Stalactite

Austria

This week began in a a crevice of the earth, in a dank and dark cave illuminated just enough to see the  chandelier stalactites. We crept through the mouth of the ancient mountain, first noticing the fossilized bones of a 20,000-year-old bear, and then following the twisty path to discover an underground world where minerals are the paint for peculiar colors. {Perk #273 of being short: Whilst everyone else had to duck, I could walk straight and still have several inches between my head and the rock.}   In one room, water rained down from the stone ceiling into a still pool, the purest one could find.



I never cease to be amazed at the beautiful planet that our Lord created-- and the most magnificent thing is that this Being who performed such a magnificent feat is the same Being who literally cares about us and wants us to turn to Him for joy.  This week Sister Selph and I did a fast in which we prayed for miracles in our work. After about six days time we became slightly discouraged because we weren't really seeing anything.... And then suddenly the blessings just started pouring out.    Of course!  God has His own timing!  If He is willing to take A MILLION YEARS to create a colony of crystals crawling down from the ceiling of a cave... then surely we can be patient in knowing that the answers to our prayers will come eventually.

Wonders of the Week (to name just a few of many examples):

- Literally SO MANY PEOPLE whom we have been unable to make contact with for the past weeks and MONTHS we were finally able to get back in contact with.  Things ranging from us running into them on random
subways and trams to them answering our emails to them finally texting us back just with a new number.
- A man contacted us through Mormon.org asking for a Book of Mormon.
- A woman in our ward whom we had been unable to visit since my first week here finally came to our appointment without cancelling.  She is so sweet!  We read Mosiah 24 about how the Lord doesn't necessarily
take away our troubles but rather gives us the strength to make our burdens feel light.  For a long time she has been concerned that the people in the ward don't care about her (which is not true; I lost count of the number of times people asked us how she was doing) and that if she comes back to church after all this time then the people will be judgmental.  And yet when she showed up th  following Sunday, the ward members were just beaming with excitement and absolutely took her in.  Oh how they had missed her!  She stayed for all three hours and in Relief Society gave the most beautiful prayer.  She even asked us to meet again next week!
- We visited an elderly member in our ward.  We had originally planned on just dropping off a card, but she was so excited to see us that she let us in for an hour.  She was just so happy and sweet and smiley and kept bearing her testimony.  When she opened her card, she gasped because the design was of roses and roses are her favorite.


Some Other Great Things:

- MLC in Munich!  I GOT TO BE REUNITED WITH ALL MY OLD COMPANIONS plus Sister Lehmann who was BASICALLY a companion in the MTC... I love President and Sister Kohler so much and that whole conference was just a spiritual boost.  I have never been so motivated to not only be brave and do the work, but even just to improve myself as a missionary in every way.



- We got to help teach primary, which was about missionary work.  We brought Books of Mormon in 15 different languages and then all the kids were given a "call" to different countries.  This reminded me a lot of an activity we had when I was 9 or 10 which was the first time in my life when I really wanted to serve a mission.
-  Members ask us for Books of Mormon to give to people they know.
- We went to an International Multi-Religious Peace Fest.



- My understanding of German had gotten pretty good already, but now I HAVE TALKED "AUF DEUTSCH" WAY MORE THAN I EVER HAVE.


Quote of the Week:

"We have Turkeys.  Lots of Turkeys," said Teodora, whilst talking about refugees coming into Bulgaria.  I think she meant Turks.

It has been a wonderful week and my testimony has been strengthened so much. One thing that I've noticed is that the more hardworking and purposeful I am in my day, the happier I am. I invite you all to go about your life with a purpose- whether that be to learn something new, to lift others up, to follow your dreams, whatever, the choice is up to you. But we have such a short time here on earth that the less time we spend doing mediocre or even meaningless things like playing on our phones and watching TV, the more time we have to truly make ourselves something greater.

 XOXO, 
                  Sister Lundgreen

Deutschland

Austria

This week we rolled once again through the looming Alps, across the border and into Deutschland for Missionary Leadership Council. I discovered Munich to be a city of gleaming and glistening grays, much more modern than  he colorful and Victorian Vienna. Yet around every bend was another ancient church and among its gems were the gothic Rathaus and the Parthenon-like monument, where they were already beginning to set up for Oktober Fest.









   Missionary Leadership Council was a really cool experience because we not only got to meet lots of missionaries but also got so many pep talks that made us all pumped to be missionaries.






