...cloud nine.‏

Liebe Familie und Freunde, 

  Liebe Grüße aus....Obereösterreich!! In other words..or rather, in another language....greetings from Upper Austria!! 

  So! My first few days in Austria have been cold, wet, and I don't think I've walked this much in the last two transfers.

  .......and I've never been happier. 

Thursday Morning Sister Lin and I got on the train at 9:25am and rode to Munich. I guess the office Elders had messed up a little when they planned everything and had me riding alone to Austria, and so they changed my plans. I ended up sitting at the train station in Munich with some Elders. It was really great though! I got to see missionaries that I haven't seen since I got here! A lot of the Elders in my MTC district are training this transfer! So fun. :) Anywho, I finally continued on with my journey from Munich to Salzburg, where I met my new comp and the Zone Leaders, and we sat for another hour and a half until the Elders from Linz came and picked us up and rode with us to Wels. On the way over they asked "...so..what do Sisters eat anyway...?" Bahaha. They bought some food for us because the apartment has been empty the last transfer. Isn't there some nursery rhyme about bare cupboards? Hah. Apparently Sisters eat...hamburger meat, lunch meat, and...hot dogs wrapped in bacon. Haha. We couldn't help but laugh at the lovely assortment of "Sisters food" they had picked out for us. It was really sweet of them, and we managed not to starve before today...;) The Senior Missionary Couple met us there too. They brought us brownies and flowers. So cute:)

     Anywho! I don't actually have tons of time...or any time for that matter...we are having a district p-day..we are going out to see a Concentration camp in the area next to us. But! I'll do what I can! To answer some of your questions mom...

**The Area! Is super great. It smells a little funny due to the oil factory here, but I love it. It's bigger than my last area...or at least there are more people. The area was closed last transfer, but the Elders in the area next to it were actually spending a couple of days a week here trying to keep things going. They did a good job. We had two wonderful investigators at church yesterday! I feel like this area has so much potential. It's just up to Sister Baxter and I to bring our strengths and weaknesses to the Lord, figure out how to use them to the advantage of the area, and I think things will really start rolling here! Anywho..it used to be a bike area. Then the Elders started using the bus, but that is expensive. We took a look at the bikes and they are all broken but..we are in the process of figuring that out. If we walk everywhere here we end up wasting lots of time..so! Schauen wir mal..

**The apartment is great. A little col, but i actually like it a lot! Hah! Except there is a sticky note on the freezer..."Do not open under any circumstances...dangerous mold inside.." The missionary couple warned us about that.. not really sure what to do about it...but! We have an extra little freezer out on the balcony:)

**The ward! the ward here is WONDERFUL! An old man walked in on Sunday and said "Ein Wunder ist geschehen!" (A miracle has come to pas!) They are SO excited to have their "very own full time missionaries" again, and no less excited to have Sisters. Yesterday we had a very warm welcome. I have never served in such a missionary-minded ward. I think there are 76 families in the ward, but not all of them are active. At any rate, we have war missionaries! And our ward mission leader is so super! Yesterday we ate lunch with "Mamma and Papa Schmidl" and family. They gave us the low down on the ward list, it was nice. We have been having a hard time knowing where to start, and its hard to get around this place.. oh! Right! So back home, there was a missionary in Austria that served in our ward for a while. Sister Sander. On Sunday, I saw her picture and thought "Woah! I know her! I need to find her!!" Well! I did. I looked out into the hall and..there she was!! so crazy! She was just there to visit her sister! But! I love her. She is so adorable. I was like a little piece of home:)

**My companion! Sister Baxter is ....so wonderful. She only has two transfers left on her mission, so I will probably end up "killing her" ..or, sending her home. What an amazing missionary she is. I feel like she has learned SO much in her 15 months of being a missionary (yes Grandpa, I am Junior companion again..but it's great!), and i am running just to keep up with all I've been learning from her! She also just finished training, and her comp was from Hungary, so we are both enjoying having an English speaking companion again, even though we speak mostly German. :) We get along super great and have been having a great time of trying to learn the ropes of Wels. We definitely keep each other laughing. She is really phenomenal. I am glad the Lord decided she would be good for me. I just hope I can learn as much as possible from her in our time together. We are both really excited to be here and looking forward to a great transfer:)

  Well! I guess I don't have a whole lot more to say this week. It HAS been a little crazy trying to get the area and people figured out. But! Sister Baxter and I are both excited, and planning to give our best and our all to this wonderful and marvelous work, and hopefully we'll have more to report next week. :) Bis dann!

Love, Sister Bice