Frohe Ostern!!!

Sent April 25, 2011

So Easter here is an interesting deal. They get Good Friday off of work and, of course, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. It is currently Easter Monday and it is a ghost town outside. There is NO ONE out and about. We were lucky that the internet shop people are Muslim and do not celebrate the same days. We had a lovely meal with the Henkel family where we ate some real German food. No hasenpfeffer mom but there was a lot of chocolate to eat. In Sacrament meeting we had a few talks and two musical numbers. The first was Bru. Kastle who did an arrangement of hymns. The second was Schw. Henkel and her grand daughter (who is in her 20s) who played a recorder duet. I know everyone is thinking of the lovely recorder performances we've all heard come out of the 1st grade but this was different. They played a Corelli duet for Soprano and Tenor recorders. I felt very Baroque in Sacrament meeting. So a few updates on things here in the lovely city of Heilbronn. Sometime in the near future the performing arts place will be producing Das Rheingold and I REALLY want to go. Elder Sills is way up for it so we'll see if President Condie is of the same persuasion. We went on a lovely train ride out to Mosbach to go to an appointment. There were castles and Medieval towns on the way there as we wound our way around the valley with the Nekar river flowing peacefully below. We also went out to a lovely little town called Hochstberg. There were few buses and certainly none that go on Saturdays so we walked. Ever a lovely feeling. Schwabisch is a new language all its own. It sometimes sounds nothing like German. The members of the branch here are very nice and are very willing to feed us (Mom). I have had a lot of really good food. It's awesome that you had a bunch of people over and were able to be the medium through which the missionaries could teach someone. There are NO investigators out here, so we spend pretty much all our time going out to less actives and dooring. It's always a lovely time. So, I'm glad that the missionaries in California have people to teach. Anyway, I hope everyone is having a lovely time at home and that it's not as hot there as it is here. Have a great week! Tschuss!

Oh, there's how many hours left?

Dated: April 18, 2011

So here I am in Heilbronn. It's a fun little place. It is really different though. There are probably just as many people in this city as were in 1 Bezirk in Wien. That means it's not going to be too hard to talk to pretty much everyone we see. The new address is as follows:

Elder Andrew Neumayer
Kirche Jesu Christi HLT
Werderstr. 164
D-74074, Heilbronn

So, let the email begin. The train ride to Stuttgart and then to Heilbronn was interesting. Elder Foremaster left me on Tuesday because he is training again and he went all the way to Munich to pick up the "golden" and take him to his new area. Meanwhile, I went off to the four-man apartment on the other side of town and lugged my suitcases all the way up several spiral stone staircases for which there are no elevators. We took off in the morning to go to Westbahnhof and all of the missionaries that were leaving Wien rode the same train out. So, Elders Handly and Olsen and Sister McGuire and I all left the beautiful city in search of places unknown. We had a lovely train ride out to Salzburg where it was freezing and we met the Salzburg zone leaders. The other Elders continued on another train ride to Munich and I had a 50 minulet layover until my train came to take me to Stuttgart. After getting on that train and having plenty of trouble with my suitcases and getting them just to stay put, I sat down in a cabin by myself and rode the rest of the 3 hours or so to Munich by myself. Upon arriving in Munich, I saw two Elders getting in the train. It turned out to be an Elder that I knew from the MTC and his trainer taking him to Tubingen. We rode together for maybe an hour or so and then I was once again left alone to ride the rest of the way to Stuttgart. By the way, the rides aren't that boring since the countryside is AMAZING! I arrived in Stuttgart and met my new companion Elder Sills. He is pretty cool. He is so funny and really chill. He was actually born and lived for a while in his life in Cypress, CA. He now hails from Mapleton, UT. He's really open to listening to me rant about opera and we have listened to a lot of good music since we've been together. He's helping me a little with understanding Schwabisch. It's different for sure. I like this place for different reasons from Wien and I think it will be an awesome place to work.

