Halfway there

Well, hello there!

This past week was great, we were able to see the rewards of our hard work and also get a glimpse of some of the exciting things we have coming up ahead.

 We also got in contact again with one of the less active members in our ward, S, who we hadn't talked to in about a month because she had moved and we didn't have her new address. Well, we tracked her down. We invited S to have family home evening with her family and she got really excited about it. And then she came to church on Sunday!

This next week President Monson will be visiting Germany, and we get to see him speak via Satellite! It will be broadcast here in Vienna! So exciting!

 This week is my halfway mark! Time on a mission is a very strange thing. The weeks seem like days and the days seem like weeks. I still have a hard time believing that I have already been in Vienna for three months and been on my mission for 9 months. Next summer I will be home! I don't get another August on my mission. Crazy! I want to make it count.

This past week in my scripture study I have been reading in Alma 7. I have used that chapter a lot on my mission to explain the Atonement, but I never realized before reading it this past week that there is so much more in there. After verses 11 and 13 which explain the Atonement, Alma goes on to extend a baptismal commitment, which is perfect. It really is after we start to understand what the Savior did for us that we then develop the wish to follow him and be baptized.

Sorry this is so short, I am a little tired today, we walked all over Vienna and back. The city is so pretty, and I wanted to see the "touristy" bits before it got too cold.

Ich bin so froh, dass ich auf Mission bin. Es ist so toll, dass ich die Gelegenheit habe, andere zu helfen, näher zu Christus zu kommen. Ich versuche, mein Bestes zu geben, und dann kann der Herr Wunder bewirken.

(I am so glad to be on a mission. It is so great to have the chance to help others come unto Christ. I do my best then the Lord works miracles.)

Tschüss! Hab euch lieb!  (I love you!)
--Sister Stewart

Wir haben Propheten heute, und sie sprechen zu uns! (We have prophets today, and they speak to us!)

Guten Tag!

I must apologize, as I was reading over my letter from last week I realized how much I use smiley faces. I will try to restrain myself in the future.

Anyway, this past week was a good one. We taught an adorable little family from Vietnam that the Elders in the 5th ward found. There are so cute and just want to know more about Jesus Christ. Well, that's what we do :)

This past week we also taught C, who had a son die when he was just 20. We read Alma 40:11 with her, and as she finished reading, she literally shouted for joy. Oh man, she is so ready for this message, we just have to get her some good fellowshippers in the ward and get her to church!

Sister Reid and I taught our English class the song "Head, shoulders, knees and toes." So, so, so much fun.

The highlight of the week was of course General Conference. We went to go watch it at the Stake Center. During the Relief Society session (which we watched Saturday afternoon), we sat with an investigator some of the Elders are teaching and her 4 year old son, D. D is a ball of energy who mostly speaks Spanish with a couple German phrases thrown in here and there for good measure. Luckily, we did have some crayons on hand, so now I have a nice drawing, courtesy of D, in my notebook. I loved the talks particularly about the Atonement; because that is something I have wanted to understand better.

Then Saturday night we heard the announcement by President Monson: Elders can serve at 18 and Sisters at 19! We have some 18 year old missionaries in our mission, and they do a great job. I think this means that a lot more Sisters will serve missions, because they won't have time to get married first :)

On Sunday we watched two more sessions. We had 4 of our investigators come to watch the Sunday morning sessions! And one of them brought a friend! :) That was amazing. I especially loved the beautiful music by the choir during the session, that really helped to invite the Spirit (and to break the meeting up, so people stayed interested). W came, and in order to keep her focused, I looked up the scriptures the speakers used and had her read them in Chinese. She especially liked President Monson's talk. She said "I want to hear him again!"

One of my favorite talks was Elder Holland's talk. Oh my goodness, he speaks with power and authority, you can't help but listen. I will be going back and rereading John 21 in a whole new light now.

