This Week in Pictures (Oct 22)

1. No explanation
2. Don't judge me its pday
3. That scarf thingy saved my liffffeeee
4-7. Photoshoot Pics
8. Sister Macey Ingalls - Castle in Auerbach
9-10. Yes, we left the house like this one morning to get something quick from the church.. we died
laughing hahahah!!!

11. Omaaa...
12. ...and the very clean windows!

13. District

14. Alles gute zum Geburtstag distrikt leiter Elder Hofeling! Packaged cake but still cake

P.S. I did get your pics, and they were HILARIOUS! That's so funny they have German costumes!! 

Also, do you have any pictures of older relatives faces you could send me? Like Grandpa Jack, and great grandparents? I'm trying to put together a "My Family" booklet to share genealogy like Sister Grisham! :)

Sister Macey Ingalls

Called to Literally Serve, a Non-Party and a Finding Photoshoot

Pics: Our "professional" photoshoot, Omaaa!, the non-party squad and the random cat Grisham lured into our district pday today...

Service

1. This week was FULL of service opportunities and it was AMAZING! Most lessons learned was with garden work for the sweetest older lady. She told us at the beginning that it was all weeds, but I definitely should have taken that with a grain of salt... I found out after we were done that I pulled up a bunch of her herbs and frantically "re-planted" before we left.. I'm going to have to do some damage control tomorrow...

Auerbach

2. We decided to switch things up this week and go talk to some new people in Auerbach, a nearby smaller city! Here is where we met Wolle, an awesome hippy photographer dude. We had a super cool conversation, then he offered to take pictures for us! It was so funny, we made a friend, and we got some "professional" pictures!

Marshmallow Gma

3. Update: she is still adorable. We offered to clean her windows this week. Once we were done, I pointed out the window and said "Look, now you can see the miracles that God has created!" Her husband was having an especially hard day with his health, and his whole demeanor changed because of the beautiful sunshine coming through those newly cleaned windows. Makes me think: what dirty windows do I have in my life that are keeping me from seeing the beautiful miracles that God is working? #deepthoughtswoahhhh

A Non-Party

4. For Stake Conference this weekend, we had to overnight in Leipzig, and ended up with EIGHT SISTERS in their tiny apartment. We got the okay to do it as long as we weren't having a "party". Needless to say, the non party was pretty dang fun and it was good to see all of the MTC friends again :)

Reichenbach WILL Bring Miracles!

5. We chose to also check out Reichenbach this week (our area is huge!). We planned a small visit to a member family, before contacting, and it was one of the most spiritual lessons I have had. I felt prompted to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon and tell them that we had the faith that we could find people in their city that are searching for this message. We asked them to prayerfully consider a specific street that we could contact people on. They humbly accepted, and we are following up this week! I KNOW that Heavenly Father loves His children, and I am so grateful I get this chance to spread His love!

Love you all, thank you for your prayers and support! 

Macey Ingalls

Late Night Talks with Grisham -- October 22

Mommy!!
I just love you! I had a wonderful week and I have lots and lots to write you and dad!!

That's so exciting that you wrote me a letter! I'm so sorry, the letter I'm writing is slowly but surely being written, but hey, good news, I'm sending a Christmas package to you next week in hopes that it will get there in time! I'm so excited to send something, even if it isn't super big! Know that it was sent with lots and lots of love!

To answer your random questions:

*haha "egal" means "whatever". I speak pretty firm danglish now!

*I WILL WEAR MY RETAINER UNTIL I DIE. I lost my retainer for a couple of months in college, its really the worst without it. Haven't missed a single day of wearing it since then!

*Yeahhhh unfortunately we get flu shots at next weeks Zone Conference :(((((

*I did not bring my burgundy knit dress out, but I did get your package!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! It made my whole entire day, week, month, everything!!! Those pumpkin spice bites were SO good, I could probably live off of those. The clothes were cute too! I'm so grateful you sent them. The skirts sadly look a little funny on me, but I will try to see how I can work with them. The shawl/scarf thing took me like 20 minutes to figure out haha but totally saved my life in the rain a couple days ago!!

