Well, its Monday yet again. Wow. Time flies.

Well first things first Frau Zalka and Simon despite feeling good about it all week, trying on Baptismal clothing, taking pictures etc. Called off the Baptism a few hours before it was supposed to happen on Friday. We called them that morning and all was fine. Then Simon's religion teacher called her and started bashing on the church calling it a sect (which is a ridiculously huge thing here for some reason so big that we have church material that we give out which says "A state recognized church since 1955"). Es ist ja, ein Wahnsinn dass hier im Österreich  so etwas  wichtig ist.(It is maddening that this is so important in Austria).  

Anyway, she called it off (through e-mail, for some reason she really detests phone calls, she won't talk on the phone for more than 2 or 3 minutes, yet will gladly write a 10 page letter and send it (I am glad that she at least switched to an e-mail instead of a letter sent through the mail)). She said that she wouldn't be baptized and wouldn't come to church anymore. End of story. Well we knew Frau Zalka well and correctly guessed that we would hear from her today. And we did. She wrote an e-mail (this is all to the GML, who then relates it to us) apologizing for her behavior and said that she again, started reading in the Book of Mormon again, and can't deny that she knows its true.

She also was reading a talk by a general Authority which mentioned how Peter denied Jesus 3 times. Having now denied the church and called off the baptism 3 times, it really had an effect on her. So she wants to get baptized on Friday just before a Fireside for the Relief Society. She has a testimony, she understands the doctrine, she just needs to stop letting herself get tossed to and fro by all these different opinions. We will try to go up and visit it her with the GML and hopefully we can get her baptized (if not Friday then eventually!) Mensch (Man!). This is crazy. 

That was pretty much my Friday, get back from an exchange, have a baptism cancelled on me, and then go to PFK (?? not sure what this is) ( there were a few other things but that was the main part of the day). 

I don't really know what else to write about. There were 3 baptisms on Saturday hier in Wien. That was cool.

Haha, on Tuesday we met with Martin and Marion, with Martin Hayden as a mitbelehrung, and taught them about the Haus of Israel. That wasn't planned, but we asked them (well specifically Marion) if they had any questions. And she said that when reading the book of Mormon she was really confused about the terms (Jews, Gentiles, Israel, etc.) and that looking them up in the Schriftenführer (Bible Dictionary) only made more questions (the Schriftenführer is like a hybrid between the topical guide and Bible dictionary. I LOVE IT. With every word or "Begriff" ("term") (you will need to translate that I forgot what the English word is) you get a small definition, and then a list of scriptures in which it appears). So we started with Abraham and went our way through the 12 tribes, how at the time of Isaiah, Jeramiah etc. they were separated into 2 kingdoms etc. It went really well and now she completely understands those terms :-).

After that we asked if there were any other questions, and they asked 

" how does one know from which tribe he is?" 

"That is a completely different topic for another time". 

"Oh, and I also heard this really weird word in Relief Society that I didn't understand, what is a Patriarchal Blessing?" 

(while smacking my forehead) "that is exactly what we were referring to with 'completely different topic for another time'..."  It was much more funny in person, but I guess that we will be talking about Patriarchal blessings next time with them... :-)

Once Martin gets back from South Korea that is, he flew out on Saturday for some business related training for the next week. :-) Things are going well with them, they are both steadily making progress, and will get baptized, its not a question anymore. For a honeymoon trip, they are planning on visiting Salt Lake City/ Tempel Square. :-) (then subsequently California and Hawaii, but Salt Lake was the thing they put emphasis on). 

We got a new investigator this past week. She met with the missionaries last year, but then stopped because of Summer vacation. Elders Chapman and Babcock met with her on Friday, and we have another appointment with her this upcoming Friday. She is really good friends with the Husz Familie (A & M Husz (there are more than one Husz families in the ward)). So we meet with them and teach. She has a few concerns though dealing with WWII how members of the church were allowed to be apart of the Nazi regime, and the fact that Nephi cut Labans head off really concerns her as well.