Now that you have my address, John can come tracting with me. I think he'll like it here. i keep telling myself that dad needs to come with me around Germany and Austria. He would just have way too much fun looking at everything. The countryside is awesome and he would love it, but the cities like Wien would have too much to look at even in one building. For my last P-day in Wien, we went to the Staatsoper and got some pictures. We also went to Doblinger Musikhaus which is amazing. And, we went to Schonbrunn. The pictures will speak for themselves. I'll admit that I laughed at the prospect of you and John going on a mission just because it would be exactly as you said it would. You and John would actually be awesome at the Wades are doing Wien. They run the Institute Center. They sit there from 4 to 9everyday and greet the YSAs as they come in and spend time there. You would be great at laying down the rules for the YSAs but also being a fun mom type character. And of course, making lots of good food. John would have the the time of his life sitting at the front desk greeting people as they came in and talking to the people at English class and just taking care of everyone's needs. I can literally see it in my mind. It would be awesome. Anyway, I gotta go and write some other emails. I hope life's great and still puppies and butterflies. Have a good week. Tchusssss!!!!!!!!

Muss ich einmal fort von den schonen ort ...

dann nimmt meine Sehnsucht kein end. So, I'm going to have to leave this beautiful city. I've been transferred back to Germany north of Stuttgart to a place called Heilbronn. I don't really know anything about the place, but I know I have to go there for some reason which I will figure out when I get there and start the work. I've had a great time here anyway and we'll be doing everything that we can today to see the things I still want to see. And, who knows? I could come back some day. By the way, Rigoletto was a no go. We went and got situated and were there for may 15 minutes before we realized the should not have gone to a modern production. That was the end of my Volksoper experience. The first few minutes showed that it would have been a good cast, but I won't put up with trash. Oh well though. This week was kinda crazy with a few interesting instances where we didn't quite find the people we went out originally to find, but we found some people with genuine interest on the street on in the bus around that area. We've walked a lot this week but it was all worth it. Not a lot to report this time around but I'm sure I'll have lots to say next week. So, bis spater! Tschuss!

Durfen wir zu oper gehen? Ja, naturlich!

Message from April 4, 2011

So OMG tonight we're going to Rigoletto at the Volksoper!!!! We broke down and bought the 21 euro nose-bleed seats. It will be worth it for sure. We'll also hopefully be going to a sheet music store later today over near Stephansplatz. I can't even express how excited I am to be going to all these places. However I am quickly coming up on my first transfer call and I could be leaving this wonderful city in the near future. Leider, kann i net auf immer hier bleiber. Aber, na jo. So ists ne? Anyway, I'm having a lot of fun here and the people are all great. I especially love the members they're always awesome. We found a possible new investigator this week. His name is Alex Hell (yeah, I know). He was born into a very strict Roman Catholic family and went to Catholic school as a kid and as a result HATES the Catholic church. He went over to Buddhism of all things and then met the sister missionaries on the U-Bahn. He asked for a Book of Mormon and the sisters told us about him. We made an appointment and gave him the book and introduced it. He seemed really open to finding out more about the church. Unfortunately he had to get his wisdom teeth taken out and so he couldn't give us a firm answer on when we could meet next. General Conference was AWESOME!!! Well, the first 4 sessions anyway. We watched the Saturday morning broadcast in the evening on Saturday. Then we watched the Priesthood, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning sessions on Sunday. That was fun. We got our investigator Anna to come with her boyfriend Mostafa (a member). They came to two session at least. Tanja came alone to one of the sessions but sh loved it. Our Catholic liturgy professor investigator came for the Sunday morning broadcast. He actually really enjoyed it and I think it might have gotten him a little more interested in the church and softened his heart a little. The talks we all so good for the investigators. The church is so TRUE! I'm glad that everyone is willing to send me some letters. We'll need to wait a little to see if I'm staying here though. That is so awesome that Adam got his mission call. He's just too cool for school. I got your package. Thank you!!!!! It was so fun to get so many cool things from home. We ate some of the goldfish at the conference and I share some with the other missionaries. Sisters Covey and Nelson were so excited to see those little fish. Everything else was great. Elder Foremaster was very thankful for his chocolate bunny. This week will be a fun one I think. I hope everything is going well at home. Have a great week! Tschuss!

