Greenie Busted

Hallo All, 

This was transfer week, which is always a mixed emotion time. It's the time we say goodbye to our current companion

Goodbye Sister E

and welcome our new companion-

Welcome to Linz, Austria Sister Ackerman

Well, I'd like to take this opportunity to give you a little lesson in missionary lingo: 

Frau P and I

Frau P and Sister E

Your first companion is called your trainer and your second companion is called your ''Greenie Buster.''  Everything that you learn about missionary work you learn from your trainer. You spend your first three months in the mission field with them. You might be shy, or a little timid or intimidated by this new country and new language, so you just really ABSORB everything your trainer says and does. You really end up thinking that everything that they do is perfect! 

After your trainer, you get ANOTHER companion who does things very differently, and all of a sudden you have to learn to adjust, compromise, and really work in unity together. It's a time when you have to really learn to be flexible and not compare your trainer to your greenie buster- or at least, so I am told!

Sister E and "O"

You see, I never had a greenie buster, I have just been training and training and training for 11 months, so everything I learned from Sister Jenson is what I have been teaching to my Golden's! Teehee...until now. Sister Ackerman says that being companions with me is kind of weird, because she feels like she is greenie busting someone who is an old rookie on their mission. Well, yep, that's exactly what she is doing!! So after almost a year of missionary service, I am finally being greenie busted! 

As much as I miss Sister Erdenetsogt, Sister Ackerman is the perfect person to be with me right now.  We have so much in common, it is just so natural to be her companion. The only dangerous thing is that we are both blonde forgetful little nuts, so we spend a lot of time getting lost and distracted :P 

I am actually super impressed with her work ethic. I was kind of worried about this transfer honestly, I mean, she only has 6 weeks left on her mission. I had no idea if she would even try to learn the buses, the members names, even try to connect to the area, and I had no idea how 'trunky' she would be. But she has jumped in with both feet on the ground running!  I am excited to see how this transfer turns out.

I never really understood how big Facebook was until just this past week. Even as a missionary, I cannot escape Facebook!  

We have an investigator who works at the music theater here in Linz, and he keeps inviting us to his plays and concerts, but we have never had time to go. He invited us to one this past week- ''Die Fledermaus'' and Sister Erdenetsogt and I thought it would be fun to go with Melanie one night before she left. We got permission to go, asked him how long it was and what it was about, explained that we were missionaries and tried to make sure that it was an okay opera to see, and then our investigator got us tickets to go. 

Our View

At first it was super exciting, we got VIP seats on top, we were going to see an Opera, it was Sister Erdenetsogts last night, it was all good! 

Ready for the show VIP style

Well, then the Opera started, and it became quickly very clear that the play was not appropriate for us to be at.
Not that it was bad, I mean, I probably would have been okay staying if I wasn't a missionary. But with the standards that we have as missionaries, there was no way we could feel the Spirit. It was the hardest thing to decide what to do-stay and support an investigator, who was so excited that we were there, and just tough out the bad scenes until the end, or go?  

We ended up leaving the theater early and going home, which I felt really good about. Sister Erdenetsogt decided it was good to leave, we would forget about it, and move on with the work the next day.  

Haha, totally forgot that we were tagged on Facebook as going to an opera :P  

I had a lot of people come up to me and ask how the opera was and teasing me for being there!  Its so crazy to think that even though I am on the other side of the world, and I thought I was only known to these people as a missionary, they could at any point know about any part of my life because of the internet!  

Yikes, that is a scary thing! And all the members and investigators that read my blog get to realize how ditzy I actually am :P 

Finding has never been one of my favorite things to do as a missionary. I mean, I love talking to people, especially on the buses and trains, but stopping people on the street has never been my favorite and I have never had a big testimony of it before. 

One of the Sisters in this mission shared her testimony of finding with me, she told me ''Every night and every morning we plan what we are going to do the next day-who we are going to visit, where we are going to be, what buses we are going to take, how much time to give ourselves between appointments, etc. In so doing, I know that every single bus we get on, every single road we walk is FULL of people that the Lord has put in our path because we planned that we would be there!''  

As cool as that sounded when she told me, I wasn't really sold. But this week, I got to personally see it for myself. There is a referral we got from church headquarters a few weeks ago, and we have tried time and time again to go by on them, to set up appointments, but every time we go over, they aren't home or don't have time or they are sick, etc.  

Sister Ackerman and I went by on them just last week (we actually had an appointment this time) and they still weren't there! I started to get a bit annoyed and frustrated, starting to wonder what the purpose was in going by on them. 

Then I realized-every single time we have gone over to their house, we have found people on the street who have been willing to meet with us. No joke-every single time. I think we have 7 people in that neighborhood who we have met and agreed to let us come back over and share what we believe, a few of which we actually have appointments for this week. The Lord knew where we were going, He knew the family wouldn't be home, but He put people in our path anyways.  I don't know if we will ever get to teach this referral we got, but I am so grateful that they have led us to other families who ARE ready to hear our message.  

Man, isn't being a missionary just the coolest?

One of the Elders that went home came back to Linz with his parents on Sunday. It was the weirdest thing! I have always known that going home from a mission is just a part of life, but it has almost always existed on a different world in my mind. I meet missionaries, they go home, and to me, they just drop off the face of the Earth and live normal life on a different planet. But to see a missionary I knew and worked with again as a normal person with parents-it was kind of weird. This happens?  We turn back to normal in a blink of an eye? I think especially with having Sister Ackerman at the end of her mission has really freaked me out with how fast time actually goes by. I feel like I talk about this a lot, it must really give me a lot of stress!  Breathe in, out, (and maybe a little down dog for mom) 

I still have another 7 months left! 

Love to you all, I feel your prayers and your love,

Sister Peterson