The Streets of Vienna!

Hello from Vienna!!

      Still is so weird to say that, but I love the sound of it :). This has been an awesome week here. Its not that something grand or earth shaking happened, but it was the collection of so many perfect moments. I can honestly say I have never loved my mission more. That doesn't mean this is the easiest I have had it, because opening a city is extremely tiring and stressful. But, it is also is the gateway to witness sooo many miracles. It is amazing here......simply amazing!
      I must admit, my least favorite part of missionary work was something we call street contacting. That is where you just go out on the street or in a park and try and talk to people and make appointments to meet with them. I think the largest reason why I wasn't the largest fan, was due to my frustrations with the language. Along with that, I just freaking love teaching! haha, so if I was in a lesson, I was the most happy. However, I LOVE talking to people here! I seriously have the hugest grin on my face the whole darn day! They are so nice!! Vienna is known in this mission has being the place with the meanest people....but this mission doesn't know how good they have it, haha. I think if they took a trip up to Berlin they would be horrified haha. We have had some incredible lessons this week right smack on the streets of Vienna! I love it! We are meeting some incredible people and I can't wait for this coming week where we get to meet them in their apartments and teach them more!
      We have also been doing a lot of less active member work this past week. This ward needs it!! We have seen some amazing success with that. I have grown the strongest testimony here in Vienna of just how important it is to never give up on people. We have been working with a lady named Lida. She was baptized over 20 years ago and hasn't been to church in about 15 years. Some would definitely count her as a lost cause. We have been working with her, and low and behold, the woman showed up to church on sunday!! The first time IN 15 YEARS! Oh my heart just melted when I saw her. We are particularly close and she just linked arms with me and wouldn't leave my side the entire day. She cried through the entire sacrament meeting and said that she felt the peace again.
      We also had a really neat experience with another lady that is a less active named Nina. It was last Saturday and we were headed to a district finding day. I had no idea why, but the whole morning I just didn't feel good about going, but its not really something you choose whether you go or not. Well the feeling persisted as the time to go drew nearer. I said something to my companion and she said that she felt a little funny about it too but didn't know why. We knelt down and prayed together in efforts to gain more direction. Very quickly I got the impression we needed to go by Nina's and we needed to be there at 5pm. It was quite strange because I had only seen Ninas name on a list of members earlier that day, but I remember it stuck out to me for some reason. I knew what I had to do. Hesitantly I called my new district leader and explained to him we wouldn't be joining them anymore. We went to Ninas apartment instead. We rung the door bell.......and nothing. I was so disappointed because the answer to visit her was so strong. As my companion turned around to leave, I said a prayer and pushed the button again. After 2 minutes of me staring at the door bell, and my companion staring at me with a confused look......she answered :). She invited us right in and said that we were the angels she prayed for. It was fantastic to talk with her and learn her life.
      Both these woman, along with others, we meet with regularly now. They had already made the decision to be baptized but got lost in their path. The spirit is so insanely strong in lessons with these people. Revelation and inspiration on what to say to them is SO INSANELY POWERFUL! The words are never my own, but the are said in a bold package wrapped in love that hits them straight to the heart.
      We finally got to meet our ward yesterday for the first time at church! It is definitely a smaller ward that I had pictured in my mind. They are really nice though. Lots of old people, and a LOT of people on the ward list that weren't there....meaning LOTS of Less actives. Everyone was coming up to us telling us how excited they were for sisters. We even got clothes from a member haha. She wanted us to get a reallllll good welcome in to the ward :). They are so cute to us.
      The city is feeling more and more at home every day. I hardly even look at a map anymore, it is all just ingraining itself into my mind. The hope is that I will get to finish out my mission here.....what a dream that would be!
      Spiritual Thought: As I reflect on the life of Jesus Christ, particularly at the point of greatest trial for him, I am reminded by a familiar phrase he expressed, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" I do not want to focus on the phrase it self or what he was feeling at the time, I want to focus on what he did in this difficult time. HE PRAYED. In my life I have learned that sometimes we don't receive answers to prayer because the Lords knows we are not ready when He does answer, it is often "here a litter, and there a little" because that is all that we can bear, or all that I am willing to do at the time. Too often we pray to have patience, but we want it right now! We may not know when or how the Lords answers will be given, but in His time and His way, I KNOW, His answers will come. Let us not give up on the Lord, His blessing are eternal, not temporary. He knows our sacrifices and our sorrows. He hears your prayers. His peace and rest will be yours as you continue to wait upon him in faith. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint." Let us wait upon Him by pressing forward in faith, that we may say in our prayers, "Thy will be done".
      I have gained the strongest testimony here, that nothing happens to you without a purpose.......everything happens to perfect us. Heavenly Father loves us, that is something I know for certain. Talk with him. Listen to him. Grow with him.
      Thanks for all the love and support!! I hope you are all enjoying the beautiful spring that has finally come! I miss you all and pray for you every day! I wish everyone luck in school, work, and life! KEEP THE FAITH!
Sister Linford

