Monday, July 23, 2012

The first four days I was in Vienna it rained. Natürlich.




Hallo Leute!

Well, I have successfully made it from Munich to Vienna! The train ride was about 4 hours, and thankfully I did not have to Umsteig! (Transfer trains, sorry for the Denglish). There were lots of Elders on the train, Elder Steed and I played Battleship and I was thiiiis close to winning! As the train pulled into Vienna, it started POURING down rain, and then we had to go right to ward council from the Bahnhof.

My new companion is Sister Taysom, from Idaho. She has been out about a year. She has been very patient with me as I have been getting used to a new city, new transportation system, and a whole new ward and group of investigators. And she has been helping me remember to put my foot up (because I forget a lot that in order to heal, it should be up as much as possible). It is very strange to be serving in an English speaking ward. Giving a prayer in English was so strange; I had almost forgotten what to say! Even though I miss everybody in Munich, I am excited to start getting to know the people here. One thing that is cool about this ward is that the members come from all over the world. We have lots from Africa, but also lots from the U.S. and places like Nepal and the Philippines

The last few days have been pretty good. Saturday we had an appointment with a less active member named B (who we call 'Mr. B'). However, the appointment wasn't that fest, as we would say (we weren't sure if he would actually remember, his phone was off). But then on Saturday morning, we saw him in the Strassenbahn! He told us he was on his way to get a new phone (he lost his) and we were able to confirm our appointment. And then he actually came! We had a really good lesson with him about enduring to the end. Check out 2 Nephi 31.

Sunday was amazing too. We ended up going to two wards. There is an investigator who is visiting Vienna from Salzburg, so we went to a German speaking ward with her and then we went to our English speaking ward as well. Lots of new names and faces, but I'm sure it will all become familiar with time.

Oh! And we set a baptismal date! Well, Sister Taysom really set the baptismal date. But I'm excited to start helping teach her!

Something I learned this week was while I was preparing and teaching the Sunday school lesson for the gospel principles class. I had done some good prep work, but for some reason the material I had wasn't stretching far enough to fill the time. Before the lesson as I was preparing I had prayed for Heavenly Father's help and felt like I was well prepared, so it was a little scary to be standing up there without enough to say. Thankfully, as I was teaching, I had an idea for an activity that I could use to help the lesson fill the time. So the moral of the story- prepare well, but if you need it, the Spirit will help you out.

Wien ist eine wunderbare Stadt. Ich bin begeistert, alle die vorbereitet Leute hier zu finden. Sister Taysom und ich werden eifrig arbeiten, damit wir Himmlische Vaters Kinder helfen können.
(Vienna is a wonderful city. I am so excited to find so many prepared people. Sister Taysom and I are working hard se we can help all of Heavenly Father’s children.)

Tchüss!
--Sister Stewart

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