Montag, November 21, 2011

Grüß Gott (God bless). That’s the new greeting I've learned here in Klagenfurt. It’s just like Guten Tag (good day) or whatever.

Well, so far the new area is awesome! It’s surrounded by some gigantor mountains! The train ride to Klagenfurt was crazy. I saw the biggest mountains I have ever seen before in my life while coming here. I went right through the Alps and it was awesome. Then I got to meet the ward on Sunday. The people in the ward are really nice. There are about 40-50 people who come to church here. So a lot bigger than the, like, 10-12 in Offenburg (but Offenburg was awesome).

The German is a lot different than back in Germany. I was in Baden in Germany so they all spoke Badisch - and that’s the German I got use to. Well I'm in a place called Kärnten (Carinthia) now, and they speak Kärntnerisch (Carinthian) here. I thought I knew German before I got here (lol). It’s been pretty hard so far, for me to understand the people here. I'm only understanding about 60-70% of what they say, and sometimes I don't get a word. But it will come. All the different dialects come with time.

The area here in Klagenfurt borders with 2 countries. Slovenia and Italy. Actually Venice is only about 4-5 hours away. Some people have already suggested to us that we should go there for a P-Day (lol). But I definitely want to go to the place where those 3 countries border. My new comp (i.e.: companion), Elder Smith, though, is from Idaho and he's pretty chill. He has a way bad Idaho accent, though (lol). It’s kinda funny sometimes. Then, sadly, there are not a lot of people that we're teaching here. I've only got to teach one lesson the 5 days I've been here. So we are going to have to work our butts off so we can find some people. I have been talking to people since I've gotten here, and haven't had any success yet, sadly :/ . I haven't even been able to give out a pass-along card! And it was funny - everyone told me the people are more friendly and nice in Austria than in Germany.

Love and miss ya, peace.

[ Elder Caraway ]

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[ Photos of Austrian and Swiss Alps, taken from the train: ]