Which brings me to a cool experience. As a mission we are reading the Book of Mormon through; 2 chapters a day. Well I was starting into personal Study on Saturday, trying to read in the Book of Mormon, and I couldn't. I couldn't focus, but was thinking about her and her concerns. So I started to ponder and study, and being enlightened by the Spirit I found out how I could resolve all of her concerns in one lesson, namely the plan of Salvation (she has more concerns than just those two mentioned, but those are two of the biggest).

It was absolutely incredible. I could see the points to highlight, the exact scriptures that I was to use were coming to mind and how to go about the lesson. It was fantastic. :-) I took notes and wrote it all down. I am excited for it. :-) It is wonderful to be able to have the influence of the spirit leading in this great work. It only strengthens my testimony that what is happening here is truly the work of the Lord. He leads it, and we are only tools in his hands. 

My time is now up. But I wish you all well! I love you all,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

What a week

Wow, this is probably one of the most intense weeks I have had out here. So much has happened. Tuesday we had interviews with President Miles, which was awesome. :-) It's always a very uplifting. Then I had to wait for Elder Orchard to get done with his interviews so we could go out to Wolkersdorf, a member had invited us to eat with them. Well with everything that happened we got there an hour late.... but we still had a good time there with the Vodusek family.

Then we came back (we were now 4 in the apartment) and I made Bauern Cordon Bleu Schnitzel  :-) (yeah I know, I come from an eating appointment and make schnitzel, but we had 4 elders and I wanted to do something a bit special). That was pretty much all that was done, we went to bed, studied the next day, We went to Zone Training, and were back to our normal companionship.

Thursday we got a ton of snow, WAY more than is normal for Vienna we got a half a meter in a single day. Public transit was a nightmare. We had originally planned to go contact on the street for a couple of hours, but it was so cold and snowing so bad that we abandoned that plan, and went out near Großfeldsiedlung and doored. We waited 20 minutes at the bus stop for the bus, and then all at once 3 came. We took the first go a couple stops, and get out. (On a side note the bus got stuck! It took 20 minutes for the bus driver to clear the snow from the tires and get out).

Went door to door for a while not finding really anyone, which was hard because I had felt that we should come and door here. In the last building before we had to leave, I saw a cleaning lady and started talking to her, and we were able to have a good conversation and we were able to bear a lot of testimony. She recognized the name of the church, and was really interested in learning about the church. She mentioned that her mom was in contact with the church, and had passed a way a few years ago. Long story short, she is going out of town for the next couple of weeks, but she wants us to come by and visit her when she gets back. :-)

Another thing that is really cool. While waiting 20 minutes for the bus, the GML called and said he had some news about Frau Zalka. She and Simon had talked, and she had taught her children the restoration through a really cool lesson. She had drawn pictures of Churches and wrote down the names of different Churches, Evangelisch, Catholic, etc. Then cut a corner out of each of the churches and said that they all had a part missing. I don't remember exactly how she did the next part, but then explained and showed that through Joseph Smith the church was restored. Really cool.

She had talked with her son and he wants to be baptized on his birthday with her. This Friday! They came to Church, had another interview. Simon knew the answers and as of now wants to be baptized! It's not final yet, Frau Zalka wants to wait and be baptized with Simon, so that they can do it together, which means if he changes his mind she won't get baptized. So if you could pray for the both of them it would be well appreciated. :-)

Later that day I get a call from someone, saything that he was baptized a member 17 years ago but had been living in Serbia for the past while but was back in Wien and wanted to meet with the missionaries as soon as possible. He lives in the Wien 3 area, so I was going to give them to him in hopes that they could meet with him. But I couldn't get a hold of them, and our appointment fell out. We both felt, despite the fact that he wasn't in our area, that we needed to go and visit this man, so we start heading out there (we were already in the middle of Wien at Deutsch Kurs not too far away from where we needed to go to find this man).