We got transfer calls this week and have some exciting news! First off, Sister Reid and I will both be staying for another transfer at least. Also, we are getting a set of Elders in our ward!! Oh man, I almost jumped for joy when the Zone Leaders told me that. Our ward really needs Elders right now. There are so many priests that should be preparing to go on missions that need a strong example. And, we will be able to pass off some of our investigators to them, so we can focus more fully on meeting the needs of the needs of the sisters that we teach. I am so grateful, because this is something I have been thinking about. The last transfer I told Heavenly Father I would continue to do my best, but it would be awesome if He could send some Elders our way.

Ich habe diese Arbeit so gern, und ich weiß, dass wenn ich mein Bestes gebe, kann ich anderen helfen. Der Herr will, das wir einander dienen. Ich bin vielleicht nur eine kleine Honigbiene (wie Elder Ballard gesagt hat), aber ich kann anderen jeden Tag helfen, in dem ich aufmerksam bin und meine kleine Teile tun. Wie Sister Burton gesagt hat "First observe. Then serve." Meine Mutter ist ein gutes Beispeil von dieser Grundsatz, und ich will ihr Beispiel folgen.

(I am very fond of this work and I know that if I do my best, it will help others. The Lord wants us to serve each other. Maybe I’m just a little honey bee (as Elder Ballard says) but I can help everyone I know and do my little part. As Sister Burton said, “First Observe. Then Serve.” My mother is a good example of this truth and I will follow her example.)

Ich wünsche euch eine schöne Woche! Tschüss! (I wish everybody a good week!)

--Sister Stewart 

Austausch Miracles :)

Liebe Familie,

This week was stuffed with miracles. Really, sometimes I like to just sit back and watch as the Lord directs this work. I am sure it brings Him a lot of joy to lead us to the right people, to lead the right people to us and to work miracles so that His work can go forward. The logistics involved must be astronomical, but somehow He makes it all work.

We found more new people this last week! One of them is named C. She was a referral from the Zone Leaders. They met her on the street and got her contact info, but we hadn't been able to get a hold of her yet. On Tuesday we had a slot of time where we were trying really hard to make an appointment, but two different investigators cancelled on us, so (a little bit frustrated) we decided to go by and see C. We rang her bell, she let us in and said "I just got home from work" Miracle :) Then she told us how she has started reading in the Book of Mormon that the Elders gave her and that she felt that this book came at the right point in her life. Miracle :) We had to leave pretty soon, but then we were able to see her again on Friday and it turns out it had been a really rough week and she really needed some peace in her life. So we read Alma 7 with her (one of the most comforting chapters in the Book of Mormon, if you ever have a bad day, read it!) and after she read she just had this great smile on her face. Miracle :) Oh man she is awesome.

Wednesday we did an Austausch ( = companion exchange). Sister Reid went to Graz to work with Sister Pingree and Sister Holmstead came here. Sister Holmstead and I actually entered the MTC on the same day, but since I was fast tracked I don't know her that well. But we will get to go home together. Working with her was so fun. They have seen some miracles in Graz lately so she was on the lookout for them all day and would point them out when they happened. For example, she forgot her ticket at home so we had to buy her a new one which caused us to miss the tram and then while we were waiting we met a woman from Thailand who was so open and friendly. Miracle :) Then later on even though there was something wrong with the trams and they weren't running regularly, we still made it to our next appointment only 5 minutes late. Miracle :) Sister Holmstead didn't have a jacket, but it didn't rain all day long. Miracle :)   There are miracles large and small that the Lord works every day, we just need to be on the lookout for them.

Church yesterday was so fun. We had Linger Longer, so everyone brought food and we stayed after church and visited. W, our Chinese investigator was there. We made sure one of the ward missionaries stuck with her and took care of her. It was so funny because the member (who is Filipino) taught W how to say "How are you?" in Tagalog, and W then proceeded to go up to every Filipino member she could find (about half our ward is Filipino) and practice her newly learned skill. It was a very funny and creative way for her to get to know lots of the members of the ward.

