Yet another week in Vienna :-)

Well, yet another week has gone by. And I really don't know what to say. Things are a lot different here than back in Dornbirn. There are 16 Missionaries in the City of Vienna, which is really weird because back in Dornbirn the closest Missionaries were 80 minutes away by train. But it so AWESOME! We see each other a lot and its really easy to gather together on P-days. I haven't really been able to get out and go sight seeing. 

We teach German to immigrants every Tuesday and Thursday at the Institute center, which is right next the Rathaus (I don't know what that is called in English anymore...) (Rathaus is the Vienna City Hall-- see notes and pictures I added below)  just outside the center of Vienna.  But its under Renovation so it doesn't look nearly as impressive as it would without a bunch of scaffolding. 

The Vienna City Hall

The City Hall is one of the most splendid amongst the numerous monumental buildings along Vienna's. Designed by Friedrich Schmidt (1825-1891), it was erected between 1872 and 1883. The architecture of the Ringstraße is dominated by historicism. In Historicism various stylistic elements of the past were combined into a style in its own right. Friedrich Schmidt however orientated himself just on one particular epoch. The City Hall was built in gothical style, with a tower similar to gothic cathedrals. The gothic era saw the growth of the cities and the emergence of an urban burgeoisie.

Today the City Hall is the head office of Vienna's municipal administration. More than 2000 people work in the building. Visitors are stunned by the magnificent appointments of the state rooms, which frequently provide an atmospheric backdrop to various events such as press conferences, concerts or balls.

 

So you will remember that last week I mentioned that one of my concerns is bus and train times. Well surprise, I am no longer a country area. There are S-bahns every 3-5 minutes, subways every 5 minutes, as well as buses and street cars that come every 3-5 minutes. In Dornbirn you were lucky to find a bus that came every 15 minutes most coming every 30 minutes. S-bahns came roughly every 30 minutes. On weekends you were lucky to get a bus once per HOUR. But here it is totally different, so we don't plan out exact travel times, we just go and it works. CRAZY.

This past week has been a pretty unique week. We had a Zone Training meeting, then the following day we had interviews, then yesterday we watched a Live Broadcast of Presdient Monson from Frankfurt. He is visiting München, Frankfurt, and I think Hamburg, either Hamburg or Berlin. Sadly living in Wien, we weren't invited to go see him live in München. Salzburg Zone was, but we are just out on the outskirts of the mission. Which brings me to a really interesting point. I could get on a Train, and within 45 or so minutes be out of Austria and in Hungary. Most trains running out of Wien through Florisdorf go to Hungary. I am on the farthest North East border of the mission. (This area covers all of Niederösterreich  (is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. Situated east of Upper Austria, Lower Austria derives its name from its downriver location on the Danube River, which flows from west to east. Lower Austria has an international border, 414 km long, with the Czech Republic (South Moravia) and Slovakia.) in addition to District 21 of Wien) We hardly, if ever go very far into Niederösterreich though, it would take to long, and we have to pay for our own tickets (which would be reimbursed, but its just a hassle). 

The broadcast of President Monson was cool! It didn't last as long as most people expected but it was really good. We have an investigator, Jakiri, who we set a baptismal date with last week. This past week we felt like we should review the baptismal question: Do you believe that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God? His response was, I don't know him, I can't answer that question. Perfect! There is a live broadcast of President Monson this upcoming Sunday, you can come and here him then pray about it to know. He really seemed to enjoy it. Said it was very uplifting, but we haven't had a chance to really talk to him about his experience yet. 

Jakiri is really cool, but has a really hard past. The date that we set for him is the 22nd of December. Yeah its far away, but it will probably take that long till he is completely ready. Depending on how he feels, we may be able to move it up, I will keep you posted on it. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a long time, around 8 years or so. He had a baptismal date at one point, but word spread quickly and the whole ward found out about it, which really made him feel bad, and he stopped meeting with the missionaries for a time. Anyway, we have been meeting with him and he really likes us, we have a good relationship of trust, especially between him and Elder Steed. Jakiri was commander in the Austrian army for a time, and Elder Steed was a Lieutenant in the Canadian special forces (he is a sniper). But having had a lot of Military background Jakiri really trusts Elder Steed. 

Yeah so Elder Steed was a Sniper for the Canadian Military. He has served in a lot of areas, one of which being Afghanistan  where he was shot a few months before coming on a Mission. He entered the MTC 6 weeks before I did, but we were on the same flight out here. He is quite the character. Talks A LOT, but I am fine with it. We have a lot of fun. We found some Nerf Guns in the apartment and had a bit of a war. He was in Special Forces, and won most of the them, but I have a good aim and won a few. :-) I attached a picture of a really awesome shot that I had that caused us both to laugh. 

Its been pretty good, we play jokes on each other every now and again. For example, we live on the 6th floor of out building, so we normally take the Elevator. But the Elevator isn't incredibly fast. So I said that I would race him. Here is the thing though, the stairs are close to the elevator, and as I ran down the stairs I was able to push all the Elevator stop buttons on the way down ;-). And it takes FOREVER for the elevator to get going after it stops. After it got to the Third floor I here him get out of the elevator and start walking down the stairs yelling"That was so CHEATING". Haha I about died laughing. 

So things are going well. The area is similar to how Dornbirn was when I first got here in that we don't have a ton of investigators or potentials. But I will keep working and see if I can fix that. By the way, when I left Dornbirn, Elder Robins and I had found (and taught) more investigators than anyother companionship in that area had, as far as we were able to tell. And we were finding 10 to 12 potentials constantly per week, which is REALLY good. So for those who worry that I didn't see much success in Dornbirn, well I consider that success. :-) 

Anyway, I need to go now, I hope all is well at home! Thanks for your support and Prayers, I will try to have pictures of Vienna for next week!

Love, 

Elder Ryan K. Christensen