Coming home...so bitter sweet

Well Folks,

It is finally Christmas in Deutschland!!!  We got snow this week!!!  Finally!!!  I am so excited!!!  I was loving it.  It was super funny cuz Sister Puckett is from California.  So it started snowing and she was standing at the window in awe.  In her defense she had seen snow before but never really lived in it or been for long periods of time.  She stood at the window and took pictures and was so excited.  I just laughed.  Then we went outside and for the first 10 minutes she was just loving it.  Then she got cold....  And then she almost slipped on some ice and realized that she couldn't run in the morning.  Then she realized how inconvenient snow is and decided she no longer likes it unless she gets to enjoy it from the comfort of our apartment.  It was so funny!!!  We were laughing so hard.  And I just keep teasing her that she is going to marry someone who wants to live in the cold.  She has now decided it is a deal breaker to live in California or somewhere warm.  But she is going to school at BYU Provo....  Bahahahaha!!!  We laugh about it almost every day.  haha. 

This week was amazing.  I got to see N again!!!!  She is doing sooooo good!!  We got to see her and her boyfriend together and I am so excited to come home and skype with them.  I asked her about baptism and they both said that they are overcoming everything accept they feel like they don't have the support system and they want to have some more friends who aren't putting down the church all the time.  SO Prayers would be wonderful.  Her interview also went sooo good.  She prayed before she went in and felt like everything would be alright and afterwards had such a good warm feeling.  It was sooo great to see her again.  

Yesterday at Church was bittersweet.  It was my last Sunday as a missionary.  Last time to be sitting next to the families that I love and to be wearing a missionary name tag.  As the Sacrament was passed I just thought of how much I have come to realize what the Atonement means to me as a missionary and more importantly, to me personally.  It was a tender moment as I sat there and just felt Heavenly Father telling me that I have done a good job and now it is time for me to return home, but not to stop.  This is just the beginning.  This was my Training and now I am ready for the rest.  There are still things that I have to learn and improve on and things that He needs me to do.  I am excited to come home and sit next to you, but sad to be leaving the family that I have grown to love here.  I stood up and bore my last testimony in the meeting and I managed to do it without crying.  :)  Successful!  

Yesterday we had the coolest miracle story.  We met with one of the people that Sister Puckett talked with on the street last week.  She was interested and we met her at her house.  She was a bit late and so we were worried at first.  But she showed up with a friend in tow who is also interested.  In part of the lesson she answered her phone and then suddenly said to me, My friend is also interested here talk to her.  So she handed me her phone and I set up an appointment with her friend as well.  It was so amazing!!!  And they both payed attention and at the end we said a kneeling prayer together.  They committed to taking the lessons and are excited to come and see the church on Friday.  We have another appointment with all three of them then!!  It will be super awesome.  They were amazing and we were so excited to help these people.  And of course because our tags actually say "We are hungry please feed us"  She gave us rice cakes with chocolate on them.  I know what you are all thinking.  Yes that is correct.  Rice cakes and Chocolate are the way to go.  haha.  It was a great lesson with them.  

Tonight we are going to a dinner and Family Home Evening appointment with a great family.  I am really excited to be with them.  And tomorrow is also a busy day.  Wednesday will also be something wonderful.  We are going to go to Young Women and talk about our missions and our experiences with it. Also talk about our families and what not.  It will be wonderful.  We are really busy!  It is great to be busy as a missionary.  

It has been real and had also been fun.  I can't believe it is over and that I am coming home to you all this week.  So crazy. I just wanted to let you know about some things that have changed about me that you would be interested to hear.  haha.

1. I like Tea now.  I drink fruit tea and I am actually bringing some home with me.  Never thought I would like this stuff, but I drink it often now.  haha.  

2. I am not a picky eater.  Mostly.  I eat everything on my plate and I stuff down the second plate that I always have to eat.  I am excited to have freedom of how much food I put on my plate again.  haha.  But soooo not excited to cook for myself.  The food here has been amazing but even with all the food I am not fat.  So don't be looking for me to roll into Salt Lake alright?  :)

3.  I love talking to people and I have really grown to love the people of Germany.  It has literally become like a second home to me.  I will really miss the culture and the people here.  Literally feels like I am leaving home every time I have to leave an area and now is worse since I have to leave for who knows how long.  (I am excited too don't worry)

4. I like to eat Tomatoes and Mozzarella on a frequent basis and I will really miss the German Chocolate.  My suitcases may be overweight due to all the candy that is in them....  I will think about sharing but you all know how good I am at that.  haha.  