Lots of the time when we ask people, "Wie geht's?" (How are you?) on the street or in the tram, we get the response "Kennen wir einander?" (Do we know each other?). I guess it is really not a normal thing for Austrians to greet each other, and they are so surprised when someone is friendly. I just smile and say "No, I'm just trying to be friendly." Hopefully we brighten a few people's days or make them think more about why those two missionaries are so nice to everyone.

Next week is General Conference! Yes! So exciting!! We will watch the Relief Society session on Saturday afternoon, followed by the Saturday morning session (live with the time difference) and then on Sunday watch the Saturday afternoon session and the Sunday morning session (also live).

Ich liebe es, auf Mission zu sein. Ich bin oft überrascht, wie viel der Herr uns segnet. Er hilft mir, Freude zu haben, egal was passiert. Diese Arbeit ist wirklich die Arbeit des Herrn, und er passt auf alle seine Kinder auf.

(I love being on a mission. I am often surprised how much the Lord will bless us. It helps me to have fun, no matter what happens. This is truly the Lord’s work and he takes care of all of his children.)

Mach's gut! Ich hab euch lieb!

--Sister Stewart

Herbst ist gekommen … time to pull out the scarves again :)

Guten tag!

This past week I have noticed the air is really starting to feel like fall. I have dug into my suitcase to pull out my tights and scarves that I haven't used since the winter. In a way it feels like seeing old friends again.

Last Monday Sister Reid and I took advantage of the sunshine and went and saw the gardens at Schönbrunn, a beautiful baroque palace. There is a little hill you can climb up and then you get a gorgeous view of the palace and of part of the city behind it. As I saw all those red roofs stretched out in front of me I couldn't help but think about how miraculous it is that I get to serve here. I am grateful to the Lord everyday that I have the opportunity to be here.

I realized something the other day. I have served about half my mission (my halfway mark is next month, gasp!) and all of that time I have been in big cities, first Munich and now Vienna. Sometimes it can be a bit intimidating in a city, because you are surrounded by people all day, every day. But it is also an incredible blessing to get to know the people here and to just soak up the culture. We have so many opportunities to do cool things on P-Day, and we see other missionaries all the time, which is a great support. So who knows what my next area will look like, but if it's another city, I'm ready for it :)

Something cool about Vienna: Vienna has a lot of streetcars, or trams. However, the streets of Vienna are very narrow, so if someone doesn't park their car close enough to the curb, the tram can't get past and is stuck. Then other traffic and possibly more trams get stuck behind it. The tram driver will then ring their bell a lot. If the person doesn't come in a minute or two to move their car, the fire department comes and moves the car over a few inches so the tram can get by. I have heard of this process but have never seen it in person. Well, last week there was a bit of a hubbub outside our window while we were studying. I just attributed it to normal city goings-on until Sister Reid got up to get a drink and looked out the window. Turns out a tram got stuck right down the street from us and they had to call the fire department to move the car. Unfortunately, we were too late and looked out the window in time to see the fire men putting away their equipment. Blasted newts! One of these days I will see it.

This week we met with D three times! She is an American working at the embassy. There have been multiple events in her life that have prepared her for gospel. She is so ready. The members of the ward have been really supportive as we have been working with her. She already has made some great friendships. Unfortunately, she will be out of town on business for the next two weeks :( She will still be able to come to church in between, so that's good.

Last week we got 3 referrals! Now we have all these great new people to go out and contact. I am excited to see what will happen.

A few weeks ago Sister Reid and I talked to a man on the U-Bahn named M. He took the Book of Mormon though, and was really interested in talking more about God. So we met with him last week. His big question was "But how can God have a son?" His view of God is that God is bigger than everything; that God is incomprehensible, and that saying that God has a son is limiting him to our human view point. Thinking about what M said caused me to delve deeper into my belief about God. Here is what I believe: God is our Heavenly Father. I believe, like the angel Gabriel tells Mary "für Gott ist nichts unmöglich." (“for God nothing is impossible”) Therefore, who am I to say that God can or cannot have a son? All things are in His power, and if I believe the Bible and the Book of Mormon (which I do), then I KNOW that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Because God loves us, He sent His Son.  (We passed M off to the Elders, since he speaks German)

I also realized that even though we can logical explain things to people, even though we can put together good scripturally based arguments, ultimately it is the Spirit that does the convincing. It is through the Holy Ghost that I have gained my testimony of God and of Jesus Christ. When I read in the scriptures I feel that confirmation, but without the Spirit I would not have the sure knowledge that I do.

