Lots and Lots of Dooring

Wednesday, 28th:

Dooring! I was surprised with how much we got done. 

We ate lunch at Schwester Auer's home (the half-Dane). Turns out she's also half-Spanish. So that was fun hearing how her parents met. She made us tacos, and then we ate waffles with ice cream for dessert. She was very sweet, and her son was a stereotypical 13-year-old, so we had a lot of laughs. Part of the way through, there was a knock on the door so she stood up to see what was up. After a couple minutes she came back looking really confused and said that the police were asking if she knew whose car was parked out there, and she had thought we came on the bus so she turned them away. Sister Spratt and I jumped up to go see what was wrong with our car!

The police were about to drive away, they saw us, said something about 19 Uhr, and pulled away. All of us were so confused, because we looked at the notice they left us and it didn't look like a parking ticket. So bless her soul, this member accompanied us to the police station to translate police-German into normal-German-with-small-words-that-we-can-actually-understand. It turns out that we had parked somewhere that made the road too narrow, because two cars couldn't pass through (but let me tell you what, 2 cars can't pass through most tiny European roads - including this one). We were also parked at the end of a curve, in a place where in America would be fine but in Europe isn't. So after explaining that we were both from America and didn't know that it was a rule that there had to be 5.5 meters free or whatever is, they let us go with a very intense look as he ripped up the notice. Ah, the joys of being an ignorant American! I'm certain this is why Europe hates us. So now we have been very careful about where we park.

We hopped on a train in the evening, and stayed the night in Salzburg so that we could be on time to our Mission Tour in the morning in Münich.

Thursday, 29th:

We woke up and rode into München. It was a little bit chaotic, as all of the German and Austrian missionaries from our Mission (4 zones in total) came together. The ZLs and STLs met Elder Sabin, the General Authority who gave the talk "Stand Up Inside and Be All In", right before the conference started so that he could ask us to think about a couple of questions for MLC the next day.

We learned a lot from him, and it was fun catching up with some people that I haven't seen since the MTC.

The ZLs and STLs went to the Mission Home for a devotional, where the Swiss ZLs and STLs met up with us. We didn't actually have a devotional, but ended up playing games instead because everyone was so worn out from the spiritual high we had been on.

Then all of the Elders left, and Sister Brown read us all a bed time story, and she and President Brown told us the story of how they met/started dating/fell in love. It was the best. :D

Friday, 30th:

We woke up early and went to a field to play fußball for frühsport, but there were so many people there that I went back early with a couple other sisters and got ready for MLC.

We went to the church and had MLC, where I got to be the scribe at the whiteboard for Elder Sabin. I was so happy to do it, and I had the time of my life! And then people kept coming up to me afterwards and thanking me for my scribing skillZ and complimenting my handwriting. It made me feel so important and needed, and really showed me the power of sincerely thanking someone for something they do - even if it's just a little thing. My challenge for all of you: go out of your way to thank someone this week for something small.

During MLC, S. Spratt went to talk to Präsident Brown about our area, and Präsident Malzl (the 2nd counselor in the Mission presidency) joined them. Our Gemeindes have been struggling with cooperating with the missionaries and there's been some drama going down that I've been warned of and Präsident is now aware of. They've really got our backs, and they've been in touch with both us and the wards since then to see what we can do to make things better. Bless their souls for looking out for us. 

Then we travelled home and got back just in time to go to bed, after a verspätung for a police investigation on another car of the train!

Saturday, 1st:

We took a nap, as S. Spratt is still recovering from her concussion, and I can't do much while she's asleep. So I took advantage of the opportunity!

We went finding.

We wrote our letters to President and ate a Döner for dinner from this sketchy-ish shop close to home (update, the owner now knows our orders. I feel so loved).

We worked on the annoying Fortschrittsbericht that keeps not sending, and finally got it sent.

Sunday, 2nd:

We had to go to the Wels church early to RESEND the Fortschrittsbericht, because we accidentally attached one from last year. 

We went to Church in Haag, which was unique as they do RS/Priesthood, then Sunday school, and then Abendmahlsversammlung. We also forgot that it was Fast Sunday. RIP. But we both bore our testimonies, as did Präsident Malzl, who had come down to Haag to explain to us what they discussed in Wels before church.

We ate lunch at the Familie Till home, who has a daughter that was in Wien 2! They were super sweet, and have a son who is recently-returned-from-a-mission-to-Zimbabwe. That was a lot of fun, and the Passau Ehepaar was there, too.

Then we went finding.

Monday, 3rd:

We had Distriktrat, which was a blast because it's just us, the Linz Elders, and the Linz Ehepaar. We had a blast, and we're so excited to get to spend Christmas at the Ehepaar's home.

Speaking of Christmas, we have appointments on the 24th, the 25th, and the 26th. It's going to rock.

We did some finding on Linz's street, which was weird to go back to the streeting method of finding (as in, we actually talked to people).

We did our weekly plan and ate dinner!

Tuesday, 4th:

We took a nap. Hopefully S. Spratt recovers soon... it's only been a week, but it's felt like an Ewigkeit. 

We went finding earlier in the day, because it gets dark here at like 4:30 - 5:00, and it's illegal to go dooring after dark (it's "disrupting the peace"), so we get to move our p-day hours!

We got groceries!

We went to the Christkindlmarkt in Linz! Which was actually quite big, and a lot of fun. Sadly, we didn't get any pictures... :/ I forgot, because I was so wrapped up in the atmosphere of it all.

And now we're eating dinner at McDonald's so we can steal the free WiFi to send letters home. ;)

Favorite new word: Ritter ohne Furcht und Tadel = Knight in shining armor (but literally translates to "Knight without fear and blame")

Favorite funny story: Präsident Malzl telling us to use all of our data for Duolingo. We have permission from Präsident Brown, but I don't know what were going to do when we run out of data and still need to text people!

Favorite spiritual thought: My biggest takeaway from the Elder Sabin Mission Tour was the importance of asking inspired questions. And we do that through having the Spirit!

I love you all!

I mog di! (#OberösterreichesDialect)

MfG, 

Sister Hamilton