Monday, July 8, 2013

One Eyed Willy

      Whooooo, HAPPY 4th of JULY!! (sorry its a tad late!) Dont worry though, I proudly rocked the red, white, blue all day on Thursday! Being in Europe for so long has just made me so much more aware of culture and my patriotism! This was seriously just such a good week! I know I keep saying that and it has probably gotten really annoying (bare with me there are only 2 more of these emails coming that are clogging your inboxes!)..........but its just true!
      Where do I even begin? Lets start with the glorious Andy. Well her real name is Andrea, but she goes my Andy for short. She is 30 and the cutest thing ever. One of the most prepared people I have ever seen on my mission. We have been teaching her the last 2 weeks and last week we spent every free day she had with her. Guess what folks.....SHES GETTING BAPTIZED!!! Yep, just after I go home, in August. She is so cool. She is so excited to get baptized to. She keeps saying, "I cant believe it took me 30 years to find this!"
      Other peeps: Doris, she continues to do well! She had some extremely difficult questions that she was firing off in our last lesson. She use to be a Catholic Minister and so she thinks deeper than most. There was a moments where it just felt intense. I stopped talking for a bit and let my companion and the member continue on.....I just stopped and prayed with all my might....I waited until I felt i should talk. Words were coming out of my mouth that I didn't even know. The room stopped and doris was just still as I talked. The spirit was so insanely strong that even the member started crying. There was a complete change in everyone and in the rest of the lesson. It was one of those sureal moments where the spirit guided and I can promise I had nothing to do with what happened. But it did happen, and Doris along with everyone there including myself, was changed by it.
      The 4th of July was one of the happiest days of my life! I have no idea why, but it was just perfect! and so american :). The day started out with a fantastic lesson at the Loh family's home. They gave us American bagels and cream cheese! Oh how I have missed that combo the last year and a half. We had such a good time with them and Bella is sooo excited for her baptism that is in less than 2 weeks. She asked me to give a talk at it.
      Then, we had a fantastic lesson with Andy complete with some delicious Gellato. Nothing beats that combo!
      Next was a good ole time at English and German class where I teach Intermediate English to some hilarious people. One of my students brought me American candy and rocked the red, White and blue with me even though she is from Iran haha.
      But, I saved the best for last......we had a party at the Huys family's! Oh how the Huy's really feel like family to me. More so than any others I have met on my mission. He is German and she is Mongolian but they throw a big party for the missionaries every 4th of July. And boy was it a party! We had 8 missionaries, investigators, members, and neighbors. It was soooooo fun!! We just laughed the night away and ate even more American food!
      The weekend took a strange turn however. My companion woke up Friday morning with a really red and puffy eye. We just laughed it off. She decided it would be best if she didn't put any eye make up that day. Well no eye make up turned into a trip to the pharmacy to get some help pronto, which then turned her into one eyed willy.....which landed us in the hospital. But the hospital was not working with us so we took her home and she took a benedryl.......12 hours later she woke up and we started the hospital adventure all over again. We were there all day Saturday (cant wait for American health care!) the poor thing got a major eye infection! The past few days I have been going out with members and the international sisters while she has had to stay home. She had to spend the yesterday morning in the hospital again and couldn't even go to church. But she has been a trooper and we have just laughed through the whole thing! She woke up this morning and its almost healed....miracle!
      Spiritual Thought: “Here then is a great truth. In the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, we pass through a refiner's fire, and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong.” -James E. Faust.
      Thanks for all the love and support! I cant wait to see you all soon. For anyone who would like to come, I will be home on July 26th at 7:25pm at the Salt Lake Airport.
Love you! Sister Jessica Linford
LAST WEEK TO SEND A LETTER :) :

Kirche Jesu Christi
Sister Jessica Linford
Hormayr gasse 59/top/9
Wien 1170
Austria

No comments:

Post a Comment