Received January 16, 2012
Servas family/friends!
This week as the subject line says, really did fly by. I don't know where the days go, but they just seem to disappear. We went to Salzburg again this week and it was a good time as always. We got to have interviews with the mission president and we also learned from the Zone Leaders and Sis. Miles. We talked about giving people commitments so they are led to make steps toward repentance and progress in the gospel. It was fun to hear from them all. On Tuesday we went to the Mayer's house. We ended up talking a LOT about opera because Walter Mayer sings at the Landestheater in Linz in the opera chorus. I asked him if he knows Lawrence Vincent and he told me a
story about how he and his wife sang Christus am Ölberg (Christ on the
Mount of Olives) by Beethoven with the Linz choir. Walter Mayer sang
the role of Petrus in the piece and they even traveled around to
perform in different wards in Austria. If anyone happens to see Dr.
Vincent, tell him that the ward in Linz says Schöne Gruß. The investigator situation in Linz is doing it's thing. One (potential) investigator that we had ended up dropping us because he heard from somebody that we were a sect (real original). We finally confronted Benjamin on his circular reasoning and I don't think he likes us anymore. He pretty much makes everything way too hard on himself and can't believe anything that he cannot prove
scientifically. It would have been nice for that to have come out like
a few weeks ago but we finally squeezed it out of him in the last
lesson. He didn't come to church and I think he's just going to take a
lot of time and life experiences until he gets to a point where he
will start believing in God. We can't help him any further. Rene on
the other hand is doing very well and he actually came to an eating
appointment with Sis. Dafalias with us. He had a great time and she
really likes him. So do we.
Yeah, so that was kinda the week as it played out. Oh yeah, and last
Monday both Elder Chandler and I fell for different reasons. Elder
Chandler was walking down the side of a really long set of stairs on
the side of the Linz Schloss and slipped. He only hurt his hand a
little and luckily he had a little first aid kit with which he was
quickly cleaned and bandaged. About an hour later we went up stairs in
a shop that sells Tracht and were looking at Trachten Anzüge. It
wasn't priced too badly, but way out of our price range so we started
down the stairs. These stairs wind down around a central wall and on
the inside the steps get really small. I remember thinking "Don't
slip!" and then all of a sudden my feet were no longer under me. I
was able to save myself sufficiently because I was holding on to the
rail, but my arm went back with it and it hurt a little bit later.
There were a bunch of women down on the first floor and a sales woman
who all witnessed this occur. I told them I was fine, but now thinking
back I should have faked getting hurt so they would give me a free
suit, but oh well too late.
Friend points for this week/ the month of December go to Courtney
Severson whose letter I finally got through mission mail. Gold Stars
for you! I will be sending a letter out soon.
Transfers are on the 8th of February, so you can probably send me a
package if you want to. I kinda expect to be in Linz another transfer,
so I think it will be ok.
Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful week and that everything is
Edelweiß, German Shepherd puppies, and Alpen Täler.
Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Hallo, dies ist der Anschluss der Missionare der Kirche Jesu Christi der Heiligen der Letzten Tage...
Received January 9, 2012
Hallo liebe Familie, liebe Freunde, und liebe Besucher! Wilkommen in dem Email von Elder Andrew Neumayer.
Yeah, so the subject line, last night we were waiting for the Wels Elders to call and ask for our Key Indicators for the week. When the phone rang I answered it and in the phoniest voice I could muster, I spoke out the subject line. Commonly known as the message box for the missionaries phones, and given that missionaries hardly ever leave messages for other missionaries, the Wels Elders just hung up. I couldn't believe that it actually worked. I called them back and Elder Parker said that he totally thought that he got our answering machine. Just a fun little anecdote.
By the way, you can translate the subject line and the first sentence, they are actually good Hochdeutsch.
