Pictures in Elmshorn and Hamburg (Dec 17)

The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree -- Dec 17

Mama!!

This week was so so so so so good! But guess what, next week will be even BETTER! I'm so excited to skype the family, I can't even believe I already get the chance!

Sounded like a good week back on the farm!

We focused the majority of our efforts on Joseph this week. President specifically told us that we need to focus our work on the people currently coming to church as priority. It is a LOT of work to prepare someone for baptism, I never even realized it! Okay, okay, I won't get ahead of myself, and I'll just explain everything.

So, he is the new husband of one of the members in our ward, and started coming to church. We already were teaching the kids (I’m not really sure why, the sisters before taught them every week, but they weren't investigators) but offered to start teaching him too. Well, he rigorously studied the bible back in Kenya his whole life, and he was really intrigued about the BofM being another testament of Jesus Christ. We started teaching him, and he progressed well! This was a couple of weeks ago, and within 2 lessons, Sister Decker and I felt that he was going to become our focus. So, we prayed and fasted about when we should set a baptismal date with him. It was immediately unanimous that Jan 6th felt right, and that he could very easily be ready by that time. That was before all the sickness and stuff we went through last week, so after this grand revelation, we didn’t meet with him for like 9 days ah!! But then we finally had a lesson and it went well, but not in the direction of talking about baptism, still really good though! The next lesson was just as great. At the end we both just knew we should ask and I did, and he was just like yes, of course, I'm going to do God's will! It was superrrrr funny though, because after he said yes, he was like "wait, does that mean I have to change my name?!" It was really funny, and we clarified that one really quick.

Ever since then, it’s just been like go, go, go with him. He asks really wonderful, thoughtful questions. He likes to connect things together and really loves supporting the Bible and the BofM together. It seriously has grown my testimony so much of how we need both of them, I love both! Why would God only talk to His children for a small amount of time?! He loves all of them!

Oh, this is really funny, we are required to send our president and the APs a bit of information, a picture of all of us together and the calendar leading up to his baptism. Joseph also wanted a study calendar, so we went all out. I kid you not, we spent 6 HOURS making this calendar! Its legit! I'll attach a pic, but it has everything on it until his baptism, and even a few goals afterward. But we sent this calendar, the info and the basically professional photo we got at the ward Christmas party together to the leaders, and they used it as an example in Mission Leadership Counsel! Either they thought our calendar was good, or they thought our professional Christmas pic together was hilarious. Maybe both?

Joseph's Legit Calendar!

Saturday's lesson, oh man, it was so good! We had Br. Müller as a joint teach along with Joseph’s wife, and planned to talk about the commandments and repentance. It was exactly what he needed, and Br Muller is such an awesome joint teach. The lesson went super long, and since we meet 2 times a week, we didn’t want to take up all of his time, they are a young family! But he had the calendar, so he knew what we should have covered that day, so when we apologized for being so long and that we needed to go, he’s like "oh that’s fine! But I just have one request. Can we just cover the rest?" I didn’t even know how to take it, I was like alright man, I will stay however long you need! Br. Muller even brought up his baptism when we were talking about repentance, and that all of his sins would be completely washed away. I felt the spirit SO strongly, and then Br. Muller asked Joseph how he felt about that idea. He just went quiet, and I just saw his eyes light up and he so very sincerely said that it would feel really good! Oh, it was just the sweetest moment.

So, we went to Hamburg today, and as fun as that is, it makes writing emails just a bit more stressful because we don’t necessarily have as much time. Who am I kidding, we never take enough time to email, there are just so many things to do and prepare for every week, plus we always have an appt at 6 so it cuts it short! But ohhhhhh today was too fun. We actually ran into the Pinneberg and Heide elders there, that was funny! But we got Sis Decker a nice coat (she’s had such a thin one for so long!) and checked out allllll of the Weihnachts markts! I took tons of pictures! If I can’t get a lot to you tonight, I will put them on a shared Google drive account, and you can access them through there! It was like Christmas wonderland! I’m telling you mom, we are visiting Hamburg together sometime in the future and just going to the Weihnachts markts!

