pushing me time-wise, because I feel like we're a lot more efficient than we would otherwise be. Second, I know my way around Vienna! I had to lead, because y'know, I live here. That was terrifying. But I did it. :)
On Saturday, we visited Andrea, the sweetest old lady who wants so badly to be baptised - and good news, her doctor said she's getting better! Her friend that lives with her, Clara, made some Karo Kaffe for us - which is apparently a big thing here or something amongst the members (it's not-coffee made out of wheat so it has the bitter and general smell of coffee, but isn't coffee, idk) - but she put sooo much sugar in it that at the bottom I was drinking sugar sludge. 
But yeah, so we went through the baptismal interview questions with Andrea, and then I played on their piano because they wanted to sing - but Clara was covering the notes because she was pointing with her finger to follow along (luckily I basically have "Nearer My God to Thee" memorized).
Then we ran to our next appointment with Nooshin, Zohreh's friend (Zohreh came too). It was awesome, because Nooshin was able to explain some things to Zohreh that we couldn't because Nooshin has better German. She asked us if we pray to Joseph Smith, and when we said "No, we only pray to God", she got so happy and talked about how she believes she's a child of God, so why wouldn't she be able to communicate with Him directly, instead of needing to go through someone else? She was so excited to hear that we believed that, too! She took a Book of Mormon and was really excited to read it.
On Sunday, after we had done our studies and eaten dinner, we got a call from the Elders asking if we had forgotten our dinner appointment (which, to be fair, we hadn't - the wife wrote it on the wrong day on the sign-up). So we ran on full-stomachs to a dinner appointment, in which we filled our stomachs even more. I felt so sick. But the 10/11-year-old daughter reminded me of Sam, so hi Sam! 
Monday, we did our weekly planning since we had missed it on Sunday due to the surprise dinner appointment. Then we went to another dinner appointment with the Elders. It's the most at-ease I've been around anyone here, and my German flowed so easily! Also, the dessert reminded me of mom's Swedish apple pie, and we drank Holunderblut Almdudler and ate Frikadeller. Shout out to everyone who knows what any of that is, haha.
Today we went to Belvedere! Finally! We walked from upper Belvedere to lower Belvedere and took pictures all along the way. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go inside Belvedere and look at the Klimt pieces (
) because it was expensive and S. Neumann was feeling sick from so much sun, so we left. But the next time I go, I'm totally splurging.
Then we went shopping for jackets because they're starting to pop out in the shops and we wanted to be prepared for the cold that's on the horizon, and neither of us had good jackets. So I coughed up some money for that, and that hurt me a little inside but it will serve me well in the coming months.
Favorite funny story: I'm turning into an old woman. I have to force myself to stay awake until 9:30, going to bed at 10 feels late, and 10:30 is death. I actually had a different favorite funny story, but I forgot what it was so instead you get to hear about how missions change you as a person (RIP 2am bed times)
Favorite new word: Hungertod - starvation (literally "hunger death" #
Favorite spiritual thought: Read Alma 48 about the Title of Liberty, and then make your own personal banner with a scripture or a spiritual goal you have and put it somewhere you'll see it and remember what you stand for.
Pic 1: Belvedere!
Pic 2: The train ride to halfway-to-Graz
Pic 3: "An original American recipe"
Pic 4: The cutest converse that you'd best believe I am going to buy one day #moderndirndlmadl
Pic 5: Belvedere, but with the traditional pose
Pic 6: Dirndls!
Pic 7: Us, at belvedere
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