On Sundays it takes me a total
of 3 ½ minutes to get to church. I know that I am a lucky girl
for this, even while serving in New York it only took 20 minutes to get to church. I know that
there are many members that have to travel hours to get to take the sacrament,
but they try their best to get there. I have always looked up to them. One of
the Young Women from my home stake is
learning that exact thing; it is not just a 5 min drive anymore. She is currently living in Austria as an exchange student. I had her write me about some of her
experiences that she has had while on this adventure. When Tasia talked about
her routine to get to church, I felt very blessed!
“Now,
my time here has been another amazing blessing in my life already. I have seen
the Lords hand in my life so many times in the last 5 months. I have been
placed in an amazing host family. It may be hard sometimes because they aren't
LDS and sometimes they just don't understand my standards sometimes, but I get
by. Getting to church here is also kind of a pain. I have to be driven 10-15
minutes to Town (I'm not allowed to drive here) then i take a train for 30-50
minutes into Vienna, then the subway for 10-15 minutes and then walk another 15
minutes to the church. I have found it is so hard to make myself get out of bed
early on Sunday and travel that far. Not because I don't want to go to church,
but because i have to go alone. I have always taken my family for granted in
that way. My testimony of how important it is to go to church has greatly
increased since I got here.”
I know how
scary it is to leave home for an extended period of time, not knowing what life
is going to be like in the new culture. I am very impressed with how
Tasia has adapted and taken on new challenges even though they seemed daunting at first,
but she jumped in and was able to see answers to her prayers.
“I am
currently learning how to make Austrian pastries and sweets at a Pastry shop
nearby, because both my host parents are friends of the owners. All of these things have been answers to my
prayers. I was thinking before I left that I wanted to be a waitress while I
was in College so that I could learn AND earn money for myself. I had always
thought that it would be fun to open up my own restaurant or bakery or pastry
shop and I'm learning a LOT at school, at
the pastry shop AND at home with my host mom. I was scared to start this
language since I had already learned 2 ½ years of Spanish, but in 5 months, I can
already say and understand so a lot of the language.”
It is so
neat to see valiant Young Women from around the
world embarking on these adventures. I know
that it has been a great blessing in Tasia’s life, but think about how many people
she is influencing on her
Austrian adventure. She is relying on her Heavenly Father to lead and guide her
through this experience. Tasia is a great example to me of making decisions
based on prayer, she said…
“I
prayed to know if I should go or not and asked my Father in Heaven to make
things go wrong while I was getting the mounds of paperwork done, but
everything has seemed to be handed to me on a silver platter."
………………………………………………….
Tasia, REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE A DAUGHTER OF GOD, and your hot :]
©LV2012
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