Christmas miracles!

Tuesday was pretty fun. Here, Christmas Eve is a LOT bigger than Christmas day. We had dinner/late lunch with the E's (member family), then went on a walk, then came back and changed into our Trachten (i.e. dirndl and lederhosen), which was so fun. :) We sang the traditional Austrian Christmas songs, then told a couple stories, read the story from Luke, then sang the Christmas hymns from the hymnbook in order, then sang "Stille Nacht" very last. It was so special. I loved singing all the hymns through. And you know the story of how the hymn "Silent Night" came to be---it's Austrian. So here, no one sings it until Heiliger Abend (holy evening, Christmas Eve), which just makes it special. It was beautiful. We said a prayer, then they started exchanging gifts. They were so nice and got us some chocolate, some Hausschuhe (which really are just like slippers, but less plush-y and squishy, but I love them still), and some CDs with missionary-appropriate music. Then we played Rummikub until about 12:15 a.m., which is allowed on these Christmas days/nights. President wants us to be with the members, so we are allowed to stay there as long as they want us there, and then we need to get 8 hours of sleep after that.  Then, they drove us home.

Christmas day, we woke up at 8:15 or so to the bells of the churches which are very close to Hauptplatz.  We studied and used the nativity from December 1st from our companion study. OH, my goodness. Study was so much fun. I want you to know how much I love study---it's a lot. Ridiculously much. I read “The Living Christ” and wrote down the different names and titles of Christ, then looked them up in the Bible Dictionary. It's just really amazing. After that, we went to the H family's home, had lunch, played games, and Skyped with our families. :) 

They celebrate the 26th here as well. We spent the afternoon at the P family's house. 

Heavenly Father is so good to us. We were walking around on Saturday night. I had had a hard time trying to feel the sparkle, the magic, the love for missionary work, so we prayed that we'd have the courage and desire to do so. Right when we walked out of our apartment, we met a man whom we've seen a few times but never talked to, so we stopped and talked with him for a few minutes. Then, we were walking by the Dom (Catholic church), and a man and his son came out, and we said hallo. He responded with "Hola," and so I immediately started speaking Spanish to him. It was SO COOL. He was so surprised to hear someone speaking Spanish in Austria. And it was wonderful, because he was from Mexico, so he is the person whose Spanish I've been able to understand the easiest on my mission. He said he was just visiting from Mexico for a few days. He asked who we were, and we talked for a few minutes. (One thing why I love talking to people from Central/South America is that they know about the Mormon missionaries.) I gave him my email address and the website of the church, because he really likes what we do, and doesn't like the Catholic church a ton, but he has just been part of it as part of his family.

Then, on our way back from visiting a couple people, we offered to help a woman (who, incidentally, was also in front of the Catholic church), and she let us help her carry her bags to her apartment. No one ever lets us help them, so this was special.

It is these little, little things, tiny miracles that we see that I remember how much I love this. It IS magical. :) 

Life is just really good. I feel so, so blessed. I know the Lord loves me and is watching out for me. I know this is His work.  I know the Book of Mormon is true, and that the Lord brought it forth now so we could take it to all the world---to be part of the gathering of Israel! It's a wonderful work, and I am SO blessed.

Love, love, love,

Your missionary daughter, Sister Elizabeth Winters.