Mashed Potatoes

Hey everyone!

We had a really good week last week! I am writing later than usual because we had a big thanksgiving lunch with all of the missionaries here in Vienna. It was fun to hang out with everybody and to play some games. The food was also great! I made ten pounds of mashed potatoes this morning! They were delicious. We should have a really great week because we already have three thanksgiving appointments. Luckily they aren't all on the same day. 

We had interviews with President Kohler on Saturday. It was good to talk to him. This Saturday we are going to get transfer calls! There will probably be a change because I have been with Elder Ringger for two transfers now. I am excited to see who my possibly last companion is. 

The people we are teaching are doing great! They can't always meet as often as we would really like to but it is still ok. What is important is that people that we are teaching, less-active or non-members, are coming regularly to church. The few hours at church are the busiest. It's almost like a game to see how many people we can try to make appointments with for the week. luckily our ward members are pretty happy to have us over. We see them often and they take good care of us. 

Studies have been going great lately. I can't stress the importance of trying to increase our knowledge of the scriptures. We really should be taking every opportunity we get to learn something new and something spiritual. As members of the church we have a much larger capability to learn about God and how He works and I am really thankful for that. 

I hope you are all doing great! Have another good week! Love you all!

Elder Eldredge

Christmas Markets and Speaking German

Hey everybody!

This week was great! It was a bit slower than usual but we still had a good time. For some reason we couldn't get as many appointments as usual. It caused for some long days out on the streets but I guess I am used to that now. This week is already much busier and I am happy about that. 

The Christmas markets are starting up around here. Last night we got to walk through one on our way to an appointment and it was amazing how many people were there! They sell lots of cool toys and really tasty looking pastries. They really really like Christmas here. I think there are about 20 markets here in Vienna! 

We have already gotten about three invites for thanksgiving. Well two of them are only possible invites so we aren't really sure what is going to happen. We might get a lot of thanksgiving this year. I am hoping that our ward will try and organize some flag football in the morning so that we can play. 

I went on exchange with some other missionaries here in Vienna. It was really fun because I worked in their area so I got to teach in german! We visited some members of their ward and it was really refreshing to speak german, and just the way they think is different. I will really miss the little austrian homes when I come home. I also ate a lot of austrian pastries this week. Too bad we don't have this stuff in Utah. They're so fancy with their donuts here.

We have interviews with our mission president this saturday. It should be really good because he plans to spend a lot of time with each one of us. It will be nice to have some extra time with him. Sometimes interviews are just way to short and you don't feel like you really had an interview. We are also going to eat some awesome schnitzel tomorrow for lunch. They are really big! 

So life is great here. I love Vienna a lot. Have another great week! Love you all!

Elder Eldredge

Vienna is the place to be!

Hey family!

It's been another awesome week! Vienna is the place to be! It is fun to be a missionary over here. We have seen a lot of progress with the people that we are meeting with. We have been meeting with a girl named Wanni. She is a member in our ward and we are just helping her prepare for a temple prep. class. When we started she wasn't coming to church often and she never read her scriptures but now she really loves coming to church and we don't even need to remind her to read every day. She is also more excited to meet and she asks really good questions that show that she is really thinking about things more. It is fun to watch our friends really make progress in the gospel. 

The Elders that we live with are really great. Elder Pugmire will go home in three weeks so we are all pretty sad about that. He is a really close friend. Elder Brady is awesome too. He really likes to dance a lot. I couldn't have better roommates. The greatest thing about living in Vienna is that you are constantly around other missionaries. We see our friends almost everyday and it is just nice to have a big support system. 

It has been really warm and partially sunny for the last few days. It is really pretty with all of the leaves changing. We are preparing to be pretty cold in the next few weeks. 

Things are going great. We work hard and we are having success. I never have anything to complain about and life is just plain good. I am glad to see that everybody else is happy too! I'm especially happy to hear that Emily and Geoff are having a little girl! I can't wait to see her!

Have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Eldredge

Happy Halloween!

Hey! 

This week was really great! It has been really good weather. I like it when it is cold a lot more than wearing a tie in the summer! Halloween was fun even though they don't really celebrate it here. We had a fun Halloween party at the YSA center with all of the YSA people and some other missionaries. All of the people from here got to try candy corn for the first time and I don't think anybody liked it. More for us I guess. 

Ainsley's wings on her costume are awesome! Good job to whoever made them. All the kids are looking pretty cute in their costumes! I dressed up like a hogwarts student. I kept trying to find a nice stick for a wand but I didn't see one all day. 

Work-wise it was a bit of a slow week because the people we are teaching were mostly all out of town. But we are having a lot of fun and success. I am happy about the work here. We have a good list of contacts and they are all really interested and want to meet often. 

