Snow for The Holidays

Hallo -

     It's snowing today!! Did you hear that??? IT'S SNOWING TODAY!!!!!!!!!

    After weeks of running up to the window in the morning, I can finally say that I am not crazy!! I knew we'd get snow even if the doubters tried to convince me otherwise.

And the Christmas markets opened up on Saturday, so we can officially say that it is Christmas time here in Linz :)

     So we got transfer calls on Thursday- how did this transfer go by so fast? I feel like I just got here in Linz! 

     I will quickly explain how transfer calls work here.  So the zone leaders call anytime between 6:30-8 am to let you know if you are both staying together, so nothing is changing within your companionship.  Then the AP's and president start calling at 8 if something is changing, so you know who in the companionship is getting transferred and where they are going.  

Sister Wunderli and I woke up, 100% sure that we were going to stay together. Then all throughout morning sport...no call. All during breakfast...no call. 8:00 rolls around and still no call. So, obviously, Sister Wunderli and I start freaking out, "Who is leaving? Where do you think we are going? Where do you want to go?" And getting totally excited to find out what's happening. All through personal study, no call. Companionship study rolls around at 9 and still no call...10:00 and no call. 

     Finally at 10:20 we send the zone leaders a text and ask how long it takes for president to make the calls.  Then Elder Aardema calls us, apologized, says that they forgot about us and that we are staying together. CAN YOU SAY ANTICLIMACTIC?? 

Ugh apology NOT accepted mister! But Sister Wunderli and I are both excited to be staying here in Linz, there are so many more miracles left here for us to see!

More time together in Linz

     I think one of the hard things about being a missionary- or maybe just one of the hard things about being Sister Peterson (I have no idea which)- is knowing that there are some relationships that missionaries have had with members or investigators in the past that you will never be able to live up to. No matter how hard I try, I will never be able to have the same connection that Sister Jaynes (or Sister Jenson or Henry etc..) have had with people. 

Ready for the train ride to Salzburg

This has been something that I have really struggled with here in Linz, especially because the previous sisters have been so loved in this area. 

     On Sunday, after having kind of a rough weekend, The Lord showed me in His kind way that there are people who I, Sister Peterson, am helping here that previous missionaries haven't touched in the same way. There is an elderly lady in the ward in Linz who I like to say 'hallo' to every Sunday morning before sacrament meeting. She sits in the back, so I've always just talked to her while waiting for our investigators to show up. Yesterday, she came up to me at church and said "Guten Morgen Kori Peterson!!" Which kind of threw me off guard because nobody ever calls me by my first name! I said good morning back and asked how she knew my name. She said (in German of course) "you told me your first name your very first Sunday here. I always remember the names of the nice missionaries!" She then went on to name the other sisters who had an impression on her, where they were from and how long ago they went home. I was deeply touched to know that just by saying hi to this sweet woman every Sunday, I was still fulfilling my purpose as a missionary to take care of the lords children.

Brother & Sister Didenhover

    So that leads into the spiritual thought that I'd like to share this week! So there have been a lot of things that have been testing my patience these past few weeks, dumb little things that don't matter in the eternal scope, but for the here and now have, for some strange reason, been boiling my blood!! 

     I was sitting in bed one day wondering how I could nicely ask some people to correct some of these "ridiculous behaviors". As I was pondering, one of my favorite scriptures came into my mind. I thought of the story of Jonah in the Bible, and how he was furious when God spare Nineveh.

   Jonah stomped away absolutely furious. I can just imagine him throwing a little temper tantrum (sometimes I picture it was a pretty full scale temper tantrum :p)

  Jonah starts telling The Lord that it would be better for him to die than to "suffer" by watching Nineveh be spared, and "then said The Lord, 'Doest thou well to be angry?'" (Jonah 4:4) I thought a long time about that story, and how ridiculous and stubborn Jonah is, and I realized how ridiculous and stubborn I was being. How easy is it to justify our getting angry with some sort of "misbehavior" that someone else is doing? How easy is it to choose to be angry rather than accept that the person who needs to change their attitude is ourselves? 

    Especially for me, I think just by nature of being a woman I love to complain! But does being angry EVER do us any good?
   Well, we are going to go dirndl shopping now and enjoy the fact that we are living in Austria for wintertime :) 

Have a good thanksgiving and a merry merry first few days of the Christmas season! Take time every day to recognize God's hand in your life, to see His creations in all their beauty and to share your testimony of His greatness to those you meet.

Love to you all,

Sister Peterson

M made us cookies- isn't she beautiful

R made us a cake

Now that's what I call waffles

S's mom made him this cool hat