Pants and Paradoxes

Thursday, 3rd:

This transfer, our mission is focusing on reestablishing contact with Returning Members (less actives). So we contacted a couple of them, and we were able to go by on Schwester Unuarhemen. She was super sweet, and has in general just been really busy with work. Her darling daughters have been coming to church the past few weeks, though, and we asked if we could come back to teach them the lessons. We have a return appointment, so hopefully the daughters are interested. :)

The majority of our day was taken up by studies and goal-setting. I've never actually made a written-down goal with steps and whatnot, so S. Spratt had to teach me. We both got a little tired of it after a few hours, so instead of trying to make my goals look nice, I scribbled them on a scrap piece of paper. S. Spratt told me I needed to hang it up, so I taped all three rough drafts onto her desk. When she saw that, she pinned them all over our wall. I took the tape off of her desk and put it on her blanket, to which she responded by wrapping my whole pillow in tape while I was brushing my teeth. I slept with it like that, and then while she was getting ready in the morning, I wrapped her boot in tape. And thus ends the tape war, because after that it was thrown away. But it was fun, and an effective stress-reliever!

Friday, 4th:

We had Pre-MLC over Skype (well, Zoom) and we talked about how to have an effective zone initiative that's centered around Christ, as opposed to a reward/incentive. It took a little bit, and afterwards we called the ZLs and finalized our zone initiative (it's about finding 100 lost sheep by contacting Returning Members).

But after that, we were hungry and wanted lunch so we went to McDonald's. We decided to reward ourselves with a slice of cake from the cafe part of it, and I got this amazing Marzipan-torte that Dad would have loved. It was light, had a little bit of raspberry filling, and was covered in a layer of marzipan. SO GOOD.

Saturday, 5th:

SNOW! Wow, so it had kind of snowed a little bit before, but Saturday it just CAME DOWN. I wish I had thought to take a picture before night time, but it was crazy. It was also nice because it was a wet snow, so it packed well.

We had a lesson with Ghaleb and his wife, who we found out is named Ebtesam. We had asked an Elder her to translate for us (he speaks Arabic), and he called us in the morning saying he had just had a terrible experience on a skyped-in lesson where the guy basically told him his Arabic was terrible and he may as well not even try. So he said he would be willing to help out this time, but that he could recommend someone else to us in the future. But then our lesson went really well! We really needed him, and Ghaleb and Ebtesam were so grateful that there was someone they could understand! And they said they'd read the Book of Mormon, so we're excited for them! Then, after the Elder had to go do something else, we were making small talk to finish our cinnamon tea that they had given us, and we asked how to write our names in Arabic. So now I know! On the picture, it's my last name first and then my first name, because there was a little bit of confusion. But es geht. We also asked them what their favorite food is here in Austria, and they said without a doubt Schnitzel. And when we asked them what their favorite food was from back home, they asked us if we would like to eat with them. We thought they meant some time in the future, so we said that would be lovely! And then Ebtesam walked into the kitchen and started cooking. So we got to eat right then and there! She made us a cucumber salad with joghurt, cracked wheat with chicken and almonds, and lentils. But it was all flavored so wonderfully magically and it was some of the best food I have ever eaten. The cracked wheat/chicken/almonds is called... Feeghee? I don't know how it's actually spelled (because, y'know, it's Arabic) and then the lentils had a name too, but I forgot... Also, apparently I eat slow (jk, I knew this already), so they taught me how to say slow in Arabic. It's schwaeschwae (or shwayshway, I guess, in American). It was so much fun, and they're so sweet! And then they offered us alcohol for dessert, and we kindly turned them down. And then Ghaleb said, "we never drink after noon, either. But you have to at least try this one from France!" So we had to find a way to explain clearly that we don't drink alcohol, because apparently "Wir trinken kein Alkohol" wasn't clear enough the first time, haha. But they were super sweet. :)

Sunday, 6th:

7 month mark! Schnikeys, where did the time go? I actually had a dream Saturday night about coming home from my mission and looking back on everything I'd done. When I woke up, I determined that when I go home, I want to be able to look back and know that I "left it all on the field" (shoutout to marching band). So it was actually a really cool experience to be able to rededicate myself to the work. I've been working hard, but I haven't been pushing myself as much as I know I could be (language-wise, etc) since everything kind of comes naturally. But I decided that instead of just going off of talent, I wanted to actually work as hard as I would if it was the hardest thing I'd ever done. So even though I have yet to dream in German, at least I'm having cool dreams like this, haha.