We get on the U3, and then Wien 3 calls us. Essentially they were on there way to another appointment, and were on the U6 getting there. But here is the thing, the U3 and U6 cross at Westbahnhof, and because we were on our way, we both were able to meet at Westbahnhof, and go on splits with them so we could go to both appointments. I went to Zoran (this member from Serbia) with Elder Evans. He essentially told us his life story 3 times over. If everything which he said was true, he has had an INCREDIBLY hard life. His daughter dying at the age of 9 from Bone Marrow cancer, while he was in jail because someone had stolen some money, and had framed him for it. And a lot of other things. Essentially he had gone away from the church for a while because of all of these things but recognizes he needs Gods help. He was supposed to have gone to church yesterday, I haven't yet heard from Wien 3 what happened.

Friday was absolutely hands down the craziest day of missionary work that I have ever had. We had an appointment on Simensstraße, but it fell out, and earlier we had felt that we needed to go dooring at Simensstraße 27. Here in Wien addresses are a bit different; you have the first number which generally covers a couple of buildings made up of Stieges (sections of a building you can say) and then the door number. This place had like 11 stieges so we went door to door there for an hour or so. That was crazy, we doored into everything imaginable, 4 people smoking Marijuana, a ton of drunk people, and a ton of other things. But among all the craziness we found 2 potentials, and made out 2 specific appointments for Saturday and Sunday. (They both fell out... go figure, but still it was awesome!)

Then later we went and had dinner, went by on a few other people, and then went and visited Edith to teach Chiara. It went longer than we had wanted it to, and we were walking out the door at like 9.15 or so, but walking down the street Chiara comes outside (Chiara acts a lot more like a 4 year old, despite being 8) bare feet without a coat, in -4 degree Celsius weather (and VERY HUMID which makes it far worse than it actually feels) absolutely refusing to listen to her mom. So Jakiri (who came with us) goes and picks her up and takes her back in side. We were down the street waiting, and we could here Chiara screaming all the way from inside her house. Long story short, Jakiri called us and asked us to come back and see if we could help Chiara calm down.

We went back and waited and tried helping. This took a while. Edith was at her end and nearly in tears asking us if we could kneel down and pray. We did. Then I had an idea, make a paper airplane so I did, and showed it to Chiara. It calmed her down IMMEDIATELY. We through it back and forth across the room for a bit, then Jakiri and I sang a hymn. The atmosphere was calm, the spirit was there and it allowed Elder Chapman and I to leave. We got home at 10.35. That is the first time I have ever gotten back to the apartment after curfew my entire mission. And it just happened to happen on the 18th of January. The Year mark of Elder Chapman and I. There is more to the story, but I don't have any more time. CRAZIEST DAY EVER!

It was a neat week full of a lot of spiritual impressions that had we not followed things would have turned out a lot differently. I am so grateful for those small spiritual impressions, and that these really neat things happened.

I saw a name of a potential last night during weekly planning, and for some reason I wanted to visit her RIGHT THEN. So I tell Elder Chapman if he would mind he looks at me and says " are you kidding? I HATE weekly planning! Lets go!" So we did and found her at home. It turns out that she really likes the missionaries and wants to meet with us, but had been busy. It turns out that the only reliable free day that she has in the week is Sunday. So had we not have gone right then, and done it another day, We probably would have never been able to contakt her (did I mention that she has a husband and 4 kids, a FAMILY!) She was fairly sick and was hospitalized recently she had someone visiting at the moment, but she was happy to see us, and wants to keep in contact atleast weekly with us. :-)

The spirit really leads this work and we are seeing some amazing things. If Frau Zalka and Simon get baptized this week, that with be 4 baptisms in Wien within 2 days!!!!!! I know that this is the true church and that the work that missionaries are doing here is of God and that he leads it. 

I wish you all a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Ja, noch eine Woche ist vorbei.

(Yes, Another week has passed).  

I don't really know where to begin with this e-mail. This week was fairly mellow. We had 4 fallen out appointments (which has become normal to us) and a lot of time to find. We found 8 potentials though! And made out 3 appointments for this week! (Yeah, ok there is a probability that most, if not all will fall out, but I am still positive and happy about them!)

Nothing overally special happened this past week. Things are still going well with Frau Zalka, for that past 3 weeks or so she has had a constant desire to be baptized, and has said that she wants to be baptized at the end of the Month with Simon, her son who will turn 8. The only problem is, Simon is against it.

