This was by far, hands down the BEST week of my mission yet! I've just been so happy and I'm excited to tell you why!!
First things first, I'm starting with the last day with Sister Alton. The last days with her were especially hard because she didn't get up until like 9 am. I wanted to be motivated and I tried but, man, it was so hard without your companions support... So I still got up at about 7:15ish but we hadn't done exercise time in over a week (I can't blame that on her, I didn't get up either.) We packed and cleaned, but she planned a little afternoon photo shoot with Janina and Laura, two of the young adults in our ward. That's where the pictures of me in the bell-sleeve shirt and the red dress come from! It was fun, but I felt like we were just having another pday. Well, our one appt. fell through, so we walked home and grabbed some snacks from the store (ice cream may have been included in that trip...) because it was going to be a long last night of getting everything together for her to leave and a new girl ready to come in. I go to open the door and I FORGOT MY KEYS. Yeah, so we were locked out with a bunch of snacks. Of course, just a couple of hours earlier, Alton gave me her keys in preparation for the next sister to have them. I had no idea what to do, and Alton was looking at me like "Uh oh, now what?"... Well, this is where I'm proud to have been somewhat of a tomboy growing up. We live on the second floor, and have a balcony. I was pretty sure the door was unlocked if I could only get up there. Right next to the balcony is a huge 15 ft. wall covered in vines and shrubbery. I think you can see where this is going... I managed to find my way behind the wall (unfortunately that was was where all of the dumpsters were) and pull myself through thorn bushes and shrubs. Granted I'm in my brand new shirt and a borrowed skirt that I didn't want to ruin, so I hiked up the skirt which resulted in my legs looking like they've been eaten alive by piranhas. Well, eventually I made it to the top of the ledge and pulled myself up into our balcony! It was surprisingly not that hard, so I'm never leaving that door unlocked again because that means other people can climb in hahah! Well, to my disappointment, it was locked. Yeah, I did that for nothing but it's still a funny story to tell that I scaled a wall in a skirt. We ended up going to the church to look for the keys but no luck. The only other key was held by Sch. Unger who, of course, was on vacation on the Baltic Sea. We ended up camping out at the church for a couple hours and had dinner there. Luckily the Bishop was there at the same time and helped us out. We eventually got ahold of Sch. Unger and got Janina her daughter to get the key and bring it to work, where we had to drive with the Bishops wife to go get it. Ugh what a mess. But hey, we still got in at about 9:30 so it wasn't too bad. We were thinking we'd have to sleep at the Bishop's house and miss going to Freiberg in the morning to drop off Alton and pick up the trainee (wouldn't that have been a disaster!). Well, it all worked out, but I definitely got a good amount of time to think during that time. For some reason, I just knew within myself that had we gotten up and exercised that morning, read our scriptures for a full hour, planned the day out together and sooooo many other little things, this would not have happened. That night, I got on my knees and prayed until who knows when. I did not want my trainees training to go like that. I asked Heavenly Father that if I would be 100% obedient every single day, that He would in return give me the strength I needed for each day to strengthen this area and my trainee. The Spirit manifested to me that this would happen, and I can honestly say I feel that I've been 100% obedient this week.
Man, am I ever so glad that I made that decision! That is the reason behind me being so happy! So many things have happened that I wish I had an entire day to tell you about them. I'll just tell you in a timeline though to organize it a bit better! So yes, I did make it to Freiberg to pick up my trainee alright! She's just the cutest thing ever, her name is Sister Grisham! She's from Alaska, so I knew we were going to have a fun time together battling the cold in just a few months! (This is crazy it's September this week... I've been on my mission an entire summer...?!) We got to know each other on the train ride back (also proud of myself for planning way ahead to make sure nothing went wrong on her first day!) and we are going to get along so well! She's so uplifting and happy, especially ready to work. This is one of the things I've realized quickly is that I absolutely love training right now because we both have a bunch of fire in us to work hard. And, man, did we do that this week! I told her on the way back that we run every single morning unless the weather is bad. The only other option I gave her is that she can sit on the steps and watch me run if she doesn't feel like working out, but we are going to be up and ready for Morgen Sport every day! She was excited though, and we had a good first run together! Definitely first blessing of being obedient in that I had tons of energy that day, and so much time in the morning to get everything done! We also had our first lesson together on Thursday with a guy named Martin! We actually taught him twice but lost contact with him for awhile. Well, I randomly Facebook messaged him last week and he actually answered and said he was down for a lesson again! I've stopped by his house a couple of times before as well, but the doorbell was broken and we didn't have his number so it was impossible to get a hold of him. Well, I was still nervous with the possibility of not getting a hold of him, so when we got there I said I wanted to pray before we touched the doorbell. I pleaded with God, right there in that parking lot, that the doorbell would work and we could teach Martin a lesson today. Well, IT WORKED! Some may say it was coincidentally fixed, but I know that was a blessing from God. The lesson went pretty good! I went from not saying anything in lessons to giving the entire lesson, so that was interesting! It was so sweet too, because I wanted to understand everything, so sometimes Martin would even try to speak English with us! Overall, really awesome. I hope that he will soon have the desire to start reading the Book of Mormon and learning on his own.