5.  I am way more patient now.  I think...

6. I am turning into a runner and we go about 4 times a week.  

7.  I am still just as blunt as ever and proud of it.  So be prepared.  ;)

That is all that is coming to mind right now.  I love you all so much!!  You are all really amazing and I just want you to know how important your support and love has meant to me.  I wouldn't be here without you all and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to give this time to the Lord and to be here in Germany and Austria.  The Church is true and the Gospel blesses lives more than anything else in this life.  I challenge you all to start praying for more missionary opportunities and lets help those around us come to the knowledge of this great gospel.  It is the best gift we can give to anyone.

Bis Bald!!!!

Sister Poll

 

 

Sister Poll returns home Friday Jan 22. Her homecoming will Jan 31st at 11:00. (Please share that info with your families and invite them to come)  We are super excited to have her home!!!!!

Zone Training

Hey everyone.  Sorry this is so late. I love you all and we have just had a crazy week.  But I am glad.  Crazy is good cuz that means we are busy.  It has been such a great week.  And it just keeps getting crazier cuz everyone keeps inviting us over since I am leaving.  I guess it means they kind of like me.  We have an eating appointment almost every day until I leave.  So crazy.  But this past week we haven't been able to see too many of our investigators due to them being sick or busy. boo.  But it was ok.  We had other things that we have been doing and visiting some other less actives or finding new investigators.  We went on exchanges with the Sisters in Stuttgart and it was so much fun.  I went there and we did some awesome things.  I got to work with Sister F and we had a blast together.  My companion stayed in Ludwigsburg and handled it all on her own!!!  She is going to be fantastic at taking over the area!!  I am really proud of her.  She is so amazing and learns super fast.  I love her a lot.  I am going to miss her.  We had our zone training this week where we had to teach everything that we learned in MLC last week.  It was long but good.  And I hope we motivated the missionaries to be a little better than they were yesterday.  It was wonderful.  Then yesterday we were at the Dentist.  My companion had some issues with where her wisdom teeth were taken out and we went about a month ago.  They scheduled a small surgery for yesterday but she is feeling much better and it went away on her own so she didn't have to have anything done. It was a blessing.  We were so excited. The power of prayer works everyone.  We also went to the Porsche museum yesterday.  It was a great time.  I took loads of pictures so don't worry.  Sorry this is so short.  Probably my shortest email ever!!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!!

Love Sister Poll

Guten Morgen zusammen!!!!

Hey there erbody!!!  This week was so wonderful!  We were on exchanges this past week and I was working with a Sister named Sister Strihavka.  She is from Austria and we spoke all German together.  It was so wonderful!!! She is waiting on her visa to go to the Temple Square mission.  But I got to spend a couple days with her.  It was so amazing to see how much German I could speak.  We talked about a lot of things and I was able to speak all German and had no problem with her at all.  It was wonderful.  We had a great time together as well.  We didn't have too many appointments so we were doing some great finding together and it was really awesome to see things from a different perspective and also how she was able to connect with some people cuz she is also from here.  It was really cool.  And we had a great appointment with a member and I got to hear some Swiss German.  Just go on google and look up German and then look up swiss German and you will see why I am telling you about it.  Sister Strihavka (stree-hav-ka) can't speak it but can understand it.  It was really cool to hear and I am so glad that I am not in Switzerland.  It sounds beautiful but it is a totally different language.  We had a good time together.

Sister Puckett then came back to me here and we had some great appointments this week.  Our people are finally coming back and we are busy again.  I love the holidays, but everyone goes on holiday or has no time due to family and whatever else.  It makes sense, but is a bit frustrating.  But this week was good.  We worked a lot in our area book to find some past people that we can give a second shot at the gospel.  We are really excited.

