A castle, more zone conferences, a fortress and so many missionary interviews

 Switching things up a bit this time.  We visited a castle (Neuschwanstein) with Isaac between zone conference days. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful drive. Somehow, I didn't manage to get a picture of the three of us.  But here is a nice picture I took from a very high bridge.  We also didn't get to go inside since we didn't reserve tickets early enough.  But it was cool!

Our two weeks with Isaac went way too quickly.  It was so good to have him with us.  He was such a good sport, attending all three zone conferences and accompanying us for about 2/3 of the missionary interviews.  The missionaries loved visiting with him and asking him about his mission.  It was really fun.

We took Isaac to the airport early Saturday Sept 2nd and then came back and did MORE interviews.  I didn't realize how much of our work would be the interviews each transfer.  It is one of our favorite parts since I get the chance to visit more casually with the missionaries and Martin has the chance to have a formal interview with each of them. And it also takes a lot of time. 

Sunday, we had our first experience with hosting the seven stake presidents for all seven stakes in our mission plus the area authority.  This meeting at the mission home occurs once or twice a year. I was super nervous about it because I needed to feed them a meal and that was stressing me out so much.  Meal planning hasn't been going well at all for me, much less in terms of hosting a meal. I decided to pray.  In my prayer I told God that I was making the meal as an act of service in His name. What was amazing to me was that once I dedicated my efforts to God, I was able to stop stressing out about how the meal would taste or if people would like it or if it would cook on time. I felt confident that it would work because I knew He would help. It was a simple thing but took away so much of my stress. I need to remember this (which is why I am writing it down).

This past week we were in Austria for missionary interviews, but we took Tuesday for ourselves and explored Salzburg.  It is a lovely city. I want to go back and see more. For this trip, we focused on the fortress in the city. 

It was nice to enjoy an afternoon exploring and being together.  This really is an amazing world.

We got home yesterday after finishing the interviews for this transfer.  The week ahead of us is full of planning for the next couple of transfers but especially for the upcoming transfer that starts a week from Wednesday.  It is crazy to me to think that we are almost through our second whole transfer. 

We spoke in church today in one of our home wards (we attend the German ward and the English-speaking international ward when we are in Munich) and I was happy that it was in the English-speaking ward.  So nice to be able to freely share my thoughts in vocabulary I am comfortable using.  I am still working on my German but simply do not use it very frequently since most of my conversations are with missionaries in English.

I am grateful for the technology that has allowed me to talk to family and friends. It really helps the distance feel not quite so overwhelming.  I thought that I would not be able to use regular messaging and that all my messages would have to be switched to Whats app. It turns out Imessage works just fine and is totally free and I can even do some regular texting too. I am grateful for this.  

So if you want to text me on my Utah phone, it shouldn't cost you or me anything. I am also on Whats app for sure.  So keep in touch! Please and thank you