Beautiful Austria and Our Investigators

Liebe Mutter und Vater,

It was so good to get your emails. Things are really settling into a routine, and all things Austrian are infusing into our souls. Every morning, we wake up with prayer and Alps stretching. It helps us prepare to conquer the mountains ahead of us, because often we don't have very much energy in the mornings.  After stretching and showers, we usually have some goat cheese or yogurt for breakfast. We like to enrich it with a little dirt from these beautiful Alps---it adds protein. (Well, really, yogurt, or bread, butter, and jam ("marmalade"), sometimes cereal, and fruit.)

Okay, a real letter now. ;) All things Austrian really are infusing into our souls. We love it here. Yes, sometimes we do sing "Doe, A Deer" while we're riding bikes, with a lot of laughter. :) But we don't really sing "So Long, Farewell" when we leave houses. Yesterday, we were at a members home for lunch, and they were telling us that they'd never even heard of Sound of Music until they went to the U.S., and people asked them if Austria really was like what it looks like in Sound of Music. That made me laugh. But just, if you ever meet an Austrian, don't ask them if they go around in the tops of mountains all the time in Lederhosen and Dirndls, because they'll probably think you're crazy. :)

Answers to your questions:

1.  I got a bundle of letters from you on Thursday, I think?  I got another envelope with letters from the Mikeys on the same day. I did pick up the letters that you sent to Munich a while ago (July 17th, I think) at Zone Training on Wednesday. 

3. Haha, that kooky package. :) I LOVED it. I sleep with the elephant every night. I love its BIG eyes. :) Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was so surprised. We're going to make cupcakes sometime. Also, was the other thing the glitter crayons?  They came on Wednesday. 

This week was pretty great. We have investigators!! Which is awesome. First, there's D. We joint taught with the Elders, but she's one of our investigators, now that there are sisters in the area. But the Spirit was SO strong. We have another appointment with her this week, and I think we will and can invite her to be baptized.

We are also teaching a man and woman from Romania, Cl and Co. They're homeless. We don't know if they are legal, but they're trying to find work and an apartment. Cl speaks more German than Co, but they are both so good. Cl is so pure. Yesterday, we watched the Restoration video with them in the church, and then taught the Apostasy and Restoration. The Spirit was so strong, and I could tell that Cl really was feeling the Spirit. Still working with Cornel, because it's hard to communicate. We don't speak a lick of Romanian, but we can sometimes get across.

And then we taught E. She's sweet. She's met with the missionaries before, and her paper was one of the "Former Investigators," but we went and taught her. We'll meet with her again this week.

It was Sister Scoggin's one year mark this week! And my one month! Fun stuff. We celebrated her one year mark by getting ice cream. (Wiener Neustadt has the BEST ice cream ever.)  Oh, did you know, I'm closer to Hungary than maybe any other country right now? Wien and Wiener Neustadt are about an hour train ride from the border. It's pretty cool.

We have been seeing MIRACLES. I love it. Every day, we text our zone leaders how many miracles we saw that day, and then the next morning, they text the whole zone the number of miracles the zone had that day. It is fun to do, because we have started setting a number of miracles we want to see each day. We weren't quite what counted as a miracle, so using the Bible Dictionary, we came up with this definition: "Manifestations of divine power or spiritual power. Proof that Jesus is the Christ. Wrought by prayer, need, and faith. The natural result of the Messiah's presence among men. Shows how the law of love is to deal with the actual facts of life." So we count them. And big tender mercies. It is helpful and Wonder-ful. (Wunder auf Deutsch means miracle.) As a challenge, count how many miracles you see this week, total them on Sunday, and send the number (and stories) to me. :)

Food for thought (or scripture study): I've been trying to study the Atonement and see how it applies in my life more. I think one purpose of the Atonement is toovercome. Preach My Gospel says that the Atonement is the triumph of Jesus Christ over spiritual and physical death. So first, physical death. Christ overcame it with His death and Resurrection. Then, with spiritual death. He overcame sin with the Atonement, and now can turn to us and offer that to us, so that we overcome our sins. I also want to include weaknesses---Sunday during church I had a couple moments where I really felt and saw a couple of weaknesses I have. It didn't overwhelm me, but I got a glimpse of really how much I need to be relying on the Lord. Yesterday's personal study started with 1 Nephi 21. In verse 16, he says, "I have graven the upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." (Not sure if that's verbatim, but it's close. There is one footnote with palms (I think), and it's in Zechariah 13:6, where Christ talks about the wounds in His hands. Which together, along with Isaiah 53:5, create beautiful imagery: literally in His palms are the marks of what Christ suffered for us. But He did that so that He could then turn to us, extend mercy and grace to help us overcome our sins, our shortcomings, and our weaknesses.

This Thursday is an Austrian holiday---I don't know exactly what that means for us, though. We're going on an exchange (Austausch) this week, so I'll get to be up in Wien for a day! Speaking English, too. And, believe it or not, I'm eating watermelon. :)

I love getting your emails. They are such a help and strength and they make me smile. Thank you also for sending pictures! It looks like a lot of fun. The package was wonderful. I was so happy about it. :) I am learning to rely on the Lord and listen to the Spirit, but your letters do help me a ton. They are what I need to hear throughout the week.

The work is true. I know it, and I LOVE it. I love being a missionary, I know this gospel is true, that we have the truth and we are SO blessed at this time to be taking it throughout the world! Or, in my case, my wonderful little corner of Austria. :) I love you so much!

Love,

Sister Elizabeth Winters (the happiest, goldenest, loudest-singing, trying-to-be-the-hardest-working missionary in all of be-a-u-ti-ful, green Austria)

Pictures:

1. Here is a view of Baden, about 25 minutes north of WN. We went to these old castle ruins for P-day last week as a district. SO pretty and so much fun. :)

2. Sister training leaders with us: Sis. Winters, Harman, Woods, and Scoggin

3. Watermelon! :D

4.  This is proof that we are in the most beautiful place. This is Bad Sauerbrunn, where a less-active, older couple live.......it is GORGEOUS. Oh my goodness. We were eating chocolate, seeing miracles, we'd just visited this sweet, sweet couple, and this is the scenery...... Oh man. We were feeling quite blessed.