Austria is Awesome!!!

HEY!!!!!!!

Things are super good here.  I am loving Austria for the few days that I have been here, but it is hard to transition.  I keep asking people why they are in Germany, and my companion has to help me remember that I am not in Germany anymore.  It is actually entertaining.  It sounds like you are both studying a lot together from Fielding Smith book and that is super cool!!!  I am glad that you are still reading something together every morning even if it is just you two.  Sometimes I wish I was back in school, but then I really think about it and I am glad that I am not.  :)  But I do miss it a little.  I will have plenty to do when I get back.  But actually there are a lot of exchange students here and I am way jealous. I wonder why I didn't do that, and then I realize I wouldn't be a good student if I had, and also I was poor....  So that is why.  But I am super jealous of all you and your trips.  I wish I could just come with all of you.  I have decided that I am going to work super hard so I can travel a lot when I get back. My companion and I said that we are going to go backpacking and hiking all the time after the mission.  All over the world, so I am excited about that. 

My companion is awesome!!!!  I love having an American companion who understands my English and my sarcasm.  not that my other companions weren't amazing, cuz they were.  And I learned a ton from them and we are the best of friends.  But it is different with every companion and you all get along differently.  And to be honest we just click really well.  And I am super grateful. And even though sometimes we have no idea what people are saying to us, we do ok.  She is one transfer younger than me on the mission, so that is fun.  We are both learning together.  But she is awesome cuz she knows the ward super well and the area.  She is 21 which is a blessing.  I have been blessed to be with all older companions, which I consider a small miracle.  God knows exactly what I need.  :)  She loves to be outside and go hiking and backpacking all over the place.  We get along really well. 

Graz is amazing.  We have a huge ward.  The biggest in Austria actually.  And I am super excited about it.  To be honest it is a little shock since I came from such a small branch, but I am glad.  And hopefully one day I will learn everyone's name.  So far I haven't seen too much of Graz, but we are going to a castle for p-day today with a member.  I am really excited about it.  The German is coming.  Slowly, but surely.  I actually understand pretty well.  The speaking is another story.  But it is cool that both of us can communicate so well with the people even though we are both really young missionaries. 

We have some really awesome people to teach. We have a few investigators that I haven't met just yet but will this week. They are mostly from Japan or China but they are progressing really well.  We are hoping to have a baptism by the end of this transfer.  I don't really have much to say about them since I haven't really met them yet.  But we did have an amazing lesson with a girl on Sunday. She is a friend and referral from a member who is an exchange student.  And it was amazing.  She is from Sweden and is here studying.  And she is literally golden.  The problem is that she is going back to Sweden in 2 weeks.  So we will have to get her in touch with the missionaries there.  She was so willing to learn and asked great questions.  And she said "thanks for taking time to meet with me and to help me learn.  This was such a great experience"  And she said the closing prayer and it was perfect.  She is amazing.  I am a little jealous of the Swedish missionaries that get to work with her.  But she just doesn't have time to meet with us cuz she has all her finals right now and then she is getting ready to go back to Sweden.  But I love her and I just met her. 

That was the most exciting thing that happened this week.  It is really cool here in Graz cuz we have a set of sisters, elders and a senior couple.  The sad part is the senior couple goes home in 2 transfers and so far no one is coming to replace them.  But we are ignoring that fact right now.  I am excited to have a normal week here in the new area and really get to meet people.  right now I still have no idea who anyone is and everything. I also have no idea where anything is or how to get around right now.  Transportation is a little different here.  But I am working on it. 

You all sound really busy and I am happy that you both got new callings.  I love you all and hope you are doing well. I pray for you always. 

Love

Sister Poll

My new address is:

Sister Danielle Poll

Papiermühlgasse 19/8

A-8020 Graz

Austria

P.S.  I finally got all the Christmas cards and everything. Tell every one thank you for taking the time to write them.  It means a lot.  And thank you for going to my work to get some from there.  I was super surprised to see their names in there, but super happy as well. 

 It's transfer week...I'm going to Austria!!!

So.....  This week is full of surprises. We had a ton of finding this week.  Honestly it was really hard and we were struggling to stay motivated a bit.  One can only handle rejection for so long.  But, we made it happen.  We actually didn't find any new people, but we met with the youth that I told you about and had a rocket lesson.  It was amazing.  The spirit was super strong and awesome and they promised to read and let us come back again.  It was amazing.  Other than that it was full of finding and being rejected, but it was also really fun. 

