I also can't believe you're going to be in Hawaii TOMORROW! That's so exciting. I'd tell you to take pictures but I already know that you will :-) Of course you've all been packed for weeks, I know my family! The only thing that could make Grandma more packed to go is actually getting INSIDE the suitcase! Haha. Are you going to visit the historical museums again? Don't worry about sending me a long email next week while you are enjoying the beautiful beaches (dang I'm a little jealous!), but I expect a full report the next week!
Little Falls looked fun, I loved the pictures! I seriously have the cutest family. You look beautiful and happy with all of those ladies, I love seeing you're happy smile! I can even imagine the good ol' Weekley girl cackle. Also, Sara looks AWESOME! Totally cute hair, totally doesn't look preggo yet. Dang. I'm excited about the skirts! I loveeee new clothes hehe. What dress from Express?! Am I supposed to know what that is? I'm excited though! I do repeat outfits a lot because those are obviously my favorite and most comfortable. There are a couple that are too thin now, it's getting a bit cold! But the purple stretchy one is altogether way too big and I haven't even worn that one yet... I hope I'm never able to haha!
Elder Miller was awesome. [He gave her good advice before she went on her mission and she got to go teaching with him and his companion and Freddy before she left. He and his new companion in our ward just got approved for FB too] I still remember that lesson that I went to with him and Elder Smith. It was a good lesson, man I kind of wish I could get the chance to teach in English haha! But I have the rest of my life to do that #membermissionary. If I've learned anything though, it's how I can help the missionaries! It's actually not too hard to give them referrals for investigators or people that need help in the ward. I'll also know how to teach with them, YES! So I hope I get the chance to be in a ward with some sister missionaries in the next few years.
Yeah, I still don't love Facebook but it's not really a choice to use it. There is a lot of good on there and useful things (for example, facebook messenger is my only form of contact with 2 investigators), but there are some downs. Yes, you can catch yourself scrolling and that's not okay. It's one thing to look through it, another to refresh refresh refresh. That's when you're wasting time. Also, I can still see what's going on at home. I should probably unfollow some more people, but random posts will always pop up like someone got married, had a baby or some crazy hike (yes, I am jealous of all hikers!)
As a matter of fact, yes, I did have a super fun pday! TODAY! Last district meeting we decided to do a district pday next week in Zwickau, and do a big picnic and fahrradtour!! So today, we borrowed some bikes from the Ungers and checked out the path! It's actually the same one we did my first Saturday in Germany with the ward. It's crazy, I remembered the whole route. It was soooo beautiful, I'll attach pics. But my tire was a bit flat, and Bro. Unger packed us with a bike pump so we stopped a bit of the way in and I tried to pump it up. Well, whatever that thing was was NOT a bike pump, it sucked all of the air out of the tire!! So now I had a completely flat tire! We decided to wait around until someone came and ask if they had a bike pump. I thought for sure that it would take awhile, but the VERY first person that came by had one!!! It was seriously such a miracle. His name was Ky, and he was soooo kind. I had no idea what he was saying, I should probably study up a bit more on my bicycle anatomy vocab, but he fixed it all up. I totally thanked Heavenly Father the whole time, I still just can't believe how wonderful that was. We wouldn't have gotten very far at all without Ky's help!
It's quite the project to visit every member! It's actually been such a blessing though. They've welcomed us in, they always feed us (even though we say we just want to go over and share a quick spiritual thought with them!) and we ask them 1 or 2 questions: referrals for investigators and referrals for service or help in the ward. We figured out quickly that nobody will say they need help, but they know someone else in the ward that could use some! So we have some people this week we need to go by on and set up some appts! We have 2 projects planned this week though, 1 is cleaning the apartment of a cute old couple with their daughter and 2 is a huge service day in Jena with the entire zone! It's apparently going to be huge so I'll let you know how that goes! I love serving these people in the little ways too. We take every member a birthday present to their house. It's small, but I really want them to know that the missionaries care about them.