Okay this may become super lengthy so I should probably be a tad bit less detailed haha! The rest of the week went well, we stayed busy and visited people and planned ways we can use our talents to help the ward this transfer. I have a strong testimony of weekly planning! I know it was really long for Grisham to sit through 3 hours of me word vomiting all of the individual and ward goals I have for this transfer, but it was SO good for me to get it on paper! I really think that we are here together for a reason and we can leave this ward better than how it was when we came! I also planned for us to go to a stake relief society activity on Saturday in Chemnitz, but the Zone Leader told me last minute that we actually can't go if we don't bring someone. I wanted to go SO bad, we worked hard to find someone to bring. Well, like I was saying earlier, I know that Heavenly Father was blessing me for obediently working hard. The ward Relief Society president calls me and offers to give us a ride on Saturday, I express the issue. She says, oh nonsense, a bunch of us our bringing our friends and we need to have you sisters there!! Let ME call him! So after a few if ands and buts, I gave her the number. A few minutes later, the ZL called and said that all was good to go! YES! We had lots of fun, and I learned a lot there! Grisham got a good chance to practice her German (She's honestly so cute. She can only say her name, where she's from and "that is cool!" along with a brief testimony. Yet we just made it a goal together to just ALWAYS smile, and it makes a huge difference!)
Sunday was also really cool. Church was difficult for Grisham as it was for me on my first Sunday, but she pushed through like a champ. We got a new Ward Mission Leader which is another amazing blessing. Our previous one didn't want to meet with us or help much. Well, this new one is ready to WORK! He just asked if we could meet for 10 minutes after church to be on the same page, and it was probably the most productive 10 minutes of my entire life. I'm so excited to work with him. I think him paired with two young energetic sister missionaries is going to be the dream team that this ward needs! Also, Sch. Unger (the Relief Society president)s daughter and grandkids were in town from Washington as well! The little boys were 4 and 6 I think, and I got the chance to translate two hours of church for them! I'm not sure one counts though, because we mostly just played with toys. That leads me into another miracle. Ever since we had that lesson with Martin, I've been able to understand more than I possibly thought I would at this point in my mission. In fact, on Sunday I understood just about everything! It seriously is a gift from God, and I know that he is strengthening my speech. Last week, there is absolutely no way I would have been able to translate for those little boys, let alone have meaningful conversations other than just hello and good morning with the members on Sunday. I can't even tell you enough how much of a difference there is. We ate at the Bishop's house after church, and we walked home with him. He even said he noticed it! He said that the Lord will give you the strength that you need in your time of need when you call upon him! I absolutely love the bishop. A goal that I had during weekly planning was to gain the trust of the bishop. It must be hard going from a very old, experienced missionary to two brand new ones that don't know the language super great. I didn't want him to think that was going to be a negative thing on our ward at all. After dinner, ( I reeeeeally enjoyed the Bishop's wife's cooking, it was so healthy! Also I'm pretty much in love with vegetables now. All of them.) I prepared the shortest little spiritual thought. It was just a quote from President Uchtdorf about those who hold callings in the church are not perfect, but ultimately the church is. I had him read that and we shared thoughts, but then I boldly just told him what I thought. I said that we are here and ready to work, and ultimately help him out. I wanted to know what his goals were for the ward and what we could do to support him. I think he was impressed and a bit surprised with my boldness, but he told me everything. It was amazing. It feels wonderful to be on the same page, I feel like I accomplished my goal. Again, another blessing from Heavenly Father.
Okay, I've definitely taken up like all of my time writing this email, but it was just the best week. It reinstated why I want to be here. I love having goals and working toward them! I love living the standard of obedience! I'm thankful for the support I have at home so that I can focus on the work here!
To Mom specifically: Go you for working out so much! That's awesome that you're getting ready for Hawaii. When are you going? As for sandals, we're not allowed to wear those. Also that is an awesome story and even cooler that President Packer's grandson and family are in our ward now!!They must be going through a very hard time. I know the same trial that you had was so hard mom, but do you realize the impact its made for good?! You've been able to connect with so many other people that are hurting and heal them, along with having such a deep, personal, spiritual experience. It's hard to think about, but there have been a lot of blessings that have come from that experience. I know its reaffirmed my testimony of the Plan of Salvation, because I do feel that I'm going to see my dear brother again!!
I love you a million veggie burgers that I got from BioMarkt today! (A vegan sister in our ward introduced them to me and they are to die for!)
Love, Sister Macey Ingalls (The Messy Angel)
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