Hello, family, and beloved friends!
How's life been this last week? Mine has actually been rather
uneventful, but entertaining at the same time. Here's my week so far.
Monday. P-day. It was slow, which was nice. We did emails, and
shopping and everything at our pace, not in a rush because we had to get
somewhere. It was really nice. Then, about 8:00 pm, we met the Duisburg Sisters
in McDonald's, and exchanged companions. Then Sister Heywood and I went back to
Duisburg, did daily planning, and then I tried to color code my calendar, and
ended up deleting all of the calendars that go with the iPad, so now I just
have the calendar that's connected to my email. Jed, do you happen to know how
to fix that?
Tuesday we went to Duisburg. We did studies, met with a Chinese
Investor, Christian, trying to solidify his faith before he heads back to China
at the end of the Semester which is in a couple weeks. Came home finished
studies, then went contacting at the university with a whiteboard. The
whiteboard had the question "do you believe in life after death?" and
three possible answers -- "yes," "no," and "not
sure." Sister Heywood and I thought we'd get a lot of "no" or
"not sure," but we actually found a lot of people who believe there
is a life after death. Only a small percentage were Christian, but it still
brought us hope to know that, despite all the terrible things in the world,
people still find solace in the little truths they find, even if they're only
half truths, like reincarnation, or the odd version of heaven that Muslims
believe in.
Wednesday. Here's the fun story. So, we had agreed to help clean
the church. I'd made a personal goal to speak more German. So everything I that
came out of my mouth was German, or at least most of it. So, We were on our way
to the church, and had to run to catch a bahn. I thought it would be a good
idea to take the stairs 2 at a time. So I did. I got 2/3 of the way down the 3
flights of 10 stairs, and then my ankle buckled, and I heard a snap, and a pop.
I was able to make it to the bottom and lower myself in a one-legged squat
(with the bannister) to the steps. I stood from there, and told Sister Pettitt
"I have no idea what I just did to my ankle. German went right out the
window. We caught the bahn, me hobbling, and made it to bahnhof, where we had
to run again to catch our connection bahn to the church. We get there,
and I'm trying to keep weight off it. I figured since I could walk fine
on it, nothing was broken, but it still hurt, so I knew that something was
wrong. So, any time we have to walk anywhere that whole day, I was limping,
trying to be careful. So we finish cleaning the church, and walk down to Rewe
(RAY-vuh, a health foods/ fresh foods store), grab lunch, and then wait for the
bahn back to the church. We'd figured we'd finish studies there, since we had
to leave at about 9:00 to help clean. Anyway. At about 12:45 or so, I finally
decide to call the mission Nurse, Sister Castleton. I told her what happened,
and she told me to stay off it, get it elevated, and get ice on it. So we were
stranded at the church. We would have gone home, but we had Gemeinde Abend, so
we decided to just stay. But we didn't have any ice. So we called the Elders
and asked if they would bring us ice. They did, and Elder Paskett got
everything set up with towels and plastic bags, and then helped me get situated
with my foot up. Elder Neary was like, "they're gonna have to amputate
your foot." For some reason, both he and Elder Paskett thought it was
funny to ask if I wanted the crutches in their Keller. I told them "no, I
won't need them. I'll be fine." The rest of the day was comparatively
uneventful. Aside from constantly trying to stay off my foot while the ward
grilled, and my companion ran around the parking lot with the primary kids and
"helping" set up and break camp while staying off my foot. It was a
lot of fun :) I'm only being partially facetious. Then we cut my hair, as you
see pictures.
Thursday, we were under house arrest. Doctors told me to stay
off my food trumped missionary work for the day. The only exciting thing was
the Elders bringing more ice, and the crutches by. Yes, I changed my mind and
asked for the crutches. When they brought them by, Elder Paskett hid them
behind the doorframe, and said "so, we actually couldn't find any crutches
in our Keller. But, there's this guy in our neighborhood who had some. And this
morning, we performed a miracle," then he pulled them out from behind the
door. It was actually kind of funny. They've actually been a lot of help. Zum
Beispiel:
Friday, we were only under semi house arrest, because I had
crutches. Sisters Castleton gave us a go to do some go-bys and a member appointment
-- only because I had crutches. So we went to our member appointment with the
Skopeks, which was really cool. The Skopeks are an elderly couple, both very
strong in the church, and had s lot of input with the less-actives, and just
about everything else, too. It was really fun. But they live out in the
boondocks, so it took us forever to get there. I'm not even kidding. Our Termin
was at 13:00 (so 1:00), and we left at 11:40. I was not sure how to get there,
and with my ankle, it was quite the adventure. We actually didn't have any
problems, it just took us forever to get up the hill to the Bahn stop, which we
watched pull away, so we had to wait 10 minutes for the next one. I don't know
how many odd stares I get walking around in a dress and name tag. Add crutches
and actually using the crutches to that mix, and you about double the
stares, maybe more. It was quite fun. So, in our lesson, we had them each write
down the biggest comfort they receive from the gospel, and then their biggest
fear, and we talked to them about the restoration and how it gives us comfort.
Then tied missionary work in by talking about how many people don't have the
comforts that the gospel brings, and asked them if there was anything we could
do to help them with their missionary work. They told us "visit and pray
for the less actives." Then bru. Skopek told us about some of the recently
reactivated members that he continued to visit for years, even though many said,
"it's not worth it, they're not coming back." Then said that he found
out later, that some of them only came back because he had been so
diligent at visiting them. It was really cool, and very inspiring. Then
we did a couple go-bys, and went home. All in all we were away from home for
about 6 hours. It was brutal, and I officially hate crutches and being
"broken."
Saturday, we normally visit Sch. Arnold, but, since I could
barely walk myself, we called and told her we would not be coming to help her
practice her walking exercises. Then the Elders called and asked us if we
wanted to coordinate ward lists and notes on the members so that we all have
the same/updated info, and can work better as a team. So we coordinated at 1.
Then, Sister Pettitt and I came home, and the rest of the day was quite, until
we almost ran out of Ice. So I called the Elders. They said they were still in
the neighborhood doing go-bys, and brought a bag of peas by about 45 minutes
later. Elder Paskett started out with "so, we're really worried about your
iron levels . . ." He's getting to be a goober.
Sunday, we had a really cool member Termin. We met with the
Rochs, and Sch. Roch has had some fears. And today we were able to explain
doctrine that I feel helped her receive comfort and peace, that fears are okay,
but that there's no need because of the Atonement, and help from God. It was
really cool.
So, yeah. That was my week. I wish I could have given more
spiritual food and stuff, but I can't remember all the stuff I learned in
studies, and I am absolutely horrendous at keeping a study journal. Sorry :)
Love ya!
Have a great day :)
-Sister Montgomery
Grüß euch!! (Hello, friends!)