Things could not be better with Sister Grisham! I seriously love her so much. We have pretty similar personalities so the whole day is just laughing and having a good time (I promise learning and teaching too! Just the fun way!!) The only problem is honestly the food. I feel super bad, but the ward knows how much I loveeee their vegetables and that I don't eat very much meat. Well, she's exactly the opposite, and can barely choke down zucchini. We had fresh from garden veggie lasagna on Sunday. I'm pretty sure that recipe is making a run for your wild rice soup recipe!) [Blasphemy! Haha MOM] So yeah, it's kind of a rock in a hard place because all of the Germans are SUPER understanding of what I like to eat, but they think she should just "eat her veggies"! Haha whoops! But really though, I'm pretty sure that we will stay together next transfer. We make a good team. It'd be nice to not completely teach the lessons by myself, but I'm trying to give her more opportunities to lead the lesson and speak up a bit more. :-)
One thing I wish I knew before going on my mission... Wow that is actually kind of a hard one! I really felt as adequately prepared as I could be. Nobody will ever be completely ready to leave their family and language and everything that makes them comfortable and start over. I feel like the only thing I can think of is I wish I had known how to study the scriptures a bit better! I've been figuring it out a lot here on what really answers my questions and is spiritually uplifting for the day, and not just reading "and it came to pass" a bunch of times with a bunch of mumbo jumbo in the middle. We had interviews with the mission president in Leipzig on Thursday, and he asked me a similar question, "As a missionary, if you could have anything right now, what would it be?" and I said that I wanted a better knowledge and depth of the scriptures. He said, well I have a talk for you to read! It's a fireside address from Elder Bednar. I'm going to attach it and you should totally read it. I'll give it to dad too. But it changed my perspective on reading the Book of Mormon! Reading it through cover to cover 1-2 times is sufficient. Then is another level of study. Then another! There is sooooo much there that I just wish to know. And now is the perfect time to learn, I'm blessed with at least an hour of studying in the scriptures virtually every day.
Oh yeah, raincoat is from Sister Alton. Its called a "Wohnung special", basically everything people leave behind. She was going home so she dumped a lot of clothes to make room for treasures, so I happily took another coat!
Also another week of rocking my health! It's been nice to do this together with Sister Grisham and not buy any sweets, and only eat the ones members give us. We planned out all of our meals again this week and I'm planning on turkey/veggie/rice mix (the rice you gave me yay!!), pesto noodles, a veggie burger and wraps! I love going shopping with a list, I don't spend as much and I don't end up wasting fruits and veggies by letting them go bad! This is such an awesome idea! P.S. whether or not we have a good exercise week, we need to update our little fitness thread, so send me yours for this last week!! I'm keeping you accountable!! (I will be a bit jealous of your log next week saying "2 hours swimming on the beach, 4 hours walking through WWII memorial, etc etc!) [We keep a running fitness log together of all the exercise we got for the week. It helps us both be accountable to someone for what we do in a week! MOM]
I have the perfect amount of sweaters! It is absolutely the most beautiful weather. I'm soaking it in! It's sad to think of all of the bad weather going on in America though. It just makes me think of all of the prophecies that America is the promised land, but if the people are corrupt then Heavenly Father will destroy them... The 2nd coming is definitely closer than I ever thought it would be... Let me know how Wendy is though, I'm praying that she and all of those affected are okay! [She is my cousin who lives in Naples, Florida, the place where they predict the eye of Hurricane Harvey will go to in the States. MOM] That's wonderful to hear that the missionaries and church are responding so fast to the damage. Want to hear a cool insight? Somewhere in the Bible (sorry don't have time to look where it is) it says that God does nothing, save he first reveals it to the prophets. That means that the Prophet knows everything, including things like these big storms. No wonder they can respond fast, the Prophet was preparing the church members way before it even happened!
Well, I hope you have a wonderful time in Hawaii! Soak up the sun, eat lots of food truck shrimp and enjoy a delicious shave ice for me!! (yummmm with sweetened condensed milk!!! nope nope nope stop thinking about that Macey its still 3 weeks until I can buy a sweet) Oh, speaking of which, I'm sending a little surprise home! I don't know how long packages take to get there, but expect one sometime in the near future!
I love you a million Hawaiian beaches!!
Love, Sister Macey Ingalls
P.S. YOU ARE JUST SO CUTE!! Thank you for the pictures! I miss you !
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