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

I Appreciate the Hard Times!!!

Can't believe it is memorial day at home!!!  Can't believe you are all going fishing without me!!  Have fun and catch a really big fish for me.  :)  Crazy that Blake is in Wales now and in a dritt.  I really hope that never happens to me.  But I shouldn't say that cuz then it will.  I really hope I avoid it though.  We have a dritt of elders in our distrikt.  This is going to be an interesting transfer especially cuz it is only 5 weeks as well.  Crazy.  The time really goes by so fast.  I can't believe it.  Next time this year I will be home, or at vet school somewhere.  But I will not be in Austria which is weird to think about.  I really love it here.  I really do believe I will be transferred next transfer.  It is a bit odd for sisters to stay in one place for this long and this is my fourth transfer here.  I really think I will be going somewhere, but I still have 4 weeks left so I shouldn't think about it.  But I am excited to go somewhere new. But I LOVE Graz.  It is really amazing and the people here are awesome.  We are teaching a few new people now, both from Africa. :)  But that doesn't matter.  Whoever is ready to hear the gospel we will teach.  :)  It just reminds me of my first area where I thought I was in Africa with all we are teaching.  I don't know if I ever told you this, but 2 people from my first area that we found got baptized and one more has a baptismal date.  I was so excited when Sister E told me that.  Even if you aren't there for all the moments, you know you did something to help someone.  And Sister E went home this last week.  Strange to think that she is not a missionary anymore.  I am not sure if or when she is coming to America exactly or the details of what she is doing.  I will keep in contact with her through email.  :)  But it just makes me feel really old on the mission to think that my trainer is home.  And it seems like just yesterday that we were together and she was telling me how fast the time goes and I thought she was crazy.  But now I totally understand what she means.

Like I said things are going really well here.  We have found a couple more people to teach and are always looking for more.  But we are really excited about who we have.  We met with our investigator this week and had a joint teacher there who speaks Romanian so that really helped. It was really great to have the language barrier go away for a day.  It just makes things a little bit harder, and then longer since we have to wait for translation.  But in the long run it really is fantastic.  Then we can know that she is understanding because it is in her own language and we can understand exactly what she is saying since he was there to help.  It was really a great experience.  Got to love the all the languages we get to work with here.

It has been raining a ton here as well.  I love the rain, but when you have to be out in it all day it gets a little old.  Especially when you are looking for people to talk to....  So that has been a little struggle, but nothing we can't handle.  :) The fields look so pretty.  I really love looking at the photos and I am so glad that we still have the field across the way.  

Looks like all the animals are doing well.  I hope the pigs do well in the show.  Sorry about the scours in the bulls.  Dad, I am really worried cuz I can't remember anything from school at the moment.  All of my school stuff has kind of flown out the window and German and the gospel have taken over my brain.  I really hope when I get back I can remember what I went to school for 4 years for...  But sorry I don't have any suggestions...  

Something really cool that happened this week was that we met with this man on the bus.  He was staring at us and at my Book Of Mormon that I had in my hand and then started trying to ask us about it.  We were really excited but he speaks like no German and absolutely no English.  It turns out he is the dad of one of our Investigators that has kind of disappeared.  He invited us over to his house with our investigator there and we got back in contact with her.  Found out she no longer comes because she can't understand a lot of things and doesn't really have the time right now.  But it really helped us to come back in contact with her and we were really excited to meet her parents.  But that is another example of a language barrier.  We were kind of signing things back and forth cuz we speak no Arabic and he speaks basically no German.  It was really funny.  I enjoyed it.  But I think it scared my comp a little that this man was leading us to his house, and the fact that I was so excited about it.  But it wasn't anything sketchy ok.  :)  I knew exactly what was happening.  :)  Except what he was saying to me.  :)  But it was really  cool thing that we just happened to meet him on the bus and he recognized us because of the Book Of Mormon and talked to us.  MIRACLE!!!!

We also had a really great lesson yesterday with another who is from Nigeria and has been here in Graz for sometime now.  He really wants to learn more and we are really excited to be teaching him.  Can't wait to meet with him again next week.  Things are going awesome here.  Our hard work of the past few weeks has been paying off. 