This past week went by really fast. I was surprised how fast it went actually. Not a lot happened, but it just flew by. I finally got everything in order for my visa stuff and got the process started at least. We're expecting the "Führungszeugnis" to come in any day now and the lady at the office just said to get it in as soon as I get it. Luckily for me, I actually have a birth certificate, something that Elder Chandler did not have. The mission office had to call his mom and request one for him. She went and miraculously got everything done in one day and then got it off to DHL. It got here this morning. We found out that we will be going to Salzburg this week for Interviews with the Mission President. I hear that there's actually snow up there. We're having a California Winter here in the lovely area of Linz Stadt. The people on the hills (like Pöstlingberg) have snow, I bet Steyr has snow, the Alps have snow (picture attached). Just poor little Linz has no snow.
We got a new investigator this week! Rene Pachinger (another Rene). He's a friend of Sonja Pirklbauer (try saying that one ten times fast) who is one of the more missionary-minded members of the ward. She invited him to church last Sunday and he came. She gave him a Book of Mormon and showed him some spots to read in it. He came to have English class with us on Thursday and we ended up meeting with him an hour beforehand to talk about the Book of Mormon. He is interested and came to church again this week. We have another appointment with him this week. Our biggest obsatcle for meeting with him is that he has a pretty bad stuttering issue. Now with German that can be a bad thing. Heaven help us though if he starts speaking his "mother tongue" Mühlviertlerisch. Sometimes people forget that we are just poor missionaries learning German and slip into their dialects and then our understanding just goes *whoosh* right out the window.
We also found out this week that for the mission tour at the end of this transfer we will be going to.......WIEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited and so is Elder Chandler. We will have an awesome time there and will be there practically the entire day.
Yeah, so that was pretty much the week. I hope everyone has a lovely week and that everything is just peachy! Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
Hallo liebe Familie, liebe Freunde, und liebe Besucher! Wilkommen in dem Email von Elder Andrew Neumayer.
Yeah, so the subject line, last night we were waiting for the Wels Elders to call and ask for our Key Indicators for the week. When the phone rang I answered it and in the phoniest voice I could muster, I spoke out the subject line. Commonly known as the message box for the missionaries phones, and given that missionaries hardly ever leave messages for other missionaries, the Wels Elders just hung up. I couldn't believe that it actually worked. I called them back and Elder Parker said that he totally thought that he got our answering machine. Just a fun little anecdote.
By the way, you can translate the subject line and the first sentence, they are actually good Hochdeutsch.
This past week went by really fast. I was surprised how fast it went actually. Not a lot happened, but it just flew by. I finally got everything in order for my visa stuff and got the process started at least. We're expecting the "Führungszeugnis" to come in any day now and the lady at the office just said to get it in as soon as I get it. Luckily for me, I actually have a birth certificate, something that Elder Chandler did not have. The mission office had to call his mom and request one for him. She went and miraculously got everything done in one day and then got it off to DHL. It got here this morning. We found out that we will be going to Salzburg this week for Interviews with the Mission President. I hear that there's actually snow up there. We're having a California Winter here in the lovely area of Linz Stadt. The people on the hills (like Pöstlingberg) have snow, I bet Steyr has snow, the Alps have snow (picture attached). Just poor little Linz has no snow.
We got a new investigator this week! Rene Pachinger (another Rene). He's a friend of Sonja Pirklbauer (try saying that one ten times fast) who is one of the more missionary-minded members of the ward. She invited him to church last Sunday and he came. She gave him a Book of Mormon and showed him some spots to read in it. He came to have English class with us on Thursday and we ended up meeting with him an hour beforehand to talk about the Book of Mormon. He is interested and came to church again this week. We have another appointment with him this week. Our biggest obsatcle for meeting with him is that he has a pretty bad stuttering issue. Now with German that can be a bad thing. Heaven help us though if he starts speaking his "mother tongue" Mühlviertlerisch. Sometimes people forget that we are just poor missionaries learning German and slip into their dialects and then our understanding just goes *whoosh* right out the window.
We also found out this week that for the mission tour at the end of this transfer we will be going to.......WIEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited and so is Elder Chandler. We will have an awesome time there and will be there practically the entire day.