1-2 Selfies at a train station to distract us from the cold haha! p.s. I was wearing her jacket

because it wasn't as warm and she needs lots of warmth! 

3 These were "apple pockets" and it was my favorite thing everrrrr and after like

just a few bites, I let an Elder try it and it dropped on the ground....I think HF was

telling me that I had enough....

4 hahahahahaha I thought this was so funny its probably not but you have to do

something to entertain yourself on an hour long train ride!

So, don’t worry, we have LOADS planned for us for Christmas! It’s going to be so weird... We aren’t allowed to proselyte or really do missionary work on Sunday (Christmas for the Germans) and also Monday and Tuesday, because Christmas is 3 days long here. THEN, we have pday on Wednesday! That means 4 days of not missionary-ing?! I don’t know exactly how I feel about that, but it will be a wonderful holiday time! Sunday morning, we are going to the Torkes (young couple, they picked me up my first day, we loveeee them!) and having breakfast and apparently celebrating all of our traditions we have at home. I didn’t think we really had any really special ones other than a really good time together! I told them about the 8 am rule and we all unanimously agreed that was too early! Do we have anything special I should tell them?! I think we are having German pancakes, then we are going to Church which is only 1 1/2 hours and then to another sweet family! Actual Christmas and also the 26th, we will be at a couple families including the Mullers! We are skyping there, and I’m soooo excited! I will call you guys around 9 or 10 am your time, but we will keep in touch around then and I will let you know!

My skype username is XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX so you might want to add me on skype before then! If you’re stressed about it, just ask Dallin to sign in. We are already friends on skype and I think he could set it up pretty fast. I think I’m also friends with Conner.

Speaking of skype, I got to use it this last week! The MTC was desperate for some volunteers to skype the German missionaries in the MTC, and asked missionaries from our mission to do it! It was so sweet, I got to talk to two sisters that will be coming out here tomorrow! Man, they had awesome German too! It made me also realize how far I’ve come with the language and people skills, I guess you don’t see progress much in the process, but when you look back, you realize you’ve come FAR! I even listened to the voice recording I send you my last week of the MTC, HAHA that was a bit painful to listen to. I’m by no means perfect, but I’m actually starting to really get smaller grammar things and I’m learning lots!

Speaking of practice.... I’m picking up a new hobby...... :) I talked to a couple members about wanting to learn the guitar, and long story short, we kind of sort of got one today! Dimi, one of the members, just gave us his super nice guitar to learn on! Sister Decker is going to learn too. Also, one of the Elders said we could borrow theirs too, so how cool is that?! I probed it a bit this morning and could only get a couple chords, it’s a bit confusing without a teacher! Haha but we can play at night and on pdays, so we are going to use the little extra time we have to learn! Don’t worry, we still go up to the church an hour early to play the piano, I’m picking it back up again :) (well, we didn’t today because we got stuck in Hamburg too long!)

Life has just been really happy this week, but I pray for Sister Decker still, and I know it’s going to get better. In all honesty, we can’t accomplish everything that I want to because I’m a little more willing to sacrifice to the cold weather and be outside a lot (I appreciate the Minnesotan blood!), but I really have to be compassionate and patient with her feelings as well. She doesn’t enjoy the colder weather like I do. I've just grown to appreciate her and love her so much, she gives me a lot of strength. Plus, she keeps me from getting so distracted all the time so yes, she’s very good for me :)

The little girls in our ward are SO cute I just want all of them!

I’m so, so happy! I just feel so much joy through the message I share, I feel like I’m just passing out $100 bills to everyone I meet! Hey, not everyone feels the need to take it, but the ones prepared will realize how very valuable the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is!

