Liebe Familie,

This week was crazy busy, and then just downright crazy.

On Monday, we drove to Hallstatt. It is this gorgeous place with a lake. The mountains tour up out of the water, and there is a small castle (which I actually think is someone's home, not a castle) there. It was so gorgeous, and a lovely P. Day:]

Then, Sister Armstrong and I had to visit everyone and their grandmas this week, as she was leaving. So, that was just crazy trying to get everyone visited. We also had to go to Salzburg a couple of different times, so that ate up a big chunk of time. But Zone Training was excellent (as usual), so it was still good. Also, that gave us the opportunity to watch Sister Armstrong eat her first Döner. I don't know how she had finished her entire training and as about to go to her second area without a Döner, but we fixed the problem. President said this particular place has the best Döner in the mission (he must have eaten a lot of Döners to come to that conclusion), and I must agree it was pretty darn good. 

Thursday, we got up, did personal study, then got on a train to Salzburg so we could get on a train to Munich. There were so many of my old friends on the train, so it was so fun to be able to see them all again! Then e got to Munich. I saw even more old friends, and I met my little Golden. She is 19 (and the first from the group that is affected by the age change) and comes from Brigham City, Utah. Her name is Sister Smith. She is very sweet, and has a very easy-going personality, but she still knows how to work hard. It is wonderful:]

Friday we just planned all day, and we had our first Skype lesson that night! Anita and Bobi were pretty excited to talk to our 'collegues' in Romania, but the connection was really bad, and they said our German is better than their Romanian was, so it was easier to communicate with us. They do speak good German, so that wasn't our concern. We actually wanted it because of their son and daughter-in-law, so hopefully we can get them to do it with us sometime. Anyway, Anita got the contact information for the missionaries in her area in Romania so she can meet with them when they go on vacation for the next 10 days. Anita also told us she is planning on taking the Restoration DVD, the Plan of Salvation pamphlet, and her Book of Mormon so she can help her friends in Romania recognize the truth. She is such a good little member missionary, and she isn't even a member yet! She told us last night that she has already gotten her answer, and that she knows this is the true church. However, it isn't wise for her to get baptized without Bobi. She is right. So we really need to focus on Bobi and helping him realize that this is the true church. But we are so excited for Anita! And her friends in Romania!

Saturday, we were supposed to have a training meeting for the trainers and their Goldens in Salzburg. Sister Smith and I took the train to Salzburg. Then we waited by the bus stop for the bus to take us to the church. After about 20 minutes, we realized that particular bus did not drive on Saturdays. We then realized we had forgotten our Handy in Neumarkt, and we had no way of getting a hold of anyone to ask them what other bus we could take. I had the idea to walk to the Storrer's house, and ask them for a ride. They live about a five minute walk from Bahnhof. We did. They were not home. We then walked back to Bahnhof to find a place with a phone we could use (no one here lets you borrow their Handy, ps). We found a place, and I racked my brain for what numbers I had memorized. Luckily, I had Linz's number memorized, and they happened to be at this meeting, too. So I called them. Elder Stapleton told me which bus to take, and how to get to that bus stop from where we were, as it was a bit of a walk. We got about a couple blocks away, and then had troubles finding exactly where we were supposed to go from there. So we had to ask another woman for directions. She was very nice, and pulled up a map on her Handy to make sure that we could even see where we were supposed to go. We thanked her, and headed over there. Then I remembered I had forgotten to ask what the name of the stop was (I knew what it looked like, but I needed to know the name to know which direction we should go). So, we guessed a direction and got on that bus. It was night right. But, luckily, as I was paying for our ticket, the bus driver helped me realize that what I was looking for was more than likely in the other direction. So, we got off at the next stop, and waited for the bus going in the other direction. The bus ride takes about half an hour (the church is just outside of Salzburg, and we were just outside on the other end at this point). By the time we got there, we were an hour and 45 minutes late. So they rescheduled the meeting as they hadn't started yet as they were waiting for us. We felt so bad, but no one (except for one sister) was mad. They were just glad that we were safe. Anyway, it was an interesting adventure, and we are laughing about it now. And all things considered, we did pretty well with what we had and coming up with new ideas for how to get there. Not at any point did we say, 'Let's just head back home. We will never get there today.' So, that was good, too. Anyway, now we have to go to Wels this week. But that's okay. :]

Anita finally came to church, and she LOVED it!! When we got to their house last night, Anita was teaching Bobi and Nicoletta (one of their friends that we will start teaching now) about the sacrament and about how wonderful church was. She was so impressed with the speakers, the Sunday School class, and everything that she saw and felt. It's so fun to see how much she wants to share the gospel with everyone:]

Well, that is pretty much everything for now! Bis nächste Woche!!

Liebe,

Stephanie