Journal Writing and Scripture Study

Hey! 

This week was awesome! We had a lot of fun. Last sunday we set up a few appointments with some of our members. That really helped us be busy throughout the week. It is hard to do normal contacting in the evening because the people go home so it was nice to have appointments in the evening. We also had a good lesson with a guy named M-----. He was invited by a member to come see the church and to meet us and we ended up teaching all about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He felt the spirit really strong and is now reading in the Book of Mormon from the beginning until we meet next time. 

You should all be proud of me because I actually have been pretty diligent in writing in my journal everyday. For the first six months or so I wrote every few days but I have made it into a habit to write after we plan. I was reading last night about my time with elder Stilger and it reminded me of some of the crazy things that happened. I also so how I grew a lot since then. 

We had a meeting for district leaders in Vienna on saturday. It was awesome because Elder Abott (the new zone leader) was in my MTC zone and it was fun to talk about our missions since then. 

In the last few weeks I have been studying really hard to learn the scriptures better. That has been one of my focuses in this area but it has really picked up in the last three weeks or so. Our Branch President here is really smart and he lets me ask him all my questions and he gives me some reading assignments as well. I am beginning to see how important it is to be constantly learning. We should always be trying to find answers to our questions about the gospel and we can never become spiritually "full." 

Well, things are going well. I'm happy. Have fun with your "staycation!" And thanks for the info dad!

Love,

Elder Eldredge

Staying in St. Pölten

Hey!

This week was pretty great! We are not getting transferred so I will spend at least another six weeks here in St. Pölten. I am excited to work with Elder Anderson for another transfer. It sounds like England is treating you all well. Going to church a lot and eating at other peoples houses sounds a lot like my life over here. 

We have been working a lot with a less active member named Bro. K-----. I think I have already told a little about him, but he came to church again yesterday and is getting really active in genealogy work. That reminds me, I have been meaning to ask how long our family has been in the church? I looked up how many of our ancestors were pioneers and there were a ton! There was even an Eldredge company. 

Elder anderson got sick on thursday and that put him out for the rest of the day and he was still a bit sick for the next two days. I gave me a lot of time to study on Thursday. I have been trying super hard to write down everything that I learn that impresses me, and the more I am ready to write down impressions that I have, the more impressions I get. It is really amazing. I have noticed that my understanding of the gospel and especially of the Atonement has improved in a large amount. I still have a lot to learn, and I am excited to keep learning.

We are having a lot of fun. Today we are going to Vienna to have fun with the district before two of the sisters go home. We are getting two really young sisters. One is being trained and the other has only been here for three months. Other than that our district is staying the same. I am happy that I still get to be district leader. It is a lot of fun. 

I love you all! Have another great week!

Elder Eldredge

Give and Elder an apron....

Hey everybody!

This week was pretty great! We had another zone meeting in Vienna and I got to go on exchange in Vienna so I spent a lot of time in the big city! It was really fun. The elders in Vienna in our district live right across the street from their church that has a big field by it so we played frisbee for morning exercise. We also found a really cool chinese guy picking berries in a public park. He took a book which was cool because I haven't given out too many chinese books on my mission. He was pretty excited about it. 

The weather was fighting against us quite a bit this week. It was really really really hot! We are pretty gross and smelly by the end of the day. But luckily it started to storm really bad last night so today is nice and cloudy with a nice wind. One of the greatest things about st. Pölten is that there is usually a breeze all the time. 

This friday we get transfer calls! I can't believe that it is already coming around. I have also been here for three transfers already so it is possible that I get transferred next week. It will be interesting to see what Pres. Kohler does for his first transfers. 

I got an apron in the mail! Thanks for all of the cool Scriptures! I made sure to go and cook something right away. I took a picture too. 

We should have a great week coming up. We are excited to see what happens. I hope that you all have a great week and that you are all safe in your different parts of the world! I love you all!

Elder Eldredge

Pig Legs and a New President

Hey Everyone!

This week was awesome! We had a lot of fun. Sadly though, Elder Anderson got sick on monday and was out for the rest of the day. It was good though because then we couldn't do what we wanted to do and I was basically forced to clean our apartment as he slept. But on tuesday we met Pres. Kohler and his family! They are really really cool. He is really young and so I feel like I will have an easy time connecting with him. He and his family are from Provo and he worked in the MTC. It was also fun to go all the way to Salzburg with the missionaries. We got to just talk and make jokes in the train for a few hours both ways. 

On Saturday our ward had a BBQ for all of the members and their families and friends. It was a really fun day because we left at 9 in the morning to go help with the grilling. We had two huge pig legs on a stick that took a few hours to cook. Once everybody came there were lots of games and eating. I ate way too much food so I couldn't move that easily. It hurt really bad but the food was too good! Some of our members even brought there violins and everybody learned how to square dance. We couldn't dance but it was fun to watch everybody else. They had never seen such a thing. We were there pretty much all day and we made friends with a lot of non-members. It was awesome!

