Liebe Familie,

I have officially said, "Tschüß!" to Wien and am in the cluster of Dorfs north of Salzburg. It is absolutely gorgeous here! The sky (we can actually see it!), rolling hills, mountains, and nature are breathtaking. It`s all covered in snow, but that is beautiful, too.

On Monday, we family night with the Wanni and the Picard family, and that was hard to say good-bye to them. I really liked them a lot, and their kids were great, too. The youngest one drew me a picture of a mystery man, and the oldest one drew me a picture of wolves saying, "Good-bye, Sister Reid," and "Good luck!" They were so cool, and I already miss them.

On Tuesday, I had to say good-bye to Wanni, Binod and Nita. Binod and Nita made us momo, the Nepali version of dumplings. They are very yummy!  And Wanni gave me a pen and told me to think of her every time I write with it. I promised her I would. Then she said, "You don`t really have to!" I assured that I probably just would without consciously thinking about it. She then got her cute little Wanni-grin and said, "Really?! Okay, cool!" It was difficult to say good-bye to them. But they are doing well, and I am so grateful I got the chance to help in their conversion process. I really miss them, too.

Wednesday, we had district meeting. That was delicious, as per usual. We hurried back to Wien after district meeting, though, because we had to prepare for our lesson with Bright. Bright was also not appreciative that I was leaving. There really were some of the coolest people with whom I had the opportunity to associate in this ward.

Thursday morning, I finished packing, and Sister Schulze and I headed out the door to the train station. It was very odd leaving, but I also knew it was time to go. The train ride to Salzburg was a lot of fun. It was a fun group of elders to travel with! Sister Armstrong was waiting at the train station there for me. We took a train from Salzburg to Neumarkt and then got in our car to go home. That was very odd. I didn`t think I would get so used to public transportation, but it still weirds me out a little bit to be in a car, not taking 45 minutes to get anywhere on account of all the Umsteigs. But it`s good:]

We did some dooring in a Dorf called Mondsee that afternoon. I really liked it there. It was so gorgeous! And I placed two copies of the Book of Mormon! One was for a family, and the other was for two twelve year old girls that seemed very excited. We will need to go back to Mondsee this week to follow up. It is a beautiful Dorf, and Sister Armstrong said we have had a lot of success there. Hence, we continue to go back!

I met two of our investigators that night, Bobby and Anita. They come from Romania and are probably in their mid-40s. They really want to get baptized, but they are having troubles getting the paperwork to get married. Apparently they have to get documents from Romania before they can get married (I remember there was an investigator in Wiener Neustadt who had to wait for documents from his mother country, Spain, before he could get baptized and married). Although I don`t understand the law, we are praying that the paperwork will be taken care of so they can be baptized! They are very cool. They ask a lot of questions, but they are serious questions. They are willing to give up dancing, drinking, smoking, whatever they need to be part of this church (they were pretty excited when we told them they could still dance).

On Saturday, we drove to Salzburg. We had a finding day with our district. There is an Ehepaar in our district who is from Pleasant Grove. They asked where I was from, and I guess I did a poor job of describing it, because they said, "You know that church on the hill by Grovecreek Canyon? That is our stake center!" I asked them the name of the stake (to be sicher), and sure enough, they are from our stake. But I did not know them beforehand. They seem very lovely, though:]

Yesterday, I had to give my first talk in Sacrament Meeting as a missionary (the MTC one does not count). It was very scary, but I thought it went well. And everyone (well, a lot of people...) came up to me afterwards and said how good my German was, and that they were very impressed. One man said I needed to slow down, but that my German was very good. That is my problem when I speak English, too. I get nervous, and my mouth goes 100 miles an hour. But I am sure I will figure out how to speak in front of crowds of people someday! Anyway, the ward is very nice, and I am excited to be here!

I am still trying to get used to how quiet it is here, too. It`s really nice, but it is a change!

I love you all!

Liebe,

Sister Stephanie Reid