Life in Austria

This week has been really busy and wierd.  I had to say good bye to my family in Graz and I am now in Vienna.  It is really strange and a lot like New York in the sense that there are a lot of people.  But the good news is that I have a great companion who knows where she is.  So we haven't gotten lost and I am working on learning the transportation.  It is a little like New York though and I am getting really good with directions and with trains and things.  So I am already picking up on it a little.  Hopefully it won't take too long.  I met the ward which is a lot smaller here than in Graz.  Graz is the biggest ward in Austria.  We have 5 wards here in Vienna so they are all pretty regular size.  Still not small, but for me it is relative at the moment.  It was really hard to say goodbye and to leave, but I am excited for a change.  Not sure how I feel about Vienna, but it will be a grand adventure.  I will definatly learn a lot and have some great experiences here.  It will be really cool because there are a lot of missionaries here so we will be doing some fun things on p/day together.  I am really excited about it.

We were really busy this week since I needed to say good bye to so many people.  We had appointments all through Thursday for me to say good bye to people.  Then I had to pack.  I have gained a few things and it was really hard this time around.

Vienna is really nice.  Our address is;

Sister Danielle Poll

Hormayrgasse 59/9  

A-1170 Austria

Our apartment is amazing for a change.  I have a dryer!!!  Haven't had that my whole mission.  Not sure I am going to know what to do with it.  Strange. I think I will just stick to my drying rack. Don't want things to shrink on me.  :)

We have some great investigators in Vienna. We have a couple that are on track for baptism, we just need to get him to come to church.  Due to work he is having a hard time and he needs his job to keep his visa.  So we are working on it.  But they are amazing and totally prepared.  And we have plenty of people to talk to here and to teach.  We just need to find the ones who are ready.  This week will be busy for sure.  My companion is really great.  She is from Texas and is 23 years old.  She is a convert and has an awesome testimony of the gospel.  She is awesome. 

We will be staying home for the next few days though. This week will be a little slower but we have some great things planned.

Sister Poll

Transferring too...

So this past week was full of things.  We got our ipads on Tuesday and
we are now using them to try and find people and teach with. They are
helpful and we are working on figuring out how to use them.  It is a
little harder cuz most of the stuff is in English and we need German.
Some things aren't translated.  So that makes it a little harder. But
so far they are really useful in our morning study. I am so grateful.
I can mark stuff on there and I know that it will stay forever.  It is
awesome.  And we don't have to carry as much around anymore because we
have it all on the Ipad.  I still carry a lot of pamphlets though
because I want to be prepared if a member asks me for something.  And
then the German Book of Mormon.  And that is also big, so in essence
my bad is now heavier...  But I like having the Ipad.  I just have to
watch to make sure I am not wasting time.  That happened so much at
home and I don't want to make the same mistake anymore.  I am on the
Lord's time and I want to make sure I am using it well.
Then last Saturday was transfer calls.  DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!  I am
getting transferred to Vienna.  So I am only going about 2 hours away.
It is the same place where we do exchanges.  So that will be
interesting.  I am still in the same stake and zone as before.  I will
be with a sister that I have done exchanges with before so I already
know her.  I am excited.  (I am also a little disjointed.  I wanted
a bigger change and something completely new.  But it will be.)  Vienna
is really big and busy so I hope that I can handle it.  Its defiantly
going to be a change.  So many people and everything.  But I have
heard good things about it.  I will let you know.  Now I will have to
figure out where I am so that I don't get lost like last time. :) So
this Thursday I will head there and stay there.  And I will get to
exchange with Sister Gardner again.  So it isn't really good bye. :)
It will start out feeling like I am on an exchange, but not...  Weird.
That is the biggest news from this last week. Wait!  We set a
baptismal date with one of our investigators!!!  We are really
excited.  It is for August and we are excited to help him reach this
goal.  He is from Nigeria and lives in Graz. We are really excited for
him.
And we are still looking for new people to teach.  Things are looking
up, but we have to work hard every day. We don't have too many people
here who want to listen.  Unfortunately.  But we are working hard.  I
know that there are people here that God has prepared for us.
Otherwise we wouldn't be here.
God loves us more than we can imagine.  I was thinking this last week
about what I have been learning from the mission. There are so many
things that I can't even count.  And there are so many blessings that
I don't even know how I could repay God.  So I am working my hardest
to show him my gratitude.
I also had the opportunity this last
Sunday to give a talk in the ward since I was leaving.  It was
something that was really a great experience for me.  As I was
thinking about my testimony and what I would share, I just kept
thinking about family.  We are all a great big family, and I know that
I want to be with my family forever.  But everyone is my family.  So
why wouldn't I share the gospel with all of them so we can be together
forever.  Even though it is hard, I want all my brothers and sisters
with me in the end.  It has changed how I view other people and how I
treat them.  I want them to know that I love them and want them to
return to God because it is the greatest gift.  I was also thinking
about the Atonement and how much it means to me.  It always comes to
mind when I have to speak or share my testimony.  It is such a big
part of who we are.  Because of it we can return again.  It made a
huge difference to think about it this week.  I was so grateful for
the opportunity. I also was grateful that I didn't have to think about
the German as much. God prepares those he calls.  I love him for it.
This has been a great week and next week will be busy as well.  I love
you all and hope you have a wonderful week.  Take time to see what God
has done for you. Love you!!!
Sister Poll

