Introducing: Sister Smith

Wednesday, 10th:

Transfer day! Sister Neumann and I parted ways pretty early in the day, and I needed a companion, so Sister Howe of Wiener Neustadt and I partied it up in her area. We taught a lesson and had a lunch appointment with a member family, and I have to say, that was my favorite part of the day. This family's dad is from Spain, and it just made me think of Mark. The whole time I was just thinking "This is not an Austrian house. This is a Spanish home in Austria." The kids were a little wild and the father was very loud and made a lot of jokes (I didn't quite hear an "Even the Pope poops", but he came close a couple times), and all I could think of was all the stories I heard from Mark's mission. I wish you could meet them, Mark! You'd probably love them. I was so sad to leave because I knew I wouldn't be coming back to see them again...

Then we headed back to Wien and picked up our new companions! Sister Smith is officially here. She is from Idaho and takes pride in her potato knowledge, but also gets a little offended when people ask if she's from a potato farm (she's not). She's in her 7th transfer and just moved here from the Stuttgart Military ward. Isn't that where Jenny Jackson and her husband live? Or is that somewhere else?

We ran right from the train station to the institute center because we had a Friend coming to institute! We had a wonderful lesson about D&C 3, and Mario stayed after for dinner and socializing! He had a lot of fun, and we were so grateful that he finally has connections in the ward, and we're hoping that encourages him to come to church.

Thursday, 11th:

We went to the VISA office and I finally have a VISA! Also, S. Smith is now officially a resident of Wien. It took a while (as any government office does), so we decided to get a Döner on the way home before she unpacked. As we were waiting in line, I brushed my hair out of my face and felt this incredibly sharp pain on my hand. I looked down and saw a hornet fly away! I haven't had a bee sting since I was 6! I was quickly reminded of how painful they can be. I kept my cool, though, and got my Döner. Then we called the Mission Nurse (I haven't been stung since I was 6, remember? I totally had no clue what the treatment was, RIP) and she told us to put some ice on it. So we ran to the nearest Inter-Spar (which is basically a gas station store, sans the gas station) and grabbed some frozen sweet potato fries to put on it. We checked out, and as we were leaving these two guys ran us down and started talking to us. The one guy was a member of the church from Mexico and only spoke Spanish, and his friend could speak some English. He said that his friend really wanted him to go to our church one Sunday, but that he couldn't find any buildings. We excitedly gave him our number and parted ways. A couple days later, I realized that we never got their number, so we can't contact them and we have yet to hear from them. *sigh* It was a blessing that I got that bee sting so that I could meet them, but it also made me not think clearly, so RIP. Eines Tages, werden wir sie wieder treffen.

But yeah, then S. Smith unpacked and I cleaned up a little bit and organized my things (because I never officially unpacked, I just kind of slowly moved out of my suitcase before just chucking things into our closet).

We went to the institute center again because we had a meeting with Mario. But after 30 minutes he texted and said that he thought we meant on Saturday. *skeptical mmhmming* We confirmed our appointment like 3 times, dude. But whatever, we're still in contact and we should be able to meet again.

Friday, 12th:

We had an appointment with Majid! The purest soul! We taught him the First Lesson. I let S. Smith lead the lesson, because I wanted to see how she taught. It was weird, because I was used to S. Neumann's style of teaching. S. Neumann follows Preach My Gospel as a lesson outline, and S. Smith follows the Restoration Pamphlet; I think I prefer following PMG, but I do also see the merit of the pamphlet. Idk. Majid also had a lot of deep questions that we weren't able to answer, but I'm glad he's thinking about some of these things! 

Then we went straight to another appointment that we had with a girl who's here in Wien studying healthcare. She reminded me a lot of MTC companion S. Baird, which is weird because they're from different parts of England. But yeah, she was really sweet and accepted pretty much everything we taught. I'm not sure if she believes it, but I think she likes how it sounds. I hope she prays about everything. :)

Saturday, 13th:

