Everything is going great!!!The time change was a little hard to get used to, but not too bad. I almost fell asleep the second day in a meeting because I was against the wall. Luckily it wasn't just me and they asked all of us to stand up. It kind of helped.....
I can't believe how much I have learned already. I appreciate having mail when we get here to P-day. My companions name is Sister C. She is 19 and she if from America but has lived in Saudi Arabia for her whole life. She is great. We are learning how to communicate better and things are going well. There are two other sisters in our room but not in our district. They are great and it is so nice for all of us to share a room. We quiz each other in German all the time.
When we first got here our teacher walked in and she introduced herself in German and I thought that was really cool, until she kept talking in German and I had no idea what was going on. I was hoping she would switch to English at some point, but she seemed pretty content in speaking Deutsch. It is so frustrating to not understand what is going on. We are in complete immersion here. We only get lessons in German. I am getting very good at understanding body language and charades is my new favorite game. We have already taught our investigator 3 times, and not in English, but in German. On Saturday they said plan a lesson and go teach this investigator in German. We all were appalled that they would even say that. Needless to say, if the investigator was real and not our teacher, we would have really been setting bad examples for the Church. We mostly sat there wondering what was being said, as well as what we were supposed to say. Now however we are doing much better. We all pray in German now and can bear short testimonies in the language. Our grammar is awful, but our words kind of make sense. I think.... Sometimes the teachers laugh and say something super fast, and I just laugh along because you can either laugh or cry. Sometimes I just want to tell them that I know they speak English (which they do on the rare occasion as well as in meetings, plus they understand our English) and after they have said the same thing to me in German 6 times and I still don't understand, I just want them to speak English to me. And then there are some times when they are speaking German, and they randomly will start to say a small phase in English, and I am still behind trying to figure out what the German was, by the time I realize they have switched to English I have missed what they said. But I am learning and slowly I am getting it. I understand most everything with the help of body language, but the speaking is another story. My companion is good at saying things though since this is her third language, she is picking it up a little faster. So I just tell her what I want to say and she makes it up for me when I have no idea. Our investigator is a Catholic and he smokes all the time. Every time we go though he throws it away. Even though I know he isn't a real investigator, I want him to get baptized so bad. We challenged him to do that the other day and he was asking all these questions about how he had already been baptized catholic and was that valid? I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn't know how to say it. It is awe full.
Our P-day is Wednesday by the way here in the MTC. We get to go to the ASDA today (It is like a British Walmart) so that should be fun to get out a little. The temple is right next door, so in our small bit of free time we sometimes go walk around it as well.
I hope you all know how much I love and miss you. I will admit that my homesickness is not as much as others, but that doesn't mean that I don't care. I really do miss you and would give anything for a hug from all of you back home. But I know this is were I am supposed to be. Don't forget to write me please. I love you!!!
Sister Poll
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