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