Adventure's out there!

Hello, hello, hello!

Wow, this week has been really busy. we did a lot of walking and I weighed myself. I've lots 6 lbs. in the last 2 weeks what with all the walking we have to do. And we walk fast -- probably 4.5mph. I'm pretty sure we walk about 10 Clicks a day, (for those of you who don't know, a Click is short for Kilometer, which is just over 1/2 a mile -- so, that's about 5 miles a day). We walk to the Bahnhoff/Forum (mall) about 3 times a day, and that's about click. Then we walked to several of the less active/potential and investigators houses, and those are a good 5 clicks a piece. Sometimes we go to Gießen (geese-en) and walk all over there. It’s crazy how much walking we do. But it's fun.

So last Monday and today (P-Day) was all errands and fun stuff like that. We did our studies, went food shopping, and then we cleaned the apartment, and now it's all pretty again. I did laundry for the first time here and it was weird. We have no dryer, so there were clothes hanging on the heaters (there's on ins every room) and on the rack in the bedroom. it was really funny, and I laughed a lot this morning.

Tuesday we went exploring in a suburb of Gießen, trying to find where our dinner appointment for tomorrow would be. We walked about 3 extra clicks, and somehow I had breath to talk the whole time, and even sing a little. We talked about family and a little about friends, I shared the music from some of my favorite musicales we talked about philosophies and Sister Blackhurst shared one her dad came up with. It’s "ABP =always be positive." I've decided that this is one of "my new philosophies" -- and yes, I did sing that song for her, Danika, and Cheyenne. it was great fun.

Wednesday was really hecktic. We went to a suburb of Gießen to meet with one of the ward members, sister Titse (Teat-sa) who is an American and is helping us with our German. we call it "German Class," and usually it's on Thursdays, but we were going to have Zone training on Thursday, but there was a Zug Strike (a train strike -- everybody knows what strikes are, right?), so we rescheduled German Class for Wednesday. it was really fun, and super informative. we practiced articles, which was way helpful because 3/4 of grammar is based on the articles. German is so complicated. But I think I'm starting to get the hang of the articles deal. it's great!

We had a lesson with Wolfgang at Moo's (Mo's), which is a bakery that's only popular here in Wetzlar. We usually meet at the one in Forum, which is probably more busy than the one just down the street, but that's where Wolfgang likes to meet, so that's where we met him. Wolfgang in the cutes little old man, probably in his 70s. he speaks pretty good English and so most of our lessons are in English. Sometimes Sis. Blackhurst slips into German, and he follows, and then it just switches back and forth, and it's really funny. So he likes to go off on random tangents and one of the tangents he got on this week was about taking Sister Blackhurst and her mother to Paris after Sister Blackhurst finishes her mission. (She hits her 1/2 way mark on the 19th of this month). So he does that, and it's just so cute. Sister Blackhurst and I both think he's ready for Baptism, but he's being stubborn and keeps saying "it's easy for you, you were raised this way, your whole family's members. I was raised as a Catholic." we've tried to convince him that he can still change, even though he's older. I don't know. We’ll get him there. He reads from the Book of Mormon when we give him chapters, and he's honest when he hasn't read. he's just the best. and his friend, Gunther, who -- prior to this- had had no interest in meeting with the missionaries actually opened up and expressed an interest in hearing us out, and he participated in the discussion with Wolfgang and it was great. I'm sure both of them felt the spirit, and I'm super excited to see them progress.

So, Thursday we DIDN'T have Zone training because of the strike, (which ended this morning) so we went to the Rathous (city hall) to see if we could make an appointment for getting my Visa. All the Goldens are here on Passports right now, and can be for about 6 months. Hopefully we'll all have our Visas by then. Anyway, we walked over there for that, and the lady that helped us said they’d sent me a letter with my appointment time. So we went home and made sure our mailbox had my name on it so I could get my letter. And I got mail for the first time since being in Germany. it was so cool. Anyway, then we went to Gießen and did street/bus contacting. It was fun. We had an appointment with Michael at 6, but he stood us up. Apparently he wasn't as interested in being reactivated as we thought. it made Sister Blackhurst and I both upset that he didn't call or anything -- he just didn't show up for the second week in a row.  I'm not sure if we're going to keep trying with him or not. I guess we'll see.