Oh, I totally forgot to mention, we had zone conference on Tuesday! aka IGOTMYPACKAGES! They are settled very sweetly underneath the Christmas tree. Well, under the table under the branches I bound together and called a tree. I like it, and I kind of want to keep the tradition, it’s just the cutest little tree wrapped in a bath towel! How creative is that?!?! But I opened a package heheehehe sorry....! I got 4; and you told me only one was a Christmas package! So, I opened one that said it had two dresses and some apple chips. It was the one with the dress you sewed for me and the black long dress! MOM THAT ONE YOU SEWED IS SO COOL, IT FITS ME PERFECTLY AND ITS MY NEW FAVORITE DRESS! I agree it was total inspiration, it made me so so happy! All of the ladies at church commented that it was so cute, and you have a talent! Thank you so much for making it! That black dress is really cute too, and exactly what I wanted! It’s a bit big, but I don’t think its necessarily supposed to fit my waist maybe? But I’m going to have to hem it, but for now I just tied it up and it kind looks like genie pants haha! Oh, I just love them so much and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU a million!! I can’t wait to see what is in the other packages! Don’t worry, I will take lots of pictures! (Yes, thank you for motivating me to take pictures, it’s good to look back on memories! Whenever I make someone take my picture or I take pictures of stuff I’m like guys, I only have two pictures to send to my mom this week, I HAVE to take some more! Haha! I love it!)

 I was so excited about this Christmas tree in the making!

Love you Mom! Sorry this one is a bit shorter, but how about I make it up next week by skyping you?! :) Plus, whatever else, I will write an email as well on Wednesday!

I love you a million Hamburg Weihnachtsmarkts!

Love, Sister Macey Ingalls

A Golden Week -- December 17

This Week! Very Good! Viele Wunder!

Ahhhufnrirvjwifiw

1. So transfer calls came and Sister Decker and I are staying together!!🎉🎉 Oh we are so excited and ready to work. Sad news is the elders program is closing, so now we cover 2 areas... We are already so busy, so this will be quite the adventure!!

Selfie with Quarkballchen! Well, we weren't smiling 30 seconds after

this because it was not good at all and tasted like sugary eggs

New Friends!

2. One morning, I got a feeling we should drop by Inga and Susanna, so we gift wrapped Book of Mormons for each of them and brought them by that night. It turned out so cool, and they told us they want to read them, start learning about our faith and coming to church with us!! #ILoveMakingNewFriendsyessss

Giving Susanna and Inga their Christmas presents! Inga LOVES pictures,

and we always take pictures when we're together!

Who Needs Pinterest?
3. Ok ok ok so we were biking through the forest and I got the idea to make a Charlie Brown Christmas tree from some fallen tree branches I had ran over! I mean, it definitely fits the name but we're proud of our craftiness. Oh, and I made jump ropes out of this plastic rope stuff and toilet paper rolls, so this week was definitely a big win in the creative department. #GhettoPinterest #Ghinterest?

Possibly the most well spent lunch time I have ever had

Soccer is Not For the Weak

4. A couple church members, investigators and 6 of us in the district played some good German fußball on Saturday morning! Oh man, it was way too fun, I almost forgot how competitive I am... We all were, and definitely suffered sore muscles because of it... To put it in our Ukranian district leaders words, "I woke up so sore the next day, I couldn't even blink my eyes."😂
Joseph the Golden
5. I can't even begin to write how amazing Joseph is doing, it's seriously a miracle! In our lesson on Tuesday, we were read a Book of Mormon scripture, and he's like "hey, actually that goes perfectly to support this scripture in John. Did you know that the Bible and BofM work really well together?!" Saturday's lesson turned into this awesome gospel discussion, and 1 1/2 hours later we said we needed to get going and he's like "that's fine, but I just have one request: can we just cover the rest?!" Man... Joseph motivates me to study and love learning from the scriptures, I'm so glad I have the chance to know him!! 
Well, that was like .07% of my week, but needless to say, it was an amazing week doing the Lord's work! Today we are going to Hamburg for pday a.k.a. CHRISTMAS MARKTS! I'm beyond excited to talk with my family next week, and Merry Merry Christmas to all my friends and family, I love you a million!!
Liebe Grüße, Sister Macey Ingalls

Alles liebe und Frohliche Weihnachtszeit! - Dec 10

MOMMA!!
Oh, my heart is just so full of love for you! Thank you for the positive thoughts and messages, I really enjoyed them this week! My week has been a bit of a roller coaster, but hey, those are always a thrill, right?