Yeah, so that was pretty much the week. I hope everyone has a lovely week and that everything is just peachy! Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
Now That The War's Over...
Received January 2, 2012
Anyone that has ever been in Austria/Europe for a New Years Eve should know what I'm talking about when I say, it was insanity. See, there's good reasoning behind the whole "Don't give the civilians fireworks!" thing. Let's just say, World War III pretty much broke out and all you see and hear is explosions going off all around you. They give the people some intense fireworks to shoot off on their own. They have little boxes with about 16 rockets that shoot up one at a time and burst in brilliant colors. These are the kind of thing that only professionals are allowed to use in America. Luckily, not too many of our comrades were hit. Jimmy went down from the shrapnel but he'll be ok. (Not really) But it was fun. We went to the Miesbauer family (the same as Christmas day) for the evening. It was a pretty full house. Naturally there was Bro. and Sis. Miesbauer, Matthias, and Iris. Iris' friend Clara came from Salzburg and Matthias' fiancee and her father came from Wien. The younger brother of the Miesbauers wasn't there, but he was somewhere with friends I assume. We ate really good food which we "grilled" ourselves on little table top stoves. After eating plenty of that we went and retired to the living room where we played a few games, one of which was Life. I probably won, but it's not like we were counting or anything...After that we watched Tangled (Pres. Miles approved) in German. The music gets the Neumayer seal of approval (so that means those of you who don't have it yet who were waiting for my approval may go and buy it). Alan Menken is always a good option. At the beginning of the movie Bro. Miesbauer decided to sleep because he was tired and moved over onto the couch to do so. After the movie was over we went outside to newly fallen snow. It was a couple minutes before 12 and we went to the neighbors across the street to watch the fireworks. It was awesome and everyone had a great time. Yesterday we pretty much woke up at around 8 (Elder Chandler slept until 11 or so) and got ready. It was a nice peaceful morning. Church wasn't until 3 pm, so we had plenty of time to get our (Mission President approved) 8 hours of sleep. We got to church and I was surprised to see half of the people that I know from Wien there. Marvin Till, Esther Duffles, Arnulf Schaunig, and more. It was awesome to talk to them. Rene and Benjamin came to church like normal. We had an eating appointment after church and we asked if Benjamin could come with us. They said yes and had actually been thinking about inviting him. So we went to the Erlachers (same family as Boxing day). This time it was just Bro. and Sis. Erlacher, Emily, and Sam (not the rest of the Erlacher clan). We had teriyaki chicken and raclette. For those of you who don't know what raclette is, there is a little stove on the table that you use to cook something (like meat) on top of and a little space underneath in which you slide a little pan filled with cheese. After the cheese is melted, you usually put it on top of potatoes. It was really good. I'll have to admit though, never before on my mission have I had to do so much cooking of my own food for eating appointments. It's a good conversation-inducing investment for larger dinner groups. Benjamin had a really good time and it's a really good opportunity for him to see how a Mormon family lives.