Friday after studies and planning, Our Appointment with Diana fell out, so we decided that it would be a good idea to coordinate member and area books with the Gießen Elders because our ward is huge, and things are kind of disorganized. So we tried and tried to get to Gießen to meet with them, but with the Zug strike, it was almost impossible -- our train got canceled, and then we had to take the bus, and we'd just missed one waiting for the Zug, so we had to wait forever, and then the drive over took over an hour, and by then it was about 7:30 and we had to be back to the apartment by 9, and the last bus came at 8:30-something and because we were planning we missed it (barely, which was aggravating) and so then we went to the train station and had to take a Zug back (thankfully it didn't fall out) and it was just the craziest most fun evening of the week. but at least we got started in our coordination efforts with the Elders. it was fun.

Saturday we had another lesson with Wolfgang (Gunther was, unfortunately, absent), but I think we may have finally gotten the "you can change" idea through to him. Sister Blackhurst talked about her friend that's serving his mission in Paris right now, and showed him pictures of Josh and her family and we ended talking about Temples for a bit and how, after he's baptized, Wolfgang can do his parents Temple work and they can be members, too. it was really cool. 

Sunday was Pfal Konferenz (Stake Conference), and it was tough. We got a ride with the Schneiders who know absolutely no English, and then we ended up going to their house after for dinner. Longest 6 hours of my life. Probably because I couldn't understand 3/4 of what was said, but I got the gist of it. it made me really tired, though. but it was great. it was super fun. I just wish I could understand more. Maybe for the next conference, I'll be able to say "Yeah, I understood most of it." we'll see. I'll let you know.

All’s well that ends well, and this week has ended very well in deed, and I'm super excited to see what adventures this new week will bring. I'll keep you posted.

Love you all, and miss you. Keep smiling because, as a good friend once told me "Satan hates it when you smile. Rub it in his face :)"

The adventure continues!

Sister Montgomery

8 weeks and counting (Nov 3, 2014)

Guten Abend von Deutschland!
(Good Evening from Germany!)

So, this week has been a blast! I’ll start with Monday, last week, since I didn't get to email last Wednesday as per my usual stunt. Here goes.

Monday. Wow. A whole week ago. Feels like 6 weeks. So last week was weird, because we didn’t know whether or not it was "P-day." so we did our laundry and emailed a few people, trying to coordinate calling times for our 4 turned 6.5 hour layover in Dallas. (that's another story I will tell in just a minute). so then after emails and everything we went to class as usual, except that our teachers had both been stolen by the new batch of Germans that came in the Wednesday before, so both our teachers were subs. one of them was a German teacher, Brüdder Bratsman, super funny, small man, recently returned from the Frankfurt Germany mission (like 4 months ago), still gets like a little school girl when he talks about his mission -- most hilarious thing ever! so, yeah, he was our teacher for the afternoon, and then evening rolls around, and we have a teacher from the Loation speakers. He was a really funny guy, super good attitude. I think his name was, like, Murkel, or Marley, or something like that, I don’t remember. He went to Sacramento, California, Loation and I think Mong speaking, or some other obscure Asian language. he was really cool, though. I just can’t remember the details of our conversation. I should have written it down. Oh, well. He gave us lots of great mission advice, Brüdder Bratsman did, too. I wrote a lot of it down, but I don't have me notebook with me. Yep. To bad. I'll put it in my journal and tell you all about it later. I do remember he asked Sister Johnson (who's from Minnesota) if she new an Alexander LaDuke. I got super excited when it registered that I knew Alex. Apparently this teacher was his companion while on his mission. Talk about it being a small world.

