Tuesday, August 5, 2014

When in Wien (that's how you say Vienna in German)

So I'm in Wien now. That's kind of crazy. You would not believe what I see when I look out the window from this internet cafe. Heavenly Father spoils me.

So saying goodbye to Ludwigsburg was actually heart wrenching. I got so comfortable there and loved the people so much. We were seeing a lot of success too, so leaving was super duper sad, but Heavenly Father knows what He's doing, so I'm just going to roll with it :) 

On our last day in Ludwigsburg we had English class and I had to say goodbye to a girl that became really good friends with. She gave me a book that I'm dying to read after my mission, and she wrote a note inside of it, so I'll just have to wait a while until I can read the book, but that was super sweet of her. 

We also had three eating appointments that day. Sister Powell did a really good job of letting the people of Ludwigsburg know that she loves ice cream so literally the only thing we ate at all three of those appointments was ice cream. My mouth was thoroughly covered in sugar after that.

Thursday was transfer day and that was insane. Like probably one of the most insane days of my life. Me and one other elder were going all the way from Stuttgart Zone to Wien Zone. That meant three two hour train rides with like 10 minute layovers. There were always lots of other missionaries on the trains with us, so organizing suitcases was a lot of work. Basically, when you get to your stop, Elders start throwing suitcases off the train and you HAVE to make sure yours gets off or its going to Berlin. Then you take what you can and ask other missionaries for help and book it to your next train. Once you get there, the suitcases get thrown back on again and you HAVE to make sure that yours make it on. So when we got to Munich, I also needed to meet our golden (new missionary), Sister Bushman, and help her out with getting to Wien. I found her and we dashed off to our train and somehow made it here with all of our stuff. It was insane. Transfers are always insane, but it's good and builds character.

Wien in beautiful. It is such a privilige to be serving here. Basically, everything is attractive and the food continues to be really good. We have some errands to run, but if we have time today, we are going to go see some sights.

Sister Freiman and Sister Bushman are great. They are my two companions and it is actually super fun to be in a drit. There is always someone to talk to. Sister Bushman is a beast of a golden. She's from Kansas and she literally talks to everyone. I'm learning a lot from her. Technically, Sister Freiman is the trainer, so she takes care of the official business, and I just help. Sister Freiman has four transfers left on her mission and is super great. She comes from Hannover, so she helps a lot with learning German. One thing is, when you get to your second area, everyone expects you to know German really well already. Compared to Sister Bushman I'm "experienced", but I still feel like a chicken running around with my head chopped off. I think that will be a normal feeling throughout my mission.

One fun surprise about being in a sisters drit is that we have two areas we work in actually. We have Wien 1 and Wiener Neustadt. Wein 1 is in the city and Wiener Neustadt is more like a suburb of Wien. It's kind of a struggle to try to get to know two wards at once, but there just aren't enough sisters here right now to give every ward the amout of missionaries they want, so we have to be shared around. We have two apartments, two area books, two phones, and two sets of keys. It's a little cray cray, but it is an adventure for sure. 

Another "fun" thing about two wards is that I get to give a talk next Sunday and the one after that. They aren't making Sister Bushman do it yet because she is new, so I get to do it. Fortunately, I can write out the talks and Sister Freiman can help with the German, but Heilige Kuh that is a lot of talks. Guess Heavenly Father wants me to work on my German public speaking skills. Well bring it!

Anywho, life is great. People are nice, and food is good. I hope everyone has a great week and continues to make good choices.

Love,
Sister Smiley


Pictures:
We took a family picture of the three of us this morning: Sister Freiman is in the middle and Sister Bushman on the left; Sister Freiman and I, and then we kind of stumbled upon the parliamnet building when we were stopping to get some food on Friday. It was pretty exciting.

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