I hope everyone had a good New Year and "a gut Rosch" as the Jews would say or "ein gute Rutsch ins neue Jahr" as the Austrians would say. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
Anyone that has ever been in Austria/Europe for a New Years Eve should know what I'm talking about when I say, it was insanity. See, there's good reasoning behind the whole "Don't give the civilians fireworks!" thing. Let's just say, World War III pretty much broke out and all you see and hear is explosions going off all around you. They give the people some intense fireworks to shoot off on their own. They have little boxes with about 16 rockets that shoot up one at a time and burst in brilliant colors. These are the kind of thing that only professionals are allowed to use in America. Luckily, not too many of our comrades were hit. Jimmy went down from the shrapnel but he'll be ok. (Not really) But it was fun. We went to the Miesbauer family (the same as Christmas day) for the evening. It was a pretty full house. Naturally there was Bro. and Sis. Miesbauer, Matthias, and Iris. Iris' friend Clara came from Salzburg and Matthias' fiancee and her father came from Wien. The younger brother of the Miesbauers wasn't there, but he was somewhere with friends I assume. We ate really good food which we "grilled" ourselves on little table top stoves. After eating plenty of that we went and retired to the living room where we played a few games, one of which was Life. I probably won, but it's not like we were counting or anything...After that we watched Tangled (Pres. Miles approved) in German. The music gets the Neumayer seal of approval (so that means those of you who don't have it yet who were waiting for my approval may go and buy it). Alan Menken is always a good option. At the beginning of the movie Bro. Miesbauer decided to sleep because he was tired and moved over onto the couch to do so. After the movie was over we went outside to newly fallen snow. It was a couple minutes before 12 and we went to the neighbors across the street to watch the fireworks. It was awesome and everyone had a great time. Yesterday we pretty much woke up at around 8 (Elder Chandler slept until 11 or so) and got ready. It was a nice peaceful morning. Church wasn't until 3 pm, so we had plenty of time to get our (Mission President approved) 8 hours of sleep. We got to church and I was surprised to see half of the people that I know from Wien there. Marvin Till, Esther Duffles, Arnulf Schaunig, and more. It was awesome to talk to them. Rene and Benjamin came to church like normal. We had an eating appointment after church and we asked if Benjamin could come with us. They said yes and had actually been thinking about inviting him. So we went to the Erlachers (same family as Boxing day). This time it was just Bro. and Sis. Erlacher, Emily, and Sam (not the rest of the Erlacher clan). We had teriyaki chicken and raclette. For those of you who don't know what raclette is, there is a little stove on the table that you use to cook something (like meat) on top of and a little space underneath in which you slide a little pan filled with cheese. After the cheese is melted, you usually put it on top of potatoes. It was really good. I'll have to admit though, never before on my mission have I had to do so much cooking of my own food for eating appointments. It's a good conversation-inducing investment for larger dinner groups. Benjamin had a really good time and it's a really good opportunity for him to see how a Mormon family lives.
I hope everyone had a good New Year and "a gut Rosch" as the Jews would say or "ein gute Rutsch ins neue Jahr" as the Austrians would say. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
Coming to you on Wednesday?
Received December 28, 2011
That's right, we had to change our P-day to Wednesday because NOTHING was open on Monday and yesterday was crazy with District Meeting in Wels, 2 appointments with investigators and then an appointment with the "beloved" Schw. Wegrath. She really is a loving and very kind woman (albeit a little racist) who loves to feed the missionaries. She gave us a lot of stuff to take home and it was lovely to sit and wait at the bus stop for half and hour with it in the hopes of getting home on time. This morning we went to drop off Elder Gruse for his little day-long trip to Offenburg. Elder Chandler and I are now alone in the Linz Ward and it will be interesting riding the elevator to the top floor of our apartment building with just us two. It started with four then downsized to three and now it's just us two. Today as a little Christmas present to myself I went and bought a collection of Grimm fairytales in German. It has pictures too! That will help keep up my German after my mission is over. For those of you wondering about my legal situation, it's all in process. I'm waiting for the police record from Germany and then, I should be able to apply. I can even go and apply and just tell them that I will get it to them when it comes. We had an awesome time over the Christmas holidays going to a ton of people's houses and having a great time sharing in their Christmas traditions. We got to go caroling and we sang a song. The lyrics are as follows:
Es wird scho glei dumpa
Es wird scho glei nacht
Drum kimmi zu dir Herr
Mei Heiland auf d'Wacht
Will singa a Liadl
Dem liabling dem kloan
Du magst jo net schlafen
I hör dir nur woan
Hei hei, hei hei
Schlaf herzsüaßes liabs Kind
Please do not try to put that in a translator, it won't work. If you want to try to say it, just switch the "a"s to a really dark vowel like an "o". Now you're speaking like an Austrian.
