She's French - June 22, 2015

Howdy, y'all.

How's life treating you? Mine is pretty good. I've been sick the last couple days, and Sister Eden has been packing to go home, so the last couple days have been kind of slow, which was nice.

We had transfer calls on Saturday, and only had 1 change to the district. My companion is leaving, and I'm getting a new one. Her name is Sister Petit. She's French, just one or two transfers "younger" than I am on the mission. Essen will be her second area, she's in Köln right now -- on the northwestern edge of the mission, Düsseldorf zone. Her German is really good, I don't know if or how good her English is, but I'm excited to learn a little bit of French from her. Hopefully a lot a bit :) I got most of that info from the STLs. That's all I know about her right now. I'll tell you more next week, when I know her a little better.

Not a whole lot exciting has happened this week. It's been pretty slow, Termine (pronounced like the princess in Prince of Persia, but with an R -- appointments) have fallen out, and Sister Eden has been packing and prepping to go home. I made Apple Pie last night while I had nothing to do while she packed. It actually turned out pretty good. I was rather proud of myself :)

Aside from that, and deciding to study Jesus the Christ more, I really don't have a lot to report. I'm sorry it's short this week. I left my old planner at home, so I can't do a good rundown :/

I love you all, and hope everything is going well.

FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ich hab' euch lieb!! Love ya!

-Sister Jubilee Montgomery

Status: Level six, Part four complete - June 15, 2015

Liebe gruße, ihr lieben! (Love filled greetings, ye loved ones).

So, we did get iPads. I'm typing on it, now as I write this.

Personally, I prefer an actual keyboard to the touch screen board. I

Find them easier to work with. You will probably have lots of spelling

Errors, because I have to switch back and forth between the German and

English boards in order to write in Denglish, the only language I’m still fluent in. But, you get what you get. Have fun trying to translate it. You can use Google, if you need to.

So, this week gas been one of the longest, slowest, weeks, but also one of the fastest of my mission. It's really weird.

 Here's the run-down:

Monday, after p-day, we visited a less active, sch. Greiff, and her 2 daughters. We talked to them about charity and how it's a two way street, and, like Moroni says in Moroni 7:45-47, with out it, we are nothing. Sister Eden and i discussed this the day before and came to some really cool conclusions: charity and love are basically the same thing. Charity is shown through giving AS WELL as receiving, because both are an act of love; serving as allowing others to serve you. Without service, and love, we are nothing. We talked about how we need to feel love, as well as give it in order to feel complete, and that we're in a sense broken if we don't give or receive love. It was really interesting and we tried to share this with sch Greiff, but I guess it wasn't what she needed because we went off on a tangent that I don't remember. But it was a really cool conversation we had about love, and charity and service. I invite you all to research that a little, because there is still so much we can learn. I love learning. :)

 

Tuesday we had zone training all day in Dortmund. We talked about the

Atonement, and how it applies to us, and how it enables us, and such.

The angle they took was really cool, because they made it more of a discussion with class participation, which I liked because we always learn so much more when that happens. I mean I at least learn a lot more when we get more view points. I think it's really cool.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were all a little slower, because we didn't have as many appointments. Thursday we had DDM with iPad set up, and then a termin in one of our ward missionaries, sch. Weidauer.

She is the cutest!! She loves to talk. All we have to do is ask a question, and she will talk for 40 minutes. We talked to her about charity as well, and she went off on a tangent about how important missionary work it, and scripture study, and it was just perfect. That lesson was amazing.

Saturday, we had three lessons: one with Sister Arnold, the

80-some-odd year old sister in the pflegeheim, that we help with her therapy. And with Sch Buschak-niedner, an elderly sister in the ward who is just the sweetest little thing. i will be sure to get pictures of all these people so you can meet them, too, because they all just bring so much joy to my heart :)

So, we had been trying to get in contact with Daisy (a YSA LA) for a couple weeks, and Alina, the little angel that she is, invited her for ice cream, and then they had the idea to invite us, assuming we wouldn't be able to come. Haha, FALSE! We didn't really have anything scheduled in, so we said "of course, we'd love to come!!!" And come we did. We had a great time getting to know one another better, and they were both practically attacking sister Eden with questions about home, and plans for later. It was really fun. Of course we shared a spiritual thought. We thought that for their situations and how different they are (Alina's 18, active, living on her own, and applying for college, and Daisy is 28, finishing high school, living with her mother, and less active) that it would be best to share Alma

37:36-37, and talk about how it's the little things that build up who we are, and that help us through trials. It was really cool, because we asked them if they had already seen examples of this in their own lives, and they were both able to provide 2 examples on the spot. It was really powerful.

Okay, subject line explanation: sister Eden and I have a running joke that a mission is like a video game. Each transfer is a level, each seek is a part, the mission is the game it's self, and we don't have a category for days. So the translation is that transfer 6, Week 4 are done and we can move on, now.

Well, I guess that's all for this week. Love you! Hope you enjoy the pictures :)

Sister Montgomery

Sent from my iPad

My body hates me . . . - June 8, 2015

Greatings!!

So, this week, my body decided to rebel against me, and my allergies have been WAY out of whack. It's been great fun ;P

Monday was Normal, nothing to report except that I love personal study. It's ma favorite, because I learn so much. I'll tell you about my study today in a minute.

