Hahahahahahaha seriously, though. We were sitting at planning last night, and I was just laughing and laughing because I love this life. I love praying, for people and I love stretching (as much as it hurts), and I love working hard hard hard, and just being engrossed and delighting and joyful in the gospel. Sharing it with people. The priesthood. EVERYTHING. The Book of Mormon. Guys. God is GOOD. And life is WONDERFUL. I can't even describe it. Sister Wilkes thinks I'm crazy but that's okay---I've known that for years. :)
Dearest, darlingest family of mine,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! The family reunion looks SOOOO fun!! (And a bit chilly.) But it looks gorgeous. That's WONDERFUL that Dylan got baptized! Oh and all the cousins. All the cousins. It looks so fun.
This week was good---all of our investigators were out of town or didn't respond, etc. BUT, it was still really great. Lots and lots of adventures.
Monday, we were teiling some Christmas cards out to people in Freilassing, and we went to visit the Ss. (Also, we haven't been using our bikes because there was TWO FEET OF SNOW here and it was beautiful.) And so we decided to take a shorter way home because we wouldn't have time to walk home the way we came and get home on time so..........we ended up walking through this straight up FIELD at 8:15 at night and dying laughing because it seriously was just this open space of snow. NO idea where we were exactly. (Well, kind of. FL is small.) Hahahahahaha, we died.
Tuesday night we met with Schwester D. It was good. She's less active and believes the Book of Mormon is true, but I think she is a person who, just in general, thinks that the truth is kind of everywhere. But it was good to get to know her.
The day of Mission Leadership Conference was really cool, and we saw a couple of miracles. MLC itself is WONDERFUL. That's one thing I’m going to miss. AH, it was so spiritual. SO spiritual. And ALL THE PEOPLE THERE. Elder Evans, Elder Kroes, Elder Huff, Sister GILMOUR!! Elder Smith and Elder Sharp, the Australian. Mmm mmm, it was SO GOOD. And afterwards, I just started crying to Sister Kohler because I wished I'd learned these things that I was learning there earlier in my mission. It was hard. Everything is so good and I can see so much how it will help everything---but I only have two weeks left.
Now. I have two weeks left. My whole mindset about everything is that I still have two weeks left. I am not done. It is not over. And I still have time to apply everything I've been learning. So I just am taking in stride, as if it will be longer than just two weeks and so that's good.
But we talked a lot, and also about the Book of Mormon. THE BOOK OF MORMON IS SO GOOD. :) We're reading it as a mission over six months---but I decided to do it by Easter in German, and I'm ahead of myself, which is good. I'm in 1 Nephi 13, and it's absolutely beautiful. I would read it all day if I could. :) But it's wonderful. And all the things about faith. READ it. Read it again because it will change you and change your life.
By the time we got back, it had been kind of a long day—just riding trains for a while—and then we had a lesson with Schwester V right after we got back into Salzburg. It was a fun lesson---she is someone you can be BOLD with. Or blunt. Or both. Anyways, it was fun, and I love her. Afterwards we were waiting at the bus stop, and this person was coming toward us. But because it was dark, we were just a bit wary by the way the person was walking. So we walked to the next stop and waited there for the bus. We got on, and the person was there---this older woman who had some physical handicaps. She was a bit upset because we'd walked away, and we tried to explain why, etc. Then she sat down and I asked her what her name was, and we had a wonderful conversation. I felt so much that God loved her a whole lot, and that she needed to know that, so we told her when we got off the bus.
We were in Bahnhof and our train was going to leave but we had a couple minutes, and I wanted ice cream (I was physically and emotionally pretty tired) so we ran into Spar, bought ice cream, but then we missed our train. So we headed to where the next one was and passed a couple standing at the ticket machine, obviously frustrated, speaking English. Sister Wilkes said, "We need to help them," so we did. It was this GORGEOUS couple, J and L from Australia—from right around where Sister Angeloudis lives!---and we helped them buy tickets, then rode with them to Freilassing, where they were going to take a taxi to a far-flung ski city in our area. But when we got to Freilassing, there were NO TAXIS at Bahnhof. We were so worried because we wanted to help them, and they shouldn't have to stay the night in Salzburg, and then have to pay for a bus out to the city, so we ran around the platz, trying to find a taxi number, talked to this guy standing there, who gave us a number, but it didn't work. So we stopped, and said a really fast prayer, then went back to them and said, "No luck." They were about to start heading back into Salzburg when TWO TAXIS drove up. It was a MIRACLE. Oh, my goodness, we were SO HAPPY, and bless the one woman who was willing to go out of her way to take them there.
It really showed me that 1) God puts us in places at the time that we are needed; 2) If I am listening to the Spirit, God will use me (hopefully!) to help and bless someone else's life; and 3) Heavenly Father answers prayers. Ah. It was so good.
Oh, funny story......as they were getting into the taxi, we were saying goodbye and thank you to the wonderful taxi driver, and L was already inside but J was outside, and he gave us both hugs. Hahahahaha. I couldn't do anything to stop it. #schwarznotschwarz
Ah, friends. I cannot tell you how good life is. It is so good.
Taught the law of chastity to the ZLs' investigator. She's wonderful and we've been wanting to come.
Afterwards, we went to Schwester R, which was a very interesting appointment. She would not answer our questions straight. We shared the Restoration story because her daughters are Russian Orthodox, and they don't know the story. And we asked her if she believed that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Christ and she said, "Well, you know........there's lots of truth in the world......in lots of different religions.....and I really, really like the Relief Society." It was all very strange. She doesn't really believe the Book of Mormon is true, either. It was, all in all, a funny appointment.
Church was wonderful. We were in YW with N, the elders’ investigator, and then had the investigator class about the Second Coming, and then had Sacrament Meeting. It was all just good and spiritually uplifting. Hmm. :) Afterwards, I was talking to Oma and Opa G, and it was wonderful, and he patted me on the cheek and the head and I just felt so little and cute. They were a DELIGHT to talk to.
We went to the Ss’ home after church, which was cool. Beautiful wonderful Austrian food---perfect portions! :) And we got to play the piano and stuff. Our ward is SO COOL. It is WONDERFUL here.
And then the Book of Mormon. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Go read it again. Oh, man. It is SO GOOD.
And again. I was just laughing last night at how beautiful life is. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. It's INCREDIBLE.
That's all. I'll see you........in a bit. But I still have to email you next week. ;)
Hehehehehe.
Love, love, love,
Sister Beth.
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