Hey-oh! Hey-oh!
So I've almost made it through one whole month in Germany, and three whole months on my mission. We're getting there. I'm actually starting to feel like I'm making a dent and have a handle on things. Except the language -- that's still out of my reach. I feel like I have the grammar principles down, but I don't really have the vocabulary to practice. That’s okay. I'm cracking down on vocab drills in Language Study, so I should be able to say virtually anything I want within the next couple months.
This week was crazy busy, but fun.
So, last Monday we had FHE with the Titze's. Sister Titze had the lesson, it was in German (It's not always because Sister Titze is an American by birth), and it was on "I know that my redeemer lives," my favorite song on the whole planet! It was super special for me, because, the actual lesson was in German, and so I couldn't understand everything, but I could still feel the spirit, which helped me realize once again that this is the true church of God.
Tuesday was a spiritual feast with DDM (District meeting) in Hanau, the other half of our district. It took us half the day to get there, but once the meeting actually started, I regretted not bringing a lot of note taking materials. I will not make the same mistake with Zone Training this week. Sister Burri gave a beautiful Theme on member work, and got me really excited and ready to work with the members. The only problem with that is that our ward is spread out over, like 200 miles. We live in the equivalent of Minnesota -- very few members, the ward boundaries are HUGE, two-thirds of the ward is inactive, half of the investigators are Students at the Uni in Gießen, and so everyone in the Area book has moved away, which makes it really hard. But, the work continues, and I have a smile, even when it's raining because I love the rain, and mountains may be hard to climb in the moment, but the view when you reach the top is incredible.
So we had lessons with both Diana and Wolfgang on Tuesday and Wednesday, and they both are pretty ready for the next step - AKA baptism. Diana has a smoking problem and not the best friends, so Sister Blackhurst and I are trying to figure out a way to help her with that. We pray really hard, and I found a "smokers workshop" yesterday when I was organizing the bookshelf (more on that to come). Anyway, thought that maybe this would help her. We'll have to try it and see. Wolfgang came to church last week, and he is just the cutest old man. He reminds me of Grandpa Troumbley -- a big jokester, really funny, always trying to help. Sister Blackhurst told him her birthday was next Sunday, and he said he'd take us out to dinner Saturday at an Italian Restaurant in the Altstadt because he knows the owner. It was so cute. He’s also told Sister Blackhurst that he's going to take her and her mother to Paris after she gets off her mission. It’s so adorable! Anyway, I think they're both ready, or at least getting ready for baptism. Would you pray for them?
Wednesday we had my visa appointment, it went smooth, and I should be getting a notification in the mail next week telling me I need to go pick up my visa at the Rathaus. It's gonna be official then. I'll be stuck here for another 15 months. After my appointment, we were going to go to Marburg, but couldn't because we had our appointment with Wolfgang. After that we went contacting in the Altstadt because we had no other lessons and wanted to.
Thursday we had German class with Sister Titze. As always, it was very helpful, informative, and a lot of fun. We played a game where she gives us a word, and we have to use German parifrasis (explaining around it) to get the others to guess what the word actually is. We have had words like “mannequin," "Midwife" and "gurgle water." it's quite entertaining. Later that evening we had our GML meeting with Bruder Swerdjot (sh-ver-dio) the Elders were on splits so they didn't end up coming, but Sister Blackhurst and I had a great conversation with him about Family History and the like. Bruder Swerdjot is the global consultant over all the tech stuff for the Church. And he's in our ward. It’s really cool to have a "larger than life" person in our ward. He told us about some of his personal history, how he had a sheep farm on the Swiss border to the south, and how he learned all this different stuff because of gumption. It was very inspiring.
Friday was a white day. So Sister Blackhurst and I decided to go to Marburg. We had been planning this excursion for a couple weeks but had never found time to actually go. But we did Friday, which was spectacular. We didn't get to visit all the people we'd intended, but we did climb 2 big hills, and found that a former investigator was no longer at the location the Area Book said she was. We also saw the Marburg castle. Can I just tell you all how much history there is here in Germany! It’s nuts!! Everywhere you turn, there are 300-plus year old houses, museums about random city-wide cultural schemes that died, and the architecture is AMAZING!! THOUSANDS of years of history! It makes me think of that quote from "Ice Age: dawn of the Dinosaurs" the one where Ellie says "We've been living above an entire world -- and we didn't even know it!" it's the same idea here with the history, we have no idea the stories that happened here 250, 500, or 1,500 years ago. They left their mark in history with all their castles, and cute little German homes, and it's beautiful. I love it.
Saturday, we had Wolfgang and Diana again. Wolfgang is progressing really fast. We finished the Commandments with him, and he seems to be understanding things better. I'm really excited for him as he continues to grow. Diana, on the other hand, was strangely absent when we went to our appointment. It was really sad. So we went contacting in the Altstadt again, but there was no one there. I'm not sure why because it was Saturday. Oh, well.
Yesterday, Sunday, Sem (pronounced like it's spelled) came to church. Sem is a less active JAE (Yot-ah- ay -- the German equivalent of YSA) and he came to church! Probably because it was a Gemeinde Essen (Ward dinner), but he came, nonetheless. We also had a Canadian English speaker who needed translations, which Elder Brandner and Sister Blackhurst gladly provided. I would have, but it was really difficult because of my lack of vocabulary that I am going to fix. Her name is Dana (Day-nuh), and she is visiting a friend who was german foreign exchange several years ago. She’s a really sweet girl, and I'm really glad she's so adventurous.
So, yeah, that was my week. It was really busy, kind of hard, but super fun.
Has it snowed yet over there? The natives keep saying that it probably won't snow here, which makes me sad. I keep praying for snow, so I hope it comes.
I love you all, and miss you! Keep smiling.
Sister Montgomery
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