We had an awesome eating appointment at our ward mission leader's home. We ate J-dawgs with the sauce and everything! It was tons of fun. They live in a neighborhood where there are mostly Americans so there were tons of american kids running around and jumping on the tramp. You would have never known you were in Austria. It was also great because they let us eat tons of their left-over american candy from Halloween! 

Tomorrow we are going to eat lunch with a man in our ward who is going to bring his old Leica cameras to show me. I am really excited. We are going to eat at his tennis club with six other missionaries. Should be a blast. 

Thanks for the Halloween pictures! I hope that you all have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Eldredge

Business as Usual

Hey everyone! 

Look at that cute baby! I can't wait to hold her! It is good to have another baby girl. It's only been like 11 years. Happy birthday Ainsley!

We had a great week over here! I think I mentioned last week that we were teaching a sixteen year-old girl from Alaska. We taught her again and she has gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith! She is really cool and she comes to the activities at the youth center so we see her pretty often. She also came to our stake conference yesterday and I think she really enjoys being around the other missionaries and she really feels welcome. She is doing really great and she is a good friend.

We are also teaching a man named M-----. He is a bit of a tough case. He has a problem that he can't trust anything. He doubts pretty much everything and it stops him from making any progress and becoming happier. It has made me reflect a lot about how we need to trust the spiritual confirmations that we've received. We can't panic at every question that we don't understand the answer to. If we approach our questions with patience and trust that the Lord will teach us when He knows is best, we will be much more peaceful and we will learn faster. 

There is no news about transfers. We are both staying for the next transfer. I am excited about it. I really love Vienna. It was a bit of a sad transfer call because a lot of my friends are leaving, but luckily our apartment is staying the same. 

Today we are going to go and see the cemetery! Elder Ringger says it is one of the biggest ones in Europe. There is also an LDS section so we are going to see that. 

Thanks for the pictures of Piper! She is pretty darn cute! Tell her I love her! I love you all too!

Elder Eldredge 

YSA Center

Hi everyone!

Sounds like a really fun week back home! We were also really busy this week. It was possibly the busiest week of my mission. It is really fun getting to teach someone everyday. The missionary couple that is in charge of the YSA center were out of town on a conference this week so we had to run the center and make sure all of the classes were being taught. It was a lot of work but everything worked out. They are still going to be gone until tuesday so we get to keep watching over the center. Tonight we are running the FHE activity, and on wednesday I get to teach institute. I am really excited for that. I get to teach about the first five chapters in the book of Mormon. 

Church was pretty crazy yesterday! L--- brought his parents to church. They wanted to see what he was getting into. They didn't seem to have a problem with us so that went well. W---- and G------ both came as well. We are helping them prepare themselves for the temple. Ever since we started meeting with them there has been a lot of progress. There was also three child baptisms right after church! It was great because most of the ward stayed and there was lots of food. They said there would be refreshments but it was a full meal for everyone. 

This wednesday we will find out about transfers. We had a seven week transfer and our next one will be a five week transfer. I will almost surely be "dying" here in Vienna. We will see though if Elder Ringger and I stay together. We probably will be.

You all need to let me know what I should put in this package for christmas or I am just going to need to shove it full of stuff I don't want to carry home in a few months. Just let me know!

I love you all and I hope that everything is going great!

Elder Eldredge

Enjoying Vienna

Hey everybody! 

There isn't ever a boring day in Vienna! We have lots of fun. This week especially. We had a double zone conference in Salzburg on Saturday. We had two other missionaries stay in our apartment over night on Friday so we had to wake up at 5 o'clock to leave our apartment at 6:30. We brought a lot of scones with us on the train for breakfast and the sisters made some no-bake cookies. It was a lot of fun to sit and talk with them for a few hours. The conference was really great but I barely knew anybody from the Salzburg zone because they are all so young. I got to talk to G-----(from Haag) on the phone when he called the Haag elders. It was nice to hear from him. We took a train back home and got to our apartment at about 9 o'clock and that was our day. I really liked it. 

We had a great time yesterday as well. We ate with a family from Fiji. They are really excited about missionary work and we should do family home evening with them and their friends in a few weeks. They also played the Ukelele for us and sang in Fijian. 

The new window on the house looks great mom! And those kids are all getting so big! 

L--- is doing really well! He is really looking forward to getting the priesthood and his parents are coming with him to church this Sunday. They just want to see what he is getting into but we hope to make a good impression so that they want to learn more. 

We are also working with a new convert named G-----. She is from Italy. We are good friends with her and she really wants to prepare to go to the temple. She was sick for a while but now she can start coming again. 

Everything here is great. My roommates and companion are all awesome. We make sure to have a lot of fun and work really hard. Thanks for the pictures! I love you all!

Elder Eldredge