First two-hour church! It was a little unique, because we decided to get to church extra early to fix our parking job (we got in later last night and didn't bother to straighten out, and there's one member who likes to get on S. Spratt's case about our parking). So church starts at 10 now, so we leave our apartment in order to get there at 9:25. But when we walk up, everyone is in the chapel and the organ is playing prelude, so we freak out and run in and sit down as Bischof stood up to start the meeting. Turns out, in Wels church starts at 9:30, and nobody thought to let us know.  We'll be double-checking Haag next week.

In Sunday school, our ward spent the majority of our time debating which version of the Bible to use, because apparently someone heard a rumor about a new version coming out. I was kind of bummed because I was looking forward to having an echt, quality discussion about the first week in the Come Follow Me program, but whatever. It is what it is.

Dooring! It was rough, because every time someone let us into an apartment building, we could smell all of the amazingly delicious meals they were preparing. My stomach was jealous.

But we ended up eating good food in the end! Mom sent me a package with various spice mixes, so we made tacos with the chili packet that was in there. It was amazing, and we have leftovers!

Monday, 7th:

Distriktrat! It was weird meeting in a church after always being in the Ehepaar's apartment. But it was good, and it was nice to finally meet the two new Elders. Oh, I don't think I ever said what was happening! Maybe I did, Idk. But Elder Buss and Elder Larson used to be the Linz Elders, but this transfer they split (E. Buss went to open the 2nd set of Elders). E. Buss got E. Hema from Australia, who will be dying with me this December. And E. Larson got a golden from Delta, Utah! It's been a really funny mix, because 3/4 of them are super chill, and E. Larson can get visibly annoyed at their lack of a sense of time. It's amusing. So we're helping each other stay (in)sane. ;)

After Distriktrat, we drove back to Wels for a meter inspection that took a grand total of 5 minutes. And S. Spratt is tired of dooring and really wanted to use our opportunity to go district finding, so we drove back to Linz. Turns out the Elders had decided against district finding since we wouldn't be there (they thought), so it was really just us finding.

Then we drove back to Wels because we had an appointment with Bianca! She lives here in Wels, but is the Salzburg Sisters' investigator because she's been studying in Salzburg and spends most of her time there. Well, this past Sunday she asked us to meet with her. So... We got to our appointment and she basically said, "I want to be baptised and I've had all of the lessons. What's the next step?" So guess what? We're going to have a baptism here in Wels! It's going to be a bit hectic coordinating everything with everyone because of the weirdness of the situation, but we're super psyched for her. She learned about the church when she was 5 because she had a good friend from the Haag ward, and she's been officially taking lessons for 2 years. This is basically out of nowhere because she hadnt been responding to the Salzburg Sisters and they thought they were going to have to drop her, but it turns out she was just super busy with finals. Kein Stress! We went through the interview questions with her, and honestly, she's solid and ready to go. We're psyched for her! (I am starting to believe, though, that any finding/missionary work we do is just to fill time/prove to the Lord that we're willing to be obedient, before He sends us the people who are ready. Because literally every single solid person we've taught has come out of somewhere or something unexpected, and not through our own efforts. It's kind of incredible!)

Then we went back to Linz because E. Buss and Hema don't have a phone, and basically through circumstance E. Larson and Buss went on splits to answer a Neu-bekehrt's deep questions, which meant E. Hema and Porter were alone without a phone in a city they don't know very well yet. So we were supposed to go find them on the finding street, but it turns out everything was resolved by the time we got there. So we did... more district-less district finding. 

Then we finally got back to Wels for the night.

Tuesday, 8th:

Well, we kind of spent the whole day buying pants. I came to a couple of realizations: 1) I hate shopping. 2) I like having new things. 3) That's a paradox. 4) I hate buying with regulations. 5) I really like European fashion. 6) I hate shopping malls. 7) Shopping malls are convenient. 8) That's another paradox. 8) Everyone should just have my sense of fashion. 9) And not just that, they should have my size. 10) And everything should be Primark-cheap.

Favorite new word: bemühen - to strive, entdecken - to discover/explore

Favorite funny story: I prefer driving on the autobahns here, which is something I never thought I'd say. But I actually feel so much safer going 120 km/hr on these roads than I ever did going above 50 mph back home. Bless their rules here. But all of that goes away when you get onto a smaller road. Then I wish I was back home. Does that count as another paradox?

Favorite spiritual thought: I love the new Come Follow Me program! It's been wonderful to have just enough guidance with my study to actually let the Spirit teach me what I need to learn. I'm a fan. :)

TLDR: A baptism literally kind of fell out of the sky and landed at our feet, and we spent a lot of time in Linz, which is outside of our area. Oh yeah, and I have pants now.

I love you all! Stay safe!

~Sister Hamilton