Kirche Jesu Christi
Sister Jessica Linford
Hormayrgasse 59 Top 9
A-1170 Wien 9
Austria

First Week!

      Hey y'all! I am officially in Vienna loving it! Whoo, this city is alive and invigorating! This week has been so awesome finally getting back to a normal missionary life again. Hitting the pavement and talking to peeps is where it is at! haha. Lets dive into my new life in the Alpine German speaking mission shall we?
      Well last Monday I was still in Munich getting paperwork done, but I had the pleasure to finally meet my new mission president! President and Sister Miles hail from the city of Bountiful, Utah. They are the sweetest couple ever! They are so warm and loving. It was good to meet him and to hear more about their objective for this mission. I just felt at home the entire time I was there......this is exactly where I am meant to be!
      Tuesday, was a day of goodbyes and hellos. I have seen many of these on the course on my mission, but they never seem to get easier. I was LOVING my time with the two sisters in Munich. Sister Stowell and Allman........the good times never stopped with these two! Can't wait to hang out after the mish. Well after a 5 hour train ride Munich turned into VIenna. We were greeted by the elders in our new ward, as well as the english speaking sisters we live with. It is such a great city and I felt it from the second we arrived!
      The rest of this week has been crazy! My face has been buried in the map trying to get us around haha. It has been a fun adventure so far though! We have seem some pretty great miracles too! One of which was with a girl named Oyuka. She is from Mongolia. Her brother actually joined the church in Mongolia a few years ago. She is here as a student right now. We had a fantastic lesson with her and we have another scheduled for tuesday!
      Ana is another miracle. We were doing some doors and bam there she was! She said that she didn't speak any german but asked if we knew english. (This never ceases to excite me!) We ended up teaching her a whole lesson that day with the invite to come back the next day. We brought the english speaking sisters, as this is technically now their investigator. They asked me to teach the lesson though until the official hand off to them takes place. Oh how it was suchhhhhh an incredible lesson! Ana is from Romania and SO prepared. Her answers were all so excited and right out of the dreams of every missionary. Ana is now preparing to be baptized in just a few short weeks!!! BOO YEAH!!!
      We also been having some really neat success with some less active members. They are letting us in because we are sisters and they think its awesome that we have sisters in Vienna now. WHat ever works right!?! haha.
      Conference was also this weekend. With the time difference we only got to watch the first 3 sessions....but WOW!! Conference is better than christmas and your birthday combined for missionaries!! haha, but seriously! I am still on this amazing conference high! My heart ached as Pres. Monson shared a story of a man from Germany. That man was from my last area.......ah.......it hurt but in a good way. I miss Berlin terribly, but I know that it will forever be a place in my heart. And now, I get to add the country of Austria too!!
      My German has taken a leap in the right direction this week! WOw miracles are real! I am still not fluent by any means but I am completely communicating with people! HALLELUJAH!!!
      Spiritual THought: MAN alive i have been slacking! I had the best one for today too, but I have 2 minutes left is all :( So today just remember ALma 1:25 and remain "Steadfast in faith!"
Love you all!!
Sister Linford

Kirche Jesu Christi
Sister Jessica Linford
Hormayrgasse 59 Top 9
A-1170 Wien
Austria

