Week 5: Arriving in the Field

Hallo Friends and Family!

I made it to the mission field this week! On Tuesday morning, all of the missionaries going to Germany rode a bus to the Manchester Airport. From there, we flew to Frankfurt where we split off to go to our respective missions. My group then flew into Munich where we met our mission president and his wife. We had some pizza for dinner and then rode to the church. They told us who our trainers would be and where we would be serving. I found out that I would be serving with Sister Carter in Salzburg, Austria! We also found out that we would be opening the area for Sisters!

We spent the night in the mission home, and I ended up spending an extra day in Munich. It happened that some Elders in Munich would be driving to Salzburg on Thursday, and it would be a lot cheaper just to hitch a ride with them. It was so difficult to say goodbye to all of the friends that I had made at the MTC! However, I did meet Sister Carter right before we said our goodbyes, so that softened the blow a bit. :)

When we arrived in Salzburg, we got settled and did some street finding that night. Thankfully, Sister Carter carried the conversations for me, but she did have me try to stop a few people. It was really scary at first, but I think it got easier as the night went on. We ran into some members on the street, and they were super excited to have Sisters in the Salzburg area again! They were very kind, and although I couldn't really understand what they were saying, I was super happy to meet them.

Salzburg is such a beautiful city! There are so many lovely churches and buildings! We also happened to stumble across Mozart's birth place as we were street finding!

We spent the night with the Sisters in Innsbruck on Friday night, so we could attend a service project there in the morning. I loved meeting the people in the Innsbruck ward! I tried talking to them in my broken German, and they were so understanding and kind! They helped me with the language, and also told me not to worry because I would learn it quickly. That made me feel a lot better!

On Sunday, we went to church and met some of the ward in Salzburg. They were so sweet, and I want to keep learning German so I can have more conversations with them. I'll keep studying and praying for the gift of tongues!

Yesterday, we had our district council. After that, we did some more street finding. We were rejected a lot, and I was feeling discouraged. However, right at the end, a man walked up to us. He told us that he was interested in hearing more, so we are now going to meet with him this week! This whole conversation was in German, and I was able to understand most of it! (This was all thanks to the gift of tongues and not because of my own abilities haha!) To celebrate, the Sisters from my district and I got ice cream!

That's really all that happened this week! I love you all!

Große Liebe,

Sister Gladwell 

1. Arriving in Munich with Sister Swenson

2. Ice cream after street finding!

3-4 Innsbruck

5. A church in Salzburg

6. Mozart's birth place

7. Sister Carter and I in our apartment