Gladwell, Ava

Servus Freunde und Familie! Sister Carter and I had another good week! We had a few appointments, but we did a lot of finding. All the wards in our stake are doing a program throughout the month of June where the topic of sacrament meeting is centered around the family. We've been inviting a ton of people to this while we've gone finding this week. We went to a really cool museum last Tuesday called the "Haus der Natur". It was a science museum with a wide range of exhibits. There was an aquarium, a reptile exhibit, and a paleontology, geology, astronomy, and physics section just to name a few. I really enjoyed the aquarium there and the paleontology part and wanted to spend more time there, but there was so much to do that we had to keep moving through the museum. We also visited some members this week who are from Mongolia. Unfortunately, they don't always feel welcome at church since the culture is different here. Because of this, they have a hard time coming...

Hallo Freunde und Familie!! Summer is coming to Salzburg! We had quite a few warmer days here. So far, this summer is a little different for me because there's no air conditioning here. Luckily, I always carry my water bottle around with me, so it hasn't been too bad. :) Last Tuesday, we spent p-day with some members. We went to their apartment for lunch in St Johann im Pongau, and then we travelled to Badgastein together. We walked around the town which had a waterfall running straight through it! We then followed the river and went on a little trail through the woods. I really enjoyed spending time with these members. Although I don't speak much German yet, they were so kind to me. We also met with some more of our friends this week. One of our friends is Slovakian. She speaks some German, but there still is a bit of a language barrier when we teach lessons. Fortunately, there is an Elder serving in our mission who speaks Czech, which is a language she's fluent in. U...

Servus Freunde und Familie! Things went a lot better this week. We had more appointments this week, and I was able to go on Tausch (companion exchanges) for the first time. Even though it was only for a day, it was really cool to see what missionary work looks like with another companion in another area. Last Tuesday, we went to Hallstatt! Apparently, it is the town that was used as inspiration for the kingdom of Arendale in Frozen. As expected, it was so breathtaking! It was a Zone P-day, so we were there as a pretty big group. We went on another hike together. We went about a fourth of the way up, when an Elder got pretty dehydrated and had to go back down. We went down with him, and luckily he was able to be treated and is doing a lot better now. We ate lunch in the city, and then a bunch of other Elders wanted to hike back up again. I knew that I did not have it in me to do the rest of the hike, so I just took the Gondola up. While the rest of the group was hiking, I got to spen...

Hallo Freunde und Familie! Sister Carter and I had an interesting week. When we planned for the week, we had quite a few appointments lined up. However, things don't always turn out as planned. Nearly all of our appointments got canceled this week, so we had a lot of time on our hands. Last Tuesday, we went on a hike. The view was beautiful, but the hike was so difficult! Most of the hike was a ton of switchbacks with these really steep stairs. I was always at the back, and it took me the longest to get to the top, but it was just so hard on my legs haha! That being said, I think the view was worth it! On Tuesday evening, we went to a concert by the BYU orchestra! They were doing a European tour, and they stopped in Salzburg. We were able to invite a friend, so we got to go. The music was so beautiful, and it was such a wonderful opportunity to go! As I mentioned earlier, we had a lot planned for the week. Stuff kept on getting canceled, so we did a lot of street finding. We wen...

Servus Freunde und Familie! I just had another really good week here in Salzburg! We had a few appointments with our friends, but this week was mainly filled up with meeting up with members. The ward is really warming up to us now, and Sister Carter and I are straight-up best friends with one of the Schwestern here. Her husband was out of town with the kids, so she had a free weekend. She ended up spending the majority of Sunday with us, and we trauma-bonded over being fed too much food from some of the members that we ate lunch with. At least the food was good haha! Last P-day, we went bouldering in the largest rock-climbing gym in Europe! Now, rock-climbing isn't allowed for missionaries, but apparently bouldering is different from rock-climbing. The walls aren't very high, only like 15 feet or so, and there are padded mats under the climbing walls. Also, our mission president approved it, so we had the green light to go. On Thursday, we went to a town called Berchtesgade...