President Miles, being effective, and getting soaked

Dear Mom and Dad,

Yes, our apartment is one of the nicest in the mission (see picture!). And I hug that little elephant every night. :) I love it so much. The members who helped get things for our apartment were women, and they wanted to make sure everything matched.

Soooo.......things were very interesting this week. :) It was really good, though.

Last week, we gave a Muslim man a Book of Mormon in Persian one time, but we didn't think anything would come of it, because with the Muslims, nothing usually does. But two weeks later, he showed up to German class (which we'd also invited him to...), brought a friend, and had read the entire book in two weeks. It's kind of hard to communicate with him though, because he doesn't know much German, and we don't know any Persian speakers.........

We had a lesson with this girl, P, who is 17. She was blessed as a baby, but never baptized. Her family in America are members of the Church. Her name was on the records of the Church. Bishop had talked to her family the week before, and he told us she said she'd learn more about the Church before she completely closed the door. The lesson was really good. :) And we gave her a Book of Mormon. I'm really excited.

Thursday, we walked around and contacted for about an hour, and NO ONE wanted to talk with us, which was rough. But then we had a lesson with a woman, B, to whom we'd talked a couple days earlier. We're meeting again with her tomorrow. Afterwards, we went home and worked on the area book for a little bit, which was good, because I needed to sit for a little bit.

Then we had GMK, which took so much longer than I thought. So when we finished, it was time for Spanish class, which we attend, and Jose teaches. It's really good, because this woman comes, C. She is so kind and so friendly. And she stayed to help teach German class, but we got a lot of time to just talk with her. It was SO good, because we're building a solid friendship with her. :) It's wonderful. 

Friday, after visits, we did German study and then had Sport. And Sport was a little funny---it was a very distracted game of volleyball in light rain. The real reason we were there, though, was because at the end, A and G showed up. It was so good. We talked with A for a long time. I love them so much.

Saturday was a miracle. An absolute miracle.........

So, we first finished planning for the week, then made some calls. Then. Our lesson with P and M fell out, so we had from 2:00 to 7:00 to fill. And we started fasting after lunch. So, first, we went to Leobersdorf to visit a potential, who wasn't home. Then we walked around and tried to contact, but there was no one on the streets. So we finally came back to Neustadt, picked up the bikes, and went down to say hello to Schwester S, a less active. She wasn't home, but we had some former investigators to go by on, which we did. And two of them might have interest! Then we went to go see if C was home, and just to say hello. But she wasn't home. And then we went home, because it was 7:00. Here are the miracles: 1. We filled all our time until 7. That was amazing. 2. I had enough energy to get through the day, and a lot of motivation. 3. We saw three rainbows. And the last one was pretty strong. It basically just comforted us. We thought Heavenly Father was trying to tell us that we're doing the right thing. I hope so. :) Or just that He's watching over us.

Here was another miracle: When we were walking around in Leobersdorf, the Elders called us and said that A and G had canceled and we didn't have an appointment on Tuesday, which made me so sad. Because we haven't been able to meet with them for the last two weeks, and I really want to see what A has learned/experienced. Oh man. So I was really disappointed. But the Spirit said, "Just have faith." And two minutes later, they called back and asked if Sunday at 7 would work, which it did! It was wonderful.

SUNDAY! was amazing. Oh, man. So, President and Sister Miles came! I love them sooooo much. Oh my goodness. So, first, our RS/Priesthood classes were combined, along with the Sunday School class. We were talking about missionary work. 

I was the first speaker/teacher. Problem was, I was terrified. We've been studying this for a while, but then Saturday night, as we were finishing studying/translating into German, I felt that whatever I had studied was not right. But there was no time to write up a new lesson plan. So I was really nervous, but I just thought, "I'll start with what I had for the lesson, and then see where the Spirit directs me." So, I started by reading the first four or so paragraphs from Pres. Uchtdorf's talk, "You are my hands." (This was planned.) And then most of my twenty minute portion was talking about how this is a work of love. 

And mostly, I just talked about how much this IS a work of love, and when we do it with love, it is so much better.  And people made lots of comments. It was so good. I finished by asking them to pull out their Book of Mormon, and find a favorite scripture that they could share with someone whom they love. All in German. And that in and of itself was a miracle. Sister Scoggin and President Miles and multiple people made comments on how well I did with the German. This really surprised me, because to them, I seemed so comfortable speaking, but to me, I was SO nervous. So that was a huge blessing.

Then the others took turns talking about different aspects, and it was so good. The Spirit was there, and was so strong. It was so good.  Then, for Sacrament Meeting, Sister Miles and President Miles both spoke, both about missionary work. Sister Miles played the flute, "Consider the Lilies," and I accompanied her. (I've had it stuck in my head ALL week.) But it was so good. And I love President and Sister Miles so much. 

Afterwards, we went to Sister H (a less active) and had Czech food! It was SO good and SO filling (especially after fasting). Then, we came home and studied, then went and taught L Piñol. Oh my goodness, I love that family. So much. They are probably some of my favorite people here. Hands down. Then we went and had dinner and a short lesson about prayer with G and A and the boys. :) I loved it. We'll meet again with A next week. :) 

Today! I just wanted to tell you that we bought schnitzel for lunch. Oh my goodness. That's something that America needs. And Almdudler. And the train system. There are a lot of things that I love in Europe........

I studied faith a lot this week. I learned so much, just about a lot of things. I learned that I'm not very good about having long-term faith. Short- term, sure. But holding out for a long time, that's hard for me to do. But I really need/want it. The most significant thing to me was 3 Nephi 1:7-8. And the rest of 3 Nephi 1. We need to have faith BEFORE we see the miracles. And when we don't know if the things we believed in will be fulfilled, we need to keep believing in Christ and holding our ground, steadfastly looking forward to those things that we hope for. This week taught me---I need to have faith that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and for Wiener Neustadt, and He knows what's going on here, so even when we try and talk to everyone, and no one wants to talk with us, that it is all right, because we're doing what He wants us to do.

I love you so much. So so so much. I hope you have a beautiful week.

Love,

Sister Elizabeth Winters

Getting soaked

Schnitzel

We had Abendbrot for dinner, a very Austrian/German thing to have for dinner. Different kinds of bread (Csilla gave us some Hungarian bread, because she took a short trip to Hungary that morning.) (What's up with that?? Hungary is so close!), cheese, meat, fruits, etc. And you just pick and choose. It was SO GOOD. Oh man.