    However, my favorite part of that whole trip there was when we were riding up. There  were no seats anywhere on the train, and we were walking from car to car to car. Finally we found two 4-seater tables across the aisle, both with two people. This would have to do. As we were sitting down one of the guys sitting there just had the biggest grin. We were like oh no. But luckily he wasn't there to Bible bash us, he was just an American who has a Mormon best friend and thinks everyone should have a Mormon best friend. We ended up having a

two-and-half hour conversation about everything from his cool traveling career to learning languages to the cultural/governmental differences between Europe and America to why we are willing to make this sacrifice as missionaries. It was so neat!

    IT'S TRANSFERS! Bet you're dying to know what's happening. At least I was. Well....
......Drumroll.....


     I'm staying here with Sister Selph, and Sister Fast is going to Switzerland! We were shocked when president told us.  Literally everyone thought I was leaving, but honestly I am so excited for another six weeks in the beautiful city of Wien. However, I am so sad that we blondies will be split up; we got along so perfectly and we will really miss the laughs brought on by Sister Fast. That girl has the biggest heart and the best stories.


Some other things that went down this week:

* We went running in our ghetto neighborhood and wandered into some random little park with a playset and then saw a sign that said that famous composers such as Mozart and  chubert used to be buried there. #we're_not_in_kansas_anymore

* We went to an African festival for Pday me this guy with hip length dreads made me a ring so I had to buy it haha. Seriously though I want to go to Africa now.  The culture is so  colorful!




* A car drove past with the windows rolled down BLARING GERMAN FOLK MUSIC like literally accordion and everything. This guy was just hunched over in his tiny car NBD so yeah it was one of the funniest events of my life.
* Saturday was a disaster to the point of comedy. Sister Fast went into semi-shock after transfer calls so when she went to make her weekly bread she forgot to put in oil and salt. I also broke a ceramic bowl. Then we went to have our three appointments. 1) Our first guy

called last minute to cancel on our lesson. 2) We waited and waited for our 2nd lesson and he never showed. 3) Before we could go have an eating appointment with an elderly member, Sister Selph got sick to her stomach so obviously we had to cancel this one too. Then as we were heading home we forgot a bunch of stuff  at the institute center and had to turn around and get it. So later during our dinner hour Sister Fast and I had a competition to see what we could do with the two ruined loaves of bland bread.... Sister Fast made fried powdered sugar donut holes and I started making a type of baked French toast. But you want to know what I forgot about in the oven? You guessed right.

* For district meeting we watched Elder Johnson juggle banana peels and we also sang harmonized hymn with the guitar. It only made me slightly campfire trunky....


* We spent the train ride talking to an elder and I was freaking out because I am 5.5 months out on my mission and could only understand like 30% of what he was saying. Then my comps told me he was speaking a North German dialect. Dang.
* I used to be terrified of praying in front of groups in English, but bishop has asked me to give the prayer in my German-speaking sacrament meeting TWICE in the past few weeks.

* On Friday I got up before 6 and played Fußball on a team of Germans.

* We had Bulgarian food twice in one week.

* Six months ago as a college student I could stay up till 4 AM easily, but then on Friday night we got home at 11 because our connecting train from Salzburg was delayed, and we were DYING of exhaustion haha.

* I tried a whopper candy again. I used to love those things, but the other missionaries and I were so sad because after living in Europe, whoppers taste so weird! Seriously though  Europeans know what's up with their chocolate.

* As a note to students who think they can cheat their way through language class by typing their homework into Google Translate...don't. I wrote a few paragraphs in German and then pasted it into Google Translate for fun to see what it said. It spit out the most horrible

incorrect translation ever.

* Sister Selph's Young Women sent a package including three sister missionary sugar cookies for us three companions! So cute!


* My comps said that my personality like a mixture between Hercule's Meg and Tangled's Rapunzel and that made my day.



"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." -Ecclesiastes 9:10

Have a good week!


XXX

Sister Lundgreen






P.S. I am so sad, I accidentally brought the wrong camera cord so I will only have iPad pictures this week :(

The Mission Home

Munich

Dear Family of Sister Lundgreen-

We are delighted to tell you that Sister Lundgreen arrived safely in Munich this morning!  She has been fed and trained, and is now in bed after a long day of orientation. 

We thought you might enjoy this picture from our meeting this evening. Her new companion will be Sister Price, and they will serve together in Vienna, Austria. 

We are thrilled that she is here and we are grateful for her preparation and enthusiasm.  She will be a wonderful missionary.  We love her already, and will do all we can to help her have a successful mission.  

Your daughter’s preparation day is on Mondays, and that is when she will be e-mailing you each week.  We also have a mission blog if you would like to see occasional pictures of what is occurring in the mission.  The address is:  www.alpinegermanspeakingmission.blogspot.de

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us.  We know that the Lord will bless you and your family during the next year and a half as you support your missionary in her service. 

Sincerely,
President and Sister Kohler
Alpine German-Speaking Mission

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