I don't have a ton to talk about this week, so I hope everyone had a good Christmas break and Happy New Year. Till next time, Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
That's right, we had to change our P-day to Wednesday because NOTHING was open on Monday and yesterday was crazy with District Meeting in Wels, 2 appointments with investigators and then an appointment with the "beloved" Schw. Wegrath. She really is a loving and very kind woman (albeit a little racist) who loves to feed the missionaries. She gave us a lot of stuff to take home and it was lovely to sit and wait at the bus stop for half and hour with it in the hopes of getting home on time. This morning we went to drop off Elder Gruse for his little day-long trip to Offenburg. Elder Chandler and I are now alone in the Linz Ward and it will be interesting riding the elevator to the top floor of our apartment building with just us two. It started with four then downsized to three and now it's just us two. Today as a little Christmas present to myself I went and bought a collection of Grimm fairytales in German. It has pictures too! That will help keep up my German after my mission is over. For those of you wondering about my legal situation, it's all in process. I'm waiting for the police record from Germany and then, I should be able to apply. I can even go and apply and just tell them that I will get it to them when it comes. We had an awesome time over the Christmas holidays going to a ton of people's houses and having a great time sharing in their Christmas traditions. We got to go caroling and we sang a song. The lyrics are as follows:
Es wird scho glei dumpa
Es wird scho glei nacht
Drum kimmi zu dir Herr
Mei Heiland auf d'Wacht
Will singa a Liadl
Dem liabling dem kloan
Du magst jo net schlafen
I hör dir nur woan
Hei hei, hei hei
Schlaf herzsüaßes liabs Kind
Please do not try to put that in a translator, it won't work. If you want to try to say it, just switch the "a"s to a really dark vowel like an "o". Now you're speaking like an Austrian.
I don't have a ton to talk about this week, so I hope everyone had a good Christmas break and Happy New Year. Till next time, Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
Monday, December 26, 2011
On the run from La Migra....
Received December 19, 2011
So this week was pretty cool. We had the interesting opportunity to help out at a Young Adult dance at the Linz meeting house. We prepared tons of food and it took a lot of work, but it was fun to see a dance in Austria. Just so you all know, Austrians dance WAAAAAAAAAAY better than Americans (in general). They actually dance "standard" to all songs. That was interesting to see. On Friday we went and passed out invitations in Haid for the Vocalis concert. Vocalis is an LDS chamber choir from the German-speaking realm and consists of all young adults. They sang Christmas songs and we handed out the invitations. Then, we went back to Linz where we helped prepare food again. After they were done eating they left for Haid again and we stayed and made more food for them. That night we went to Haid and watched the concert. They sang an O Magnum Mysterium for the opening number. The acoustics of the church that we were in (non-LDS) were wonderful and that song was amazing. It was just a little too cold in that church. We were all freezing. They sang a really good program and it was really fun. Now I can make it through the next year of my mission having recharged my concert attendance battery. It was getting a little low as it applied to good choirs. Yesterday we were privileged to hear from them again in our Sacrament Meeting. They sang well there too and it was a nice meeting for our two investigators and the visitors that came with members. The Spirit was nice and strong, especially when they sang I Believe in Christ (Mac Ws version). It was followed up by the Ward watching the Christmas devotional from the First Presidency. It was wonderful. Those of us who speak English were banished to the stage of the cultural hall where we tried to watch it steaming online on a computer screen, but after a little too much server fail-age we resorted to watching it on someone's iPad. We're hi tech. The messages of the devotional were all wonderful and helped to really set the stage for this coming Christmas week. We've got lots of stuff going on and we're looking forward to it.
So the subject line.....yeah about that. Ingolstadt never sent my police report (after several attempts) to my former abode. Soooooo, we have to take another route ordering it from the government of Germany's Justizamt in Bonn (the city of Haribo gummy bears). Everything should work out, but if not, I become illegal in Austria on the 17th of January. Yay! That might fall under the category of "things mothers don't want to hear" but I figured it's happening anyway. Everything will work out and if they have to, I'll just get transfered out of Austria. That wouldn't be my first choice, but I'll do whatever I have to in order to stay legal. I'll be going later today and getting the application notarized (pretty official huh?) so that will be fun.