*Wild rice soup was EASY. I'm such a pro, I'm totally going to have you running for your money in a couple years, watch out! It was really good, Sister Grisham even said so and she is picky! ;-) [We'll see about that! Love, MOM]

*Fitness is still going! It's sad, defff losing a lot of muscle and really miss the gym, but I guess what matters to me is that I still care. I run every morning in the parking lot even though its cold and Grisham just like, lays on the ground (she still can't exercise because of her ankle, its hard on her too). But hey, Im doing it!! Go for a nice walk if its nice, I've found I just have to start working out and then the motivation comes! I've also really found love in just running, no music. It's really peaceful and I hope some day I'll get to run a few extra miles in the mornings.

*I MISS HIGH HEELS. Our district got lunch before interviews in Leipzig on Friday, and we walked past a shoe store. Like, a really pretty one. Ugh they were all gorgeous. I bet they were all my size... Sister Grisham and I had to help each other keep walking...

I feel like this week was just overall a pivotal week in my mission, and I'm not even really sure why. I owe it to my lovely companion. We are really good for each other. I just get down sometimes because I feel like I should be giving even more to the work, but sometimes I just don't know how to. Sometimes I don't really feel like a good missionary. During one of our nightly talks, Grisham especially helped me feel better. I said that I feel like I won't see the effects of what I've tried to do in the ward until a while after I leave and Grisham just said, are you kidding? This ward is so different! Janina (my home girl, I really love her) is going on a mission, and has good support from us. She said she's confident that the whole wards knows how much I love and care about them. I really truly care about their lives, and hope the best for them! Maybe Heavenly Father has blessed these people through me, and I love Him so much for being able to work through a small sister missionary like me. Every single day I just get more motivation to TRY. I always used to say things like I don't know how to be a missionary or whatever, but I decided I'm not going to say that anymore. Instead, I'm going to diligently follow the Spirit and always listen to little promptings I receive. I truly want to become the most that Heavenly Father can help me become, and I think this has just been the good humbling week to do it! I totally see what people say about their missions, I feel deeply and truly passionate about missionary work. It's only fun if you work hard.

Another interesting late night talk with Grisham (its been a good building week for me!). I just simply asked her what her love language was and she said service. I told her that, right now, mine is words of affirmation. After a big long conversation, we both came to the realization that we have been trying to show each other we love each other through our OWN love languages, not the others! It was a good learning point to realize that I could say all the nice things in the world about G, but actually making her bed or getting some of her things ready for her in the morning would mean more to her! And she was doing those things for me, and I was more worried about how she thought I was doing with certain things and getting feedback on things I'm trying to do and accomplish. It was just really interesting to find out that love languages actually mean something!?! Once you figure theirs out, its a whole lot easier to let someone know you love them!! P.S. mine with you, Mom, is great big ol' bear hugs... I guess I can try to survive until I get another one.

Overall, we found a lot of successes and small miracles throughout the week. We preached the gospel! We went to a couple different cities to change up what we always do.

Question time!

Apparently, you are addicted to the food your mom craved while you were in the womb... Weird question, but what did you like to eat when you were pregnant with me?

Tell me a funny story again of when you used to babysit Sara and Mike as kids. I faintly remember them hiding food behind the cabinets. 

Is everyone coming home for Christmas?

When are you going out to Utah? I need to coordinate something with you that you can give to Brittney before her wedding... Or maybe I'll get Paul to do it, I'm not certain yet.

How is your quilt coming along?

Anything new that you have learned from your scripture study this week? What is your favorite conference talk (maybe you answered that but I don't remember)

Sorry my email is all over the place, but we had district pday today and really didn't get a ton of time to email because they were really busy beating me in games.... :(

I love you a million days as a missionary! I really wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Love, Sister Macey Ingalls

Marshmallow Oma, I'm a Silly American and Rapunzel's Tower!

Marshmallow Oma

1. I can't help it- my heart just melts around older people. One of the members wanted us to visit her parents and teach them! When we walked in, she introduced us as "2 little angels" and the cutest old lady just opened her arms and gave me the biggest hug (and then like 12 more)! She said to call her "Oma Bauer", because she's adopting us. The lesson went well too!! I'm so excited to start teaching them (91% to share the gospel, 9% for Oma's hugs...)