 Just working hard!!!

This week has been super busy.  We had a really awesome lesson with a
less active that we teach.  She met us at the church and we just had
an open and honest discussion about her coming back and what is
keeping her from it.  And it was really awesome because we ended by
going into the chapel and singing a song and she just was weeping.
The spirit was so strong and we are working on setting a plan to help
her get back to church to feel the "peace and cleanness from her
baptism every day"  It will be so awesome.  We are really excited. She
really is hitting a turning point.  She is at a hard spot in life
right now and wants the peace that she knows the gospel can bring.  We
are going to meet with her again this week.
Something else really cool that happened is that we met with a new
investigator this week.  We are going to start teaching her regularly
now and it should be really good.  She is gone to Bosnia for a week
and then when she comes back it will be really good.  I don't know if
I will still be here or not but I hope I get to see her one more time.
We helped a member move on Saturday and it went really quite quickly.
But I woke up on Sunday a bit sore.  I shouldn't complain though
because we were just loading the car and taking things apart, the
elders had to unload and carry it up a bunch of stairs to the second
floor... So we had it pretty easy.  But it has been so hot here
lately.  I drank a ton and sweat just about as much.  It was crazy.
But nothing brings such a good feeling as serving others.  It was
awesome. I love doing service.  I challenge you all to find someone to
serve this week.  It really brings a feeling to your heart that you
can't get any other way.
This coming week will be even more busy.  We have transfer calls on
Saturday... I think I might be leaving but now that I say that I will
probably stay.  I will let you know next Monday.  :)  Also on Tuesday
we are headed to Salzburg to have training and receive our Ipads.  We
won't be using Facebook just yet, but using them in teaching and
studying to start.  It will be interesting for sure.  Then we have a
lot of other appointments set for this week. We are working hard to
get people progressing and teaching but also remembering to find as
well. We don't really have a whole lot of people, but we are always
looking.  Thanks for you prayers.  They make a huge difference.  We
also get to go and pick Cherries this Friday with a member.  Reminds
me of being back to work in the garden before the mission.  Can't
wait. :)
So glad that things are going well there.  We are working hard here
and God knows it.  We are really trying to overcome the frustrations
of having no one to teach, but knowing that we are working hard.
Sometimes you look back at the day and know that you did a whole lot,
but you still have no investigators.  But we are working hard and
trying to find the people that God has prepared.  Because we know they
are out there.  We wouldn't be here if they weren't.  But we really
don't have it that bad.  We are working hard and trying to make God
proud and that is what is most important.  Thanks for your support.                                                              I love you all so much.  Don't worry about a thing cuz God takes
good care of us.  Work hard, be good missionaries and more importantly
good people.  Your example speaks far more than what you say.  Love
you!!!
Sister Poll

