Hello, my name is: Sister Hausfrau "General Conference" Hamilton

Wednesday, 3rd:

Elder and Sister Homer, our housing coordinator Ehepaar, stopped by to give us a new carbon monoxide detector. Also, as I was typing that, I realised I never included this story! So... Throwback time! We went to bed on the 23rd of March, all excited to have a peaceful night's rest. Early in the morning of March 24th, at around 1:30 in the morning, I was awakened by some beeping. I sat up, and listened for it to sound again. Around 30 seconds later, I heard the beep and begrudgingly got out of my warm cocoon and walked over to the wall between our bedroom and the kitchen, where both our carbon monixde and fire alarms are. 30 seconds later, I saw the carbon monixde detector flash and heard it beep. I turned on the phone's flashlight and saw what was written next to the flash. "Operate". Made no sense. But I'm also no fool, and I'd watched the Safety Zone videos, so I didn't take out the batteries and just fall back asleep. I flipped around the little majiggy to see if there were any instructions, but as I did that it stopped beeping. So... There was nothing for me to do. No instructions, either. So I climbed back in bed after saying a prayer that if something WAS wrong, we would know and be able to get to safety. Fast forward an hour and a half or so? I don't remember. I was woken up by the beeping again. I walked straight over to the alarm, and this time when it was beeping, there was a little red light that flashed next to the word "Alarm". So my pulse started racing, and I kicked into obedient-missionary mode as the SafetyZone video started running through my head. I walked over and woke up Sister Kubricky, who lowkey freaked out for a hot second (my, that woman can gasp a whole room's worth of air), but after actually coming to consciousness, was quite calm. We grabbed the phone, put on our boots and coats, grabbed some hot hands (bless you Mother), and walked out of our apartment building. We stood there literally shivering in the cold as we tried to decide what else to do. We decided to seek shelter in our car, where there was no wind and where we could turn on the heat for a tiny bit. We rewatched the safety video to see what we were supposed to do after we left the apartment, and ended up deciding to call Präsident Brown. At 2:54 in the morning. I felt so bad! He answered, heard the situation, gave us some advice about what to do next, and then said he'd call Elder Homer to see what we should actually do. We hadn't called the authorities yet because there was a reasonable doubt as to if it was an actual alarm, or what. So he hung up, we called our GML to ask if we could stay the night there (he and his wife had previously offered a spare bedroom any time we needed it), they said yes, and we started driving. At one point, Präsident called back and said he had talked to Elder Homer who was going to the mission office to check the alarm's user manual, and said we should probably grab some clothes for the following day (as it was a Sunday out in Haag, and we wouldn't have had time to come all the way back). We turned around and drove back to the apartment. We followed Präs's advice about one of us quickly gathering clothes while the other stood on our balcony in the fresh air, and then swapping. While we were doing that, we got a call from Elder Homer asking for clarification on what the beep sounded like, how frequent, etc (because up to this point, I didn't know the seconds and just knew that it beeped every now and then). It started beeping again while he was on the phone, so he listened, and compared it to the manual. Good news! It was just a "unit failure". We checked a sticker we hadn't ever seen before that said the detector expired in February, so we were able to reasonably conclude that that was the problem. We took out the batteries and joked about how Elder Homer was going to tell Präs that he couldn't figure out the problem so he just told us to take out the batteries and go to bed. We had a good laugh about that. We all went back to bed (after texting the GML and saying we WEREN'T going to be coming) at around 4 am. And we woke up the next morning, so we didn't asphyxiate.

And that long story is why the Homers came and brought us a new CO detector. So now we're safe and being watched over by the new alarm. 

We dashed over to the Eltern Kind Zentrum (Parent-Child Center) where Brigitte Schmidl works? Volunteers? to meet one of her colleagues and get a tour of the place. It's a really cool place dedicated to helping families have a good home life, and they offer classes for parents and children to bond or something. It's sweet. We had planned to do a service project the coming Saturday, so that's why we got the tour. 