Carrying the Team on My Back

2. Sister Grisham messed up her foot while running a week ago, so it's been hard on her walking so much. We've found a good solution for her inability to walk up hills and my itch to get a better workout- I just carry her!!! We definitely make people smile- it's probably the funniest thing watching a girl in a skirt piggy-back another girl in a skirt! Haha

Silly American

3. Yesterday we had to take the tram to get home from a members house. My monthly bus pass expired that day, but I thought all would be well since it was only about 3 oclock and it expired at 4. The guy came to look at our tickets, and I made a joke that I was cutting it close. He looked at me confused and said that my pass expired at 4 oclock this morning. GERMANS RUN ON A 24 HOUR CLOCK. He shouted very loudly to his college for "backup" to help with this "silly American girl" situation. Yeah, I felt so dumb and panicked because fines are pretty expensive. I totally lost it, I was super embarrassed and TOTALLY cried!! The cute old lady behind me stepped in and told the guy that I would be riding with her, since she could take guests (this is why I love old people!). Needless to say, SUPER embarrassing and Sister Grisham got a good kick out of me actually getting flustered. But hey, the checker guy ended up giving me a tissue instead of a ticket, so who is the real winner here?! #lessonlearnedthough

Rapunzel's Tower

4. We decided to do a bit of exploring today and found a huge staircase along the river. Naturally, we climb the never ending thing and found a tower overlooking the city! It was definitely worth the quad-screaming stair workout.

Freiberg

5. I went on exchanges to Freiberg last week, and it was an AMAZING experience- and was a pivotal moment for me. I had the chance to go to the temple early the next morning in place of personal scripture study. I was able to pray and receive answers to my questions about how to approach missionary work in Zwickau. Heavenly Father's temples are such a blessing to His children on earth!!

Love you all!! You are blessed, and you are loved by me, friends and family and your Heavenly Father!!

Sister Ingalls

I can't not climb juuuuuust a little bit higher

Fav flowers- they are hollow inside!! Its the weirdest thing, I call them lanterns

Perks of going to the temple reeeeeeally early- perfect lighting!

The elders actually cooked for district meeting!?!? We were impressed!

This Week in Pictures (Oct. 15)

Sister Bagnoud and I before switching back- I seriously LOVE this sister!!!

THE FUNNIEST DISTRICT LEADER I'VE EVER HAD, ALSO THE ONLY ONE :)

"Come to Zion, come to Zion"

A different angle of my favorite place!

Croissant Monday!!!!

Ughhhhh I love Fall and highkey miss pants all the time!

Today Sister Renkewitz (Bishop’s wife) taught us how to make Quarkkäulchen!!!!

She’s so cute and tiny and has a ton of energy, reminds me of Gma

She told me this was a "beautiful" picture hahah

Finished product!! Truly German- basically potato pancakes with Quark (I don’t know how to describe it, you can’t get it in America) and raisins. You put sugar and applesauce (homemade from their trees of course!) on top! Super delicious!! Really heavy though!

Grisham's strap to her bag broke today. Her logic - buy another purse and then carry

the other one to fix later. Made literally no sense to me but she does her.

Our walk was GORGGG today

She’s a boss

Peace yoooooooo

It was so pretty today, it felt like June!!

I didn’t know how to pose so Sister Grisham said "do something natural!!!". This is what happened

Literally, only dance pose I pull anymore

For some reason standing on the railing is a lot more fun!

Full view of the tower thingy!

I don’t remember if I sent this but nevertheless it was pretty.

                                           

I love you, have a wonderful week!!!

Freiberg With Sister Bagnoud! -- October 15

Sister Ingalls #1!!!!!!!!!! 

Man, I just love your emails. You are so uplifting to me, and I really appreciate the advice you give me!! I've grown up just a tiny bit and your advice is golden to me, you know!!