 Things I have learned

So this week has been really great.  Things are really busy and I am
super glad about that.  Sounds like you are also super busy at home.
 It is amazing how well I am coming to know the scriptures.  Don't get me
wrong, I still have a lot to learn and I need to study them so much
more to understand what others already do.  But I have gained a huge
testimony on daily scriptures study.  I was reading a talk in the
Liahona this morning that really touched me.  It was a talk by Elder
Perry and he said that we should always try to receive spiritual things
before the temporal things.  And I just had this thought pop into my
head.  "This is why you are on a mission"  I am so glad that God told
me I needed to be here.  I have learned what my priorities are
supposed to be.  I know before I left I knew that I needed to start
putting God first.  And going on the mission was for me the first step
to doing that.  I was putting aside my plan and showing God my faith.
And as I was reading that talk today, I realized that the mission has
helped me grow in ways that I wouldn't have otherwise.  Or maybe I
would have but it would have taken a lot longer to do so.  I am so
glad that I am here and was able to have that moment this morning of
an answer of why I am here.  I need to keep God first in my thoughts
and then everything else will fall into place.  When we put our
scripture study first, before school or anything else, we show God our
faith and He helps us.  I knew these things before, but today
something just really "clicked" in my head.  I know that the mission
is helping me learn how to study my scriptures and I am being blessed
by the spirit to understand what I am reading.  I always used to have
such a hard time and I used that as an excuse to not read or only to
read a little.  Now I understand how important reading is to
understanding.  The Book of Mormon really is a true book. It has
changed my life and it applies exactly to me.  I love it and want to
make sure that I am always making the time to read it and show God
where my priorities are.  As well as with prayer and attending church.
I can't remember the talk, but I will send it to you next week.
Exchanges this week were amazing.  I was with my favorite Australian
again and we had a blast.  We did a lot of work as well.  I really am
learning how to use my time wisely.  Things are happening here in
Graz.  We are meeting with one investigaor this week and we are really
excited to see her.  Please pray that things go well.  She wanted some
time to read and so we didn't see her last week.  But we are excited
to see her.  We also have another investigator that we meet with on
Sundays.  He is doing well and coming along.  We are excited about
him.
This week is going to be a busy one.  We have some good appointments
set up with our investigators as well as some great members.  We are
moving the work forward here in Graz.  We will hopefully have quite a
few more people to teach here in the next little bit.  This last week
we had a finding day and we found 22 people who said that we could
contact them again.  So we are talking with them and working at
getting them to the next step.  We are really busy.
Mom, thanks for that thought.  It really is true.  We are working to
bring people to God. There is no effort wasted and no failure when we
try our hardest.  I know that for a fact.  "Not everything that can be
counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."  I
read that this week again and wrote it in my planner.  These are
people we are working with.  And even though we take numbers here in
the mission and also in life to show our progress, we do a lot of
things that no one knows about.  No effort is wasted when we are in
the service of the Lord.  That applies to missionaries as well as you
at home.  The work is going forward.  Things are happening.  I love
you all.  I am so grateful to have your support and it makes all the
difference to me.  Thanks for all you do.  We have a very busy week
planned with meeting with people and you all should stay busy as well.
I love you.  I know this is the true Gospel and I love to share it
with others.  Have a wonderful week!!!

Sister Poll

No IPADS Yet

 Hello Familie!!!

Things are going great here.  We have some great people to work with
and I am excited that the work is picking up.  We don't have Ipads
yet.  If they have made it to the mission we are not aware of it.
They could get here any day now though. We are just waiting.  Blake,
how is your new mission president?  How is it having the Ipads?  Good?
We are excited and everyone talks about "THE IPADS" often.  I'm still
not sure how I feel about them.
We are trying to get back in contact with some of our investigators.
But we had an awesome lesson with our investigator this week.  She is taking
some time to read and see what she feels and we are going to meet her
again. We just answered her questions and it was amazing. We both felt
the spirit so strong and we were really excited about what happened.
She was thinking of not meeting with us anymore but changed her mind
which was amazing.  God really does touch peoples hearts. We haven't
seen the dad of our other investigator lately, but we watch for him.
We are trying to get back in contact with her and get a lesson set up.
She is really hard to get in touch with.  But we are working on it.
Our other things are going well.  We have had some good lessons with
our less actives.  One came to church last week and we were really
excited about it.  We hope he will make it a habit now.  :)
I heard about Elder Perry.  It was a bit of a surprise, but also not
really.  So sad that we even have such a thing as cancer.  But he is
now doing some great missionary work on the other side. :) 
We will be having exchanges again this week and I get to stay in Graz
for this one. Sister Gardner is heading to Vienna for a few days.  It
will be interesting.  I think this will be my last one here in Graz
since I think I am heading out this next transfer, but that is just my
speculations.  I love Graz though.  It is an amazing place and the
people here are amazing.  I miss you all a lot and have been thinking
about you a lot lately.  I am still staying focused however.  :)  Love
you all and want you to know that you are the greatest examples to me.
You are amazing and I can't wait until I can see you all again.  I
love you loads.  Have a wonderful week!!!
Sister Poll