January 14, 2013

Wien District

Dear Dad

Dad, sorry I wasn't able to say happy birthday. I remembered it but kind of forgot when I wrote emails. So HAPPY BIRThDAY!!!! We just had an awesome lesson with a lady named N. She is pretty cool. So it split up the emails. Who knows you might be awake now. That would be funny. Anyway I heard that Jason is now a fire breathing golfer on the moon. That's a really funny story. I wish I did that. Well kind of no. But still oh well. So how are you doing in the freezing cold? I bet you don't like it. Today we have been drudging through the snow. It feel so different from Utah snow. It packs so easily. It's not powder by any means.

Sadly today one of our lessons fell out. We have an appointment with the A’s but now it's Thursday. So that's a bummer. Oh well. Just go contacting tonight instead. 

So is lone peak still ranked 1 in the country? I think that's funny. A bunch of white boys dominating. 

It was funny yesterday we were talking about how today is our day off. Then we realized p day isn't really a day off. We still do a couple hours of studying, then 3 hours proselytizing and half an hour planning. So that's 5.5 hours. Plus we spend the time doing preparation for missionary work. Haha it will be weird being home and not being busy 24/7. You know what it's like. Never more busy in your whole life. Also never had more fun. It's such a blast here. Yesterday we took a long train ride to Payabach Reichenau and contacted there. But everyone said no and we were freezing cold walking through the snow. So then we took a train ride back and walked home. But we tried. And it was still a great day. 

So The wedding license finally came last week after 6 or 7 months and the wedding is Feb 9. So that's super exciting. It won't be a big wedding. Just signing a paper at the city building but still awesome. And then C’s baptismal date is set for Aug 11. She is pretty cool. Then she told us that she wanted to invite a friend. So that's awesome. We will find out who it is sometime this week. And B. had a discussion with some guy. I was thinking oh no he has anti mormon stuff. But no he is going to come to a lesson also. So he is a referral for us. And a recent convert named V. has a friend named A. He lives 1.5 hours away but has been to church twice. And we will hopefully meet with him this week. Then if we really start to teach him it will be 3 hours of trains for one lesson. Haha but he has so much interest he could easily get baptized. 

So ya I have gotten a cold but I'm healthy now. No problems with it. And I talked to some stores about repairing the lens they said I had to buy a new one. But I'll call sony up and ask. 

And ya Austrians really don't like people who don't try to learn german. But they love people who are trying to learn german. So just being able to speak a few sentences they will really love that. 

But ja I took some pretty cool pictures. It wasn't that pretty because it's January, but we have some sweet missionary pictures. And one of a swiss person. Well it's Elder Escher. And he is in a few, but I'm in some also. What you could do for Jason’s camera is buy him a point n shoot and let him take your cannon 10d. That would be a good setup. Just hopefully it never gets stolen. Spain isn't as safe as Austria. It's still super safe, but Austria nothing gets stolen. 

I can't wait to see Jason’s video. I have to wait sadly but oh well. And I wasn't super funny when I had my wisdom teeth taken out. Oh well. 

Ya missionary work here in Wiener Neustadt is really awesome. We are super busy for the next week. Our week is almost full. So it's a really good sign. 

I Love you

Elder Devon Kinghorn

January 7, 2013

Guten tag jader!!

Hoffentlich alles gute dort in Amerika. Hier in Österreich ist leben wunderschön. Ich Liebe alle die wunderbare Leute, die in Wiener Neustadt wohnen. Haha ok now I'm done with German. This past week has been really fun. We set a baptismal date with a girl.  She reads a little of the Book of Mormon every day. She has so many questions. It's awesome. 

My new companion came and he’s a ton of fun and is super funny.  Yesterday I was on the floor laughing.  He was also the first German speaking missionary to sleep in Italy.  He opened that area.  It's a city called Brixon. Um ya his pictures of Innbruck were the prettiest pictures I've ever seen. I wonder if I'll ever serve there. It is a lot of fun here in Wiener Neustadtand.

We had two awesome lessons yesterday and spent forever doing weekly planning on Friday. But that's expected. It always takes 2 to 3 hours. It is really uhh, I can't think of the word. But imagine me planning for 2 or 3 hours. It is really gaaaaa!!! But we are supposed to do it so we plan every week. 

And we have a giant umbrella we call it the condor. We were walking and it was huge. It was stormy and windy. My companion almost died, but I was using the windproof tank umbrella and it had no problem. I could go through a hurricane with it, whereas the condor almost died in that little tropical storm. 

We also have a few new people who have a good chance of becoming investigators.

I have to go, we are going to Schönbrunn today. 

