Essen: A place where miracles are just waiting to happen

Hello, Family and Friends!!

So, this week was really long . . . 

As you all know, I got transferred, to Essen. As it turn out, it is actually not named after the verb "to eat" or "food." is it named after the plural form of Furnace (furnace-"esse"-- Furnaces-"essen,") because the Ruhr gabiet (industry area) is just that: the industry area. The area I'm in now, used to be a mining area. It's really cool. There's not a lot left over from that era, but the backstory and all the history and stuff of what used to be here us just fascinating. I haven't heard a lot, but just the fact that this used to be a miners town is really cool.

After the Temple last Tuesday, we stayed in Friedrichsdorf until P-Day ended because Sister Ferris and her MTC friend sister Megli, wanted to hang out more, and I kind of have to stay with her. So we got lots of cool temple pictures of our district, and the Frankfurt International (FI) district, and one of the FI Elders, Elder Rogers, got hold of my camera, so when you get it, you'll have lots of random pictures of me and everyone else at the temple. Travel home, as always was ridiculously long. It takes about 10 minutes from Wetzlar to Gießen, 45 minutes from Gießen to Friedberg, and then another 10-15 from Friedberg to Friedrichsdorf. So, it's about an hour of travel both ways, and because it's P-day, we have to use personal money. It's great fun. After that, we went to a tschüß (good-bye) appointment with one of our investigators, Diana, and she gave me a "good-bye" gift, and I decided that I officially hate saying goodbye to people. 

Wednesday was quite fun. We had studies, and then cleaned the apartment. And then, about 2, we left so that we could be sure to catch our train, which came at 3. We left an hour early because I had 3 suitcases, a backpack and a shoulder bag, AND we had sister Ferris's overnight stuff because she's training. So we had a lot of stuff, (there are pictures on my camera, when you get it), and it was ridiculous. The normally 10 minutes trek took us almost 25 minutes. I felt ridiculous with all that stuff, and I think I may need to go though and downsize, because I just feel like I have WAY too much stuff. Anyway. Thankfully we found a train that would take us directly to Frankfut (with no umstaigs (um-sh-EYE-guh- ie disembarkments) and we were both so happy. So then we get to Frankfurt, and the Frankfurt international sisters, who were supposed to pick us up at the main station, are not there. So Sister Ferris calls, and they tell her to go down to the U-bahns (underground trains), board one, and get off at a specific stop. So we did, and then waited about 5 minutes for them to arrive. It was very nice to be able to rest after moving all my stuff though the station.  Then we went on a split because Sister Megli is also training, and Sister Sorensen and I were not, and Sister Sorensen still needed to finish packing. So we went back to their apartment, and she and I talked for a while, and then took Sister Megli her make up, which she'd forgotten, and then went back home and finished packing. We had to reorganize her suitcases because she didn't quite have room for it all. So we found a really clever way to pack all her stuff in, where you lay the clothes around the edge hanging out, stick stuff in the middle, and then fold the clothes in and zip it shut.

Thursday was transfer day. The Tech elders were nice enough to surprise us at 9:00 and say they were stealing our bags to take them to Bahnhof for us. It was a very nice surprise. On the way to Bahnhof, I told sister Sorensen that I was so happy we didn't have to deal with luggage, because we'd have had 5 suitcases between the 2 of us, as well as our other bags, and that would have been quite the adventure trying to get to the station like that. I was very relieved that the Elders came and took that stress away. At Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station) we had a party with all the other missionaries that were being transferred and/or trained/training. Every transfer that's where everyone meets and it's called "bahnhof party." It was really fun because I got see some of my old MTC group (most of them), including my crazy friend Sister Jackson!!! (My best friend from the MTC) We had so much fun, and got some crazy funny pics, also included on my camera.

The ride back to Essen way quite fun. It was a 4 hour-long ICE ride. ICE's go super fast, so you know when it takes 4 hours by those trains, that is it a really long way from the mission central. Sister Bates and I got to know each other very well on that trip. We talked about family (she is Number Four of Eight, from Salt Lake City -- the actual city, not a suburb), and books (she's a reader, just like me :)), and hobbies (Her's are reading, and reading), and stories (I told her about Undercrossed, and the I am Number Four books) and it was just a ball! We had so much fun getting to know each other. It was great.