Ich liebe es, mit den Menschen über das Evangelium zu sprechen. Ich lade die Menschen gern ein, aber sie müssen die Entscheidung selbst treffen, ob sie unsere Botschaft annehmen oder nicht. Jeder hat die Entscheidungsfreiheit. Obwohl ich vielleicht nicht so viele Taufen auf Mission sehen werde, ich kann erfolgreich sein indem ich Menschen jeden Tag einladen, näher zu Christus zu kommen.

(I love to talk to people about the Gospel. I issue an invitation of welcome to people, but they must make the decision for themselves whether to accept our message or not. Everyone has their agency. Although I may not see many baptisms in this mission, I can be successful as I invite people every day to get closer to Christ.)

Tschüss! Bis bald!

--Sister Stewart

We rode bikes through Munich :)

Guten Tag!

This past week was one of the most unique I have had on my mission so far.

It started out fairly normally. We had appointments with most of the
investigators we found last week. It is always cool to see how the people
we teach are starting, step by step, to change their lives.

The second half of the week was anything but normal. Wednesday night the
sisters serving in Graz came to stay with us for the night because on
Thursday we headed to Munich together for Sisters Conference! We woke up on
Thursday morning, got ready, went down to the train station, printed out
our tickets and then went to go get on our train, except we missed it
because I read the wrong platform number---ooops. So then we had to wait an
hour for the next train, which ended up being delayed by half an hour, oh
joy. We got on that train and rode it to Salzburg, and then we transferred
trains and rode the rest of the way to Munich. Those were some of the
longest train rides of my life. Luckily, we still got there in time.
Thursday night we ate dinner with everybody and then most of us slept at
the mission home. There are 24 sisters total in the mission, so some of
them got shipped out to a hotel.

Friday was an amazing day. In the morning all the companionships shared
little lessons they had prepared so we all got to learn from each other’s
teaching styles. Then we headed out to rent bikes and go on a bike ride
through Englischer Garten, Munich's biggest park. Navigating through the
streets of downtown Munich was interesting, but once we got to the park, it
was so much fun! The weather was beautiful, sunny with a little nip in
the air. We rode around a little lake and then sat at some tables to eat
lunch. And while we were eating a Bavarian band started to play. It
felt like we were living a scene out of a movie, probably part of a
chick flick with Meg Ryan. That evening we had a discussion with
President Miles during which he (and some of the other sisters) said
some things that I really needed to hear.

Saturday morning we ended with a testimony meeting and then Sister
Reid, and I, along with Sisters Pingree and Holmstead (who are serving
in Graz) got on the loooong train ride (4 and half hours) home. Sister
Reid and I at least didn't have to transfer trains, but once we
arrived in Vienna, the Graz sisters had to get on another 2 and a half
hour train ride.

Sunday was a full day. We had three of our investigators at church!
D, who is our Polish investigator with a baptismal date, came! We
met with him after church and with the help of a Polish speaking
member we talked about repentance. D talks a lot about how he is
standing at an intersection, and he doesn't know which way to go. As
we were teaching, we bore testimony that the way to go is to follow
Christ and be baptized. We told him he needs to pray about it. He did
pray at the end of the lesson, with a little help. We are meeting with
him again tomorrow. It has been cool to see that even though he is not
all that sure right now, he is still keeping his commitments. He is
willing to try it out and see what happens.