This coming week is also going to be so busy.  We are going to Munich on Thursday for a meeting there with President.  We will go on the bus on Thursday which will be long but good and then come home Friday.  So we are just trying to get all our appointments around that.  But we are really excited for it.  We love MLC. 

We also have a few new people to work with and we are excited about them.  The work is moving forward!!!  It is so wonderful to be busy.  We are loving it.  This week we are hoping to set a baptismal date with one of our investigators.  Please pray that it goes well and that she accepts.  She really wants to, it is just the day that is becoming a problem.  We are going to set her into it and give her a little push.  Pray that it goes well.  We are also going to contact a referral this week that we are really excited about.  Ludwigsburg is such an amazing place to be. 

Things are going well here.  Next week I may get to see N again.  She is coming back to visit for a day before she has an interview in Munich for a job. Please pray that she gets this!!!!  It will be huge for her!!!  Her interview is next week on Thursday (the 14th). 

Everything is wonderful here.  I love you all and hope you have a really fantastic week!!!  You are all amazing!!!

Sister Poll

 Christmas Week

This week has been really full.  My companion is amazing.  We get along really great.  She is from California.  Which I think I already told you.  We have loads of fun together.  She is learning German.  She is in the same spot that I was when I got here.  Nothing before hand.  It is interesting to see how far I have come and I am really happy to help her learn.  And she is a really fast learner and we have a blast together. We are working really hard.  This past week we have spent a lot of time on the street talking to people about the new Christmas video.  It has been really fun.  We are working hard.  But we have also been blessed with appointments with members and our investigators which is really nice.  We will see some of them this week as well.

Well, we have to run to our train.  I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week!!!

Bis Freitag!!!

  It's been a Whirlwind

So this week has just been a whirlwind.  The time just passes by so fast that I can't believe it.  I just don't know if I can even explain all that happened this week.  We were so busy and so full.  I think I gained probably 10 pounds.  Last Monday all we bought for our weekly groceries was cereal and some bananas.  And apples.  That was it.  We had eating appointments every day.  Everyone wanted to say goodbye to Sister Cook.  We even had some people who were fighting for us to come over.  So crazy and funny.  It was so nice to go and say goodbye to some people.  And I didn't have to say goodbye.  Made it even better.

But Seriously I am so full.  I don't even need to eat much.  And everyone keeps giving us chocolate.  I love it, but I hate it.  So crazy.  

We had a really awesome experience with this woman that we doored into the other day.  We went back by and she let us in and we ended up talking for about an hour.  She told us all about the bad things that have happened in her life and after she had told us things she just kept asking why bad things happen to good people or to children.  We talked with her and she told us that she never talks to people about these things.  She then told us that she feels like a weight is being lifted from her heart and she just felt light and happier.  She just felt like we made her day so much better and that we had this light about us.  She wants us to come back so she can feel that way again.  So I called her this morning and she told me that she has been thinking about us and every time she does she feels good.  And she put our card on her fridge and her kids asked about it and she told them that she just feels so much better and more free.  And she and her kids are still a little skeptical, but she really wants to see us again.  She said that she thinks if we meet again she will feel better and happier.  THAT'S RIGHT YOU WILL!!  The gospel makes everyone happy.  It was such a cool experience!!  I am so excited to go back again.  Really you have no idea how excited I am about her.  She is really weary about the Book of Mormon, but wants to talk with us.  I am so glad.  She is amazing. 

We also saw so many other miracles this week.  Some with Sister Cook and Some with my new comp.

So then on Thursday I got my new comp and her name is ..... Sister Puckett.  She is from California and her German is already really good for just coming from the MTC.  She is so excited to do missionary work and is just amazing. We get along really well and I can tell that we will be good friends.  We have had a really crazy last couple of days.  We have had eating appointments and on Sunday we had the Christmas devotional as well as a Christmas concert in our stake.

It has been such a good week.  I am really excited for this next one as well.  It will be so busy and the time just flies.  We have something big every week until the transfers ends. I just don't know how I am going to keep up with it all.  Crazy to think that when we got here we had nothing to do.  Now we don't have enough time to do it all.  I love being busy.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week.  I love you all.  We are going to a wonderful family tonight to decorate a Christmas tree for family home evening.  It will be a blast.  Have a great week!!!!