I love that you brought Teri dinner one night. That just always brings me back to those scenarios where someone listened to the quiet promptings of the spirit, only to know way later down the road what a difference that it made. Yes, you have had your ups and downs together, just like we do with our relationship with Heavenly Father! But remember he always is reaching out to us no matter what, and we should always do the same to Him and others! I always explain it to people with the story of you always sitting on that stool in my room to talk to me, regardless of how I reacted. You always reached out to me as our Father reaches out to His children. Man, I’m sorry I’m getting preachy in my older missionary age, it’s just that everything relates back to the principles of the gospel!!

EEEKK I GET THE PACKAGE TOMORROW! Oh man I’m excited. Oh yes, for zone konferenz too! I will definitely take lots and lots of pictures! I’m excited about the dress that you made me! Let’s see... For cards this week I opened Melanie's, Gma Susie’s, Mahoney's, Buchanan's, Moore's, Sara and Co (Do I say the Marrott's or the Alexander's?) and then today from MATT! Those were such fun surprises, I loved opening them every day. I still cannot believe you organized all of those together. And even getting one from Matt?! That was a shocker! And the adorable colored picture from Scarlett, man that little girl knows how to melt my heart. I love these people so much, and I am so incredibly grateful for all of the people that I know in my life! There isn't one person that doesn’t add sunshine to my life! I just love all of them and fast and pray and think about them some more, hoping that life is leading them down the road of happiness!

P.S. I’m typing this on Sister Decker’s Bluetooth keyboard. Its super cool... I should have thought of this... birthday present?!:))))))))

As for this week, man it was so good! Uplifting and full of work and miracles! And believe me, I will not forget to mention, CHRISTMAS! My goodness, Christmas is so amazing here! I think I talked about it quite a bit last week, but it’s just becoming a bigger and bigger thing!

The big major thing to talk about is that one of our investigators is on BAPTISMAL DATE!!! I’m so excited! He’s so humble and so ready, we just need to give him all that we have to help him become ready for his baptism on January 6th! We just had an awesome lesson on Saturday about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I made this cute little cut out diagram of it as a road. I love teaching, it’s one of my favorite missionary things naturally (okay, pretty much all of them are my favorite, let’s be honest here.) One of the reasons that I love teaching, so much is that it strengthens my own testimony! As I was describing baptism as a door, leading to the rest of the path to eternal life (Holy Ghost, receiving the priesthood for men, the temple and enduring to the end), I just felt the Spirit confirm to me the truth in what I was saying, and I felt the power in those words. It is a beautiful testimony of the truth of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ when I am allowed the chance to share it with others.

We had the Ward Christmas party right afterward and it was a huge success! We invited everyone that we talked to that week, and there were so many more than we even expected! I just kicked myself afterward for not getting a video walk through like I wanted to... It was seriously the coolest thing ever, and I will just attempt to share the details. We had a stand right by the door where we welcomed people and were also wrapping Book of Mormons as presents for the guests to take, and members to give to their friends! Straight across from us, there was a stand that had a tv in it, and played 3 Christmas videos on repeat, and some of the young men talked about the Christmas initiative! Next to us (but in between was a real tree that a member cut down to put in there and string lights on- he cut down like 8 trees in his backyard for this!) was Sister Muller (a.k.a. the baker of the ward) running a chocolate fountain and making schmalzkuchen! Oh man those are so good. I sent a picture of those last week! I will definitely bring that tradition home, I asked Sch. Muller to show me how to make them! Next to that was a stand where people could give and receive services from each other (for example, a cake or free babysitting or a night of playing FIFA together). It was a cute idea! Some of the other stands were a genealogy stand, and the two cutest old guys ran that. They had arts and crafts and bunches of tables and chairs for the primary kids, and I think they made gingerbread houses and stuff like that. Then of course there was the dessert stand where the relief society all served cake and drinks and just a bunch of traditional Christmas stuff. I actually took the time to write this so that I can remember this for an idea in the future! It seriously went perfectly, and I know that all of the guests felt extremely welcomed! Oh, and right outside the gym was the ward mission leader’s wife who takes pictures, and she took professional photos for everyone! I’m excited to send you those! One of my favorite things about the whole night was Brother Siems, one of the counselors, and is very musical, kept organizing little groups of people to sing Christmas songs with! I think mine might be on FB, and I’ll share it for you to see, but needless to say, a very very very fun night! It truly felt like a Christmas party, and all of the work that everyone put into it paid off well.