Vienna :)

      Wowza, I still am trippin' out!! Life has been sheer craziness the last little bit and it continues! So much has happened that it makes the task of narrating it all to you very difficult!
      Lets start with last Tuesday, I was sitting smack dab in the heart of Berlin at Zone Conference. It was amazing. I got to see a lot of people that mean a lot to me. It was all for a reason. I got to see the Rostock Senior Sister who I have missed dearly. They are like my grandmas :). I got to see the sisters who have gotten me through it all. Plus everything was in English :). Ahhhh, I will never take for granted having the gospel in my mother tongue again!
      The craze started Tuesday night as I got a phone call at about 8pm. I looked at the number and it started with 801.......My heart sank. Its been quite a while since I have seen that number combination, but its one I cant forget. I quickly answered it with a sense of caution in my voice. The man on the other line introduced himself as someone from the mission department in Salt Lake. He said that he just wanted to make sure that this was in fact my phone number and then told me that my parents would be calling me shortly. My stomach tensed in that moment and I don't know if it has stopped even now. I waited......like stared at the phone,.... wouldn't go more than 3 steps away from it,.... basically camped out by that thing. One hour passed.....I was so anxious. Finally 2 hours and 15 minutes pass and the phone rings. I picked it up in the first ring and nearly yelled, "Hello?!!?" The still, very familiar voice of my mother was finally heard. The voice I had been imagining the entire 2 hours prior. It took everything in me not to just burst out in tears. She told me that with everything that had happened, I had been offered to either come home on an honorable release or I could get reassigned to another mission. With no hesitation in my voice I said that I had signed up for the whole thing, and that I would not be coming home early, but I did want a mission reassignment.
      That moment was a hard one. My heart is in Berlin......but, I knew this was the path I needed to take. I knew that my plan was to take place elsewhere. Phone calls were made until nearly 2 am that night with other sisters that were considering the same decision. It was shear craziness.....It didn't stop on Tuesday, Wednesday morning I got a call at 7:30 am from the area presidency asking me for what my final answer was.....I boldly stated, that I would be taking a mission reassignment. He responded positively and said that when ever my call was reassigned that I would be getting a call. He didn't really give me a time frame though. Although my mind was so weighed down with this craziness and was racing a million miles per hour, the show had to go on!
      There was an Easter fireside that we had been planning for an entire transfer that was on Wednesday night! It went SOOO well! The spirit was so strong. We also had sister Moon and sister Bohne and their companions come in to help us with musical numbers. It was fun being able to spend my last night in Eisenhüttenstadt with them. Me and Moon just sat there and cried through the fireside. It wasn't even the fireside itself, it was that we both were leaving. We have been through so much together.....that girl means the world to me. I got to say good bye to the ward. I cried when I had to say goodbye to the most amazing members I have ever met, Ola and Ahmed. Ahmed gave me a blessing that brought more peace to me, that I think I have ever felt. I needed it. I needed the reassurance that this was all meant to happen. It said it was my plan the whole time.... many different times in my blessing and I truly believe that. (Side note: at 5:30pm just before the fireside I got the call that I had been waiting for......I have been reassigned to the Alpine German speaking mission!!!!)
      Thursday was a weird day because I had no idea when I would be leaving for my mission. I got a call from my new mission president President Miles, that morning, but not even he knew when I would arrive. I was just told some time that weekend. Well I started packing, but I didn't particularly feel rushed.....that was until I got the call at 11 that I needed to leave at 12! I started throwing everything in my suitcase in a frenzy. After 11 hours on a train, I arrived at the mission home in Munich Germany at 11pm. I was picked up by the AP's and 3 of the cutest sisters that made a banner saying. "Willkommen Sister Linford!!"
      The rest of my weekend has been getting things set up and waiting on paper work so I can go to my actual area of Vienna, Austria!! I am opening up a brand new program there!! Cant wait! I leave for Vienna tomorrow evening! I will be living in a 4 sisters apartment with the international branch sisters. I love 4 sisters apartments!! Plus, one of the sisters that I served with on exchange last summer is from Austria. She is now home and I am going to be serving in her ward!! I cant wait to see sister Martinz!!
      This has been the craziest week of my life. But, I know it is sooo meant to be! As I was on the train ride to Munich from Berlin, I got to pass through my first city of Dresden. As I stared out the window at the beautiful landscape memories flooded my mind. It was as if my entire mission flashed before my eyes on that train. The peace that accompanied it was ever present. I know that I am meant to be in Austria for the remain 3 months and 3 weeks of my mission. This entire experience has been such a spiritual one for me. I have felt my Savior so close to me through it all. I have felt him carry me when I just couldn't deal with it anymore.....he is always there. Always.
      I love and miss each one of you. I cant wait to share with you all how amazing Vienna is next week :)!! Keep the faith!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sister Linford