I kind of wondered about people snubbing their noses at the lunch. It really was a great idea, I just think some people expect things to be all perfect and elegant for big church activities. Eh, egal. I hope that didn't bother you! But way to go with the successful turnout! Its okay that the active members were the ones that came, they can be encouraged to share the knowledge with their friends! That's a totally awesome, lowkey way of sharing the gospel, maybe through a family home evening. Haha missionary mentality has totally taken over and I just think of all of these things as really REALLY easy ways to share the gospel!!

That blanket is SO cute!! Awh I wish I had one. I want one for Christmas next year!! :) When is Christy due? I was pretty sure this year but I actually have no idea. You sent me a picture of you, her and Janell a couple months ago and she had a teeny bump, so maybe soonish?? Speaking of Janell, how is their family doing? Were they just visiting Minnesota? I might be wrong, but I think Derrick comes home from his mission next month! Do you know if he served in the Lyon or the Paris mission? The Lyon mission covers one of my favorite sister missionary's area (will explain later :)))). 

That really made me smile to see your talk notes. From what Dad told me, it was amazing :) Its actually been a really long time since I've  heard you give a talk now that I think about it! I loved that you asked those rhetorical questions. They are so true though. The opposite of faith is fear. Faith is from God, and fear is from you-know-who (not Voldemort...) I've especially tango-ed with this idea. Missionary work can be really scary, its not easy just suddenly talking to everyone about Jesus! But like one of my favorite talks from this conference said, hard is a really good thing. When you do hard things, they become easier! Not because the actual task becomes simpler, but because YOU become stronger!! The more I share the gospel, the stronger I feel in doing so! I LOVE sharing the gospel! Heavenly Father has given me the strength to quickly bear my testimony when people ask who we are. I've found that the best way to get them to understand we are servants of Christ is to just bear our testimony of Him, and that His gospel was restored to the earth by his latter day prophet Joseph Smith. Yeah, I'm pumped that I still have a decent amount of time to figure out this whole missionary thing.

Quick answers to questions!:

No I haven't received your package yet, I will have the opportunity on Friday at interviews with the President! I've received quite a few letters and I'm pretty sure I addressed those an email or two ago, especially the one with the Plan of Salvation! :) I'm in the process of writing a letter, but we are only supposed to write them on Mondays!

[Responding to the question: Are you going to be able to go back to wearing high heels again or are you converted to frumpy flats for life? Heehee] HECK NO. I really miss heels. Secretly (not so secretly) on pdays we really like to go shopping and just try on the cute heels! Ah someday.... Someday....

Speaking of the letter with the Plan of Salvation cut out cards in it, we got to teach that lesson (using the cards!) to Helga this week! She's just this cute little 80 year old with the chatterbox of a squirrel. I really love her. But the lesson went well! I can't believe we didn't teach this lesson first, because she sadly told us that she lost her husband and both children over the years. She was really interested in the spirit world after this life. She said that it makes sense, her husband visited her in a dream and said that he didn't have much time, but he wanted to tell her he loved her. I love our time with Helga. It is a little difficult though, because she talks so fast and in the very hard accent of the people down here (have I ever mentioned that? The accent here makes the German like a completely other language!) Sister Grisham can't understand her at all. So I talk a lot (which isn't hard for me to do I'm a chatterbox finally now that I have a little vocab under my belt). But yeah, thank you for the cards because they were perfect with her, she loves pictures and visual things! 

I have to tell you about my new marshmallow grandma. (p.s. I think I might talk about a lot of old ladies in this email, oh well, they are cute) So one of the members asked us to go visit her parents, they aren't members! We were like woo hoo, two referrals!! Looking at our Area Book, they weren't so welcoming to the last set of sisters so I wasn't so sure that this would go well. Well, we walked in and the member, Sister Schutz, said "Look Mom and Dad, I brought two angels with me to visit!" They both just gasped and awhhhh-d and oh my GOSH they were so dang cute. The father has cancer and the mom is basically blind, but that didn't stop them! We got to know them a bit and found out their basic beliefs and shared a spiritual thought from the BOM. I'm not sure they are completely open to taking lessons, but we are coming back this week to do some service (which was somewhat of our intention from the beginning) and also to read Book of Mormon stories from the easy to read children's book! So I'm super excited for that, hopefully that will open a bit of a door to taking lessons. But I called her marshmallow Gma for a reason. She hugged me like at least 12 times while I was there. She just like held on and she's like, "just call me Oma (grandma) Bauer, okay?" I WAS LIKE OKAY IF YOU INSIST. But yeah, she adopted us. p.s. I showed her my screensaver (you and dad) and she had me go up super super close to her face and she was like hmmm you look more like your dad!! It was funny. I don't know, Sister Schulz said I look more like you. Awh I just LOVE them though.

