Liebe Familie,

This week was so great!! So many wonderful things happened; it is hard to narrow down what to write about.

First of all, we have an investigator with a baptismal date!!! Elder Bassett and Elder Moon, in Wien 1, met David. David is about 27 and comes from Poland. He doesn´t speak much English, but speaks even less German, so they gave him to us. We taught the first lesson to him with Elder Bassett and Elder Moon. We had to speak very slowly so he could understand, but at the end, we asked him to be baptized. He thought about it for a moment, then asked, ‘’When?`` We set the date for the 29 September, and he asked what time. So, not only do we have a baptismal date, but we have a time! We are so excited for David! And, we have a guy in our ward who served his mission in Chicago, Polish-speaking. What a blessing he has been. He came to our second lesson with David to help translate. David understood so much more, and it was neat to hear him express his feelings (as he had had a hard time with that in English). We are so so so excited about David!

That was on Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, we had an appointment with a less-active. She is a widow whose children are inactive, so she doesn’t have a lot of support. She is Philippino, and likes having translators at our lessons. So the other 3 Philippino sisters in our ward are at our lessons. This week, Sister Dalit brought a friend. We all thought she was a member because we were teaching about Faith and Tithing, and Dolores was over there bearing her testimony the whole time. Then at the end, she said, ‘’I don’t belong to any particular faith, but I know how important faith in God is.’’ Sister Banban then said, ‘’I thought you were baptized Catholic…’’ Dolores retorted, ‘’That is not a baptism. For baptism, you have to go under the water. ‘’ I said, ‘’Yeah, you do!’’ Long story short, we have a new investigator. :)

Thursday was also great. We had my first meal appointment. It was lunch with the Hirschmanns. Every week, they invite the missionaries in their ward and the sisters over for lunch. The Hirschmanns are great. They are an older couple, and Sister Hirschmann has a big ordeal every week about who sits where. Then, when you are assigned to your seat, you do not move. After dinner, we always sing songs, and I played the piano. They got so excited when they learned this, and they just belted all of the songs as loud as they could.  We told Brother Hirschmann during dinner that we thought he could be one of the three Nephites because he is so old and wise, and he nodded and smiled and said, ‘’Yeah, that is right!’’ So, I have now met two of the three Nephites.

That night, we went to visit Bright, another less active. We felt impressed to prepare a lesson on the First Vision. Bright had a friend there who was not a member. Apparently we have given her a Book of Mormon before, but she thought Mormons were weird, and did not read it. But this time, she was ready for the message. She was very intrigued. When we started explaining the Book of Mormon, I felt impressed to share 2 Nephi 25:26. Until this point, the lesson was for Bright, but I also felt that her friend, Temi, needed to read it. She did, put the book on the coffee table and said, ‘’You guys believe in Jesus?’’ We nodded and told her that we do. Sister Stewart started to bear testimony, but Temi cut her off and said, ‘’I thought you worshipped Joseph Smith and Mormon. But this says here that all you do is for Jesus. You talk of Him. You preach of Him. Everything is for Him.’’ Yes, we have another new investigator. :)

I also ate my first Dönner this week. Wow. They are just as good (if not better) as everyone has been saying they are. My goodness. No words to describe them.

We teach English at the YAE Center every Tuesday and Thursday. We have been having a couple of Iranian families that have been coming. We have been trying to locate Persian Books of Mormon for them because they want some, and our apartment is out. We had a joint teach with Wien 3 on Saturday night, and they had some, so they brought them along. We were standing at the Bahnhof waiting to meet up with Kevin, holding these Persian Books of Mormon, when a man walked past, stopped, turned around, and asked, ‘’What language is that?’’ We told him it was Persian, and he asked if he could see the book. As he looked at it, he explained that he was raised in Iran, and he didn’t understand why we would be standing there with Persian Books of Mormon. After a little more discussion, he asked if he could borrow the book. We told him he could keep it, and he was floored. We gave him an English one, too, so he could compare the translations if there was a question. We don’t have a new investigator because he lives in Zwettl, but the elders in St. Pölten do! And that is where Jake’s friend, Houston, is serving! So that is exciting for them!

Yesterday at church, David, Bobby, and Carmy all came!! That was so exciting, especially for David because he needs to attend three times before his baptism, and we had exactly three Sundays! Also at church, a friend of a member in our ward, Danielle, came. Danielle is in her mid-20s and works at the UN building. She had been once before, and I had no clue she wasn’t a member (especially considering she bawled in Relief Society when she read a scripture). At the end of sacrament meeting (the third hour), she came up to us and said, ‘’Um, I want to learn more.’’ She is going to be such a golden investigator, and we have our first appointment with her on Wednesday!

Oh, and I got J-Dubbed for the first time. That was interesting.

The Lord really is helping us in this work!! Things are going so well here!! I am so grateful to be here.

I hope things are going well there, too!  

Ich liebe euch!!

Liebe,

Sister Stephanie Reid :)