Ich habe auf Mission gesehen, wie oft der Geist zu uns spricht und wir
es nicht merken. Ich habe begonnen zu lernen, auf diese ganz leise
Stimme zu hören. Manchmal meinen wir das Gedanken wie "Ich soll diese
Person anrufen" unsere eigene Gedanken sind, aber sie sind oft die
Flüstern des Geistes. Man muss sehr aufmerksam sein, um sie wahr
zu nehmen. Ich habe Wunder erlebt, wenn ich diese Eingebungen gefolgt
habe. Ich lade euch alle ein, aufmerksamer und empfänglicher für den
Geist zu sein. Ich kann versprechen, ihr werdet auch Wunder sehen!

(I have learned on this mission that often the Spirit speaks to us and we do not notice it. I have begun to learn to hear this quiet voice. Sometimes we think thoughts like “I want to call on this person”, are our own thoughts, but they are often whisperings of the Spirit. One has to be very attentive to recognize it. I have seen miracles when I followed these promptings. I invite all of you to be attentive and receptive to the Spirit. I can promise that you will see a miracle.)

Ich habe euch lieb!
--Sister Stewart

Oh my goodness gracious!

Just when I thought we were free of the hot summer (the last week has been relatively cool) today it is HOT again.

So much to tell and so little time! I apologize in advance if this is a little hard to follow.

First story of the week: D. D is Polish. He is an investigator that the Elders in Wien found. I had taught him a few times, but since he speaks better English than German, they passed him off to us. The first appointment we had with him was last Wednesday and we were actually able to set a baptismal date with him! That was a miracle and a half, because there is a bit of a language barrier. We set up another appointment for him on Saturday, but we knew we had to get a Polish speaker there to help us out. Luckily there is a member of our ward who served a Polish speaking mission in Chicago (random I know). He came to the appointment on Saturday and boy, what a difference that made. Where before D had been pretty quiet, now he just talked and talked. It was really cool to be able to see him express himself in his native language. His baptismal date is for the end of September, so that means he needs to come to church every Sunday between now and then. We'll have to exercise some real faith!

This past week we found 5 new investigators! That's right. And most of them were found through members. I really have a strong testimony now that the best way to find the people who are ready for the gospel is through the members. It is much more effective than talking to people on the street or knocking on doors (or in our case, ringing doorbells, since you don't actually knock on doors here).

This past Sunday was probably one of my favorite days on my mission so far. So many good things happened. First off, D came to church! And he came to all three hours! That was awesome, and we found another member who is Polish that could talk to him! We also had two more investigators in sacrament meeting, and then a friend of a member who has been to church a couple times came up to us and said she wants to meet with us! It was just amazing how many miracles we saw.

A little back-story on one of those miracles: We teach English classes. Most of the people in our English classes are from Iran. They are either Christian or Zoroastrian and have fled Iran to escape the Muslim government. They come to Vienna to wait for visas to get to America. So they come to us to learn English. These are some of the nicest, most humble, and genuine people I have ever met. I can only imagine how hard it would be to just pick up and go, leaving most of your things behind, in search of religious freedom. Anyway, lots of the Iranians have shown interest in the gospel, but the problem is communication. We do have selections of the Book of Mormon in Persian (Farsi) but we have been trying to find a way that we could teach them. And then low and behold we find out on Sunday that the ward executive secretary speaks Persian. His mother is from Iran. Not only that, but then he said "Oh, and I found about 12 copies of the Gospel Principles manual in Persian. We could maybe do a whole Sunday School class in Persian." If that's not an answer to prayer, I don't know what is.

This week is going to be amazing. The area is literally exploding right now. We have so many cool people to teach, I am sorry I can't tell you all of their stories.

This week we also get to go to Munich! We will be having Sisters Conference with all the Sister Missionaries in the whole mission! I'm so excited!

Vielen vielen Dank für alle eure Gebete. Ich spüre sie. Es hilft mir zu wissen, dass so viele Leute Himmlischen Vater um Hilfe für mich und meine Mitarbeiterin bitten. Der Herr hat uns so reichlich gesegnet, und ich weiß, dass er uns weiterhin segnen wird, wenn wir Glauben ausüben.