This next week should be really fun. We get to work in gardens and people have invited us over for dinner. We are pretty happy campers. I'm glad to see that everybody else is doing well! I love you all!

Elder Eldredge

Summer Vacation

Hey everybody! 

Wow it sounds like another crazy week at the Eldredge home. We had a fun week over here. It is that time of year again when all europeans go on vacation for like three of four weeks so most of the people we have talked to weren't from here or were having vacation at home and didn't want to be bothered. But we still had fun. 

The fourth of July was hot just like always, but it lacked explosions and watermelon. We did run into an american girl at the train station in McDonalds so we just had our own little "Merica" moment right there. 

Elder Ringger is actually in our zone! I met him on his first day when I was picking elder Anderson up. He seems like a real cool guy. He is in the same apartment as the other elders in our district so I will see him when I am on exchange there next week. Being a district leader is still way awesome. Like I have said a billion times our district is amazing. Everybody is working really hard.

Tomorrow morning we will be taking a train to salzburg to meet our new mission president and his family! I am really excited to meet him, plus all of the missionaries in austria will be there and I will see some friends that I haven't seen for a while. 

Our invesetigators are doing well but like I said it is vacation time so it is really hard to meet anybody lately. But we are still excited for them. 

Next sunday Elder Anderson and I will be singing in church, giving talks, and very possibly be giving the class in priesthood. It could be a very busy day. One of the women in our ward really likes church music so our goal is to make her cry. 

We are doing well and everything is great. I can't really believe how long I have been in St. Pölten already. It is pretty crazy how time flies. 

I hope you all have another great week! I love all of you!

Elder Eldredge

Fußball

Hey!

This week was awesome! The weather was pretty nice and we were able to have some success on the streets. We did get to watch the USA-Germany game! It was really fun because I was on exchange with the zone leaders and the missionary I was with came out with me. We had a lot of fun and the family we were with gave us lots of food and soda. 

We met again with B----- and she actually read in the Book of Mormon and checked out the church's website. She is really interested. She just wants to talk to her friends about us before we start the lessons. It was cool though because she brought up the Book of Mormon at the beginning and told us the she really liked the first few chapters of Mosiah were King Benjamin speaks to his people. She even remembered his name! She had a lot of questions and she said that she really likes everything we teach. Hopefully her friends won't be negative about it. 

Our friend S----- is doing well. We can't really teach him  until we get some pamphlets in persian so we are just reading the Book of Mormon with him. He sadly couldn't make it to church but we will see what happened this week.

We have been focusing on the Book of Mormon for the last few weeks in our streeting efforts and it is working great! We have been able to give out a really good amount of books. Pretty soon we are going to need to order more!

Well, things are going well. We are having a good time and I love being out here. I am really learning a lot from my studies and I really feel like I have become a much better person in the last few weeks. It is amazing how much spiritual strength comes from regularly studying the scriptures with a desire to understand what they are teaching. 

I hope all is well with everybody at home. Thanks for keeping me updated. I love you all!

Elder Eldredge

Hello Elder Anderson

Hey!

We have had a great week! I am with Elder Anderson now. He is really funny and the last few days have been great. We are really excited for the next transfer! We are focusing on finding new investigators this transfer. We have a goal to find 25 as a companionship. Our district goal is 65, and I promised my district that if they reach this goal they can throw pie at my face. They are really excited. We have been having a good amount of success as well. We started meeting with a guy named S-----. It is interesting teaching him because he is just learning german and he can't really speak english. But he likes to come to the church to read the book of Mormon (He can't read it at home because his roommates are muslim). We also met a woman yesterday. She said that she didn't have much time so we just asked if we could give her a book, and she agreed to quickly hand it to her. When we gave it to her she got really excited and bought us ice cream and we talked for a while. Her name is B-------. So things are going well here now. We have a lot of fun planned this week. 

In my studies I have been trying really hard to write down more impressions that come to me while I read and it really makes a big difference. Now I always remember what I studied and I feel more confident teaching and talking about what I read there. Plus I remember the scriptures places a lot easier. It is pretty cool. 

It sounds like a lot of fun at home, which doesn't surprise me with strawberry days and everything. Also, nobody ever told me that Matt and Natalie were getting married but that is awesome! 

On monday, Elder Buckley and I went and saw two castles! I will send some pictures. They were really cool to see. We got to climb all over one of them. It was like a big adventure. The first one was really cool though because it was in better shape. It felt like the middle ages at a few points. I really love this place. 

This thursday I will get to watch the USA- DEUTSCHLAND game with some of our members. I am pretty excited. Plus we seem to be doing pretty well. 

I hope that you all have a great week! Thanks for writing! I love you all!

Elder Eldredge