want to know what we did all morning and afternoon?

cough.cough

i got the black lung pop.

meine lieblings bild!! this will definitely have a spot in the new wohnung! 

please look at the difference between the skin on her arm and that on her face.  rediculous.

so yes. the left is the brushed-clean side. the right is the wood-burning stove catastrophe from 1779. 

unfortunately the pretty flowers will have to go. but im definitely making notes for a future house.

nothing a good shop-vac wont take care of.
the question is...where can i get one of those for free?

taking a break to pray the rosary and vespers...yes, we covered our new sofa (a gift from a cousin of a friend) with a sheet. as you can see alinas sweater rather enjoyed accumulating the dust/soot. 

uhm uhm...alina...

break time

we've decided this was a great opportunity to see what we will look like when we are 70 and grey haired.  

so...we bought one bucket of paint today (the special paint we need to paint over all the dirt and soot accumulated on the walls). the man at the store is amazing and gives us discounts on everything because we are missionaries! (and yes, thank you Dad for finding him all the way from your office in the US!) Tomorrow a new friend of ours Elisabeth is bringing two of her friends and coming over to help us paint the soon-to-be kappella (or at least that is the plan). But before we can paint we have to brush down all the walls and ceiling in the room to get the majority of the dust and soot off, and then plaster up the huge cracks and holes in the walls. So to work we went. And, thank you LORD, we actually finished something that we wanted to accomplish in the time we set aside...so the room is ready for a bit more plaster tomorrow morning and then a Saturday of painting! we're getting somewhere....

**important news...if you need to send anything (cough.Annie.cough) you can still use the address to our friend/Vienna Mother Monika: Alliiertenstrasse 10, 1020 Vienna, Austria, Europe

Bitte, mehr Geduld! (Please, more patience)

No. I haven't died

Nor have I run away to join the Russian mafia.

Nor have I shunned the Internet as a thing of the devil.

Nor have I forgotten all of you.


Life is crazy...i dont think that changes whether you are a college student, mother of 8, celebrating your 80th birthday, or living in a foreign country doing mission work.

The variable is rather...technology, computers, and the invisible world of internet connections.

I have a computer...there are surely Internet connections zinging through the air all around me...but, it seems, I just don't have the technology.

Believe me I have soooooo much to tell...so much so that I'll probably have to pass up eloquence for the sake of efficiency. But alas, I am writing this short message to you from my iPod because my compute just doesn't like the Internet system in Austria. I have a small window of time right now between cleaning a chandelier from the 1700's (at least thats when it was last cleaned) and going to adoration, mass, then a visit with a family an hour away by ubahn, and of course with all the things I planned to catch up on and do in this hour break I have, this free Internet hotspot just won't let me have any for my computer. So all you will get right now is this little teaser that leaves you waiting for more. In fact, if you want to know what my life has been for the past month, I'm giving you a chance
to experience it for yourself
right now...every experience small or large,routine or special has required an almost
impossible degree of patience. So I have to be patient, and try not to think during adoration about all that I would have liked to accomplish on the Internet, and you have to be a little more patient before I can tell you about all the beautiful, difficult, hilarious, ironic, amazing things the Lord has been doing in the city of Vienna, the little apartment in the second district, the lives of friends and strangers, and the heart of one particular unconventional missionary now 2month a resident of Austria.

Bis bald (until soon...I hope)
M

-in other news...happy valentines day (2 days late), happy birthday Opa (right on time), and happy 23rd birthday Chad (early for once in my life)


Good news is... We're moving into the apartment in the next couple of days...and hopefully, although we are still lacking hot water among other things, we will hopefully be arranging the wireless Internet for the apartment tomorrow morning. So pray that all goes well so that in the next week I can spill all the beans about life here.