Alles Klar!

This is such an interesting place. Everyday is just full of crazy stuff and I don't know if I'll ever get used to that smell. It just shows up sometimes. I finally had the opportunity to go on "tausch" (exchanges/splits) with the zone leaders. I went off to Wiener Neustadt with Elder Varney who is actually a musical theatre singer at UVU. He is sooooo awesome and an amazing missionary. We tried to stop off to give some guy a Turkish Book of Mormon that he had asked for. We met a lady outside the building who appeared to be his mother (a very Turkish looking lady) who said we couldn't meet with him. When we told her that we had something for him she said "Give it to me!" After explaining that we wanted to give it to him in person she just angrily got in her car and left. As it turns out he either wasn't there or he didn't answer. So we left and continued on our way to Wiener Neustadt. We got there and walked from the Bahnhof to the zone leaders' apartment. Along the way we talked to a bunch of people. There is also a little stream along the walking path that you could actually see through. This is a novelty since most water in Wien (especially the Donau canal which I see quite often) are not very clear. The water is pretty nasty looking and brown. But yeah, we went to the apartment where we played some music and talked for a little while and got to know each other. Elder Varney as we were leaving suggested we do some musical contacting. We left deciding to sing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, hopefully to some little old ladies in the park. It was a little too dark for little old ladies so we settled for regular people. We found this man who was just strolling through the park and sang to him. Turns out he is a musician in a Turkish band and plays guitar. He thought that we sounded great. We told him a little about our role as missionaries and asked him if he wanted to learn more. We went and sat down on a park bench and said a prayer as the city's church bell started ringing. We introduced the Turkish Book of Mormon which we still happened to have with us!!! So he was able to read Moron 10:3-5 for himself in his mother language and then he gave us a perfect summary back in German. He was willing by the end to meet with the missionaries and get a tour of the church and everything. He would even make time for the missionaries to come. It was sooooooo cool! In the morning we went back to Wien and I was happy to be going home. We went to the Stake Center on Bocklinstasse where we had arranged to meet back up with our respective companions. We were a little early so I snuck on to the beautiful pipe organ that they have there and played some stuff. For the most part I kept it pretty quiet with just flutes and the lighter wood sounds. At the end however I was playing Abide with Me and I literally for the last verse "pulled out all the stops" and let it all go. It was soooooooo cool! After Elder Foremast and I left the building we walked down to wait for the bus or S bahn but after standing there for a couple of minutes we were addressed by a man who just said "Mormons!" We turned around and there is a man driving a horse drawn carriage! He asked us where we were going and he told us to hop in. We rode with him and talked a little about our church. He was really open but he said that he doesn't ever like to talk about anything he has not read for himself (the Book of Mormon) and so we rode with him all the way to Stephans Platz where we thanked him and gave him 5 euros even though he said it was free (as it turns out, a ride like this one would have cost up to 50 euros) and we gave him a Book of Mormon with our card and he said that he would read it for sure since he has so much time. It was such an awesome day. We still haven't done much teaching since a lot of our investigators have been having problems with work or being sick. We have done a lot of going to old investigators and less active members. There is so much to do all the time. So far I have gone to quite a few different places here in Wien. We haven't gone to any museums but I have seen the Staatsoper in all it's magnificent glory. I just love it here!

In response to your update: I haven't gotten your package yet but I'll be waiting for it! Schw. Downs is now in Bruck and der Moor and we were sad to see her leave but she is needed there. I am soooooo excited that Michael is going to Taiwan!!! That is soooo cool! I hope everything at home is going great. I love hearing what's going on back at home. Have a great week. Tschuss!

Leiwand!!!!

