I promise I'm not schwarz, though Sister Wilkes tells me every day that I am. We're just silly. But it SNOWED!! First on the 26th (a little bit, more in FL than in Salzburg itself) and then some more and then yesterday it SNOWED and snowed and snowed. I don't think I've ever seen any negative degrees on my weather forecaster thing until this weekend. And actually, it made me reeeeeally happy because it's beautiful. Ah. It's snowing right now. But yes, it is getting COLD.
Dear Family,
Hi hi hi hi hi! Hahaha, I am so happy and just excited about life. It was WONDERFUL to talk to you. And it looks like you had a BEAUTIFUL Christmas. Oh, fun stuff.
Ah this week was good. Holidays are difficult, though. Everyone's too busy to do anything, so we only met with the Hs once. But that was fun. We read in the Book of Mormon together, which was wonderful. READ the Book of Mormon. It's powerful. Then we watched the "He is the Gift" video and did the whole thingything with them with the paper and stuff. And they were going to upload it to FB. Cool, right?
Hehehehe quotes from the Hs:
-Sister Wilkes was hiccuping a TON. We walked in, and Bruder Hauser said, "That's from drinking too much beer."
-Watching the Christmas video: "Das erste Geschenk........war ein Kugel." "The first gift..........was a ball." (Watch the video again. You'll understand.)
-Bruder Hthinks he can read the Book of Mormon in two hours: read the first page, the middle page, and the last page, and you've got the whole story!
-Talking about church: "Everyone sits in the back so they can sleep."
Tuesday, before the Hs (sorry, skipping around)---we were dropping Christmas cards off bei people's houses, and E (a friend of a member---we're trying to teach her) came home right when we were there. It was great. She's old and always has different reasons why we can't come visit her. But we were there and she said, "Oh, it's so good you came today (we had an appointment on Tuesday) because Tuesday is the day before Christmas Eve and I'm terribly busy and things. So we went in and had a lesson. :) It was good.
Going to the Fs’ was fun. I wish I'd gotten a picture of their tree. The Rs did this, too: they put indoor sparklers on the tree. Austrians, in general, have real candles on the tree, and both families had that, but I don't remember the Es (from WN) doing sparklers. It was fun. We were going to deliver some more cards, so we got on a bus and I sat down next to this man and we had a good conversation, but then he got off. Then I talked to another man who came on, and he was in a dark place, and I felt that I was put in that situation specifically---which is a cool feeling.
Another tender mercy: all of our busses worked out. It was a holiday, so they only come twice an hour, and the longest we had to wait for one was seven minutes, tops. (Exact, I know.) :) But it was just all really wonderful---seeing how God had placed us in places for people, even though we ended up getting a bit lost. It was okay. We told Sister F when we saw her again and she said, "Why didn't you just come back?" Which would have been okay, but not the best use of our time, and all of those things, little things, just were wonderful. I was happy.
Saturday, we helped the Ms by cleaning the church a bit for them. (They're an older couple and were going to try to schaff it alone.) In the middle of it, I went into the chapel to see if there were any trash cans in there. (There weren't.) But it was interesting---as soon as I walked in, it felt different from the rest of the church. And I felt a slight pull to just sit down for a few minutes, so I did. Sister Wilkes was vacuuming in the back/basement of the church. (We were the only ones there.) And just sitting there, there was such a peace. It was thick, almost tangible---and it was beautiful. I was reeeally grateful---I needed that. I didn't want to leave.
We met up with O, a friend of one of our members. That was fun. She's SO COOL. She gave her dad a Book of Mormon for Christmas. (She has only been baptized a month!) It was just fun.
We taught the investigator class yesterday (Gospel Principles) on the signs of the Second Coming. Hahahaha. Not a typical lesson you teach to investigators. But it was fun, because we had all of these JAEs in there.
Also, I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON. It's really beautiful. Read it. Pray about it. Because it is incredible and beautiful and TRUE. Ah ah ah ah ah.
I am loving this---I am living this---I chose this life and it is MINE. It's incredible. And I love you, family, to all the ends of everything. The world, here to the moon and back, and from Salzburg to Utah (or to San Francisco) and back. I love you a whole lot. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Love,
Sister Beth.
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