EW ADDRESS:
Kirche Jesu Christi
Sister Jessica Linford
Hormayrgasse 59 Top 9
A-1170 Wien
Austria

Surreal!

     This week has been............Mind-blowing to say the least. I have no idea where to even start with this. So much has happened this week. Trying to figure out the best way to approach this email has been.....exhausting. I have always promised to be honest and real in my mission experience. Yet, there is so much that I cant share at this time. Where to begin....I just don't know, so I will start with last Monday and give quick tidbits of what has happened.
     The week started out normal. In fact incredible miracles were happening! I felt so much joy as I watched so much progress. I said goodbye to a companion that became extremely close to me; Sister Müller and I will be friends for a long time I know it. I was able to meet the new sisters that have entered to our mission. In a very very short time frame of 6 weeks, we have gone from 25 sisters to 45.......craziness. All of which are ready to work hard.
      Mission prep with Della who leaves in May for france continues to be a highlight of my week. It reminds me of all the blessings and lessons that I have experienced throughout my service as a missionary.
     I helped Ola translate important documents from German into fancy English haha, it made me grateful for my "little break" I have from school. Lots has happened with the Steinhorst family. Lea-Sophie wants to get baptized in the next few weeks :). Plus, the entire family came to church on Sunday! Claudia, continues to amaze me. We have developed a really strong friendship. She smoked her last cigarette last week! So proud of her.....she is working hard towards baptism and has changed sooo much to prepare herself.
      We got elders in our area! Both are stellar missionaries. Elder Coleman comes from London and elder Matthews is from South Jordon. It has really fun having them around. I had a big miracle. One that I will always cherish. It was in a lesson with a man names Detlev Schmidt. His wife is a very active member of our ward. She has been a member for 20 years and has been begging her husband to be baptized. He expressed a few weeks ago that his main problem is with Joseph Schmidt. We had a lessons and when we got there I had the feeling we needed to change things from our plan. We instead watched the talk from Holland abut the Book of Mormon. I experienced the gift of tongues so strong that night. I bore testimony is near perfect Germany for 15 minutes to Detlev that night. The feeling was sheer intensity. Spiritually intensity. Heavenly Father has a lot of things he needed Detlev to know that night. I spoke and he sat there with tears streaming down his face. His wife was as well. I don't know what happened that night......but it was truly special. Detlev WILL be baptized one day.......I know that.
      I had to eat weird things like raw fish on bread, and my companions lactose free milk.... We had 7 investigators come to church......to match the 9 members :). Ola and Ahmed made me pancakes.....sheer joy. But the real craziness cant be avoided any longer. I cant go into detail as to the why, but events have made it so I have chosen to switch to a new mission. I find out most likely in the next 24 hours where I will be. The next time I will email, I will no longer be in this mission. Its been a crazy ride, but one that I am grateful for. I truly am at peace with everything and have never been more aware of my Heavenly Fathers love for me. Life is full of surprises and that's what makes it so darn fun :). I know that this is part of my plan and has been all along. There are people in another place whether that is in Austria, China, or the US that need me these last 4 months I have left. I am excited for this!!! I will give more details in my next email!! Sorry this is the shortest on date, and the weirdest......but there is more to come later!! I wish you all the best.
Sister Linford

Please do not send any letters to the Berlin Mission anymore. I will update me new location next week!