We had district meeting on Wednesday, and I made wild rice soup!! Lately we've been cooking and sharing food instead of going out to eat (because there is literally döner and pizza and I refuse to have döner more than once in a transfer...). But it was a big success! They liked it, and it flooded back great memories. I actually bought the stuff to make it again this week, but only for Grisham and I (and probably Sister Renkewitz, we are homies).

Before I keep going on with nonsense, I have to tell you about the most mission-changing experience last week. We had exchanges, and I went to Freiberg to be with Sister Bagnoud! (pronounced BAN-YOU) She's from the French speaking part of Switzerland (that's so weird to say, we say die Schweiz), and has been out just one transfer past me! She just became one of the Sister Training Leaders in Freiberg a week before we had exchanges. We switched in Chemnitz between us, and we just instantly clicked on the train ride home. We just talked about everything, and could relate really well because she also trained one transfer out. But we got back and quickly prepared a spiritual thought for a "power visit" (we plan a couple of those a week to meet members and also the less actives, I love 'em), and we just bounced ideas off of each other so well. The spiritual thought went really well, and you couldn't even tell that we weren't companions! Then we ran over to the temple (yes, the temple!!) and had dinner with a senior couple that was serving there! Its really cool, here the couples actually live in housing connected to the temple (underground tunnels). That was also super cool! Her personality is a lot like mine and even cooler, I love her so much! We were able to just energize each other, and we both said later that we were able to be our "bubbly" selves that whole time! (this is why I mentioned the cake. We ate 3 dang pieces of cake at this couples house. Granted they were small, but still.) I could go into way too much detail, but needless to say, I really needed that time with her. We were able to lift each other up in so many ways. She was struggling with fitting into a new area, and I was able to help her see that her companion and her don't need to be exactly the same to work well together (in fact, being different personalities, you tend to be able to reach more people!) She also helped me get over something really big that I just kept pushing back. I realized that my first transfer was a lot harder on me that I liked to admit  and by the miracle of Heavenly Father, this 24 hours lit it like a lightning strike again!  I just have to say, I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK! I think I'm beginning to find my passion in it, and how I can spread it.

Another awesome part of this exchange experience was the temple!! When I first got to Freiberg I wasn't sure how I felt, but man, just 24 hours there and I am praying that I serve there (especially with Sister Bagnoud!!!!) We had the idea late on Wednesday to possibly go for our personal study time the next morning. The Freiberg sisters usually to get to go to the temple one time in the week (lucky, right!) to the 8 am session. Well, Sister Bagnoud had already gone for the week, so we actually had to ask the mission president for permission to go. We literally both got on our knees and said a prayer before we texted him because we wanted to go so dang bad hahaha!!!! We didn't get an answer until about 10pm, when we were already in bed just in case we could go, we'd have to get up at 5:30am if we could. HE SAID YES!!! We screamed super loud and then were too excited to go to sleep. Yeah I slept like two hours that night (also their beds weren't as comfy but oh well). Mom, the temple was AMAZING. I needed it more than I ever imagined. We did a session and sat in the Celestial room for a bit. I felt the spirit stronger than I have in quite some time, it was a wonderful peaceful feeling. I never really asked Heavenly Father questions while in the Celestial room, but I felt the promptings to just start praying and asking for what I needed. I just opened my heart and told him that I wanted to know which direction I should take the missionary work in Zwickau. There are so many things, but if we spread ourselves out too thin, I fear that we won't make much progress on anything. Once I finally opened my eyes, I saw a pattern in the carpet that looked like a compass. I felt the spirit whisper the words of D&C that it doesn't matter where I go, as long as I'm walking the path of righteousness. He taught me of my personal Liahona, and that if I'm righteous, I will be lead toward good works. I can receive so many blessings through obedience; because the Liahona will only work according to the faith AND obedience of its holder. The other questions that I was really pondering and praying was how to help Sister Grisham become more. Note: she is already amazing, but I know that it is my responsibility to help her become a successful servant of Christ. The spirit whispered again to open my eyes and look. I saw the beautiful table in the middle of the room, holding a giant vase of flowers. I learned that like this table, I needed to build her up with solid bases, and then she will create her own bouquet of success and really flourish. I felt incredible peace in the temple that day. As I was leaving, I quick looked around like hmmmm any more symbols or furniture that will give me more inspiration?? haha.