Sister Poll

Catching Up

November 24
Last Monday we had a great p-day.  One of the members had a birthday so we went to a buffet to eat.  It was Chinese.  It tasted not so good, but we had a fun time.  We also had a family home evening appointment where we had an awesome time with this family.  We were there with the Elders and we learned a lot about the family and we ate some great food.  I am so grateful that we don't have to eat too crazy things here in Germany.

Last Tuesday after District meeting we went on exchanges with the Sister in Tübingen.  Sister Cook went there and I stayed here and Sister Gardner came to be with me here.  It is so nice to see past companions and we had a blast.  We even took some photos here together.  We now have pictures of us in 3 areas together even though we only served together in 1.  Super funny.  But she is doing really well and like I said we had a blast. We had an appointment that night with a less active and we took our new member with us as well.  We had a good lesson and they connected really well.  They both have babies that are 6 and 7 months.  They are really cute.  We enjoyed ourselves.

On Wednesday we went and say Frau B.  She is really struggling with her family right now and told us that she doesn't really want us to keep coming anymore due to the stress that it is putting on her family.  It is really sad because she really loves us and wants us to come, but because her family is really against is she has asked us not to come anymore.  We are going back one more time this week so Sister Cook can say goodbye since we were on exchanges.  We really love her, but sometimes you just have to respect people.  She is still reading in the Book of Mormon and doing well with it.  But all we can do is pray for her right now.  One day she will come back in contact with Missionaries and it will be wonderful.  

We also went and met with L who is 9 and really wants to be baptized, but due to some things going on it has been pushed back and back and back.  So we are working on getting her a date set up that will hopefully be before the end of the year.  She comes to church every Sunday with her Grandma.  She is really ready, it is just getting everything set up with the family and all.  But it will happen hopefully before I go home.  She really wants it so we are going to make it happen.  

On Thursday we came back together and we went to the M family.  They are doing sooooo good. We are really proud of them.  They are a part member family who was also a bit inactive when we got here. Now they have been coming every week for the past 5 weeks.  This past Sunday they didn't have a ride and they woke up early and took the train.  It was so wonderful. The husband is interested in the church he just wants to move slow.  Something really cool happened though.  We asked if we could help them with anything and they told us that we could come back on Friday for breakfast to eat with the husbands daughter.  So we did and now we are teaching her.  She is really interested and really sweet.  We were so excited.  It was a miracle. 

We have also been taking around invitations to the Ward Christmas party to less actives and we had a really great experience.  We called a less active a few weeks ago and she said she was busy and not sure if we could come by.  We decided to just go by even though they live far away so that we could deliver the invitation.  The husband answered the door and was really nice.  He was really excited to receive the invitation and said that he hopes they can come.  We talked a little about the area where he lives and he said that he would love to drive us to the two castles that are around where he lives (which we really want to go to ) and we were so excited.  He said to call and in the next few weeks we can all go together.  It was so amazing that they went from not really being friendly to inviting us to go on a p-day to do something with them.  That will help us make a relationship and then we can help them feel the love of the ward as well.  It was amazing.  

On Sunday was the Primary Program.  It was such a great experience.  I loved it.  We have a lot of primary kids as well.  So it was so good.  I also got to see some people from home on Sunday. Crazy who you meet.  They have family in our ward and he picked Elder Gray up from his mission and then came to visit the family before flying home.  Crazy who you see.  It was weird to have my two worlds colliding though.  Home and mission life come together. Kind of funny. 

I hope you all have a very happy Thanksgiving!!!  It should be so wonderful to come together and thank God for all that He has given us!!!  I love you all!!

Sister Poll

 

 

Nov 30

 Hallo Liebe Familie!!!

 

Monday was wonderful.  We had interviews with President and got to talk to him.  It was really nice.  We talked a little about all of you at home and I showed him some pictures.  It is always really nice to talk with President.  We then had a great Family home evening with a family and sang some songs.  It is so great to be able to spend some time with members.  