So.  The big news of the week.  TRANSFERS!!  Some sad news and good news.  My area is being closed. So now there will only be Elders in Passau.  So this week we have been busy getting everything in order to close the apartment and also giving all of our investigators (the few we have) to the Elders.  We had a meeting with them yesterday and we gave them all our books and info and records on everyone. It was sad, but honestly really good.  We both talked about it this week and how maybe Passau needs a break.  There isn't quite enough work for 4 missionaries right now. And after this last week when it was really hard for us, I was wondering what we were going to do next transfer.  Cuz the elders have the same problem that we do.  And we go out and work hard and we both come up empty.  So I think it is good, even though it is really sad.  So I bet you are wondering then were I am headed. This is the good news.  I am no longer going to be in Germany.  I am headed to Austria!!!!  I will be serving in Graz. I am super stoked about it.  The Branch here is sad that we are leaving and they asked if maybe next transfer when we have more sisters if it will open up again, but I have no idea. It is possible.  We will have to see.  I hope so, cuz the branch needs the strength that missionaries bring, but also Passau is hard right now.  I am excited to go back to a ward, but I am going to miss the members here a ton.  Other than that nothing too excited this week.  We are just going to pack today and also try and make it to the Dome in Passau (a really big church with the biggest church organ in the world) before we go.    Love you all tons. 
Sister Poll

I forgot to tell you the other news that we got this week.  I thought I was forgetting something. So we got news this week that we aren't using our German enough, so now all our distrkt meetings will be in German, and maybe also our zone meetings.  They are trying to decide about the zone.  And they also made this new rule that we need to speak German 9am-9pm.  Before most of us would speak German outside, and English when we were home.  But now that is not an option.  It is actually going to be really good I think.  To be honest, we were more silent for the first few days, but now we are doing OK. Sometimes we have no idea what the other person is saying and we need to clarify in English, but for the most part we do OK.  And actually I am super excited for this new rule.  It is going to be a little more difficult at first, but at the same time it will really help the mission. And also the missionaries to better our German. I am stoked!

It's a New Year!!

Hallo von Deutschland!!!

How is everyone? It is so good to talk to you all in a new year!! I can't believe it is 2015. Crazy!!! And I hope you all have some great resolutions to do and hopefully keep and also hope you celebrated well. It is crazy to hear about people at home. Know that my prayers are with those that you talked about and I hope all works out. I know that things happen for a reason even if we don't know what that reason is. God has a plan and we need to have faith to follow it. I am leaning this concept still in my life. 

About Genealogy. I actually wanted to talk to you all about it this week. So here is the thing. I need you to go on and put in information online on the family search website. Stuff like dates of ordinances and stuff like that. But also pictures and stories about grandma and grandpa and so on. I really need you to work on it so that I can finish some stuff here. We have this my family booklet that we are trying to use to find people, but I need stories and pictures from family search and also dates so that I can finish it. And plus, we all need to better about putting it in here so that it doesn't get lost. :) Family history is not just finding people, but also recording stories and other things that we know so it doesn't get lost. Thanks in advance. :) 

Now I can tell you about this week. It was crazy busy. We helped a member move on Monday which is why I was not here to email. He is super awesome. He was actually in an accident and so he has one crutch and can't bend his left leg, but he was moving so fast in the snow and ice and cold it was crazy. I thought for sure he would slip and fall and hurt himself, but he didn't and he was moving around all of us telling us where things go. he is amazing.

Then we had a big storm a few days this week, so we were out in the cold doing finding a lot. But we had some fun in the cold. We met with one of our past investigators to see if they had interest and I learned some interesting things. They believe in reincarnation. And he will be an eagle and she will be a snake after this life. I tried to ask if they wanted to be together forever and they said no, so that backfired. And she also said that she read the BOM and it was too easy for her. First time in my life I have heard that. I actually said "wait, what???" She must not have really read it, cuz you can't read it and not feel something. But you have to read it with the right attitude. But they were really nice to us. Then our appointments fell though on Thursday and Friday. Story of my life.... But it is ok. We actually were finding one day and we had this awesome thing happen. So we went by on a man who had told past missionaries to come back. And when we got there his name wasn't on the klingle. So I just decided that since we were there I was going to klingle the house anyway. It was a bunch of apartments actually, but the first one I klingeled let us in. And it was a bunch of kids who let us in. The first thing they said was "do we want to hear about the Mormons?" I hadn't even said we were Mormons so they already knew us!!! But we went in and had a lesson on the 1st of January. Honestly I think they were all a little drunk and they had more cigarettes than I think is needed, but one of the girls was really interested and took a BofM and promised to read. We are going back to visit her on Wednesday, (I think she was sober). We hope that she will really have interest. But it was really cool experience. Anything can happen and anyone can change.

We also had tausch (exchange) this week which was terrifying and cool. I learned that I like being the one to follow rather than know were we are going. It is a little stressful to have to know which bus, which time, and were the address is. But I made it happen and we didn't get lost once and we were on time to the appointments we had. And we handed out 2 Bof M's and I got her back to her train in time to exchange back. It was a miracle. And I loved it. I will be ok when I have to take over the area, but I hope my new companion learns the way fast so I don't have to worry about that as much.

