Not Getting Discouraged, but Replacing it with Faith

December 17, 2012

Fröhliche "almost" Weihnachten!

This last week was a rather fun week. On Monday we went up to Wien and went with E. Bassett and Moon to pick up the new senior couple in our district from the airport. Afterwards we went to some of the Christmas shops or Weihnachtsmarkts around town to see what there was for Christmas shopping. The first two we went to weren't necessarily the best, but then we went to the one at the Schönbrunn palace and they had some pretty interesting things to look at. The cool thing about German speaking countries and the USA is that most of the American traditions stem from German Christmas traditions. It's cool to see where a lot of the things that make Christmas for us at home come from. Later that night we visited our Branch President in Wien and then slept over with the Wien 1 Elders.  There wasn't much I could get since they don't take credit cards and I only withdrew so much before I left St. Poelton.

The next day I stayed there with Elder Bassett on an austausch and worked in Wien for the day. On Wednesday E. Bassett and I went and met E. Moon and Chapman in a place called Krems in the St. Pölten area where we worked for the day. We came to find out that it was one of the most Jehovah Witness infested cities in the country. On Thursday night we went up to Wien because we had Zone conference early in the morning and wanted to sleep over to get there on time. Because the  APs were staying at Wien 1 (E. Moon and Bassett) apartment we went and stayed with the Wien 3 and 4 apartment (they share the apartment) since they have a really big apartment and Wiener Neustadt (which is where E. Gubler from my MTC group is serving) came and stayed there as well. When you have 8 missionaries in the same apartment it can sometimes lead to a lot of fun. Elder Davies' (who is working in the Wien 2 ward) birthday had been the day before and his parents for some reason sent him a ton of nerf guns. Because their apartment is close to the Wien 3/4 apartment they came over and during the dinner break and in the free time after daily planning we had a huge nerf gun war since no one lives in the whole building except for the Wien 3/4 and their apartment is huge anyways. Don't worry, my team won. That is some of the stuff you don't hear about too often with missionaries.

The next day we had Zone conference which was really good. President Miles spoke a lot about not getting discouraged, but replacing it with faith since we are winding down to the end of the year and we were only half way on our year baptisimal goal. I really like the people in our Zone. and we had a lot of fun there during the conference. President and Sister Miles told me to tell you mom and dad thank you for the Christmas present you sent them. It was also at Zone Conference that we got our Christmas packages from home. Mom you would be so proud of me I only unwrapped one present since I brought them home with me. The present that I opened was the John Bytheway talk about rough starts strong finishes which I really enjoyed listening to.  Thanks again for your letters.

Well I hope all is going well. Thanks for all the support and I am excited to call home next week. Love you lots!

Elder Bodily

Gott sei mit euch bis aufs Wiedersehen