Wednesday we were back on exchange with the Stuttgart Sisters.  So we were there again.  We had a really great time.
Thursday was Thanksgiving and I did manage to get some pumpkin pie.  :)  Wonderful missionary senior couples made a huge thanksgiving lunch for us and they have access to the military base so it was just like home.  Super good food.  Unfortunately our dinner appointment for that evening fell out due to the trains not running.  I hate when that happens.  So we had to cancel and then we were out on the streets instead.  But we had a good time nonetheless.  We were actually a little glad we couldn't go because we were not hungry since we had Thanksgiving.  It was a good day.

Friday and Saturday nothing too exciting happened.  We had a great time with some members and we were out finding quite a lot this week.  But it was a great experience.  We loved it.
Cool story from Sunday.  A family came in that we had never seen before.  After the first hour (they came a little late and snuck in) we went up to them and started talking with them.  It was really hard because they speak basically only Portuguese....  Their grandson was with them and translating as best he knew how.  During Sunday school I basically just talked with them through Google Translate. (What a blessing that thing is)  And found out that they are actually members and have been wanting to come to church.  We are going to start helping them learn German and it will be a fun and interesting experience.  But it was really awesome that they just showed up to church and they seem like a really cool family.  They stayed for all three hours even though they don't understand anything.  And they invited us over to eat on Thursday....  It will be really interesting.  Sometimes I just hate that language barrier.  But what can you do.  Open google translate and say a prayer.  :)

Later that evening we went and did some genealogy with someone that we doored the other day.  She loves genealogy and we were helping her.  Unfortunately we also have a language barrier with her and we were really trying to help her, but She speaks only a little German and Russian....  So ja.  Sometimes difficult.  But you just smile and keep on using hand signals.  That is always the way to go.  :)  I learned this week how much I would love it if we could all just communicate with one another.  One day it will happen. 

Love 

Sister Poll

 

 

 

Dec 7

Well hello there everyone.  I hope you have had a wonderful week.  Ours has been so full and crazy but we have loved it.  It is a riot.  Let me run you through what happened.  Try to keep up with me.  :)

Monday we went to one of the best Christmas Markets (Weihnachtsmarkt) that I have ever been to in my life.   We then went and had a wonderful family home evening with a cute older couple and the elders in our ward.  It was wonderful and so spiritual.  They are a rocking family.  And he was driving us home and one of our other members called us asked for a blessing.  So we pulled an emergency and he drove us all there and then after drove us home.  We got home late, but it was such a blessing that he was driving us.  Otherwise it would have been impossible.  And they really needed a blessing.  It was so good.  We are so grateful to the Weber family.  I love them.  

Tuesday we had some great appointments.  We didn't have our district meeting because we had our zone conference this week for Christmas.  I will tell you more about that.  But we went and saw our investigator who has been reading the book of Mormon so well.  She is at the end of Alma.  Unfortunately her family is really against her meeting with us and she asked up this time not to come back.  It is causing a lot of strain in the family and she doesn't want it.  Plus she feels like she knows the bible really well and is learning on her own and that we should use our time to help others who aren't as far along as she is....  We tried to tell her that we want to help her too, but we have to respect her decision as well.  It broke our hearts though.  She is like our grandma and she loves when we come over.  And we love going.  But we can't do anything but pray now.  She is still reading the Book of Mormon so hopefully she sees the truth when she comes to the end and she will have the courage to do something about it.  We also met with some other wonderful people.  

We did some Genealogy with I this week in Russian and German.  It was interesting.  But we made it.  It was super fun.  We were also able to share the new Christmas video with her and talk about God a little through Google Translate.  It was interesting.  But we love her.  It was really good.  On Wednesday we had an awesome day.  It was so great.  And we talked about the new Christmas video and how we can use it better in our work.  If you haven't seen it, watch it.  It is really great.  It is on Christmas.mormon.org.  It is really good.  I challenge you to share it with a friend.  We also watched Silent Night.  It was so great to see where that song comes from.  But it was really strange to watch a normal person movie while being a missionary....  Sister Cook and I got a little ancy.  So funny.  