Tuesday and Wednesday were the longest days of my life! Tuesday we had to be AT the travel office by 3:35am, (which meant getting up at about 2:30 to get ready), then we took a bus to the train station, then a train to the airport, then waited behind security for about an hour. then took a 4 hour flight to Dallas, where we would have had a 4 hour layover, but our plane was late from Japan for some reason, and so we were delayed by about 2.5 hours. I really enjoyed talking to Mom, and Shar, and I would have called the rest of you, but my phone cards ran out and I didn’t know your numbers. I do know that we probably get to Skype for Christmas, though :D So we boarded our flight, which I think was about 8.5 to 9 hours. I ended up sleeping most of it (about 6 hours), but I heard of a lot of the other missionaries who only got about half an hour of sleep. I felt really bad for them. The Assistants to the President, Tech elders and President and Sister Stoddard were all at the airport to pick up the 26 new Goldens arriving. That's right. We're not "Greenies," we're "Goldens." no, I don’t know the story behind that. I'll have to ask, see if anyone knows. Any-hoo. The rest of the day was really slow, just interviews and orientation and the like. All the leaders were telling us not to fall asleep because we'd adjust to the time zone better if we had lots of water (which is all carbonated here, by the way), and then went to bed right after we were allowed to, which was about 6:30 that we got to the hotel. it was a Holiday Inn Express, Mom!! It was really weird, just because everything was European and not American, like I'm used to. But it was so cool!

Thursday we had our "Pairing meeting" where we met our trainers. I was one of the last to be paired. I was so excited I shot up out of my chair, shouted "HI!" across the room and waved to my new companion. Everyone laughed at me but they all just wish they were as cute as me. My companion is Sister Blackhurst from Highland, Utah, yes, she's American. Pretty blonde, 20 years old, I'm her 2nd Golden in 2 transfers, she's been out about 9 months, and I’m really happy she's my companion ;D After the Pairing Meeting we went to the train station and waited for everyone else transferring to arrive, and then everyone went on their way. So, all 26 new Goldens are scattered throughout the mission, which is kind of sad that half our MTC zone is in Berlin and the other half is just scattered on the wind. oh, well. I'll get over it. Maybe . . .

Anyway, Nicht wichtig (not important) We had a Termin (appointment) with our investigator Wolfgang to go with us to the Leavers Testimony Meeting that night, but he stood us up because he had to work at the Uni in the next town over, Gießen (Geeson) where one of my Golden buddies, Elder Awerkamp, and his companion Elder Brandnar (our district leader) are assigned.  I tell you this because its comforting to know that someone I am a friend with is at least semi-close (15 minutes by train). Anyway, Wolfgang stood us up, and then we saw one of his friends, and he told us that Wolfgang would be at the bakery in about 20 minutes.  He told us this about an hour after our Termin. it was frustrating.

Friday we had studies, which combined with lunch took until about 1, then we went out and did some finding activities while we waited for our appointment with Michael to come around. he stood us up, too. We were headed home to pick some things up before we headed to another Termin, and we saw him standing outside the Bahnhoff. Once again, it was frustrating. But we made another appointment for later this week. I'll let you know how everything goes next week. ('ll probably be emailing about the same, just so you know, Mom). Later that night, we met this man, older, seemed really nice. He recognized Sister Blackhurst from weeks ago, and was looking for her other Golden, Sister Shurts, who was transferred (luckily). it was really creepy, though, because he tried follow us home. He was on his bike, though, so we gave him the slip by cutting across the grass and into a grocery store. we felt pretty clever.
Saturday was more finding activities. We had a Termin with Diana, a woman from Africa. Super nice, openminded, religious, totally ready for the gospel. The only thing is -- she smokes. that's okay. We'll help her with that, and so will God. I've been praying for all our investigators the last few days. I have yet to see if my prayers are helping, but that's what patience is for.
Sunday was probably the most stress filled day of the week. Our dinner Termin was die Famile Lange, who have a 4 year old Milo, and 2 year old Lucy, and BOTH Brüdder and Schwester Lange speak perfect English. He does because he served his mission in England, and she went to BYU-I for a few years. all of our appointments have been in English, just because all of our Untersuchers (Investigators) speak English, and so we teach them in English. Slightly frustrating, but I'll find other ways to practice my German. And I have been praying for help, too.
So, yeah. it’s been a good, long, tiring week, but that’s to be expected of missionary work.
I don't have any pictures this week because my memory card doesn't fit into a card reader, and I'm unsure if there's a card slot on the computer. we're in an Internet Cafe right now. It's pretty cool. Sorry, Mom. I'll see what I can do to change the "no pictures" status.