Sisters in Berlin

All Sisters traveled to Berlin today for a meeting. Here is a picture from the mission presidents blog

S. Linford is in the back row, second on the left

Piano Man!

      Guten Tag!! I hope everyone enjoyed seeing every shade of Green yesterday! I however, did not participate and felt the results of it when I was greeted by my fellow American missionaries. I hope you all had a great week! Mine was full of a little bit of everything. Lots of good appointments and lots of traveling. Welcome to mission life here in Germany :).
      Most anticipated event this week, was definitely transfer calls. The results were.....shocking. I will be staying in this tiny town with Sister Schneider. She has been one of my two companions the last transfer. You would think that would be predictable results, however, it was definitely not what any of us were expecting. We are also getting elders in Frankurt Oder which was one of the towns we were assigned to. So now, we just are in Eisenhüttenstadt. We can walk around the entire city in an hour so this should be interesting. So prayers are welcomed :) haha.
      On a more positive note, a very pleasant surprise came yesterday! We had stake conference in Berlin yesterday. The stake is very large and many people were there. However, one I didn’t expect was Jon Schmidt!! Yes, I got to talk to him. He was like, "Oh my heck, you have grown up sooo much! How is your family? They are just my heroes!!" He was the first familiar face I have seen my entire mission. It was so fun to see him there. All the missionaries were freaking out that I knew him. He was definitely the celebrity of the day! He even got ATTACKED by my branch president’s wife who just started talking German at him a million words a minute. His face was priceless. I felt like his bodyguard.
      Stake Conference was just fantastic! Not only was Jon there, but we had a visit from a member of the quorum of the 70 named Elder Herbertsen. He is from Scotland, which meant....HE SPOKE ENGLISH! Oh my heavens I can’t express how incredible it is to hear the gospel in English where I can understand everything. Both he and his wife gave amazing talks and I was suuuupppper grateful for it!
      We have seen some great things with some investigators this week. I will start with CLaudia. She is a single mom who is 28 and so awesome. She has been working with the missionaries for a few months now. She is busy, but makes time for appointments when she can. She accepts things so humbly and has already read through the book of mormon almost 2 times now. Last time, we taught her about fasting. She showed up to Stake Conference and....was fasting!!! She said she knew it wasn’t a fast Sunday, but she wanted the experience. It was sooo cute to see her! She is developing such a strong testimony :). We are hoping to get her on baptismal date this week!
      On Friday, we had an appointment with a less active named Katrin that we have been working with. She is also a single mother with an autistic son. Alex is hilarious. Katrin asked him to say a prayer, it went as followed; "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you that we can pray. Now can I hurry up and eat already???? AMEN!!!" haha we were all laughing so hard :). We also got Katrin to say that she would return to church for Easter. She hasn’t come in a long time, so this is such a big step!! We are even going to get together and make muffins for all the members to take with us for Easter Sunday!
      Spiritual Thought: Today's will be short, but I had a thought that really hit me hard yesterday. Too often we fall into a trap of saying we believe in Christ. But, too many believe in Christ, but find some exception to apply to their lives about his promises. Don’t just believe IN Jesus Christ, BELIEVE JESUS CHRIST!! Believe what he said......believe what he promised. Thanks for all the continued love and support! I miss you all tons, but 4 months will come soon enough. I hope this email finds you well. I pray for the amazing people I have back home every darn day! KEEP THE FAITH!
-Sister Linford

Kirche Jesu Christi
Sister Jessica Linford
Glashütten Str. 1
15890 Eisenhüttenstadt
Germany

Pancakes!