Hallo!!!! It's me again. This week has been pretty interesting. We didn't get a lot of lessons because there were a lot of problems with our investigators. Asmie Eristol, a Haitian girl, moved to a different apartment. Julian, our favorite talkative Polish man hasn't been able to meet or come to church because he has been sick. Our investigator Ivan from Chile works three jobs and studies at the Universitat Wien but he DID come to institute! He's cool. We got some new potential investigators. Two are a couple with a 40 year age difference, he is from Austria and she is from Serbia. They smoke and have a ton of stuff in their apartment but they let us in when it was raining outside. Our last new investigator is a Catholic liturgy professor at the Universitat Wien. He referred himself at the temple visitors center in San Diego. He apparently travels the world finding the differences in Catholic liturgy among different congregations and languages. He speaks German and English. We seem to teach of Auslanders, it would be nice if the Austrian people would be a bit more open to the church like our liturgy professor friend. A little bit about Elder Foremaster, he is from Northern Utah, Ogden area and he has a ton of family pictures! He is not the biggest classical music appreciator however we are united in our mutual love of the German musical Rudolph and we rock out to "Weg in die Zunkunft". He has served a lot in Austria. He spent a lot of time in Salzburg and Innsbruck. He also served in Neuotting and Ingolstadt. He is 4 or so months away from from going home and is very ready but he is always reminding himself that he has a lot more to go and he can't just give up now. He's pretty good at just talking to people on the street. It is still great to be here and I'm still having a lot of fun and it's always Wien Wien nur du Allein in my head. I hope everything is going great at home and people are happy and that it's all puppy dogs, unicorns and rainbows. Until next time, Tschuss!

Time Flying, Singing and Wienerschnizel

This week went by so fast it was crazy. Every night this past week had something going on. Most of the things were meetings of some sort in which I understood very little of what was being said. We work a lot with the JAEs (young single adults) in the Institute Center. They are all so awesome and there are even a few that only speak English. The senior missionaries at the center are also great. On Thursday we had a great fireside by Elder Hinkley (the last prophet's son for anyone who did not know that) and he is awesome. He has some of the same habits of speech in his emphasis of words and diction as his dad. It was really cool when he would tell stories about his dad. On Friday we went to Mission Tour at the Bocklinstrasse building. The Assistants to the President stayed overnight at our apartment and they gave us a ride in their car in the morning so we didn't have to take a long ride on the Bahns. Bocklinstrasse is an awesome building. It has the coolest baptismal font I've ever seen and the chapel has a Bosendorfer piano and a real pipe organ. It's soooo cool. We were instructed by President and Sister Condie and also by Elder and Sister Hinkley. For lunch we had Wienerschnizel and Kartoffelsalat (potato salad, not as good as mom's). We learned a lot about getting younger people to join the ever technology friendlier Church. Elder Hinkley gave us a lot of insight into the development of the new mormon.org. The new one is so cool. On Sunday I got to go to choir practice. I ended up not singing much and really just lending my limited skills at the piano. It was interesting. After church we didn't go too many places because Elder Foremaster had a headache. Eventually though we got out and went to see if we could contact some referrals from Temple Square. They were way up in the hills over Wien and the houses were fairly expensive looking. I actually found Karen's dream home (who by the way needs to write to me...) I also saw a large fishing boat on dry ground (no idea how it got there on a hill in the middle of Austria) and a giant chess set. You could also see all of beautiful Wien at night with it's many lights. In that course of walking we probably walked several miles but I didn't really mind. It was so cool and beautiful. We went to Stephansplatz last Monday and it was such a cool church, just no Spirit. Every day my testimony of this work gets stronger and I love the work that I am engaged in, even if no one will listen to me. Our investigators are still making progress and we're looking for some more through the old area books. People need to hear this message and I'm here to bring it to them! It's great. By the way, I just got your letter today so it must take a while to get things here. Also the email you sent me is from the Berlin Staatsoper. I need the Vienna Staatsoper and the Vienna Volksoper if you can. I hope everything is going great back at home. Until next week. Tchuss!