Februar!

Well, for all those who were hoping for a baptism this week, so were we, until Frau Zalka called and said that her and her children got really sick... So it fell out yet again. But not because of a doubt this time. She is fairly sure she has gotten over that by now... But who knows only time will tell. She will get baptized, someday, we just need to find a week were she doesn't have any doubts and can be physically healthy as well :-) No new date has, as of yet been set out. I may be long gone before she actually gets baptized, but she will with Simon eventually. Haha, Elder Chapman and I are considering sending her a letter, since that seems to be the most desired way of communication. We will see. 

Other than that it has been an interesting week. I have really noticed the hand of the Lord, Saturday and Sunday, all of our appointments fell through consisting of 5 appointments. All on the spot. So we spent the time finding, and it also gave us some time to go through and call everyone listed in the phones contact book. Through the efforts we now have 10 people who are interested in meeting with us! A couple of them are entire families. :-) 

I had the opportunity to look casually through a couple of the old area books, and as I was going through, a couple of names stuck out. They hadn't met with the missionaries in 6 years or so, but I felt like I should call them. So I did, and one of them was so incredibly thrilled to have us call. It was unbelievable. She had stopped meeting with the missionaries, mainly because of her husband. Her son also had interest as well but they had to stop. She was sick but was so incredibly thrilled that I called, that she said that we could call her at anytime and that next week, by which point she hopes to have recovered, that she really wants to meet with us again. That was cool. 

We have 4 area books, I happen to grab one open it up and skim through it, see a name and call someone that has a ton of interest. No other explanation than being led by the spirit. It was a really neat experience, and I am excited to go and meet with her ( assuming that I don't get transferred ( I will get to that in a second)). 

Another experience, on Tuesday this week we, again (no surprise) had an appointment fall out. So we contacted around for a bit, then decided to go by on Eric, who actually lives just on the other side of the boundary. Here is the story, so he met with the missionaries (the Wien 5) at the beginning of last year, they set a baptismal date with him, and then were going to give him to Wien 2 (whose area it is) but somehow he got lost and Wien 2 was never able to meet with him. I was told by Elder Steed that the  best time to go by on him was at night, but Elder Chapman said that he felt that we should go by right then. 

So we did, and he happened to be home. No one had been able to find him for this past year. We were able to talk to him and get his phone number, and figured out that he normally is in Burgenland for the week and only in Wien on the weekends. But just only happened to be in Wien right then. We were able to get the information to the Wien 2 Elders and they should have been able to call him and make an appointment. :-)

Something else that was cool (this week is full of stories like this) but after finding those two names (the other one had interest, but is so busy, she said call her in a month and she hopes things will be a bit more calmed). Elder Chapman generously (said super sarcastically, because the other option was calling every single kontakt in the phone (200+ names that I didn't know)  decided to go through the area books while I made phone calls. He pulled out a number of records of people that he though we should go by on. All we had planned left for the day (it was Sunday) was to study (we are supposed to still have personal and language study on Sundays). 

I looked through the names and got the impression to go by on them right then. So I told Elder Chapman, and we decided to go by on them, as well as a couple of the potentials we had found that week. Well long story home this family, whose record I saw, was home, and we made an appointment out for tomorrow at 2 :-) ( they were busy at the moment and couldn't meet).  This week is school break here, so we should be able to meet with them all. :-)

Now getting to transfers, Transfer calls are this Friday. The past two transfers in Austria have been mild, meaning not many people have moved, and a lot of people have been with there companion for 3 or 4 transfers. We are also starting to get into the new wave of missionaries (imagine this, normally every transfer we lose 8-12 missionaries and gain 8-12, now we start to lose 8-12 but gain 25 to 30). Which means we expect a big change up here, and because Elder Chapman and I have both been out over a year... well we both think that the chances of us staying together are very slim. 

We think either he will go and I will train, or that I will go somewhere and he will get younger companion. But we shall see, it wouldn't be the first time that I would be surprised at Transfers. So we shall see what the future holds. But either way things are going amazing well. the Zone is exploding with baptisms and baptismal dates. So far since the beginning of the year, 10 people have been baptized. Out of the 10, 6 are from the Wien Zone ( if only we could have made that 12 and 8 respectively... ). Its neat. Things are going well. :-)

Anyway, that ought to do it for this week. I love you all and wish you a great week! 

Love,

Elder Ryan K. Christensen

Oh, before I forget, P-Day last week! We went to the cemetary here in Wien and saw some really cool things. Among them, the graves of Beethoven, Mozart and Ludvig Boltzman ( A FAMOUS CHEMIST!! :-)) I will attach a few pictures from it.

Elder Chapman had fun posing me, so we took a bunch of pictures here, are a few. :-) Yes I was really super excited to find this, incase anyone is wondering. You will need to show Mrs. Snow a few of these pictures.

Caption to the first one:

YES!!!! CHEMISTRY IN VIENNA!!!! 

2nd: need no explanation ;-)

3rd: The equation which he is know for. 

I love you all! Take care

Elder Ryan K. Christensen