I Love you

Elder Devon Kinghorn

December 31 and Christmas

December 24, 2012

Frohe Weinachten

So things are getting really exciting here in Wiener Neustadt. We now have 3 investigators who could be baptized in January. A really high likelihood. And it's so cool because they are all so prepared to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. All are so cool. C. is a new investigator that we received as a referral during the ward Christmas party. We have had 2 lessons with her already and she loves the church.  Well last week we called B. and she said she was super busy and couldn't meet with us last week. So we told her to continue to read in the Book of Mormon and to pray. She said she already did her hour of personal study today. So she is just awesome. Then G. is waiting on wedding papers. Hopefully they will come in time for a wedding in early January. He always talks about when he is a member. A couple weeks ago Elder Gubler and I were fasting and he invited us over for dinner. So we said no because we are fasting. He said before my baptism I won't fast but after my baptism I will fast. He could be a branch president for a spanish branch here in Wiener Neustadt. So our pool of baptismal candidates B. is from Germany, C. is from Austria and G. is from Columbia. Half way around the world. But they are all in this city coming closer to Christ. It's awesome. 

Well that's quite the sports update. Here people don't care about football or basketball. It's sad. They just like soccer, which is kind of boring to watch. Actually super boring. And Moroni 10 is one of the best chapters in the Book of Mormon. I bet you could have a college class just on that chapter. So no worries there, you have all the information that you need. So sadly unlike you in Puerto Rico we don't have a baptism tomorrow in the carribbean. But that's ok because we should get one quickly. B. is really close to choosing a date. Hopefully this week she will. And also we have another awesome investigator named C. She is a member referral from a recent convert. And I bet she will get baptized in January or February. Ya and I wonder how much longer I'll stay in Wiener Neustadt. Transfer calls are this week. So by then I'll know if I'm transferred. Time goes by so fast here. I have already been here for 4 months. And you really do get close to the people. A mission is something that you can never relive again in your life. I need to enjoy it and work my hardest.

For christmas it's super cool here. We are going to have lots of eating appointmetns. So basically I won't be hungry for the whole next year. Just get super fat now and then be good for the rest of the year. Like a Big Nile Crocodile. Haha only I would think of that. 

Well family & Friends I love you

Elder Devon Kinghorn

Merry Christmas.

Christmas in Vienna

Elder Kinghorn at Stephansplatz

December 31, 2012

I hope everyone has had an awesome Christmas. It was awesome here. So I would like to start off with what we did on the 26th of December. So here the 26th is still christmas so we weren't going to do normal contacting stuff. But we came up with a plan. We were going to go caroling in Stephansplatz. So the whole district (just 7 missionaries) all met up in Vienna and we went over to Stephansplatz. When we arrived we were super scared to start singing. It isn't normal to sing Christmas songs out in public here, let alone in front of a million people. So we sang the first song. I don't know the name because it was only in German. Only one elder and a sister knew it, because they are German and Swiss. And well it was terrible. We were feeling awful because we can't sing and everyone is thinking, “Who are these people.” Then we started the second song, Joy to the world. And it was awesome. People stopped to listen to us. That was an awesome thing. So. by the end of the song we were happy and about 3 people out of 1000 had stopped to listen to us. So we keep singing. And within 15 minutes maybe 40 people were listening to us. That was so awesome. All of the other street performers are lucky if one person stops to listen to them but we had a huge crowd. And we could tell that they could all feel the Holy Ghost. We were just singing and people loved it. We kept it up for about 3 hours. The crowd size would shrink and grow but it was completely worth it. Now so many people felt the Spirit that day and it's something they will remember. And now God can work with what we have given him. So that was awesome. 

Also, for the holidays President M. changed the rules a bit. Last week we watched a movie with a member called The Letter Writer. It was such an amazing movie.  It has such a great message to it. It's about a girl and how one person was able to see the good in her and so her life changed for the better. It was such an awesome movie I would suggest you watch it. Then tonight we are going over to the Bishops house for a New Years party. We are going to watch the movie Silent Night. So I am excited. I haven’t seen a movie in 8 months and now I see two in one week! 

I'll explain a bit more what happened on christmas. So the 24th we went over to the P. family's for Christmas. It was such an amazing night. We were given a ride there and it was so foggy, so we drove slowly. Then when we got there the whole family greeted us and then we had schnitzel for dinner. It's not really an Austrian Christmas dinner. They said they wanted schnitzel instead of whatever is traditional. After dinner we just talked for a while. 

Then we went into the living room (of course after the Christkind already came, it's their santa clause and it just confuses me-half boy, half girl, winged etc.) There was the Christmas tree and we first had a moment of silence which was awesome. Then we sang 4 or 5 Christmas songs. We ended with Silent Night, which is such a pretty song. After singing we had a short devotional. I shared about how can we be like the shepherds-they weren't perfect people, and they knew they were just normal. But they went to see christ’s birth and they knew he was their Savior. So we need to be the same and look for how we can be a better person and really go to Christ instead of him coming to us. After the devotion and Luke 2 we opened presents and both of us missionaries got a new scarf which was so nice of them. Then we had dessert and talked, then came back home. 

I am not getting transferred. I am getting a new companion.  Time goes by so fast here. I have already been here for 4 months. And you really do get close to the people. A mission is something that you can never relive again in your life. I need to enjoy it and work my hardest.    

I Love you
Elder Devon Kinghorn