Salzburg

Monday: We did our emails and then basically had to rush off to an appointment with a member. We had FHE with Sandra and her kids and Aflique and Marina, who is a friend of Aflique. Shes so cool, shes 18 years old and from Brazil. We had a fun time together and talked to Marina a bit about a few things that we believe in. We rode the bus home with Aflique and Marina and we were planning on getting ice cream with Aflique the next day. So we invited Marina to come as well.. that night during planning me and Sister Hancock were on cloud nine and were just talking about how cool Marina is, we planned to ask her the next day if we could teach her the lessons.

Tuesday: after district meeting we went to get ice cream with Aflique and Marina. After taking a solid 10 minutes to choose our flavors we sat down and just chatted! ha we had so much fun together. Conversations always just turn into conversations about the gospel haha it was cool. We talked about guidance from God and things like that.. the whole time i was thinking "man this is good, now we've built a good relationship with Marina, we are all really good friends now.. we need to take it slow maybe we should wait until next time to ask her if we can teach her i dont want to scare her off" and then out of no where Sister Hancock says "Marina do you want us to teach you more of what we believe" and my heart stopped.... but Marian said "ya! That would be really cool im actually really curious!" Aflique invited her to church and she said she will come! it was awesome. Im glad Sister Hancock stuck to our plan and was just bold and asked her. Make a plan, act in faith, trust in God. on our way home we went by on the cute old lady that we visited last week, but she wasnt home. But her neighbor came up to the door as we were writing a note to leave in her mail box and she talked to us. She had met with missionaries in the past, and at the end of our conversation she said. ya you guys should visit me next week and teach me again... what the flip....

Wednesday: a lady in the salzburg ward passed away this past weekend and the bishopric asked us missionaries if we would sing at her funeral. We rode with a member who was so sweet and fed us lunch and then drove us to Zell am See. It was a beautiful day and the funeral was on the side of a hill in between the mountains next to a lake. The funeral was held in a tiny little funeral chapel. We sang "oh my father" because that was her favorite hymn. it was a beautiful funeral, but i just wanted to teach everyone about the plan of Salvation there. it was so sad seeing them cry and think that that was the end.

Thursday and Friday was MLC. and it was so good! the first night we watched a devotional from Elder Ballard and then headed to the hostel. it was so fun seeing everyone again. All of my companions who are still on their mission except for 1 were there! that was fun!

President Kohler and Sister Kohler and just awesome. They expect a lot from us as missionaries which is so good because it pushes us. The moment we get comfortable is when we slowly start to fall back. We need to keep moving. and they should be able to expect a lot from us because the Lord also expects a lot from us. On Saturday we saw Marina in the city at a bus stop! she said that she would not be able to come to church this sunday because she has to babysit, but we are planning on meeting next week.

One of Sister Hancock's old investigators came from Switzerland to visit her this weekend. So we had a picnic across from the house where they filmed the sound of music. She has the Swiss accent which is so fun, it basically sounds like they are about to start yodeling at any second. haha

Sunday was busy. We finally had two investigators at church! Then in the 2nd hour we did the same primary activity that we did last week, but with the older kids! which was still just as much fun! then 3rd hour we helped teach the relief society and priesthood about missionary work!

We had a good week. We read a quote from Howard W. Hunter, "What does the Atonement have to do with Missionary work? any time we experience the blessings of the Atonement in our lives, we cannot help but have a concern for the welfare of others... A great indicator of one's personal conversion is the desire to share the gospel with others." thats so true. When you experience something that great. how can you not spread it with others. p.s. i just found out that someone i taught while in Augsburg is getting baptized on Sunday! whooo! anyways have a great week.