Sunday was also so amazing! I mentioned Brother Siems and how much he loves to sing. Well, he also loves missionary work! He told us about a week ago that he had some neighbors that he just kept feeling that he needed to befriend and share the gospel with. So, he told us he wanted to invite them over for a night of caroling and getting to know each other. Well, like good missionaries, we followed up on Tuesday and he thanked us for the gentle kick (;)) and called us back later to tell uswe were invited Sunday night for singing and a good little party with these friends of theirs! We were so proud of him, he said it wasn’t very easy to work up the courage, but he is just an awesome missionary! We had such a good time, and I think that the neighbors that came definitely felt something too. They were so sweet. We weren't being pushy missionaries or anything, we just got to know them, and it was good to connect with them! We also invited over one of the Mullers sons and his nonmember girlfriend, and we've been making really good friends with her too! Things just seem to be working out, and the Lord is really blessing this area! I hope that He continues to allow us to be a mouthpiece and help His children hear the gospel!!

Random little moment, we had 5 investigators at church on Sunday! That really might not 'seem like a lot, but for me, that is the most I have ever had! It is not easy to get investigators to church, but it is just such a blessing for them! The spiritual nourishment there can be much more than what we provide in lessons.

Oh, my goodness, speaking of fitness... I pray I survive this Christmas season. I’ve never had so many sweets in my life. I think that may have just been a coincidence this weekend, but I don’t feel like I had real food. What I said was true, this is the time to gather as a family and talk, laugh and eat SWEETS! I'm conscious of it, and I've been going on a bit longer of runs in the morning, but I definitely don’t feel as muscly... It’s weird and I miss it, but I know I can get back into weight lifting soon enough! I bought lots of fruits and veggies for the week today, so that made me feel better! Good job with you, you are rocking it! Fight hard!

You never told me how you feel about Dad’s new calling! Are you nervous? How are you feeling? You will be an awesome bishop’s wife, you have been preparing for this for a while! You can do this!

Again, thank you for the positive jokes and stories, you can totally keep those up if you want to! :) I know that there will be hard times, but I know who’s side I’m on and that's what matters. No matter how battered up I get, or difficult things happen, I know I am on the "winning team" so to say. That is enough to keep on fighting. I love this work with all of my heart. I know that my Savior is there for me. He loves me, and knows how we feel. I'm incredibly grateful for the scriptures and the peace that it brings. I know this is the truth, and what Heavenly Father wants me to do. I know my wonderful family can be together forever through His divine plan of happiness. What more could I want?

I love you a million sunshine-y days! I really really do! I pray that Heavenly Father will take care of you while I'm gone! Know I am happy, and EXTREMELY excited to talk to you in a few short weeks!

P.S. Peek at Dad’s email, I put a little information on Skyping there. Let me know when you want to do it!

Alles liebe und Frohliche Weihnachtszeit! Sister Macey Ingalls

[Note from MOM]

Sunday, Dad was called to be the Bishop of our ward and we didn't want Macey to find out from anyone else, so I sent her an email after sacrament and in the subject line I wrote, "Dad is the new Bishop!" so she would see it right away before she read anyone else's emails. The plan was to send her more detailed messages when we got home from church. Well, here was her immediate response, "WHAT. YOU CAN'T JUST PUT THAT AS A SUBJECT LINE AND NOT EXPLAIN OH MY GOODNESS WHAT!! We had a good laugh over that one!

