Austria is the Bomb-Diggity

Wednesday, 6th:

8 months! Wow. I now have just a few more weeks until halfway. I really don't feel like I've been out here for that long... 

Interviews with President rocked. I always adore my time with him. ️

We met with Sonja, who's not really an investigator... She's what we call an "eternal investigator" because she doesn't make any progress, and doesn't really want to join our church, but she still comes every Sunday and loves meeting with the missionaries. Anyway, we met her to help her apply for a graduate program because she wanted us to proofread her application. 

We met with the Mohammadi's and gave them an invitation to Kinder Fasching. They seemed excited! :) 

Thursday, 7th:

Sister Spratt took a nap because she didn't sleep very well and just had that overhanging "I feel like death because I couldn't sleep last night" feel. 

We had dinner at Schwester Auer's. She was so sweet! She's been a little stressed lately because of work, but she was kind enough to set aside some time to spend with us. I love her so much. 

Friday, 8th:

We had our apartment inspections, so the Mechams (the senior couple) came over. They told us we had the cleanest apartment that they had to check, so we got brownie points. ;) 

We drove down to Haag to help Schwester Falke clean the church, which went much faster with three of us there instead of just her! And then she was kind enough to buy us dinner and we heated up some pizza and ate frozen joghurt.  She and Sister Spratt are really close, so it was kind of Sister Spratt's farewell. Because! (cue Saturday) 

Saturday, 9th:

Transfer calls! Sister Spratt will be leaving Wels/Haag for the beautiful land of... SWITZERLAND! She's going to Schwamendingen, just outside of Zürich. I'm low-key jealous, but I'm so excited for her. I will be getting Sister Kubricky from Arizona. She's in her third transfer, so I'll be her greenie-buster. I half expect her to hate me (most greenie-busters aren't exactly beloved, due to the nature of introducing a different way to do the work, and basically shaking up their missionary world), but she seems sweet from what I've heard, and I hope I can help her navigate the world of Austria. Oh yeah, fun fact, she's coming out of Schwamendingen, so we're basically just trading comps. Funny, isn't it? 

On some sad news: my MTC companion, Sister Saunders, is going home this week. She's been considering it for a few months now, and made the decision a few weeks ago. President convinced her to stay until transfers, but she's gone starting tomorrow. It broke my heart to hear, but she said she made the decision very prayerfully, so I'm certain it's what she was supposed to do. It's kind of put a somber tone to this past weekend, but she's going to do great things. ️

We met with Frau Martina and Ingrid, members back from Wien 2! They make rounds through the mission around transfers to say hello to all of the missionaries, and they stopped in the Wels Bahnhof. We talked for about 30 minutes and they gave us some cookies. I love them; they're so sweet and unique. 

Elder Homer (our housing coordinator guy) came with 2 office Elders to bring me a new bed, because mine was broken. They also replaced Sister Spratt's even though it was fine, because they had a set and wanted to keep them together. 

We went to Mathilde's house to pick up some things from her husband Gunter (he died a few weeks ago) to bring to the branch in Haag for various people. She was excited to have some visitors, so we ended up eating a whole cake and leaving with 2 packs of cookies. She's so sweet. 

Sunday, 10th:

We had church in Haag, so Sister Spratt got to say bye to a couple of members there. 

We spent a lot of time uploading Areabook because we were a little behind in our finding, but we made all 12 hours! 

Schwester Brigitte Schmidl called to thank us for all of the work that we've been doing with the Mohammadis, because apparently they went by and the mother talked about how much she enjoyed reading in the scriptures with us, and apparently the son we've been helping, Arash, got good grades in Englisch! It was such a sweet phone call, and she was so sad to hear that Sister Spratt is leaving.

Monday, 11th:

We got Sister Spratt abmelded, and headed over to the church to decorate for Kinder Fasching. It's looking pretty good! 

We had Distriktrat, which we also made into a funeral because Elder Larson is going home. That was a lot of fun, and we had a lot of laughs because of it. :) We made him paper flowers and a video set to the funeral dirge and everything. It was great. 

We met with Bianca because it was her birthday! She sang "22" by Taylor Swift and we gave her some "Open When" letters (to open when she's baptised, if she considers serving a mission, etc). 

Tuesday, 12th:

We're spending the day in Salzburg because it's Sister Mansell's birthday! Salzburg is gorgeous! We're spending the day inside for the most part to have a relaxing "spa" day, but every time I look outside I can see that I'm in Salzburg and it brings me joy. Plus, we've walked around the city a little bit and that was awesome. :) 

Favorite new word: Hakerl - checkmark (caution: that's only in Austria) 

Favorite funny story: The funeral for Elder Larson. Specifically, he HATES when hymns are played too slowly, and so when I sat down to play "Come Come ye Saints" I played it as slowly as possible, and we all just broke down laughing as he sang at the top of his lungs at a normal speed. Ahh, the joys of a close district. 

Favorite spiritual thought: I absolutely love 2 Nephi 4:17-end. Every time I read it I'm reminded that it's okay to not be perfect, and that as long as we trust in God everything is going to be okay. It's kind of like Elder Holland's talk, "Be Ye Therefore Perfect - Eventually". In these verses, Nephi just seems so real, and I feel like I can relate to him so much.

TLDR: I love Austria! Good thing I get to stay. ;) My new comp will be Sister Kubricky, because Sister Spratt is going to Switzerland. The ward likes us, and we've done some great work together! 

Much love! Catch y'all on the flip side!

Sister Hamilton