      Hallo! Well I think i jinxed the sunshine.....darn it! haha we are back to freezing temperatures and snow here in Germany! However, spring is just around the corner hopefully and that gave me a little preview into the good things to come. Last week for Pday, we enjoyed some of the wonderful things that Berlin has to offer! We went shopping, and boy do they have stores here!! Its heaven. Both my companions are all for looking too, so we loved it! (Maybe too much, because we are doing it again today haha) We also played soccer with our Zone. It was a blast! It got topped off by a fantastic family home evening with my favorite members watching The Best Two Years.....um straight laughs. This is a movie that would not have caught my interest at all before the mish.....but it is SOOOO true. That stuff really happens. I LOL ed through that whole darn movie.
      Tuesday brought the adventure of this little town called Seelow. Its a little town tucked away, 50 minutes from us. We made out an appointment for a man that lives there so we figured we would make the travel time worth it and do some other work there as well. After being there all day we were starving. As we were walking down the street my companion all of the sudden yelled, "ICE CREAM!!" It was warm that day.....and there was, yes, an ice cream stand. It was heavenly. We just ate our ice cream with the sun in our eyes, and all of us wearing goofy grins. The little town of Seelow was good to us that day.
      This week was the week of the "big move". It was time for us to move from the apartment in Frankfurt Oder, to the little town of Eisenhüttenstadt. It is not fun packing up an entire apartment and moving into another one in just a measly few hours! It was exhausting! The church is keeping both apartments and rumor has it that elders will eventually be moving into the apartment in Frankfurt Oder. Our new apartment is....quaint haha. Well, it is TINY. Nice yes, but tiny. It doesn't even have an oven sadly! Plus, I have been downgraded from the couch, to the floor. At least its only for one more week!
      Speaking of which, transfer calls are this week!! I am soooo stoked to see what happens! Our drit will definitely be split up, which will be good. Apparently all of us will be training. I have no idea if I will be staying here, or going somewhere else....only time will tell! Can you believe I only have 3 transfers left??
      We have still been working a lot with part member families. We are trying to figure out what the problem is and create plans to over come them. It is been an amazing week with some of them, and I really think we can see some turn arounds in a least one or two of them. This week also brought the return of Ping Pong!! haha oh the sports here are so weird. I must admit it definitely was not as fun as Rostock, but it still was a great night! We had 4 investigators there and a few members. For this little area, that is really good! Hopefully we can continue to build this up every Saturday evening!
      Well I don't have much time today unfortunately to tell you about everyone we have been working with, but I will just tell you about my favorite people here in Eisenhüttenstadt. Ola and Ahmed come from Egypt. They have an amazing story that is known mission wide of them converting from the Muslim religion. They are in their 30's and both doctorate students. She is the relief society president and he is in the bishopric as well as our ward mission leader. We get to work with them often and I LOVE LOVE LOVE being with them. They are honestly some of the most incredible people I have ever met. You immediately feel right at home with them. Just as the Preets were my family in Rostock, Ola and Ahmed, are no doubt my family here. They make Eisenhüttenstadt worth it, because I know we have a friendship that will last the test of time. Plus, they made me pancakes last night haha....wow I didn't know how much I missed freaking pancakes!!!!
      Spiritual Thought: If our desire is to discard all doubt and abide in faith, we have to accept the invitation found in James: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and abraideth not; and it shall be give him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."  This promise motivated a young man to seek God in prayer. Just as with Joseph Smith, our prayers must be offered in faith, nothing  wavering. It was by faith, nothing wavering, that the brother of Jared say the finger of God touch the stones in response to his plea. It was by faith, nothing wavering, that Noah built an ark in obedience to a command from God. It was by faith, nothing wavering, that Abraham was willing to offer his son Issac as a sacrifice. It was by faith, nothing wavering, that Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and through the red sea. Now the skeptic, may say  that these mighty accounts of faith occurred a long time ago and times have changed. But have times really changed? Don't we today, as always need the Gods divine and protecting care? Don't we need his mercy? Times have no really changes. Prayer continues to provide power-spiritual power. It continues to provide peace-spiritual peace. "There is a golden thread that runs through every account of faith from teh beginning of the world to the present time. Abraham, Noah, the Prophet Joseph Smith, and countless others wanted to be obedient to the will of God. They had ears that they could hear, eyes that could see, and hearts that could know and feel. They never doubted. They trusted."
      I miss you all! I hope everything is going well back in the states! Have a great week and always KEEP THE FAITH!!
Sister Linford

Kirche Jesu Christi
Sister Jessica Linford
Glashütten str. 1
15890 Eisenhüttenstadt
Germany