CHRISTMAS, CHRISTMAS AND MORE CHRISTMAS

Christmas party picture with Louisa! She’s adorable and that was a really fun night!

At the Christmas party with Joseph! He was so excited to find the Book of Mormon in Swahili!

We learned how to wrap our hair like Marcia (Josephs wife) and it’s like the most comfortable thing ever #ImMovingtoAfrica 

Sister Decker and I have sleepovers on Thursdays and this time we made "smores". It kinda worked!

MEINE GUTE THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY! It's definitely weeks like these that make me so joyful as a missionary. I LOVE THIS WORK (p.s. I have no idea what happened to the format and I can’t fix it sooooooo.... sorry)

The Most Decked Out Ward Christmas Party I Have Ever Seen1. Our ward went all out- and I mean ALL OUT for our Christmas party! They made it into a traditional German Christmas Markt! We had a stand to give away Book of Mormons as wrapped presents! It was such a blast and so many of our friends, and friends of friends came, we met so many people that night!

2nd Advent!

2. Yesterday a family in the ward invited us over along with a bunch of neighbors and we sang carols and had a true advent time! It was wonderful to get to know new people and share a mutual belief in the joy of Christmas! Have I told you how amazing Christmas in Germany is yet?!?!

Winter Biking a.k.a. Missionary Olympic Sports

3. Hahaha okay we come out of an appt. last night and our bikes are just covered in snow, and snow is coming down like crazy. I don't think I've ever had so much fun riding home, who knew you could fishtail a trekking bike?! I mean it wasn't completely on purpose or anything, but now I'm thinking this is a real skill I'm acquiring to bike in the snow... in a skirt. Sometimes joy just comes in the simplest ways #PutItInTheOlympics

Just One More

4. We contacted people in Barmstedt and the first lady wasn't home, but I felt we should talk to her neighbor, even though we were on a bit of a tight schedule. We rang and she immediately fired a bunch of questions at us, I was like oh no what have I done haha. Well, we just asked to share the Christmas Initiative video with her and the 50,000 kids at her house and as she watched it, I completely saw her eyes soften and I know she felt something special. We are going back to visit this week! Moral of the story: follow prompting!!

"Bear with patience thine afflictions..."

5. "...and I will give unto thee success." I give you my testimony of the truth of this scripture.... Hey, not every day is going to be easy. I don't pray that my day is going to be easy, I pray that I'm going to learn something! Well, after lots of planning, prayers, fasting, more prayers and more planning, Joseph finally said in our last lesson that he will be baptized on January 6th! We are so excited for him, he is so humble and ready!!

So sorry this email is a novel, I just love this work! Love you all! Take this Christmas season to think about what matters most and especially to #LighttheWorld!

Frohliche Weihnachtszeit!!!!

Sister Macey Ingalls

Christmastime is a Dream in Germany! -- Dec. 5

Oh Hey, Mom, Good Morning :)
I'm gone 6 stinking months and NOW you get an animal?! My goodness, that was probably the biggest news of the week! [Conner is bringing his KITTY home for Christmas! This is a big deal because we have never had a large pet and Mom is allergic to cats!] When will Conner (and all of the boys actually) fly out for Christmas? Are you going to have Dallin and Emily there at all? Christmas is going to be so fun! I hope that the new little kitty addition doesn’t cause you any allergies. I totally think Dad is excited, he really loves cats. Oh man, that’s so cool! Just train her from the beginning (except cats aren’t super trainable like dogs) to not sit on just the sofa, but a blanket too! Those couches get cold though, if I were a cat I wouldn’t want my bare bum on it either.

Your letter was so cute this week! I’m happy to hear that you are lighting the other side of the world! TAP DANCING?! My goodness that made me completely bust up laughing when l read that. I can totally imagine you doing that, right in a busy store! Yup, you’re definitely my momma. I mean, if I wasn’t wearing a skirt and trying to be a good little representative, I totally would have been all over that store dancing. I miss that song! Speaking of which, we actually found Pentatonix Christmas album on the computer this week EEK! So I’ve been listening to a few of them, man they are so talented! The past few nights, I’ve been making up funny little dances to random songs and they’ve been giving me a good bit of joy.