I love you all. Keep working hard with those beautiful smiles of yours all over your beautiful faces.
Sister Montgomery

1 more week in the Land of the Free (Oct 22, 2014)

Hey-Oh all! 

So the weeks just keep getting faster and faster, I'm sure. I feel like 2 days ago it was P-day, but no, that was a whole week ago. man, time flies when you're having fun.

So, last Thursday we had TRC Skype with another German. the girl had perfect English, I kid you not. I'm sure she was laughing at how ridiculous our German sounded. It was so bad! but it was fun. she helped us with pronunciation and stuff, and we taught her a lesson, but for some reason Skype was having problems and our microphones were super sensitive so she couldn't hear us very well. it was super frustrating. 

Friday was no fun, just the usual schedule: study in the morning, class in the afternoon and evening with nothing to spice it up. but we have in-field orientation this coming Friday, and  it's basically an all day thing, so that will be fun.

Saturday was a lot like Friday, except we had late service, which was super fun. We did stairs again, and sang songs and it was just a blast.

Sunday, NFL Football player Chad Lewis came for Devotional. He did a fantastic job of helping us realize we're individual and shouldn't let our light be tempered because of what other people think, and that we need to just be nice to people. it was amazing, and I learned so much. I put that in my notes in all caps. it was a really cool devotional. he had tons of stories, and they illustrated his point so incredibly well.

Monday, we said goodbye to Brother Liddle because we have more Germans coming in today and he has to teach them, so we're losing our teacher. Everyone of  us choked up, and it was super emotional at the end of class. Both Brother Janis and Brother Liddle told us stories about their missions, and the spirit was super strong, and it was an absolutely amazing experience. I mean, I can't even describe how strong the spirit was in the room at that time.

we decided we needed to write both our teachers notes to show how much we appreciate them. so we did. we hid them behind our flag and gave Brother Janis a riddle to find them yesterday. the riddle was "it's where our heart is." He got it pretty quick. It was funny. Then we hid Brother Liddles in the air vent and Elder Crittenden said "It's in a 'cool' place." it was super funny.

We got Flight plans on Friday and the entire zone (50 of us, mind) we were all bouncing off the walls with excitement. it was really fun to watch, and super cool to see us all so ready to go.

Our zone has this game we play. It's really fun. So the game is if you make eye contact with someone then you can pretend to blow a dart at them, and they become paralyzed and have to sit on the ground until someone touches their neck or shoulder.

So, I got to Gym on Friday, and on of the Elders (on the other side of the gym) calls to me, and "hits" me with a dart. so, as I'm sitting down on the floor, this random elder comes up to me and asks "are you Sister Montgomery?"

"yeah." 

"Do you have a sister, Cheyenne Montgomery?"

"yeah. do you know her?" I was starting to get excited at this point, thinking it might be Conner, because I remembered that Cheyenne said he might be here about the same time as me. 

Bet Cheyenne can guess who it was.

Yep, it was Conner. it was really cool to talk to him. We didn't talk to long, but it was fun anyway.

Also, I forgot to tell you that Elder Godoy of the 70 (i believe he spoke in Conference, in Portuguese) came for devotional yesterday. Funniest little Brazilian man ever!! He gave us a list of things that will help us be great missionaries, and told lots of stories to illustrate his point, and it was really spiritual and super funny at the same time. it was absolutely fantastic! I did not know that was even possible, but he accomplished it with flair, even with his accent. it was absolutely  amazing!

So yeah, love you all.

I'm getting off the computer is 10, if you still want to email me, but if you're not done by then, just send Dear Elders. I wish I could talk to you more, and miss you all greatly.

So, the Work continues, life is good. Eat your veggies and smile, because those will make you happy.

Love you all!

Sister Montgomery.

17 Again

Hallo, alles!

