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

December 17, 2012

Greetings from Austria!!!

I Hope everyone has had a good week. I have.

Last week we were super busy. The P. family invited the investigator B. and her son over for lunch and us also after church. It was awesome because they are getting integrated into the ward better. It was great to have a family really embrace her.

Last week we had an awesome lesson with B. She just recently lost her job and we felt like we needed to teach tithing. So we get to the lesson a little nervous. Ok, very nervous. I've only taught tithing once before. But we go into there and she just loved it. She was saying how it makes perfect sense; God needs the money to build His kingdom. And she also she quoted the Bible. What belongs to Caesar belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God give to God. How often do you have an investigator who helps you teach them a lesson?  She is completely awesome. Couldn't hope for a better investigator. She loves the church and she is really growing in her testimony. She asks us super hard questions though. They aren't the questions missionaries fear, it's she is reading the Book of Mormon so deeply and when she doesn't understand something she asks us. It's the type of questions a Seminary teacher asks another Seminary teacher. We're just like uhhhhh, and try to answer with the Spirit. It always goes well though. Then she always asks us if she can say one of the prayers at the lessons.

This week we have 2 exchanges. The Zone Leaders had one planned for this week already, but then Elder G. has to give a baptismal interview tomorrow in Vienna but we have stuff here to do. So we are going on an exchange with two elders in the Wien 4 Ward. Elder E. (the Swiss elder) will work with me in wiener Neustadt for a day. Then the next day I'll be in Wien working with Elder B. again. That will be cool. Going on an exchange with my last companion.

And here is the bad news. So last Friday we had Zone Conference. President told us that we needed to keep our calls to 40 minutes. I don't think anyone was super excited about that. But president has his reasons and we need to obey it. So 40 minutes is all we get to work with, sorry. I am super excited to call home though. 100 years ago that wasn't possible but now we can. And we can also email instead of waiting 4 weeks for a letter to get across the Atlantic a hundred years ago.

So this week has been a lot of fun. Last Saturday was the ward Christmas party and we had 30 people there who weren't active members. There were about 15 less actives 10 non members and 5 children of less actives who weren't baptized. And also it was a ton of fun. It took up most of our Saturday actually. We woke up, did service. Than had the party. Then came home and it was late so we had dinner and planned.

So Christmas Eve here is actually Christmas. Well, Christmas is also, and so is the day after. It lasts 3 days but the 24th is the biggest day. The 24th we are going to the P. family. They will be fun to have Christmas with. The wife is French and went to culinary school. So, we will see what we get for Christmas. The elders in the International Ward are having a Brazilian Christmas. Then, for the 25th we are going over to the Bishop's. They are also really fun. Then the 26th we are going over to the P. family. So it is definitely going to be busy those few days.

And ya, we are getting together great. We can see a few changes in how often people want to meet with us, with it being Christmastime,  but not really. So it's all good. We are going to be super busy though with everything. Our week is almost completely planned now. Every week I can tell a difference between how well we work together. Now we are getting into the rhythm of working together really well.

That's fun you got your first snow storm of the week. This past week has been pretty mild here. We had some rain which wasn’t too fun. But oh well. 

The Wien zone will be getting quite a few baptisms in the last part of this year. In our area B. will get baptized either the end of this year or the first week in January. Then the other missionaries in our district in Wien have 4 people set for a baptismal date by the end of this year: the elders have 1 and the sisters have 3. It's really starting to go crazy. So, I'm sorry but this mission is cooler than puerto rico. 

Things are really going well here in Austria.  I love it! The people are all so awesome. It is going to be different being away from home for Christmas.  Being with family is best for Christmas, but Austria is second best. Where else do you get so many awesome families to meet with? Ask Elder Hyatt. He'll tell you all about how cool of a place this is.  The traditions are pretty cool here. And people go Christmas crazy also. 

I Love you and thank you for the support.

Merry Christmas Everyone,

I Love you

Elder Devon Kinghorn

Wien Zone Conference
 Row 1: Pingree, Kleiner, Leban, Stewart, Strongs, P&S Miles, Thurns & Dents Row 2: Reid, Holmstead, Stapleton, Riser, Chapman, Christensen, Escher, Johnson, Kinghorn, Gubler, Bodily, Davies, Stilger, Evans, Moon, Steed, Bassett, Babcock, Brose, Cox, Sanderson

December 10, 2012

Greetings from Wiener Neustadt everyone,

Well everything is going great here in Wiener Neustadt. The sun is shining and life is great. Ok the sun isn't shining, but life is great. It's bitter cold. That's ok because B., one of our investigators, is making tons of progress. We read with her out of the scripture and I swear she gets more out of it than we do. She is just awesome. She arranges her own rides to get to church.  She said she wants to choose a baptismal date after christmas. So, she will get baptized the end of this year or the beginning of next year. Then G., he is also doing great. We have a lesson with him tomorrow. He is awesome. He barely speaks German but still he is so much fun. We laugh so much every time we go over there. Saturday we did a lot of service for them. They had to move a lot of furniture around so we helped them with that for a few hours and it was great fun. They invited us to eat dinner with them. But we were fasting so we had to say no. But oh well because all is good.

This Friday is Zone Conference. That will be great. It's my first Zone Conference. Yes!  And I have been a missionary for over 6 months now. Kind of funny how that works. 6 months out and having my first Zone Conference. Hmm something's up here. Oh well, I'm excited for it. I hear they are great and we learn so much durring the meeting, but it is going to be a long day. We have to take the 6:30 railjet to get there by 8 in the morning. Then it lasts for 8 hours. We'll finally get back to Wiener Neustadt at about 6 at night. It's going to be quite the day. But oh well. Everything will work out just perfectly. 

Oh, and I'm sorry but the christmas package won't come till after christmas. I still need to get all of the stuff that go inside. The one you sent should probably arrive shortly. And thank you for everything and all of your prayers. This area really is awesome. Wiener Neustadt is awesome. I wish you could all see it one day. 

So the movie Silent Night (yes I've heard of it already) they said it was really accurate. Just a few small things. And the song Silent Night is only supposed to be sung on the 24th. That's a rule. It's so special that it's only for that night. Or at church the Sunday before. Last night we watched the Christmas Devotional (in German) and the bishop's wife was saying how weird it was; that Silent Night is not supposed to be sung until the 24th. So yea, then I also found out that most of the Christmas traditions we have come from Austria or Germany like Christmas trees and all the green stuff. The traditional dinner has a lot of German influence. Saint Nicholas was German. But in Austria Santa Clause doesn't exist; it's the Christkind. It's baby Jesus, but not. And it has no gender. It flies out of the windows and leaves the presents. So ya, it's just a little bit confusing. 

Yes, I did get the beef jerkey which was amazing and also the cheesecake pan. But I have no clue how to make a cheesecake. Well I do, but I have no recipe, which doesn't help too much. Also, it would be nice if you sent some turkey bags. I don't think they sell them here and then the water would leak. The ovens here have a slide in bath that you can use instead of the rack. Just in an envalope would work. They are so tiny it wouldn't matter. And they are reusable. It doesn't touch the food just water so it's no problem. Oh just to let you know I have gotten really good at making up a pasta on the spot. We do that a lot.  And of course putting in sausage because I'm in austria. Ya, giant things of sausage are just a few euro, so why not? 

I love you.

Love, Elder Devon Kinghorn

Devon on the train