Oh, by the way, I can read emails whenever I have down time, so reading your email doesn’t even count as the two hours of emailing time. Long or short, it doesn’t affect how much I send back because I still have the same amount of time! I guess I just didn’t notice that my email was short last week, maybe I just said everything more concise! I’ll try to make this email long, but this was not the most exciting of weeks.

In fact, if I’m going to be completely honest, this week was really hard. Definitely the hardest. It tried me over and over again and I was just kind of wishing the whole thing away. Remember how I said I felt a bit sick on Monday? I had a bit of a cold, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Tuesday morning, we wake up, and when we were planning I was just like boom boom boom, lets visit these people, go street contacting at this time and really use our time because we actually had free time for once this day (our time is always scheduled with lessons and eating appts here, it’s a bit nice because it’s getting really cold!). We had the idea to do our language study right away in the morning, and to go to a library because that gives us more chances of talking to people rather than practicing in our apartment! Sis Decker hardly said 2 words that morning, I just kind of thought she was in a bad mood. We got to the library and of course it’s only closed on Tuesdays (why Tuesdays?! That’s so random)! So, I was like Hey, let’s pull out some cards and do some street contacting along the way to this bakery that had a lot of tables to sit at. I stopped everyone and was talking and talking (street contacting is my favorite!), but Sister Decker just stood there! I was like “What the heck girl, this is not like you!” We went inside and studied, and I tried to shrug it off because it was starting to bother me. Once we were almost finished, she finally told me that she was feeling super sick and dizzy. This whole time I just thought she was in a bad mood! She called Sister Fingerle and she told her to go home and rest for a couple of hours until our appt that night.

Little did I know that would be our entire week... I slept a bit on Tuesday for like 20 minutes and then was totally fine, but poor Sis Decker just got sicker every day! Tuesday was fine because I was like cool, extra study time and I can just work over the phone! 3 hours later I was like dying of boredom haha. Wednesday rolls up and I was like cool, she got her rest now we can go for it today! We went to district meeting and she ended up having a fever. So, another half day out and then back home for the day for her to rest. Thursday was about the same and Friday as well. Saturday, I woke up sick with her and we were like, this is absolutely ridiculous. We spent the ENTIRE dang day at home. Sunday was just a tad better, I was totally fine halfway through Saturday but she just wasn’t getting better.

Ok, I think you get the point. We hardly did anything at all this week. It was absolutely the most boring week of my mission. It tried my patience so much, because I just wanted to work so bad. I was feeling like I was a terrible missionary, wasting my time. I didn’t want Heavenly Father to think I wasn’t reading and willing to do all that he asked of me. We just didn’t have time to be sick. It was so frustrating because we had the goals and appts that we couldn’t keep.

Then, it hit me on Saturday. Maybe I did have something to learn after all. I wasn’t thinking of my companion’s feelings very much, I was just feeling more and more sorry for myself. Many members and Sister Fingerle said that a fever means staying in bed all day. We probably just kept making it worse by trying to go out and do stuff this week. Although it was really really hard, I did learn something this week, in that my companion is my first and foremost priority. It was very obvious I couldn’t do the work alone and I need her! I just struggled with not feeling very successful this week. 

But hey, I’m okay and the work goes on! I studied lots of German this week, made lots of phone calls, talked to lots of people over Whatapps and Facebook and we got a new investigator, the friend from a member! We also got a good schedule set up for this week, and it makes me feel very good we are going right back to work! I just had this fear that laziness would try to take us over here, and there is too much to do to be lazy!

Speaking about your little dancing in a store, I got a little taste of dancing this week! Friday night I was just stressed and sad, and got the thought to just turn on some music and improv! Man, I’m so out of practice and our cute little living room doesn’t provide much space, but I LOVED IT! It totally lifted my spirits and actually made me feel the spirit more! Dance is the art of the soul, for sure! I’ve been doing random bits here and there at night now, including silly little skit dances to make Sister Decker laugh!