Now about that phone call later this week. I will be able to talk to both of y'all. I'll figure it out with dad. I will call at 3 p.m. my time. Whenever that may be for you. It's going to be fun. We will have to keep it a little short 30-40 minutes, but that will be fine as long as I get to talk to you.
I hope that everyone has a lovely week and that everything is nice and bright and sunny on Christmas day. Just like always. Till next time Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
So this week was pretty cool. We had the interesting opportunity to help out at a Young Adult dance at the Linz meeting house. We prepared tons of food and it took a lot of work, but it was fun to see a dance in Austria. Just so you all know, Austrians dance WAAAAAAAAAAY better than Americans (in general). They actually dance "standard" to all songs. That was interesting to see. On Friday we went and passed out invitations in Haid for the Vocalis concert. Vocalis is an LDS chamber choir from the German-speaking realm and consists of all young adults. They sang Christmas songs and we handed out the invitations. Then, we went back to Linz where we helped prepare food again. After they were done eating they left for Haid again and we stayed and made more food for them. That night we went to Haid and watched the concert. They sang an O Magnum Mysterium for the opening number. The acoustics of the church that we were in (non-LDS) were wonderful and that song was amazing. It was just a little too cold in that church. We were all freezing. They sang a really good program and it was really fun. Now I can make it through the next year of my mission having recharged my concert attendance battery. It was getting a little low as it applied to good choirs. Yesterday we were privileged to hear from them again in our Sacrament Meeting. They sang well there too and it was a nice meeting for our two investigators and the visitors that came with members. The Spirit was nice and strong, especially when they sang I Believe in Christ (Mac Ws version). It was followed up by the Ward watching the Christmas devotional from the First Presidency. It was wonderful. Those of us who speak English were banished to the stage of the cultural hall where we tried to watch it steaming online on a computer screen, but after a little too much server fail-age we resorted to watching it on someone's iPad. We're hi tech. The messages of the devotional were all wonderful and helped to really set the stage for this coming Christmas week. We've got lots of stuff going on and we're looking forward to it.
So the subject line.....yeah about that. Ingolstadt never sent my police report (after several attempts) to my former abode. Soooooo, we have to take another route ordering it from the government of Germany's Justizamt in Bonn (the city of Haribo gummy bears). Everything should work out, but if not, I become illegal in Austria on the 17th of January. Yay! That might fall under the category of "things mothers don't want to hear" but I figured it's happening anyway. Everything will work out and if they have to, I'll just get transfered out of Austria. That wouldn't be my first choice, but I'll do whatever I have to in order to stay legal. I'll be going later today and getting the application notarized (pretty official huh?) so that will be fun.
Now about that phone call later this week. I will be able to talk to both of y'all. I'll figure it out with dad. I will call at 3 p.m. my time. Whenever that may be for you. It's going to be fun. We will have to keep it a little short 30-40 minutes, but that will be fine as long as I get to talk to you.
I hope that everyone has a lovely week and that everything is nice and bright and sunny on Christmas day. Just like always. Till next time Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
It's Cold...and getting Colder!!!!!
Received December 12, 2011
Es is a bissl kalt, sag i mol. Don't put that in a translator, it won't bring you anything. Anyway, Herzlichen Grüß aus dem Vaterland. The weather just keeps getting colder and sometimes it ever rains/snows on top of that. It's just lots of fun. Everything is just kinda going along like always. Rene dropped us again, but we will see what happens. He is the kind of person who has a really big problem with peer pressure. This week is going to be crazy. We have a host of eating appointments, which is wonderful news for us. Later this week the choir Vocalis will be coming to Haid and singing in a church there. They are like the German version of MoTab, just way lower budget. Everyone in the church loves them. On Sunday they will be singing in our Sacrament Meeting and it will be a great opportunity for members to bring their friends. We're excited.....well I'm excited for the singing mostly, but that's just me. We also have Zone Conference on Thursday and that means another wonderful trip to the Salty Castle (Salzburg). I just love when we have action packed weeks because that makes it infinitely less boring everyday.
