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!
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