Almost getting kissed by an old man

Liebe Mutter und Vater,

Time flies by here. I get to the end of the week and ask myself, "Where did it all go? What have we accomplished this week?" It's weird. It's been a little hard, because the last couple weeks, we've done a lot of dooring and streeting, and it's really difficult and kind of just has been dragging along. And then the week is over. Weird.  But, we still saw miracles.

So last Monday, we went up to Baden and contacted a former investigator! She wants to meet with us in a couple weeks, which is awesome. :) And then we walked around and talked with people on the streets until our train left. But the fun thing was the little old man. I, personally, thought he was a little drunk. But, I don't really know. But we start talking, and he wondered why we two pretty Mädchen are out and about. So we talked with him, and he didn't have any interest, but just to talk with someone. And at the end of plaudering (chatting), he just pulled Sister Scoggin in and gave her a hug. So funny. Oh my goodness. She didn't really know what to do, and in the middle of it, you could tell she was sort of trying to pull away and sort of not. And then while shaking her hand, he leaned towards her (maybe a couple inches closer, but not right next to her face), and puckered his lips. And she said no and pulled away. And then I shook his hand, and he did the same thing. It was hilarious. Oh, the mission.

The best part of Tuesday was German class. Only E and Z came to German, but it was good! But the best part was afterwards, because they started talking about the churches they've seen in Wien and in Graz and how much there was to look at, but wondered why there isn't much to look at here. And it totally led into a conversation about Jesus Christ. SO cool.

Wednesday, we had a good, good lesson with C. She opened up about a couple of things, and we realized that she just needs people to love her, because she has very, very few people in her life right now who do show her love. She needs to know she's loved and special and she can improve and come back.

Then we went down to another less active's area and doored for a while. No one wanted to talk with us except one woman, who was very kind.  We just street contacted after visiting a couple other less actives who weren't home, except that we met another missionary from another church. Oh, man. She saw us and came over and told us she's a "pioneer," which is basically a missionary, as far as I understood it. And she was so bouncy and happy and excited and even more bouncy. Kind of a lot of energy to take in at once. She said she had so many questions for us, then started asking us kind of intense questions about the plan of salvation. Really obscure, minute details that I didn't know the answer to. I just gave my best answer, and we talked a little bit about it, and then she wanted to get back in contact with us, so we exchanged numbers and left.

Saturday was cool. It rained the whole day. We went and streeted (but no one was out), and played "Guess the (obscure) Book of Mormon character." :) Pretty fun. We came back home, had lunch, and did area book work, because we had planned more street contacting than we'd realized during the day, and did not want to go back out there. Then we went and met Sr. H, which was awesome. She drove us out to Thernberg---well, actually Ausserschildgraben (which is this tiny, tiny place in a little valley), and we found one of our missing members, and then drove up to Eisenstadt and found another missing member. And it was still raining, but that was reeeally good. We did a lot of street contacting, just in the Fußgängerzone (pedestrian zone), and handed out a lot of cards, and had a lot of good conversations! We really like it there. We walked around a bit, and then were coming back down the hill towards the car, and saw an older man having a hard time walking, and Sister Scoggin said, "Can we help you?" He said, "Please---I'm drunk and I need help." So we walked him back up the hill to his apartment. He really was having a hard time walking. When he got to the door, he walked up the steps, pulled the door sharply, which didn't open, and fell back down the two steps he'd just walked up. Scary. I was standing right there, so I tossed away my umbrella and tried to catch him....but I didn't catch him very well. But we helped him up and get up to his apartment (on the 2. Stock! I don't know how he would have made it up all those stairs on his own!), then went back down to the car and drove home.

Yesterday was better. A came to church! And church was really good. Then we went up to Sr. H's apartment and had lunch, which was delicious, and talked to her a little about the family/ward mission plan in the car on the way to the train. We had to catch the 3:24 train from Baden to get back in time for our 4:00 appointment with the Ps, and we barely made it. And then they canceled......but it was fine. We're going over there today after emails and then to teach on Wednesday. So we did comp study, then went to go pick up C for a joint teach. She's a recent convert, but we thought we should bring her, so we did. And O actually fell out, so we went by on K with C, but K wasn't home, so we just walked C home. But the time was reeeally good, because she just asked us questions and we got to know her a little more. She's so sweet and cute. :) 

Writing this, I see a lot more miracles than I did at the end of the week. Heavenly Father really is taking care of us. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the packages!  The "I'm thankful for..." packages, and the Christmas countdown package, too. They made my day. And the verb book, Mom? I LOVE it. I need it and I will definitely use it a lot.

I love you so much! Have a great day and a great week!

Love,

Your favorite missionary in all of Austria.