He came to her in tears and asked that she not be baptized... She is still wanting to because she feels that Heavenly Father wants her too. Simon has had a rough ride with her. Back when she first started coming he was given a part in the primary program as was so incredibly excited! He memorized the part and put on his suit and was ready to go when his mom then decided that they weren't going to go to church. He went and cried for awhile when she told him that.

Our GML is guessing that with the up and down it has just been too much and he doesn't want to get attached to anyone, make any friendships, only to have them ripped away again... They didn't come to church again yesterday... We are still praying that all will go well. We hope to be able to teach them a couple of times per week until the end of January. I will let you know how that turns out.

We met with Martin and Marion again on Saturday at out GML's house in Deutsch Wagram. We talked about the ten Commandments, Keeping the Sabbath day holy, Following the Prophet, then taught the law of Chasity. It went very well. We had a good discussion and focused a lot on the blessings. Nearly a Month or so ago, Elder Steed and I invited them to baptism, which is when we found out that they weren't married, but they told us at that time that they had plans to get married within 12 to 18 months. We brought it back up on Saturday and they said that they had talked about it and said between 6 to 10 months! Then we committed them to come up with a SPECIFIC DAY and reminded them that without getting married they couldn't get baptized. We will see what they decide  (Elder Chapman and I are really hoping for the 29th of January..... ;-))

Haha we found out that Martin has in his possesion and is reading Preach My Gospel. :-) Well, it should make teaching a lot easier, just assign him the sections we want to discuss and then we can talk about them together. :-) I love Martin and Marion, they are so funny. We have a lot of fun meeting with them. 

On a completely unrelated note, I MADE A THAI CURRY! I don't know exactly if it was a Musa mun ( I have no clue how to spell that...) or not ( I don't know exactly what makes it a Musa mun as opposed to a normal curry with chicken, Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, and Cashews...) BUT it was REALLY REALLY GOOD. I was rather proud of myself. I didn't have a recipe either.

While shopping last week I noticed the asian food isle and saw a small jar which was a Thai red curry paste. I looked at it, and saw that with this and coconut milk you could make a curry sauce, so I thought I would give it a try, I purchased Potatoes, and Carrots ( Elder Chapman wanted them as well) a couple of Chicken breasts and Cashews. I already had onions at home. I made the sauce, added a ton of Siracha, and a bit of lemon juice to the point where it tasted about right, boiled and then cut up a couple Chicken breasts, cut up some potatoes, onions, and carrots and threw them all together and let them simmer in the curry sauce for awhile. Then put it over rice and it was great. I attached some pictures.

The best part is, is that Elder Chapman doesn't really like Asian, so I got to have left overs for the next day! :-) I have been really wanting a Thai curry for a long time, and so it made me incredibly happy to be able to make one :-)

That is pretty much all I have to report. The only lesson that actually happened this week was with Martin and Marion. This week will be an adventure, we have interviews on Tuesday, and Zone Training on Wednesday. We have missionaries from way far away coming in that will be staying with us here in Wien.

And for those two days we will be doing splits with missionaries. Elder Escher (who is in the 4th ward here in Wien) will be working with Elder Chapman and my companion will be Elder Orchard who is coming from Klagenfurt. Do you remember Conference in April how one of the speakers said that his nephew was coming to this mission here? Elder Orchard is that one. :-) I met him when I picked up Elder Robins (he came in at the same time). So for Tuesday and Wednesday we will have 4 Elders in our incredibly small apartment, and I will be companions with Elder Orchard.:-)

That will do it for this e-mail I wish you all well!

I love you all!

-Elder Ryan K. Christensen

A New Week

Its hard to believe that it has only been one week since the New Year began. Last week was pretty crazy, well Transfer day was atleast. Last Tuesday we got the phone call telling us what we were doing. Elder Steed took the phone call and wrote down everything. He told me that I would be going to Salzburg and spending the day there (as I expected).