Oh, those LETTERS MAMA!! I’ve been opening them at like 9 am, they are exciting! So far it’s been Johnsons, Teigs and even Mrs. McCormick!! How in the world did you get all of these people to help?! They have really brightened my day, and I totally am writing response letters/emails! Thank you for these and I’m excited to keep opening them! And getting the packages on the 12th!! It’s a good thing I don’t have it now because I don’t know that I’ll be able to wait too long! I’m excited for the dress you sewed for me!

Well, I’m writing this on my tablet in the morning because we are going to HAMBURG TODAY! EEK! We are doing a district pday, so all of us are meeting there at noon and going to the Weihnachts Markt and touring a chocolate factory!! How cool is that?! I will take loads and loads of pictures don’t you worry! I might even try to just send them tonight. Hopefully that will make up for the lack of pictures this week, because I really had 0 opportunities to take them, except one day I wanted a new profile picture and some pictures for my Facebook post, but I don’t really care for them. I’ll send them anyway though!

I just put letters in the mail today for you and Dad, be on the lookout for 2 of them in a few weeks! I’m cheap and didn’t put priority on them😁😁😁 but Dads I wrote a bunch of German Christmas traditions, but I realized they will probably get to you too late to share the fun so I’ll write them here!

1. Advent! Each Sunday leading up to Christmas (for a total of 4) is an advent. So yesterday was first advent! I couldn’t get a solid answer from anyone what it actually meant until we went to the Müllers for dinner last night. So, Christmas time is all about the family and quality family time. The tradition is within a wreath that holds four candles. You simply light the first one on first advent and then you keep it going until Christmas, adding another flame every advent! You blow out the flame at night of course, but usually people display it in their living rooms or windows. It’s simple, I like it! The other part is that it’s just an excuse to get the family together to eat or have sweets. Lebkuchen is really popular. It’s basically just ginger bread cookies, but really soft. Do you like ginger bread at all? Or marzipan? I should totally send some of that home. That is like the epitome of Germany. Marzipan is disgusting though, and tbh I don’t really care for lebkuchen very much either.

2. St. Nicholaus Tag! That’s on 6. December, and its German wide! The kids all polish or clean their shoes and set them outside. Then they wake up in the morning and find that St. Nicholaus put sweets in their shoes! Cute huh? I hope they clean their shoes very well, because that could be a little gross! I think I want to do that tradition with my kiddos in the future though, its again, simple!

There’s more but I’ll save those for another week! I’m so excited to go to Hamburg today!!

Oh, one last random thing, I loved the advice you sent that said "Don’t limit Gods powers by saying you can’t!" I find that so cool. It isn’t really our right or place to say we can’t do anything, we just need to do what he wants us to do and help the people he is reaching out to!

*slight add in, TODAY WAS AMAZING! I took lots and lots of pictures, but we have an appt at 6. The tour was amazing and super interactive! Crazy cool thing, the tour guide actually used to be Mormon, and two of his sisters went on missions! And we met a guy from California doing a study abroad and he hung out with all of us the rest of the tour! Das Welt ist klein! We checked out the Markt after, you would have been in HEAVEN! Delicious food, beautiful presents, the works! I bought a star to go in the window, and kakao with a souvenir mug! It was amazing! I think we need to go together some day :)

I love you a million Weihnachts Markts! Christmas time is a dream in Germany!

Love, Sister Macey Ingalls

P.S. The Elders took our eating appt with the pancake lady this week, they were so excited to go 😂 they called us after and said that that they just did the biggest service for us. One ate 4 pancakes, the other ate 6! Hahaha but they said that wasn’t even that bad, it was the pudding afterward that killed them! They were so full! The lady loved the Elders so much and loved how much they ate, SHE INVITED THEM BACK NEXT MONTH!! 😂😂😂 Miracles DO happen!