So, Thursday TRC was great, we talked with the grandmother of one of the sisters in our zone. She is a wonderful lady. We get to Skype with real investigators in Germany this week and next week for TRC (Teaching Resource Center) and our whole district is super excited. The whole zone loves TRC .

Friday was the usual -- long, monotonous, and really hard. Saturday, on the other hand, was the most scrumptious spiritual feast I have ever had in my life. The talks were all fantastic. I learned so much, and got a good 14+ pagers of notes. I loved Lynn G Robbins Talk. I think I got a full page of notes from him alone. It was amazing! That’s the best adjective I can think of.

So, for conference I set the goal of having a question for each session. I got this from something Danika told me in one of her letters: "It helps of you have a [specific] question." So I decided I'd write the question at the top of the first page for the session, and keep it in mind as I took notes, and see what kind of an answer, or answers I got. It was a really neat experience, especially when my first question was answered very strongly in the second talk, the one by President Packer, and then again in Elder Robbins talk. Talk about God hearing and answering our prayers.

The second session was spectacular. Jörg Klebingat's talk really hit me hard, maybe because he's a German, but also because of his presentation style. It really fit my learning style, and I got a lot from his talk, especially his list of things to be a better disciple. I really liked it with some of the 70 giving talks in their native languages, I think it had a lot more power behind it, even more so than when they speak in English. Our entire zone was a little disappointed when President Uchtdorf didn't speak in German, but I quickly got over it when there was so much power in it. It was mind-boggling.

Listening to President Monson's talk Sunday morning was really cool. He answered my session question, and I got a lot more from the spirit than I did with the other speakers. I got more thoughts and impressions of things I should do, and not as many "that's a good quote, I should do that," moments. It's amazing the things you notice when the prophets speaking verses when the area 70 and other apostles are talking.

Sunday night Devotional was really cool. it was an area 70, former BYU football player Vai Stasomi or something like that. I don't remember. He’s Tongan, and he gave a wonderful devotional. He told us to put our notes away, and then just talked about his life, and things he's done to have missionary experiences, told lots of jokes, and it was super cool.

Tuesday devotional was also an area 70, Brent H Nielson, and he gave us one of those "things I wish I'd known at your age" talks. We all thought it would be boring, but it was actually really good. I learned a lot from him. So much, I would need to write a whole other letter.

So, this week was full to overflowing with cool spiritual experiences, and I loved every minute of it.

Keep smiling everyone. I love you and pray for you,

Sister Montgomery.

Week Three at the MTC

Hello, all!

Last Wednesday the temple was beautiful. Sister Johnson and I did Initiatory, which was really cool, especially since I had only done Endowments and Baptisms before. It was really interesting to see the difference between living and dead ordinances.

Thursday we had TRC, which was thrilling because we got to talk to native German speakers. There were a few words I didn't catch, but for the most part, I think I’m getting the German. We’ll see how much I really know in about 3 weeks when we fly out for Deutschland.

So, I don't remember anything from Friday, which may be a common theme, seeing as it's there's nothing interesting going on, and therefore it's "Nicht Tag."

Saturday was also pretty uneventful. Except for when Sister Hill told me I had "Audrey Hepburn eyes."  I wore eyeliner on the bottom of my eye for the first time since being here, and apparently it made my eyes look really big. I'm not sure, but it happened, and I thought it was really funny.

Sunday, we had no choir practice, since the Elders are practicing for conference. They're practicing right now, and holy mackerel! do they sound so amazing. you guys going to the priesthood session  are in for a real treat with this choir. I'm still trying to get a picture of the zone for you, but you'll be able to tell by their tags if they're German or not. I'll see if I can send you a picture of my tag so you know what to look for. It's more than likely I'll know them, because they have all of us going to Germany in one zone.

 

P-day Eve was great, because we had 2/3 day instead of a full day, I got to sing in the choir, and we had a great lesson with our "Investigator." I think I may have finally figured out how to teach with the Spirit. I'm super excited.

Well, I think that's all for this week. Love you all, and miss you. Keep eating those Veggies, and smiling =D

Sister Montgomery