So. Saturday was fun. Before S. Neumann left, she agreed to go on a hike with the Relief Society in our ward. They asked us to give a spiritual thought, so we were excited thinking that we could spend 1-2, at most 3, hours building a relationship with the FHV and then give a spiritual thought. Then S. Neumann went away, and I realized that I wasn't prepared for a hike (mostly because we got a message saying that hiking equipment was VERY important). So during a dinner hour (with permission from our Zone Leaders) I got some good hiking shoes that could double as winter proselyting shoes. Then on Saturday, we left for this hike at around 9.30. After a while we were still in the car, and we asked about how long the hike was expected to take...let's just say we got back at 17.00. It was a gorgeous walk on the top of a hill-mountain called Hohe Wand! I had been expecting a Mt. Timpanogos kind of intensity from the way they described it, but it was just a walking trail that was a little steep in some parts. I took a lot of pretty pictures to cope with the stress of using up a whole day for a basically-p-day activity. It was funny because half of me was so happy to be in nature, and half of me was just thinking about how we weren't going to be back in time for St. Pölten's baptism. But I emailed President Brown about it and all is forgiven. But he counseled (and we agreed) that we're going to say that our P-Day activity was the hike, so today was just cleaning and food shopping and letter-writing.

But I kind of made it sound like it wasn't enjoyable. But it was so fun! I loved the walk, and being out in nature, and it was with some amazing women in our ward. I loved the pretty colors, and they even bought lunch for us towards the middle-end of the hike at a little Gasthaus. I had some amazing jägerspätzle and topfen knödl. Mmm. And there were deer that you could feed some grain and the trees were gold and red and not brown and it made me happy. So taking away the missionary stress, it was perfect. 

And then we ended the night with Ward Mission Council, which was nice to sit down after the long day. Plus our GML is basically the best, and he brought chocolate.

Sunday, 14th:

We had a Friend come to church! Yay! The night before, our GML had challenged us to text every single one of our Friends that we had had contact with within the last 3 weeks, so not being ones to back down from a challenge, we did just that. There were a few people that I was pretty sure weren't going to respond, but then Dalil not only responded but he came to church! It was so exciting! He said he loved it, even though he didn't understand everything, and that he wanted to set up another appointment with us. It was truly a miracle. 

Monday, 15th:

We had Distrikt Rat and I slaughtered the hymns as a sight-read them, as per usual. But! I do it every week, so I get blessings for being willing, right? Haha, I think it's just a sign that I need to use the blessing of a piano in our apartment and actually practice.

We went Englisch Kurs finding, so we handed out a bunch of pass-along cards for English Course. It was so fun! People stopped and asked us what organization we were with which let us talk about the church, and one woman even asked if I came from heaven because she was so grateful! I want to do it more, and I don't know why we hadn't done it before! We're teaching Englisch Kurs tonight, so we'll see if the turnout is any better than it has been. *crossing fingers*

Tuesday, 16th:

Like I said earlier, today has been cleaning and shopping. A lot of cleaning. We're both kind of fed up with the extra dust and clutter, and we have a mission-wide declutter day, so we decided to prepare a little for that. I wiped down every surface of our fridge and defrosted the freezer (so satisfying) and threw out old food. S. Smith went through our cupboards and cleaned the bathroom. I have to say, I love cleaning. And dedicating a whole chunk of time to doing it... Amazing.

But yeah, so that's been our week.

In regards to how Sister Smith and I are getting along, I feel like things are okay. I have missed S. Neumann a lot, but I can't expect S. Smith and I to have the same level of bonding after only a few days. I've also found myself doing and saying some of the same things that S. Neumann always did. Mostly, it's been an adjustment with learning how someone else lives and does missionary work, and seeing how we can fit our methods together. But I'm excited for this next bit. :)

Favorite new word: Deutscher Schäferhund - German Shepherd (lol)

Favorite funny story: How much I've come to love and appreciate the little things that make adults adults. I.e. Cleaning.

Favorite spiritual thought: I've started President Nelson's challenge to read the whole Book of Mormon with the Savior in mind. I've been underlining every reference to His name in red and highlighting everything said about Him in pink. Through doing this, I realized that every time someone is wicked or complaining or in general forgetting God, that Jesus Christ isn't mentioned. And when a prophet like Lehi or Nephi comes in and testifies to them and exhorts them to repent, that's when Christ comes back onto the pages. It was so interesting! I hadn't really noticed that before - when we turn our backs on Christ, it's no wonder we can't see His influence in our lives. But when someone helps us to turn back around and face the right direction, we can see Him clearly. *pow* *spiritual mind being blown* *but not really because that makes perfect sense*

Love you all!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Hamilton

Pic 1 - A LOT of wood

Pic 2 - The new duo

Pic 3 - Lunch on a mountain with the FHV

Pic 4 - Pretty colours!