Tuesday, we had DDM, and talked about how to use technology for Godly purposes again. They're really trying to emphasis staying focused on our purpose as missionaries, and self-discipline and mastery. I'm excited to learn and practice those skills. They will be very helpful later in life.

After that we had a Termin with Frau Schwieger (sh-Vee-grr). We talked more about the Plan of Salvation because her Husband died a few years back. They didn't have any kids, but had a really good relationship, and she misses him a lot. We're hoping to get her to the temple to be sealed to him. I'm sure that would make them both very happy :)

Wednesday, nothing terribly exciting happened. 

Thursday, however, was the highlight of the week. We did some go-bys and tried to visit Sch Arnold, who'd just gotten back to her phlegerheim (pf-leg-nursing home) after being hospitalized with a flue of some sort, and couldn't keep food down. it was terrible for the wonderful, 80+ year old, bed ridden missionary. She's wonderful.

After that we went and helped with a service project. LA work: Moving. From the 3rd floor (4th in America. here the ground floor doesn't count as a floor) down the street. to the 4th floor. With no elevators. 6, no 7 flights of stairs. Lots of cabinets and closets and heavy stuff. for 6 hours. it was fun. let's just say, that my calves still haven't quite recovered from that adventure. My quads didn't hurt terribly bad, just enough for me to notice, but my calves. They basically died every time I took a step for a whole day, Then it was just on stairs (up or down) that they hurt. It was a party. 

Friday was also fun. We had 2 termin and a split. The bahns were all out of whack because of the weather -- the sun finally came out and was burning the grass between the tracks, which put all the bahns behind schedule, and us as well. We were late to all of our termin. Thankfully they were member Termin and they weren't too upset with us, so all was well.  Then we had a split, and were late for that as well. But everything worked out, and nobody got hurt, so we're all happy.

Saturday, I was in Duisburg all day. we had a couple really powerful termin with investigators, one from China, the other Nigeria. It was really fun to see them brighten as they learned more about Jesus Christ, and how to come closer to our Heavenly Father. Even sitting there during the lessons. it was great :) The STLs and Zone Leaders already have iPads, so I got to see Sister Parker use hers with a group of Young men at the bus stop. They read her tag, and she was like, "Yeah, I'm a missionary," and they started talking to her, she pulled out a card with the "because he lives" video, and then she said "If you have a couple minutes, I can show it to you now." they got through about 1:50 of it, then their bus came, and the had to go. I'm pretty sure they went home and looked it up. I don't know. But they were pretty entranced with the video. it was really funny, because they were right in front of the board when all the line times are posted, and someone else came over to check times, and Sister Parker moved a couple steps away, and they followed, like flies over sugar. it was hilarious. Then we went to a missionary farewell party, picked up my bag, and went to split back. all in all a good day. It went really fast, but was a great learning experience, especially with the goals Sister Parker and I set during Comp Study.

So, this morning in Personal Study, I read Mormon 8 & 9, which is when Moroni is starting to wrap up the plates and bearing testimony, and just being a big strength, even though he's alone. and it was really powerful because basically what he's doing in the whole of these 2 chapters, is baring testimony. He's talking about when the BoM will come, and signs of the times, and it was really cool for me to recognize what some of the signs are. Like tempests =hurricanes, and vapors of smoke= dormant volcanoes waking, and great pollutions = oil spills, and acid rain, and smog, and stuff like that. it was really interesting so see how those things are beginning today. It was kind of weird.

So, yeah. that was my week. It was a lot of fun, and really exhausting.

How have you guys been?

Liebe Grüße,

-Sister Montgomery

Stupid computers - June 2, 2015

Guten Morgan, Brüdern und Schwestern,

So, this letter's not going to be as long and detailed because I don't have a ton of time. I'm writing on Tuesday again because yesterday when I tried to get on my email it wouldn't let me on. It just kept going back to the sign in page. It was quite frustrating, and a great adventure. Everything worked out, though, and it's functioning properly now, so we're all good.

So, here's my last week in a nutshell: (deep inhale) Member Lessons, constant travel, NEW Investigator lessons, service teaching English, Introducing Sister Eden to EVERYONE in the ward, More member lessons, less active lessons, running from termin to termin in the rain, street displays, painting service, LA lessons and more rain, writing mission history after church, running into the Elders randomly all over, computers not working and not being able to tell anyone not in the mission or my area because I'm an obedient missionary, and my email wasn't working.

WHOO!

Wow. That sounds like quite the adventure. (Exhale) that took a lot of breath. 

So, yeah, we got a new investigator, who we actually have a termin with later today. She was found by our bed ridden (now in the hospital), wonderful little Sister Arnold, who we normally help with her physical therapy, and is the most spectacular member missionary ever. I am pretty sure that every other person she talks to, she says something about the church, or missionary work, or something. She’s amazing. She had us come by her hospital room yesterday because she wanted us to bring her roommate a Book of Mormon. It was the most adorable thing on the planet.

Report on all things German. Sorry it's not working out the way you wanted. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of putting details into my stories. What other types of things do you want to hear about?

I think that's all for this week.

Love ya,

-Sister Montgomery