Monday, March 10, 2014

Servus

 
The ice cream is back :) finally opening again!
 
Ja hallo! :)

What a week, eh? Last Monday our FHE with Family Simic fell out again, because they are sick :( It is so sad! But we went by still, and Bobi wanted to come out with us for a bit. So we took him with us as we went by on some people :) He is great. We were actually at their place again Thursday with the home teachers, and we gave the whole family blessings. That was great. Alex Zeilinger is their home teacher, and he really is excited for it :) (Alex is the chef that loves having us over, he is so cool!) We are going to go kick a Fußball around on Saturday with the boys and hopefully the home teachers. The other home teacher is Br. Handler, who brought a good friend of his from Chile to church yesterday. We want to make some food together, this Chilean man, I_____, and Elder Weston, and hopefully he is willing to meet with missionaries again :) He has actually been in and out of church for a few years, used to come regularly as well. He was way nice! 

Sadly, we haven't been able to meet with anyone from the finding day yet. We have made out multiple appointments, but many of them have expressed their disinterest and the others just won´t give us a specific time, just want us to call and see what happens. Working on it. We also got a call from F_____, who was one of the people the elders before us were meeting with regularly, I think, but he wouldn't ever make an appointment with us. He called us and we met on Friday! It was literally a "it´s not you, it is me" meeting hahaha. He explained why it was hard for him right now, and how he doesn't have time to meet with us or busy himself with it all. But he still reads in the Book of Mormon everyday, and he loves the elders a lot. He is going to take us on a walking tour of Wien next week, hopefully. That will be awesome. So we still have contact with him. Elder Weston gave him Ether 12:27 to read right at the end of the appointment, and he called back on Sunday during Sacrament Meeting to say "they were the right words at the right moment." Cool :)

M_____ and W_____ are doing great! They haven't given the Book or Mormon to B_____ yet, and they hadn't read it either, but we gave them the Restoration pamphlets last time, so it isn't so much to read and they get what we are trying to say. But the last termin was great, it was only 20 minutes, to the point, and they both gave really good answers and insights. We talked about the first 3 points of the Restoration, about God and Families and Prophets. M_____ is probably taking off to rehab soon, but we will keep visiting W_____. They are always so happy when we come visit them. 

Gestern we met another former investigator, T_____, from Nigeria. We met shortly with her and her brother and her niece, who was an adorable two-year-old. I took some pictures with her haha. We gave her info to the International Ward sisters, because she speaks primarily English and she is a doesn't always have a third man there for us. So ist es. After that we went by on a family on the ward list, who are from America. They weren´t aware that they were on the list haha. They haven't been to church forever, and said they won´t in the future. Their choice. But I mentioned how excited I was for General Conference, and the man said, "Do you know Jeff Holland?" I thought yeah, of course, he is one of my favorite speakers! And he said that Jeff Holland was his counselor in the Deacons Quorum way back when, when this man was the president. Crazy huh? :) 

Today so far we had an appointment with a less active, or inactive, I guess, and he didn't show. So we went by on some people and then went to help the zone leaders' investigator, M_____, from Russia, with English. :) He is hilarious. And way cool. He should be getting baptized in April or May. So, two missionaries in Vienna, Austria, from America, sitting at a university and helping a Russian man practice his English for a test later today. Doesn´t get better than that :) That is why we are writing emails so late. 

Probably my favorite quote from this last week came from the priesthood class yesterday. "Immer in Bewegung bleiben." Or, "Keep yourself on the move," or "keep on moving," roughly translated. I suppose it is like Dory´s "just keep swimming" which Mom has quoted a few times in emails. But what  the man said in church was that it is not so much about how fast or how slow you are going, rather that you just keep going. So ist es! I looked through my quote calendar from last year this morning, picking out my favorite ones, and recognizing which ones are true wisdom and which ones are the wisdom of men, and therefor falsch. They are all about Glück. Happiness. My favorite there was probably "Dont spend all your time looking for obstacles--maybe there are none there!" Just keep going! 

Zum Schluss, there was a really cool quote in the Joseph Fielding Smith handbook, Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, at the end of the opening section in chapter 5, Faith and Repentance. It talks about counsel that Joseph Fielding Smith received in a blessing, or something like that. Maybe he gave the blessing to someone, doesn't matter. But it is the last sentence. Something like, "When you make a wrong judgement, then make sure it is always in favor of love and mercy."

Like I said last week, doing something on your own does certainly does not mean doing it alone. You are all in my prayers! I love you all!
Have a great week :)

Elder Jalen Gibbons
 

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