Unfortunately mother, it is unforeseeable that I will be making the trip out to Tustin to choose the Christmas tree this year. It doesn't look too promising for next year either, but I'll at least be able to observe it next year, as long as you don't take it down before January 3rd. By the way, I think that is the actual date that I come home, maybe. Not like that's close or anything, but just so you know. The whole Christmas day call thing is a little weird. I think the way it's going to run is so: Elder Gruse will be calling his parents whenever he wants to on the 25th, because it's really not that big of a deal to call Germany. Elder Chandler is going to ask if he can do it on the 24th so that he can call his family before they leave for their annual Christmas day drive to California. That means that I can probably call at any time that I want to. I'm not exactly sure how it works from America to Austria. I'll probably just call you really fast before and then you can call me back. I'm going to ask if it's ok for me to call dad just at a different time. If not I'll tell you next week. I'll probably call before your meeting on the 25th. I'll need to call around 5 pm my time, so that means about 8 am for you. That will give you time to talk to me and, hopefully be ready in time to leave. Tell me if that will work. If I call after the meeting, it will be way late at night here, but I'm willing to do that too.
Just so you know, I already bought my suit. The story behind it is kinda funny. We saw an advertisement in our mail that said that Trachtenwelt was having a sale for half off everything. We just decided to go and see what kind of Trachten stuff we could find for cheap. We walked in and saw a rack of suits and I thought, "Why not?" I went over and discovered that they were wool suits in lots of sizes and only 99€. That was the price on the tag. That meant that the whole thing was only 49€ with the 1/2 off sale. You didn't have to tell me twice. A wool suit for 49€ is crazy. So I bought it. I am having the Sister in the Senior couple in our district hem the legs, which she does free of charge. Aren't you just so proud of your cheap son? Yeah, so that's out of the way.
I hope you have a great week and that everything is fun and dandy with the Christmas tree. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
Es is a bissl kalt, sag i mol. Don't put that in a translator, it won't bring you anything. Anyway, Herzlichen Grüß aus dem Vaterland. The weather just keeps getting colder and sometimes it ever rains/snows on top of that. It's just lots of fun. Everything is just kinda going along like always. Rene dropped us again, but we will see what happens. He is the kind of person who has a really big problem with peer pressure. This week is going to be crazy. We have a host of eating appointments, which is wonderful news for us. Later this week the choir Vocalis will be coming to Haid and singing in a church there. They are like the German version of MoTab, just way lower budget. Everyone in the church loves them. On Sunday they will be singing in our Sacrament Meeting and it will be a great opportunity for members to bring their friends. We're excited.....well I'm excited for the singing mostly, but that's just me. We also have Zone Conference on Thursday and that means another wonderful trip to the Salty Castle (Salzburg). I just love when we have action packed weeks because that makes it infinitely less boring everyday.
Unfortunately mother, it is unforeseeable that I will be making the trip out to Tustin to choose the Christmas tree this year. It doesn't look too promising for next year either, but I'll at least be able to observe it next year, as long as you don't take it down before January 3rd. By the way, I think that is the actual date that I come home, maybe. Not like that's close or anything, but just so you know. The whole Christmas day call thing is a little weird. I think the way it's going to run is so: Elder Gruse will be calling his parents whenever he wants to on the 25th, because it's really not that big of a deal to call Germany. Elder Chandler is going to ask if he can do it on the 24th so that he can call his family before they leave for their annual Christmas day drive to California. That means that I can probably call at any time that I want to. I'm not exactly sure how it works from America to Austria. I'll probably just call you really fast before and then you can call me back. I'm going to ask if it's ok for me to call dad just at a different time. If not I'll tell you next week. I'll probably call before your meeting on the 25th. I'll need to call around 5 pm my time, so that means about 8 am for you. That will give you time to talk to me and, hopefully be ready in time to leave. Tell me if that will work. If I call after the meeting, it will be way late at night here, but I'm willing to do that too.