(Thank you, thank you, thank you, for all your prayers. I feel them. It helps to know that so many people ask Heavenly Father to help me and my companion. The Lord has blessed us beyond measure and I know that he will continue to bless us if we exercise faith.)

Ich hab euch lieb!

--Sister Stewart

Railjet nach München und zurück nach Wien (Railjet to Munich and back to Vienna)

O, meine Güte! So viel ist passiert! War es wirklich nur eine Woche?!?

(Good gracious! So much has happened! Was it really only one week?)

The past week has been just a little on the crazy side. Monday for P-Day Sister Taysom and I played volleyball with the elders, during which I managed to bruise my thumb, nothing too serious. It just made me laugh; I often manage to collect bruises of one sort or another on P-Day. I have finally been venturing around without an ankle brace and it feels SO GOOD.

Tuesday we had district meeting in addition to teaching 4 lessons, we were sooo busy. Everyone was sad to see Sister Taysom leave, and then when I would tell them I was getting a Golden they would say "ooo, fun!"

So Wednesday Sister Taysom and I left for Munich. It actually worked out pretty well because all the trainers go to Munich to pick up their new companions and Sister Taysom was getting transferred to Munich anyway, so she came along with us. The train ride was pretty good except for the fact that we had to change trains in Salzburg. We got off a very nice Railjet and instead boarded a rickety commuter train that seemed to stop in every little town between Salzburg and Munich. It was not air-conditioned and very, very toasty. It was fun to spend some time on trains with some of the other missionaries; it was like a little vacation for us. We arrived in Munich safe and sound and I got to see Sister Pingree! She was transferred to Graz, so we will be in the same Zone!

Going to the mission home with the other trainers was surreal, I had the feeling like "Wait, are you really sure you want me to train? Didn't I just get here myself?" It really doesn't feel like all that long ago that I was spending my first night in the mission home, but then I look back and realize how much has happened since then. There were 4 sisters who came this transfer,  one German and three Americans. One of the American sisters has a Swiss passport. That meant she and the German sister were automatically assigned to Switzerland (Swiss visas are so hard to come by, anyone who has one goes into Switzerland and never comes out). As a result, I knew that one of the two remaining Sisters would be my companion. So, I am training Sister Reid! She is from Pleasant Grove, Utah.

Wednesday night we had a testimony meeting with the new missionaries and then slept at the mission home. Thursday morning we had training with President and Sister Miles and then we got on a train to Vienna at 3:30, which put us back in Vienna around 8 (this time we rode the whole way in a very nice Railjet).That meant we basically had to go straight home. It was fun to ride through the countryside with all the newbies exclaiming over the scenery. Austria really is a beautiful place.

Friday was an interesting day. I don't think anything we planned for Friday actually happened. It was just a lesson to me that it is good to make plans, but the Lord also has things in mind that we need to do. I just had to laugh as one after another all of our plans fell through. It really taught me that ultimately, I am not the one in charge here, God is.

Training is fun! Sister Reid is so well prepared and so ready and willing to go to work. I am excited to be able to learn from her. She has some good ideas for how we can improve our missionary work. There are so many exciting things that will happen this transfer; I'm really looking forward to it.

Ich weiß, dass Gott all unsere Gebete erhört. Er weiß, was wir brauchen und er ist bereit, es uns zu geben. Wir müssen nur bitten. Ich weiß auch, dass obwohl ich nicht vollkommen bin, es ist genug, wenn ich mein Bestes gebe. Ich werde bestimmt Fehler machen, aber das ist okay. Hauptsache ist, dass ich davon lerne und mich bemühe, weiterhin mein Bestes zu geben.

(I know that God answers our prayers. He knows what we need and he is willing to provide it. We need only ask. I know that although I am not perfect, if I give it my best---that is enough. I will certainly make mistakes, but that is OK. The important thing is that I keep trying and continue to give it my best.)

Tschüss! Bis bald!
--Sister Stewart