Friday, we had an appointment with a less active, and our goal going in, was to get her to read from the Book of Mormon on her own again. So we had the idea to read with her in the appointment (we got through the 1st 2 chapters of 1 Ne), and then she said that it would be helpful if we met with her twice a week, and read with her, and that she'd read on her own. It was fantastic! We didn't have to do anything but be there and let the spirit work. It was truly a miracle. I am excited to see what other miracles hard work brings.  Friday night there was a fireside for newly baptized, less actives, and investigators, and there was a missionary choir. We sang the EFY medley "As sisters in Zion/Army of Helamen" in German. It was really cool, and very well organized. Sister Bates and I didn't get to practice with everyone else because our appointment with Sister Peterson went late so we unintentionally missed practice. But it was just the medley, and so it was easy enough. It was a really cool fireside, and I kept wishing I had note-taking materials, but I had unintentionally left them all at home. It made me really sad, because there was a lot of good material and I wanted to remember it.

Saturday was NUTS, let me tell you. We had three different appointments, one of which fell out, and the other 2 were just odd. The first was with a sister who has been in a Pflegeheim (Pff-ley-guh- h-I-m--basically nursing home/retirement home) and needs the missionaries help with her physical therapy. not sure what exactly happened to her, but Sister Arnold is a little sweetie. She was so cute when she was walking from her bed--leaning heavily on her walker--and then back twice, and then having us help her into her electronic wheelchair. She was just absolutely adorable. I'll see if I can add a pic or two of her to my camera before I send it home. After that we went to visit another active-turned-in-active-due-to-health-problems named sister Bushach-neda or something really long like that. She's not really a talker, so our appointment was about 20 minutes long because none of us had anything to say, except during the spiritual thought. it was really fun, though. After that we had an appointment with an investigator, Dorothy, a single mother/full time student/full time job, so she's really hard to get ahold of, and it's really fun. This was the appointment that fell out, and we ended up waiting WAY to long for her to show up, which was a really bad idea. I'll tell you why in just a minute.

Here's why. We also had Stake Conference this weekend and we were invited to the Saturday evening session, to which we were almost an hour late. First, our appointment fell out, so we left after giving Dorothy a few more minutes to show. Then our trains and S-bahns didn't line up the way we needed them, too, do we wasted another 20 or so minutes just waiting for public transport. And then our other train when we finally got to Dortmund, took forever to leave the station. We seriously sat on the train for almost 15 min before it left, and it left late, and we were already stressing about being late for the meeting.  Then there was a Soccer game, and we couldn't get off the train at our stop. Literally. We got up when we were about 2 minutes from the stop we needed, and there were a bunch of drunks lining the gleis (track), and waited literally 4 seconds for people to get off before they started shoving their way onto the train. 2/3 of them had beer in their hands, and we were corned and surrounded and trapped on the train, by about 70 drunken excited soccer fans. They were breathing down our necks and in our faces, and it was DISGUSTING! I had finally had enough of being 3 feet from the door, yet unable to get off, and yelled that we needed to get off. Sister Bates told us later that someone on the other side of her had turned and asked "Why? The game's over." so we had to go one further, and because it was Saturday, half of the trains didn't come, so we were stuck at the other station for about half an hour, and it was just a mess. So, we finally made it to the Stake Center an hour late. There were some elders in the hall for some reason or other, and they came up to us, and being snarky said "it starts at 18, not 19. Why are you so late?"

So, yeah. Those are my many adventures of Transfer week. Stake conference was fabulous, and a wonderful respite from all the horrors of soccer games and trains, and moving, and just life. I love church and Conferences. They really are an inspired tool that God uses to help us strengthen each other. I know that he uses us to help each other, and ourselves because there is really no other way for us to learn that for someone to have experienced it, and then share that with others. We really are here for a reason. I have definitely been moved to Essen so that I can help people, and I am so excited to see the changes I can help others make, and look back at the changes in myself. It's going to be a great transfer, with many miracles, and I am so excited to be able to take part in this work. It really is a great blessing.

Anyway, I'll let you know more about life if you write me a snail mail. Here's my address

Address for letters

Sister Jubilee Annette Montgomery
Kirche Jesu Christi
Liebigstraße 25

45145 Essen
Germany/Deutschland

Please address packages:
Sister Jubilee Annette Montgomery
Kirche Jesu Christi
Corneliusstraße 18
60325 Frankfurt a. Main
Germany/Deutschland

Love ya!

-Sister Montgomery