Sept. 12, 2011

        Well this week was an adventure. First off, sorry that Bro. Kjar scared you with his phone call. I actually thought about that when he asked for our phone number, but I figured that you would get over it. It was pretty fun to walk around Schönbrunn with him, and he loved taking pictures so I hope that maybe you will be satisfied on the photo side for a while. And yes, I know, my hair is short. I cut it myself actually, a few weeks ago. The 15 euro it costs to get it cost by someone else just wasn`t worth it. And I got your letter today, so it was good to hear that everything is going well. Besides our adventure to schönnbrunn we had many adventures this week.

            First off was we had an exchange with the Zone Leaders, and I got to go to Wien and work with Elder Handley, who is the elder that I replaced in Wien 5 when I first came into the field. He is a great missionary, and we had a busy, busy schedule. We pretty much ran around Wien for the entire day. It was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about talking and contacting people in random places, like waiting for the train/subway, on the escalator, in the elevator, etc. It was a lot of fun, and really good.

            Outside of our exchange our entire week has pretty much been inviting people to come to the open house that the members were hosting on Saturday. We gave out TONS of invitations, and we tried to invite every inactive person on our record. We also found a few new investigators.

            One was an 82 year old man, named A______, A member found him when she helped him carry a package, and she invited him to learn more about the gospel. He is super nice, and a lot of the stuff that he says is super funny. He is the first person I have met in Austria that is still racist towards Jews. He really believes that every bad thing in the world is because of the Jews. We also found a guy who the missionaries used to visit, but he wasn`t making any progress so they dropped him. We went to the appointment, and his Jehovahs Witness neighbor was there, and he kept trying to teach us about what the bible "really" says. He was really smart, and definitely knew his bible stuff, but it was interesting how he could twist scriptures to say what he wanted them to say. The appointment wasn`t too great because the Jehovahs Witness just kept talking, and we refused to bible bash with him, but we were able to get to know Hans, the former investigator, and we made out another appointment.
            C_______ is still having a really hard time quitting smoking, and she is starting to doubt whether what she has felt is really the spirit or if it is just comes from herself. We are really working with her on the importance of daily reading and praying, and we pray that she will be able to quit smoking as she continues to study the Book of Mormon.
            We had the open house at the church on Saturday, and it was a great activity. We had quite a few non members there, and we were really excited about that. But the most exciting news is what happened on Sunday...... Wiener Neustadt branch became a ward! It was an amazing experience to be there as the members all raised their hands to support the creation of the Wiener Neustadt ward. The members here are awesome, and they have worked so hard to acheive this. I was glad that I got to be a part of it.
            We are looking forward to another great week here, we are really excited for all of our investigators, and I hope everything goes great back home. I love you!

Liebe
Elder Terry