We went and helped Arash Mohammadi with his English homework, and he had to run off to Fußball practice shortly after, so we weren't there for too long. But we did share a spiritual thought with him about General Conference. 

Thursday, 4th:

We met with Bianca, who taught us the Plan of Salvation using a cute little diagram thing that her first missionaries had given her. She had many good questions, most of which we weren't able to answer (questions about how much we knew about our future life back when we were in the premortal existence, and questions about the eternities, etc). We had a good time bonding over how little we know, but about how it doesn't actually matter because we know enough to make it back to live with Heavenly Father. 

We visited Mathilde again (if you don't remember, she's the wife of the member who died back when I was with S. Spratt). She was so sweet, and so happy that we had come! She said she didn't want to be pushy, and was going to wait for us to call her, so when we called she just jumped at the chance to meet! She's somewhat lonely, but has fabulous support from friends and family. She's just so excited to support us and love us that she even gave us money to go to this one place by Linz for P-day. She wouldn't take no for an answer. She also gave us little Lindt Goldhasen. 

Friday, 5th:

We went to the Familie Ausobsky, and had the most amazing Zucchini soup . So good. We bonded over General Conference and Innkeeper's pie. 

Saturday, 6th:

We had our Dienstprojekt at the Eltern Kind Zentrum. We basically just helped them set up for an open house (fun fact those are called "Tag der Öffnen Tür", or a day of an open door). We blew up a lot of balloons (throwback to brass arcs, I actually got them filled up quite a bit in one breath #ironlungs #10percentburstofair). The Linz Elders came and helped too (after much dragging of the feet), and enjoyed themselves. Brigitte Schmidl was kind enough to also provide us with lunch afterwards, which we hadn't been expecting. In fact, Friday night I had made 6 hungry-missionaries-worth of pasta and brought bread and apples to go with it. So everyone ended up taking their personal Tupperware of pasta home. We've had fun sending pictures of the pasta turned upside-down on the plate. It holds its shape very well. We can make pasta sandcastles!  But hey, it tasted good. I make a darn good Hausfrau. 

This day was many things - my 10 month mark, Christ's birthday, the anniversary of the Organisation of the Church, AND General Conference! 

And speaking of GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! Ah, it was wonderful. Fun fact, because of time zones we watch it a little differently here. Are you ready for what we do? (shoutout to Sister Wagner for the inspiration/original) We watch Saturday Morning Saturday Evening and Saturday Afternoon Sunday Afternoon, just after Priesthood in the morning, followed by Sunday Morning Sunday Evening and Sunday Afternoon throughout the week.  Not confusing at all. ;) 

Sunday, 7th:

As per tradition, I made Aebleskiver for the between-session brunch. But because in Sister Kubricky'S family their tradition is a big breakfast, I also made bacon and eggs. I make a darn good Hausfrau. ;) 

We watched all of General Conference, including the Priesthood Session, at which all of the men in the church building laughed. But what can I say? I love General Conference. 

Monday, 8th:

Surprise! Today is my P-day! We went to a place called "Grottenbahn." It's basically a German/fairytale version of "It's a Small World." I loved the view from the top of the mountain. :) 

Favorite new word: aufmuntern - to cheer somebody up, to encourage

Favorite funny story: Basically, we were asked to be "in charge of" the English broadcasts, but we were the only ones who were watching it in English, so we got a whole room to ourselves. 

Favorite spiritual thought: I loved Elder Holland's talk on the Sacrament! When it comes out, read it. I'm basically over the moon about GenConf, but I don't have much time or focus to write about it, but you can know that I literally took up over 20 pages of my study journal with notes! 

TLDR: I'm a wonderful Hausfrau. And General Conference is the absolute best!!!

That's a wrap! Bis nächste Woche!

Liebe Grüße,

Sister Hamilton