Thursday was also really busy.  We had some great appointments and Friday was also really good.  We have been really busy all week.  It is the best problem to have as a missionary.  :)  We got to see S this week and he is doing good.  Just really busy.  He wants to learn more before he commits to being baptized.  Hopefully he will make time to meet with us more so he can learn more.  haha.  But he is doing really good.  N is also doing amazing.  She is wonderful.  She emailed us and said she has gotten a call for a job here in Germany and she will hear more later.  Keep her in your prayers that she gets the job!!  And she loves the ring that you sent and we sent her a true to the faith as well.  She reads it every day on the train.  And she is sharing the gospel with all her friends.  She is amazing.  

Saturday was really warm. So Sister Cook took her Viola out and she played by the Weihnachtsmarkt and I talked to people.  We found a really cool guy that we are going to meet with this week.  It was so much fun!!!  I am glad that Sister Cook had the idea.  

Sunday was emotional and crazy.  We had so many people ask us if we had time to come over and meet with them this week.  It was crazy.  We just can't fit everyone in.  They all want to say goodbye to Sister Cook.  We are booked until she leaves.  We don't even need to buy groceries this week because we also have an eating appointment on Thursday and Friday.  But Sunday was really great.  We also got to go over and eat with the Bishops family and they are wonderful.  I love them a lot.  They are really funny.  We were happy to have an appointment after fast Sunday.  And it was so good.  We had a great day.  We were really busy.  We also met with a new person who we are hoping will keep meeting with us.  She is really cool.  We found her going through our area book a few weeks ago.  She is super awesome and we are excited to start teaching her.  It will be awesome.  

So as you can see our week was totally jam packed and this week is even more so.  We love it.  It will be a crazy and wonderful week.  The Christmas season is starting.  I love it.  People are more open to talk about the Gospel and we are able to help people come closer to Christ.  Share the video with someone and help them see what Christmas is all about.  I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week!!!

Love Sister Poll

Prayers for Our Friend

Hey there!!!
I also can't believe that it is time to write again. Really it is insane how fast the time goes. It feel like just yesterday I was writing. This week has been really good. We had good and sad moments but overall one of he best weeks of my whole mission. Let me tell you what happened. Well we spent all of last Monday with N. We walked to the lake and castle that is here in Ludwigsburg. It was great. We had a great talk as well about making time for things and what our priorities are. N said when she goes back to Bochum it will be hard to find time for church maybe and the missionaries. We told her she didn't have to meet every day like with us but at least once a week and also how you need to go to church. And then we talked about how you can always have time if you make time. And she really understood it and said she would make the time. She is awesome. We then were able to skype with the missionaries in Bochum on Wednesday. It was sooo great. She felt so much better after she saw them and got to talk to them. They were going to pick her up at the train station. It was so good. Then after we talked with N and the member who we were with who is a convert it really helped N. It was awesome. On Thursday we also went to a members house with N and had a fantastic lesson. She is really nervous about being baptized since she may go back to China and she wants to be able to follow the commandments. She probably wont get baptized this month just because she is struggling a little. But she definitely knows it is true. She will be baptized for sure. I just think it will be next month sometime. She will be ok though. I got the ring the day that she left but I will send it to her. She was really excited to get it. She will love it. We knelt in prayer at the end of the lesson and it was such a powerful experience. She is amazing. We said goodbye on Friday and it was hard but so peaceful at the same time. She will be ok. Please keep her in your prayers that she can find a job here in Germany or if not that she will be ok when she goes back to China. Where she lives the closest church is about 6 hours away. It just depends on where she goes... Prayers would help. Thanks.
As far as her boyfriend things are good. He is just really busy unfortunately. But he will be ok. I know it.
We are also working with some other great people. They are making slow progress and not wanting to come to church so that is something we are working on. But it is going really well here. I will miss the people
when I have to leave. Nothing else too interesting this week. One of the little girls in the ward got baptized this week. She was so cute and there were a lot of friends and non members there. It was wonderful. She loved it. Sorry this email is short and a bit vague. Things are awesome. We are doing awesome work here. We are trying our best to find more people.
This next week is going to be busy. We have exchanges and I'm sure this week will fly by. I love and miss you all!!! Have a great week!!!!

Sister Poll