It's a wrap for July!

New Friends

This is Ketty (from Peru) and her husband Hannas (Austrian) who we are getting to be good friends with. They invited Elder Tew and I and also the Sisters for a Peruvian dinner. She is a great cook and they are so cute. She is a less-active member and he is not a member but supportive of her. Elder Tew and Hannas hit it off well and had a good Gospel discussion together.  The Sisters also had a spiritual message that they presented. They came to church today, enjoyed it, and want to have us over more.

 This is the first time we met Ketty when we helped her make a cake for an upcoming party. She loves to cook but not to do any baking. Turned out great with the fruit on top.

 This is Erika that we found from our Birthday list. She hasn't been to church for many years but was impressed that we rang her bell on her birthday and had chocolate and a church video for her. She called us later for us to come visit her and give her a spiritual message. This was at that visit. She is great, nice & spiritual! We are visiting her on a regular basis, and hope to help her back into the fold soon, to bless her life.

 This young friend  has been here for this past month, from California, performing opera with a group of students from all over the US.  We attended one of Andrew's performances and were quite impressed. He served in this mission just over a year ago and showed up at the church one Monday. He has been coming to FHE, Institute, and church when he is not performing.

 This is Bro. Walter, with his daughter Melanie, who was baptized this month.  We loved that he wore his Lederhosen (leather pants), which people do some Sundays and on special occasions. 

 We got in more culture by attending a couple more concerts. This one was with the same AIMS group that Andrew sings with but he didn't perform here. Check out the fabulous cathedral- Herz Jesu Kirche ( heart of Jesus Church) that it was held in.

 This other concert was free of charge and featured many youth musicians who had been at a performing camp all week. This was their final concert and we came to support three of our ward young people who were part of this elite group.

 We enjoyed this concert so much. Fabulous talent and beautiful music. Look at this room. I kept thinking how blessed they are to be able to perform in such a classic and wonderful setting

Valentina is only 9 years old and plays the cello. She is the one in the middle. 

                               

                              A small sample of the sounds and sights of the concert!

 Ok, I thought I would show you a few of the cool houses that we either walk or drive by most every day.

 I couldn't help but catch a biker in this pic. There are alot of cars but so many folks just ride their bikes everywhere, even very old people, older than us! 

 This house is just down the street from where we live and for some reason, we really like walking by it. Probably the color.

 This is our street. Faunastrasse, in the Wetzeldorf area.

 Oh look, our house! Our small apartment on the 2nd floor.

 Of interest, I thought I would show you what we paid for gasoline here at our last fill up. Keep in mind that a liter is just a bit more than a quart and the price is in Euros, 1 euro = $1.35. So roughly $7.00 per gallon.

 Most people live in apartments here in Graz. I thought I would show you a few of the more interesting apartments buildings. Notice that each building is a different color and different in design, even though they are all hooked together.

 It has been raining parts of most everyday here the last couple weeks. Sometimes we just sit in the car to wait it out because it eventually passes. This makes the humidity extremely high, but it has been much cooler!

 Elder Tew found a clear day to mow Val's grass while she was on vacation. She is our neighbor in the apartment in the back of our house.

After the yard work, we had  another Saturday morning of sports. I told everyone to act goofy, but evidently Elder Tew was the only one to get the message!

 Elder Tew and I helped Sister Luschin celebrate her 89th birthday.

Putting our own toppings on the frozen pizzas we bought for lunch after our District Meeting. Turned out rather delicious!!

Transfer day at the Bahnof (train station)! Sister Smith (with the red skirt) is going home, Elder Smith going to Stuttgart, Germany as a Zone Leader, and Sister Smith (with the red hair) will go home next transfer- we are losing all our Smiths! 

Zone Conference in Salzburg

 Ok... so on the morning of Tues. July 8th at about 6:50 our neighbor rang our bell to tell us that our mission car had been hit just a few minutes before. Oh great! We were leaving at 7am to pick up the Sister Missionaries and drive the 3 hours to Salzburg for our special conference with 2 Zones. Our new Mission President wanted to meet with us all, introduce his family, instruct us, and have short interviews with each pair of missionaries. So here were were with a kaput car. What to do?  Prayers, police, phone calls...

