To
Family, beloved friends, and everyone else
This year and week have gone abnormally fast.
Last Monday Sister Blackhurst and I took a visiting
Canadian to FHA (famile heim abend or Family home evening) with us at the
Titzes. She's really nice, and was apparently inactive before she came to
Germany. Her name is Dana (Day-nuh), and she came to Germany to visit friends,
and get away from life at home. She's from a really small town in Alberta, I
believe, is 22 years old, graduated in Music, and didn't know what to do next,
so she decided to visit an exchange student her family had a few years ago. She
had been here in Germany for a month, and randomly decided to go to church
after being basically inactive for over a year. We were really excited when she
came, and have just been her friends, and decided to invite her to FHA, and she
asked yesterday if that was every week. We told her yes, but that we switched
off every other week with the Elders, and asked if she wanted to go with them.
She said yes. So we called the Elders and asked if they would escort her to the
Titzes. The agreed, and so she's going to FHA tonight for the 2nd week in a
row. We're super excited for her.
Last Tuesday we had DDM. It was on New Years
resolutions because it was the penultimate day of 2014. We had a lot of
fun discussing what goals we were going to set for the New Year, and helping
others tweak their goals according to what they wanted to accomplish. It was
very entertaining, especially when Elder Windhorse (a cowboy from New Mexico) pulled
out a story on finishing what you've started. The story was of his first cattle
run at age 11. His dad woke him up at 3 a.m. and told him to unload
salt licks (1 foot cubes of salt for cattle) out of a trailer that were 10 high
and 40 deep in the trailer. He got about 1/4 done, and decided to take a nap
and didn't get to go on the cattle run because of it. He has since learned from
that that you finish what you start, and leave your mark so people know you did
a good job.
Wednesday was not normal. We had to be in by 1800
(6:00 p.m.) so earlier, Sister Blackhurst and I had gone to the Church to
download some podcasts from the "enduring it well" section of the
Mormon Channel, and we listened to about 4 of these hour long podcasts. They
were actually pretty interesting. We listened to one on overcoming anorexia and
bulimia, one on a mother who’s son had turrets syndrome (trials unseen), one on
the Haiti earthquake in 2010, and I don't remember what the other one was
about. But they were good. Then we went to bed at the usual time. And were
woken up an hour and a half later to bombs going off right outside our window.
I'm just kidding, they were fireworks. It was ridiculous. There was so much
smoke mixed with fog, the street looked like a battlefield. Smoke was
everywhere and you could hardly see anything. It was nuts! And then Wolfgang
called us. He wished us a happy New Year, and we reminded him we had a Termin
(appointment) at 1600 (4:00) on Saturday. He thought we said 5:00 for
a minute, but we got it straightened out. But, man, was it NUTS outside. People
were whooping, and shouting, and shooting off fireworks. It was crazy worse
than in the US. Americans don't make it as big a deal as Germans do.
Thursday we had a really good member lesson with Bishop
and Sister Meiser (My-zer). Once again we talked about New Years Resolutions
(It's kind of been our theme for the last week), and I told them about my
"no sugar" spree. I told them I was going the whole year, but I think
I'm only going to go for 11 months (2 weeks at the end of December off, and 2
weeks worth through out the rest of the year). But, Bishop Meiser was so
funny about it. He wouldn't drop it. He asked me a couple times if I
was sure this was what I wanted to do, and then asked if I wanted some sugar
free water. He even covered my eyes when SIster Meiser pulled out some
other treats (marshmallow, gummy bears, and other goodies). It was really
funny. After the Meisers we had a short termin with a less active that lives
about a 20-minute walk from our house. It was really nice, but kind of awkward.
It was mostly a "Hi, nice to meet you, can we make an appointment?"
type deal, but it was fun, and interesting,
Friday, we had another really nice member lesson
with Famile Schmitd, and the lesson was once again on New Years resolutions.
Big surprise there, right? After the lesson, we made Pizza doe lunch, and then
played Phase 10" for a while. it was really fun. They have a daughter
who's on her mission in England right now. She left, like, 2 weeks after I got
to the field. She's a really nice girl, and her mom (a really nice Danish
woman) says that her younger sister, Jamie, is always saying, "Why can't
we just call them? I need my sister!" and stuff like that. It's really
cute, and they're a wonderful family.
Saturday, we had a really good, kind of crazy appointment
with Wolfgang. It was kind of all over the place, but we emphasized that
baptism, reading the Book of Mormon, and coming to church are really, really important,
and he said that he's try harder. Could you pray for him that he will be able
to make a decision soon? Sister Blackhurst and I really feel like he's ready
and just lolly gagging or something. He did tell us that reading the Book of
Mormon, and being baptized were some of his New Years Resolutions, so, we're
excited about that.
Sunday, our dinner appointment with the Finds fell
out. But, the family who was feeding the Elders, the Gentiles (Jen-teal-ays)
said that we could come over, too. We didn't ask or anything, they just randomly
came up to us after church and were like "you're coming to eat with
us." it was really nice, and even funnier. We helped prep the food and
everything, and then they fed us heaping bowls of pasta. it
was really good, but after we finished our first bowl, Sister Gentile asked
"are you done, already?" Sister Blackhurst and I both said
"yes," and I just sat there thinking, "That was a lot of
food." I don't think I've thought that in a while. I think I may have
successfully shrunk my stomach a size :D Then we went home and did studies, and
had a quest evening at home. We also listened to another podcast. Sister
Blackhurst was like "I wish we had some popcorn. This is like reality TV
for missionaries." she's so cute! It was really fun.
It's been a good week. It went by really fast. I
have a feeling that 2015 will follow the same trend. See you all in just over a
year.
Remember to eat your veggies and smile. I love you!
-Sister Montgomery
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