Well, I thought that my emails would get shorter with time, but it sounds like they will just become longer and longer! All is well! Let me know what you like to hear! Its fun to share the silly things that happen, but my favorite is to reflect on the spiritual experiences that have went down. I know that Heavenly Father is watching over me. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the truth of Christ's gospel restored on the Earth, once again and for the last time. I look forward with hope to the day when Christ comes again. I love my eternal family and thank Heavenly Father every day for them! You are such a blessing in my life, and I LOVE you!!

I love you a million temple visits!!

Sister Macey Ingalls

A Trek, Dumpster Diving and an Unfortunate Love Note

The Feiertag Trek
1. Last Tuesday was a holiday! Everyone celebrated the joining of East and West Germany! It would have been totally cool to know that because there were like, NO busses running that day..! We had a few appointments that were farther away and ended up walking 4-5 hours straight because they weren't home once we got there (cuz feiertag, duh!) We totally could have been bummed about it, but we had a lot of fun getting to see the bus route at a much (much!) slower pace.
#StopAndSmellTheRoses

What Makes You Happy?
2. Easily the best part of the week! We wrote "What makes you happy?" on a tablet of paper to ask people on the street. It got a really good response and it was amazing to connect to people who also find joy in family, friends and the things that matter most!

Dumpster Diving...
3. HAHA funny story. We got a new sim card for our phone (because smart phones are coming our way, holy cow!). That also meant a new password to unlock the phone, but somehow the information paper got thrown away! Needless to say, 3 trash bins and countless prayers later, we found em! I am SOOOOO grateful Germans separate their garabage though, so we only had to go through the paper bins!! #BlessUp

A Love Note
4. I will spare the details, but the Werdau elders are taking over teaching one of our investigators. We had a "hand-off" lesson together, where the investigator gave me a note, making sure I knew it was ONLY for me... Let's just say that one marriage proposal on my mission is more than enough...

Truly Life Changing
5. Someone asked me last week why I was always so happy, and that life can't actually be that good! I truthfully am really, deeply happy in life, and the reason is wonderfully simple, and simply wonderful! The restored gospel of Jesus Christ fills all of my otherwise fears and anxieties. I know that God created a plan for me to improve and return to him! I know that Jesus Christ made it possible for me to do that! I know that I will be with my wonderful family forever! What more could possibly make me happier?! I don't know what I would do without the peace and joy of the gospel. It has changed my life for the best.

Love you all. Find out what makes you truly happy this week.

Sister Macey Ingalls

Asked this lady if we could share a message about Jesus with her, and she's like nahhhh but here take some zucchini!!! Needless to say, I was pretty excited #blessup

What makes you happy?!

Had an hour layover on our way to Gera today and explored the cute little town of Gößnitz!

One man's trash, another man's necessary pin to their phone👌👌👌

This week in Pictures (Oct. 8)

I didn't take a ton this week sorry!

Lol not the cutest pic but I found a cute lil Caterpillar and it totes made my day!

Zucchini selfie! I love Germans and their overabundant gardens!

BTW I found boots!! They are super cute, my feet were soaked to the bone and the soles were squishing in the ones I was wearing so it was really good timing to find them. Threw those things away the moment we got out of the store.

They surprisingly don't look as bad as they felt haha

When its early and cold

Same

Purttttyyy (I can't think of captions any more)

Another foot pic ft. Hausschuhe

Our attempt at a mirror pic after our PMG study yesterday with Jared and Janina

Cute little Innenstadt in Gößnitz today