Just so you know, I already bought my suit. The story behind it is kinda funny. We saw an advertisement in our mail that said that Trachtenwelt was having a sale for half off everything. We just decided to go and see what kind of Trachten stuff we could find for cheap. We walked in and saw a rack of suits and I thought, "Why not?" I went over and discovered that they were wool suits in lots of sizes and only 99€. That was the price on the tag. That meant that the whole thing was only 49€ with the 1/2 off sale. You didn't have to tell me twice. A wool suit for 49€ is crazy. So I bought it. I am having the Sister in the Senior couple in our district hem the legs, which she does free of charge. Aren't you just so proud of your cheap son? Yeah, so that's out of the way.
I hope you have a great week and that everything is fun and dandy with the Christmas tree. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
I Hate Internet Cafes!!!
Received December 5, 2011
So today we got kicked out of our regular place in the library because it was "reserved" for some other group. Dumb. We had to go to a nasty internet cafe and do our emails there. So, like before I am sitting in a nice smoky, dirty, internet cafe where the signs to keep the place clean are written in some of the worst German you can imagine. Oh well. This week was a little scary. On Wednesday we went to a normal meeting with Rene and just Klaus was there. Klaus tried calling him a few times and he never answered. We finally called him and he pretty much just said that he didn't have any interest. After that lovely farewell, we were pretty sad and confused that he would just so abruptly stop investigating. A few days later we got a call from Klaus and he said that he talked to Rene and everything was fine and we could start teaching him again. Apparently there was some kind of misunderstanding and Rene in a hasty move just decided to cut off all contact. After Klaus talked to him everything was better. That was scary. We are going to move his date to the 31st and we hope that he will make it by then. He's still as awesome as ever. We are going to Mauthausen again today so the new Elder in Wels can see it. My camera won't die this time, so I should have a lot more pictures this time. We found out yesterday that we have a ton of eating appointments this month. We have probably 20 I think. That's a lot for this part of the world. I hope you guys are having a good time in California where it isn't so cold. It finally started raining, which is good for the ski industry here, because without snow there is no ski industry and they were afraid because there wasn't any yet on the mountains. My companions did like all the stuff that was in the packages, so you can definitely send more of that stuff. I promise at some point I will get that package off to you. I'm just not quite sure what I need to claim on the customs form. I'll figure it all out. I hope you have a wonderful week and that those palm trees keep swayin'. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
So today we got kicked out of our regular place in the library because it was "reserved" for some other group. Dumb. We had to go to a nasty internet cafe and do our emails there. So, like before I am sitting in a nice smoky, dirty, internet cafe where the signs to keep the place clean are written in some of the worst German you can imagine. Oh well. This week was a little scary. On Wednesday we went to a normal meeting with Rene and just Klaus was there. Klaus tried calling him a few times and he never answered. We finally called him and he pretty much just said that he didn't have any interest. After that lovely farewell, we were pretty sad and confused that he would just so abruptly stop investigating. A few days later we got a call from Klaus and he said that he talked to Rene and everything was fine and we could start teaching him again. Apparently there was some kind of misunderstanding and Rene in a hasty move just decided to cut off all contact. After Klaus talked to him everything was better. That was scary. We are going to move his date to the 31st and we hope that he will make it by then. He's still as awesome as ever. We are going to Mauthausen again today so the new Elder in Wels can see it. My camera won't die this time, so I should have a lot more pictures this time. We found out yesterday that we have a ton of eating appointments this month. We have probably 20 I think. That's a lot for this part of the world. I hope you guys are having a good time in California where it isn't so cold. It finally started raining, which is good for the ski industry here, because without snow there is no ski industry and they were afraid because there wasn't any yet on the mountains. My companions did like all the stuff that was in the packages, so you can definitely send more of that stuff. I promise at some point I will get that package off to you. I'm just not quite sure what I need to claim on the customs form. I'll figure it all out. I hope you have a wonderful week and that those palm trees keep swayin'. Tschüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüß!
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