The Suspense is Building

Wednesday, 26th:

We ate lunch at Schwester Beer's house (the Relief Society leader), and I think I've said it before but she has the absolute CUTEST baby. Like honestly, the biggest temptation on my mission has been to break the rule about not holding babies. She's just so sweet! And plus, they were wearing matching yellow-polkadot hoodies! My heart!  Also, she gave us a whole box of blueberry muffin tea and showed us her mission scrapbook from when she was serving at Temple Square, so you know it was a party. 

We met with Dalil for the first time and gave him a Persian Book of Mormon. He's sweet, but he's another person who likes to share a lot of what he believes (which is great, as long as he let's us talk and is open and willing to hear our message). 

We had our weekly Book of Mormon extravaganza again. We had a fun experience with that! We were talking to this girl, and she was only a little bit interested (more being polite than anything), and this guy walks up to us and starts telling us off for believing in the Book of Mormon, and he said a lot of things but basically said that our religion was trash. We tried telling him that we could address some of his concerns and talk to him later, but that we were in another conversation. He walked away, but quickly came back and kept arguing at us. We were very patient, and acknowledged that he has the agency to believe what he believes, etc. Then this girl starts arguing with him and saying that he can't tell us that what we believe is false and wrong, and that it's un-Christ-like of him to try and start an argument (he kept saying we weren't true Christians). She defended us, and he walked away. And because she saw that we reacted with charity and patience, she ended up taking a Book of Mormon and she even said that she was going to hold it up for everyone to see on her way home (so it was also a little out of spite). 

Also, during this I met two Greek people! So shout-out to Sister Baird for teaching me how to say "Good day" in Greek. 

We had dinner with the Vincent Familie, who has a son serving a mission in Madagascar with Beth! So that was a party. And they gave us chocolate chip cookies ️

I got a little bit of a cold, but it only lasted for a day or two, so all's well! 

Thursday, 27th:

We went to the VISA office to see if I could pick up my VISA card, but they said it should be coming in the mail over the next couple of days. As of yet, it still hasn't arrived. 

We had lunch with Julia Schäffner, and I tried a fig for the first time. I gotta say, I don't get the appeal. I think that's one fruit I don't like. 

Friday, 28th:

We spent basically all day on the Mission portal (so training videos and exams and such), because I wasn't even half done, and I'm not going to be training within a week. So... It's funny, actually, because we had started it my first week in the field, but S. Neumann was antsy to get out and do stuff, and I didn't want to bug her, so I said we were good to go (meaning for the day, intending to come back to it) and she interpreted that as it was finished. So we both put it out of our minds until this week. So oops! I still need to finish a few last things 

Saturday, 29th:

We met with Clara and Andrea. They haven't really been coming to church because of Andrea's health (it's hard to travel for a whole hour each way), so we talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and how important it is to come to church, even when you're not feeling the best. Thanks Mom and Dad, for teaching me that from a young age. ️And miracle! They came to church the next day! 

We met with Dalil for the second time, and he had read the Book of Mormon! Yay! His brother was visiting for a couple of days, and he even took time out of that to come to our appointment, which was sweet. 

Sunday, 30th:

The Elders had an investigator come to church, and she stayed for all three hours and sat next to us in Relief Society. She was super sweet, and seemed pretty excited about it! We invited her to General Conference this Sunday, and she said she'd love to come! 

We taught Leonie another NB lesson, and had a good laugh right before it because S. Neumann winked at her while she was talking to E. Weisler, who's going home (and had just told her to find him on Facebook (to keep in contact with the people he taught, as per the white handbook)). Leonie got a little freaked out because S. Neumann winked right then, and so S. Neumann had fun explaining that she winks at people to say hello, and it's a bad habit, and NOT that she was suggesting he was flirting with her. 

We met with Obaidullah for the first time. I was a little weirded out because he called us twice during church, but S. Neumann reminded me that people are probably weirded out by us. We met with him and he LOVES to talk. So teaching him is going to be a party, since I already struggle to jump into normal conversations where people pause to breathe. 

Monday, 1st:

We had our Training call, which is where the Assistants to the President hold a group Skype call and everyone from my MTC group in our mission participates. We share experiences, etc. But I think that even though it was only our second, that it's going to be our last because we're no longer going to be training! Wooh! They said that the ideal is that we are all now ready to train someone during our third transfer. I cringed internally because that was one of my goals, and I feel so far from ready. But who knows? Maybe I secretly am, and I just need a push to see that. 

We had Distrikt rat, which was highly entertaining before it started, because our Elders had gone to a Yoga meditation studio in order to talk to their potential, and he said he would let them teach him after a session. So they meditated for 45 minutes, and they taught us how to do it. Basically, it's the stereotypical little kid sitting on the floor saying "ooooomm" thing. It was highly amusing.

We had dinner with the Calabek Family and the Elders, which was enjoyable as usual. Bruder Calabek used to be the mission leader, so he understands what we do. The Elders were joking around about who was the tallest, so we took a quick break from dinner for them to measure to see who was taller. Bruder Calabek won.

Tuesday, 2nd:

Today has been nothing but shopping. Spending money is not my ideal way to spend my only free time, but I got some essential winter things that I didn't have before. So now I'm prepared!

And next week I'm going to make sure we do something different. ;)

Favorite new word: hoppla - oops (I always heard Mom saying it growing up, but I never realized it was an actual thing!)

Favorite funny story: The meditation thing that the Elders taught us. 

Favorite spiritual thought: General Conference is coming up! Make sure to think of a spiritual question and watch Conference while looking for an answer. You'll get a lot more out of it!

Much has been the same here! We're getting transfer calls on General Conference Saturday, so the next time I write, you'll know if I'm staying here in Wien or if I'm going somewhere else! S. Neumann has been here for 6 months now, though, so I doubt she'd be staying for another transfer. My guess is that I'll be staying and getting a different companion. Schauen wir, gell?

Liebe Grüße, 

Sister Hamilton