I heard a quote from someone that said "The worth of your worst days=Priceless"  You really learn the most when you hit the hardest points in life.  I really look back and can't remember the hard times cuz they get overshadowed by the good ones, but I remember how much I learned from the hard time I have been in.  It is really true how great the worst days are.  That sounds really funny to say.  But even I look back in life and realize that it is on the days when I am having the hardest times that I have learned the most.  And I think that shows us how much Humility really is a blessing.  When we humble ourselves before God and ask for His help, we realize that we can't do it on our own and we learn so much from the hard moments.  I am so glad that he doesn't take those hard moments away from us, but instead helps them be a little bit lighter.  Without the hard moments that I have had through the mission, I wouldn't be the missionary I am today.  And more importantly I wouldn't be the person I am.  I know that I have learned so much in my life.  A lot of it coming from the mission field.  But I know that most of the learning I have had has come through the hard moments and realizing that I need to rely on God to help me through.  And then I receive the blessings at the end and I can look back and realize that God had His hand in my life and I can see the blessing that came from it.  We can do hard things.  And when we let the hard things teach us, we can continue to harder things in the future.  God loves us enough to let us learn.  As hard as it may be in the moment, I am so grateful for the "worst days" because they are really truly priceless in my eyes.  Remember that when you are wondering "Why me".  You will be grateful and become better through it all.  It reminds me of the talk by Elder Christofferson about the Current Bush.  It has become one of my favorite talks in my life.  Constantly trying to remember that God has a perfect plan for me.  Why would I follow my plan when I could follow the perfect one of God.  He loves us all personally.  

Sorry its not too much this week.  We are going hiking and only taking an hour for emails.  I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!!  Talk to you next week!!  Love you!!!

Sister Poll

That is so awesome about that guy you talked with.  It is really amazing how people find the gospel.  I really have heard so many great stories while being here since most of the members are converts.  And it really is amazing how God prepares his children.  And really it shows how true this gospel really is.  People accept the gospel all over the world.  When we heard from Bednar he said that if people all over the world can accept the book of mormon and the gospel, how can it not be true?  If it were something made up by a man, people would have found out by now and people all over the world wouldn't be accepting the gospel.  It really is so true.  The gospel brings a light into peoples lives that you can't find anywhere else.  It helps you to become a better person and to come closer to our Heavenly Father.  It is a great blessing that we have and we should be sharing it with others so that they can also enjoy this great blessing. I would encourage you to all share your testimony with someone this week that is either less active or isn't a member.  It doesn't have to be some big thing, just tell them about how your weekend was amazing because you got to go to church.  There is your weekly challenge.  It will make a big difference.  :) 

This past week was really great.  We had transfer calls on Saturday.  Drum roll!!!  Sister G and I are staying together.  It will be great!!!  She will soon be done training, although she really is already a trained and set to go missionary.  She is awesome and is teaching me way more than I am teaching her.  I am so truly lucky to be with her and learning from her. We are both just learning together cuz if we are honest we never fully understand everything around us and never fully understand the gospel.  :) It's always really great to try to see it from someone elses perspective.  (Next transfer is only 5 weeks long)

This last week was really great.  I was in Vienna again for exchanges and I was with my favorite Australian!!!  We were tearing it up there. We had a great lesson and just read out of the book of Mormon together and really talked about what it meant.  It was really nice. And I got to try some Indian rice.  :) super good.  But I had just eaten a ton of schnitzel earlier so I was stuffed...  But we had a great time.  Then the next day we went to another wonderful person.  She is the niece of one of our members in Graz.  So I know her really well.  She is amazing and it was so good to see her.  She fed us some great tofu enchiladas, not too bad actually.  :)  And then we did some great contacting and talking with people.  I had this amazing thought this week as I was talking with someone on the train in German.  I know that my German is far from perfect, but I just couldn't help but realize how amazing God is.  He qualifies those that he calls and helps them to do his work.  I am speaking German in only 9 months and really helping people understand our Heavenly Father.  It is amazing. I really and absolutely love it.  And I know this is exactly where I am supposed to be.  

Then I came back to Graz and we had some great finding time this weekend.  We had really no appointments, but we talked with a lot of great people.  We are doing great work here and I am so excited about it.  Sunday has become my most favorite day of the week.  There is just something special when we all come together to think of God and worship Him.  And then we are able to take the sacrament and use the Atonement that God has given us.  It really is my most favorite day of the week I think.  And then it is really funny cuz here after church is a social event as well.  We stay after church for at least 30-45 minutes talking with members and it is great cuz we can set up appointments as well.  But at home we were always rushing out of church where here the members all mingle and chat for a bit.  It is in part because they live so far away from each other.  But I am growing to really love the time to talk with each other.  I have really grown close to the members from it.  Other than that this week was pretty great.  It had its ups and downs, but so does every other week.  Just like Blake said, sometimes I don't love the day until we are eating dinner, but I always love it.  :)  

I love you all and thank you for all your support.  We have a great investigator that is really progressing and we are working hard here.  I will be honest and say that this last week has been a bit of  a hard one, and I would appreciate your prayers. But know that we are working hard and giving our best.  We really are doing the Lord's work. And we do it because we have such big testimonies on how it can bless the lives of others. I love you and think of you often!!! 

Love Sister Poll