 You can see the culprit's car that was undrivable. Apparently the 19 yr.old male made the turn too fast and slid into our parked car. Police were great, our neighbor was great, (he even changed our tire for us) the car was drivable and we were blessed.  But when we picked up the sisters, the extra weight was not good so we ended up renting a car. With all this happening, it actually worked out pretty smoothly and we were only an hour late for the Conference. But what a morning! More experiences to add to our list.

 What a beautiful drive to Salzburg. We went a different way this time to see other scenery.

 Our new President Brian Kohler and his great family. 

 We were so impressed with this wonderful  family. President and sister Kohler are fabulous. Erica is 14 and Tanner is nearly 17. They left their home in Provo to serve here. They also have an older daughter serving her mission in Japan. 

 A picture with the Parkers who are the senior couple in Vienna. they are from Alpine, Ut.

 Our District.

 On the drive back, we passed this sign indicating that we are entering into our Providence (or county). Steiermark is where we live and Graz is the capital. We love the green heart for the heart of Austria!

 We stopped here at this landmark that honors  the Archduke of Austria, the Styrian Prince. This was a fun place to purchase some bakery treats and walk around a bit. The next 7 pics are from what we saw.

 Interesting place to drive through to the few houses inside.

 This is a look from the other side. Let's hope it never gets blocked. 

It would be fun to stay here at this Guest house. 

 This is a work house with all kinds of tools mounted on the front as decoration. Interesting concept.

Another sign of the Styrian Panther. The Styrish people are very proud of him.

 Another view of the Guest House and our rental car.

 We had to get a double take of this hotel as we were on the road again. Too expensive for our wallet for sure but great for a pic.

Lovely countryside from the car. T'schuss!!

July means Summer!

Happy Summer to you all!

At the end of the youth water activity, the guys started launching water balloons up in the air to see how high they could get them.  It was fun to see how excited they all got.

On our way to a ward couples activity, on July 4th, we had a nice drive through the country. We love all the flowers and how they decorate their houses and even the bridges with flower boxes.

 A random house we passed.

 These gorgeous bushes (hydrangeas) are everywhere. We want to find and plant one when we get home!

 Lovely wheat field that I had to snap.

 The couple activity was a walk/hike and this picture has a particular story behind it.  Let's just say that a  less active member friend, a single sister, brought her very old female dog on the hike. And out of nowhere bounded this male dog and attacked her and wouldn't leave. Elder Tew carrried this dog the rest of the way for our friend. This was a very appreciated service for Uli, but by the time we got to the parking lot and the other dog still jumping up, Rick was very tired! We couldn't get that dog to leave us, he even chased the car as they drove off.

 The fun Austrian Resturant we went to at the end of the activity.

 How fun it was to hear this great musician sing and play the Steirische Harmonika (Austrian Accordian) for us during our dinner.

 This meal comes with all the bread you want to eat with it (even though you pay for each slice). We also ordered an Austrian salad. When we were about to leave, Sister Sander who is an opera singer started singing "The Star Spangled Banner" for us right there in the resturant to celebrate July 4th, the American Independance Day. Of course she insisted that we sing also because she forgot most of the words. Interesting Night.

 July 5th, a pizza birthday celebration lunch for Elder Martinez.

 Our Austrian attire again (Rick is sporting his latest gift of a fancy, like new, Styrisch suit and tie, from a member!) 

 This area of Graz is called Jakomini Platz (square), and I had to snap some pics.

 We love Graz!!

 

Eating our Döner sandwich at our favorite shop. We love the outside portable extensions on the sidewaks and streets for seating because in the summer it is terribly hot inside those cafes where they are cooking the meats on large rotating Kabobs.

At FHE our group loves to play games after the lesson.