Ohhhh Liebe Famile!
It was so great to see everyone yesterday. We are so blessed to have such a loud, great, hilarious, and cute family. Mensch! (Man!) Oh i miss you all so much. I got home and felt like i was dreaming. haha It all just came and went soooo fast.
Well nothing too new has happened since last night when we spoke. haha So i guess i will just tell you how our first whole week was here in Linz! We started out with a FHE with the JAE (YSA) group here in the ward. The Weidman's - the senior missionary couple - are over the YSA's so we had a fun FHE with them. I am constantly so impressed with the strong youth here in Europe. In a place of so much garbage and sadness, the youth stick together and are so strong. It is so cool to see. On Tuesday we had Mission Tour with our Mission President and Elder Tischeera - who is in the Area Seventy. He is great. He brought love and the Spirit from the General Authorities. He spoke a lot about member missionary work (shocker) and about patience actually. He got into a really deep discussion on patience and the latin root. What I learned is that patience is more than being temperate, it is such a holy and consecrative Christ-like attribute. It is only through the Atonement that we can obtain true patience. Another point he touched on was personal growth. He spoke about comfort zones. Here on the mission there are no such things as comfort zones. haha! He went on to say that "There is no growth in our comfort zones and no comfort in our growth zones!" Oh how true this is. When we give up ourselves and what we would prefer (our will) that is when we become the person the Lord wants us to become. So great.
So mission tour was really great. The work here in Linz is slowly but surely moving forward. The Lord led us to find a few good potentials and some new investigators! Last week when we first arrived here in Linz we did not even have an area book. We had no investigators or even potentials investigators. As I sat there with Sister Schonherr, we had to make goals out of pure faith. We set the goals we would like to achieve the upcoming week. So we did just that. We gave our best. One investigator we found was the mother of a member in the ward. She is a little..hmm different. haha She met with the missionaries a few years ago, but with us new sisters arriving, her son wanted us to teach her again. Her apartment could be on "Hoarders" (spelling?) There were piles of papers and clothes all over, ants all over the kitchen table, the smell was ripe. My desire to help Franciska was so strong, simply because the thought of her son. He has a strong testimony. He has experienced the joy of the Atonement and the blessings of the Gospel. All he wants is for his sweet Mom to experience the same joy. I do not know how Franciska will progress or when she will accept the Gospel, but I am grateful for the opportunity to see the miracle take place. Which simply started with the Faith of a good-hearted son and his love for his dear mother. I am also grateful for the hand massage that Franciska gave both me and my companion at the end of the lesson. (Did i mention she makes lotions from old fruit?) hahahaha.
The next miracle we saw this week was we were going door to door and we found Haggi and her husband! We asked if we could share a message about Jesus Christ and they said yes! We talked about prayer and had a short lesson! They are from Mongolia and really great! We are taking them Mongolian Books of Mormon tonight! I am so excited to see them read in the Book of Mormon for the first time. There is so much power and love in the Book of Mormon. It changes lives.
Well I am out of time. I am so grateful again for my sweet family. I am grateful that is was hard to say goodbye on Skype to all of you last night. Just like when i first left on my mission, I thank my Heavenly Father for a wonderful family. I am grateful for the struggle it is to say goodbye. But there is no place i would rather be than on a mission, if I can not be there with you all. This is His work. I see Him in the work everyday. Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. There are so many problems and dissapointments that happen, but the good news is that Christ has overcome the world. He has given us the Atonement that can enable us to not only overcome the hard times, but find joy and happiness in this life! Ohhh how i love this Gospel!
Life is oh, so good!
Be happy! There is so much to be grateful for!
Ich liebe euch!!!!
XOXOXOXOXOXO
Schwester Jaynes
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