Well Transfer day came, I didn't plan for anything because I assumed I would be with the Zone Leaders in Salzburg contacting all day. We leave the apartment a little bit later than we wanted, and take the U-Bahn. The U-bahn got delayed and we arrived on Westbahnhof 5 minutes before our Train was supposed to leave. PANIC. We had to go up the stairs and accross a somewhat busy street to get to the long distance trains. So we go as fast as we can and get up to the street just as the the cross walk light turns red...

So we wait and wait and it still doesn't change. 2 minutes till the Train is supposed to leave. There was a large gap in cars, so we run across the street (dragging Elder Steeds ridiculously heavy luggage) into bahnhof up the stairs down to our Platform, then RUN down the platform as the whistle blows for the train to leave (we are still 20 meters from getting onto the train so we REALLY BOOKED IT) we get to the train drag all of Elder Steeds stuff on. I jump on (asssuming I am going to Salzburg) when the Strongs (the Ehepaar (couple missionaries) here for the YSA center) come running up and say "get off! get off!" "What?!" I jump out seconds before the doors shut, and then the train drove out of the station.

I was so confused. It turns out that I wasn't supposed to go with Elder Steed to Salzburg, and that I was going to stay the day in Wien. We had to call and have someone print off our ticket for us (the strongs gave it to Elder Steed just as we jumped on) and it was only for one person. And thats how I found out that I was actually working here in Wien, and not going with the Salzburg Elders. Thats one heck of a way to find out.

Alright so Elder Brose and I work together for an hour, then Elder Kinghorn and Gubler show up ( Elder Gubler was Elder Brose new companion (Elder Gubler entered into the MTC the same day as I did, but I flew out here with Elder Brose  in case anyone was curious). And then they turn to me and ask "So what are your plans for today?". "I have NO idea". Elder Kinghorn came with me back to the apartment. Neither of us had studied so We studied for 3 hours and had lunch. I made Bauern Cordon Bleu Schnitzel :-). Instead of Ham, I used bacon, diced up some onions and sauteed them in a bit of oil, and them added a little bit of some spicy brown mustard. It was REALLY GOOD. :-)

Then we went out and went by on some potentials and made out a few appointments for this upcoming week! :-) It was good. We went by on people most of the day, as well as taught a German course, (Actually I ended up teaching advanced English, because no one showed up for german, and the elders that normally teached that were white washed :-)) (We are not sure what that means). But Then we went to West Bahnhof at 7:20 to pick up our new companions. We arrived home at a little bit after 8. And that was transfer day. :-)

Things have gone really well since then. Elder Steed hating finding and wouldn't talk to people on the street, Elder Chapman though really likes it. (I really like doing it as well) and it is unbelievable the difference there is when both Elders are trying to find people and talk to them. We managed to find 6 potentials last week. Most of that was in 2 days!! I am very excited for this new transfer. :-) We even made out 2 appointments for this week will people on the street, and we are going to call a couple of people tonight to make some more. :-)

Thats pretty much all I have to report. I found something really cool in the apartment yesterday! Its an Martin Luther Bible from the year 1941. Its not a full bible they call it the "Youth and Family Bible" It large sections of all the books of the Old Testament, and the Entire New testament with explanations on some of the verses. Its really cool. It is written in the old style of Writing which looks a lot different the the letters that you are reading on the page. I really like it.

I have a Mini Luther Bible that I bought in Esslingen, but it was the revised version, this is a lot closer to the original. :-) I also got to see a REALLY old bible from the1500's (see the 2nd picture). The GML has had it for a long time, I guess his grandpa found it a long time ago, some Bookstore was going to throw it away.

That is all for now, I need to leave, but I wish you all a great week!

love,
Ryan K. Christensen

P.S. The third picture is the title page to the New Testament. The writing in the Bible I have looks a lot like that, not as extreme, but that is what old Written German looks like. :-) Try reading that! haha I actually surprised my GML when I opened it up and started reading it. The words back then are spelled a bit different, but I was able to tell what the words meant. I knew already a bit of the old German lettering and so I was able to read it. IT WAS WAY COOL!