We actually met with one of our investigators this week who is really cool. She has 4 dogs, and we gave her a BOM. She asked for 2 weeks to read and ponder it before we come back. She is super cool. She has a smoking problem and told us that she isn't a church goer cuz she can't get around real well, but she has some great potential and I am super excited. Anyone can change. And I really hope we can help her see the importance of coming to church. She was really cool.

I think I told you what happened in church in my letter, but I will also say here. we only had 11 people in church this week including the investigator from the elders and us missionaries. So 6 members. And they showed up late. The investigator was the 1st one to church. And we were worried we wouldn't have church at first. But it all worked out. Other than that nothing too exciting.

All is well here. I love you and I am so grateful for your support and love. Know that you are all in my prayers and I am working hard.

Sister Poll

 

December 31 Note:

 It was so good to see all of you!!! You all look soooo good!!!  Blake looked sooooo skinny!! I could not believe it!!!! We finally got snow as well the day after Christmas and it has been snowing almost every day since. It is really pretty here with the snow and the rivers that we have. I will try to send some pictures of Passau. Sorry for the late email this week, but we helped a member move on Monday so we changed our p-day to Wednesday instead. So that is why I went awal.  

I'm glad that you all had a good Christmas. I really missed being with all of you, but at the same time I loved being here. I am learning so much and my ward family here is amazing. Christmas Eve was so awesome here. It is like Christmas back home. The culture here is awesome. I will have to send some pictures, but I am emailing by our ehepaar this week and so I am on an ipad, and no way to hook up to pictures. I am really grateful that we are able to have them. We were able to be with them for Christmas and now we are with them for New Years as well. It is such a great blessing. I love them so much!!!

Nothing too exciting has happened since I talked with you I don't think. We had a lesson with this woman who has 4 beagles. And man was that an experience. I was being mauled by dogs and my companion doesn't really like dogs, so that was interesting. Luckily they were really nice. But this woman is interesting. She smokes a lot and said that she won't ever come to church, but she has a really hard time walking so that is part of the reason. But I think that she has some potential and if we can get a member to bring her she may change her mind. We will see.

We also met with someone this morning who believes in reincarnation. That was an interesting conversation. I was trying to ask them if they wanted to be together, husband and wife after this life, and they both said no. He was going to be an eagle and she was going to be a snake..... I had no answer to that. I really just was speachless. What do you say to that. And they were both quite excited about it actually. And she said she had read in the Book of Mormon an it was too simple for her. I actually said "wait, what?" She was completely serious. Never heard that one before. But they were really nice and friendly, but said they have no interest in our message.... So ya. Welcome to missionary life I guess.

Then this week we are going on exchanges with the sisters, so I will have a different companion for the day. That will be interesting. I will be here in Passau, and we will see if I really know the area good. But it will be great since I will have to take over the area in about 2 weeks anyway. I am more than a little nervous about that.... I hope it goes ok... But if not, at least we will have fun with it. All is well here. Don't worry about me. This week has been really strange with p-day moved and everything. And just strange with everythin. With Sylvester (New Years) we don't have any appointments and no one is outside yet... And anyone we have seen is preparing their house for parties or they are drunk.... SO ya. I saw a man this morning at 11 who had 8 beers in his hand/arms and he already looked drunk. So it is a party here. And a lot of the members ask us if we want alcohol free beer, which just seems the same to me. We are not allowed thank goodness, but I could try beer if I wanted. :) But I don't and won't so don't worry. It smells too bad for me to bring it anywhere near my mouth. Sorry this email is so boring. I love you all a ton and hope you are doing well. I loved talking with you and hearing what is going on. Hopefully soon I will have some exciting new things to talk about, but for right now we are struggling with the holidays. They are great times to find people at home, but also really hard times cuz they have no time. But we are doing ok. I got the letter from you with everyone's notes. Thank you a bunch. Love you tons!!! Happy New Year!!!

Sister Poll

Ahhhh!!!  It is Christmas week!!!!  I can't believe it!! (And I lied, I thought this week was the week we had p-day on Tuesday, but that is next week.  oops)  I get to talk to you this week!!!  It is crazy!!!  So I haven't heard from Blake.  So I have no idea if he got transferred or what happened or when he is skyping.  So I really hope that it all works out and we can Skype at the same time.  I am going to plan on the 25th at 6:00 pm my time. I hope it all works out.  That is the plan for now, if something changes I will let you know asap.

Things are good here.  I don't want to say too much since I will be talking to you on Thursday.  But I am starting to love Passau.  It is definitely different here, but at the same time it is the same.  Missionary work is amazing.  My companion is great.  She is 23 and has been in Passau for 7 months.  They have people to teach, but we work a lot with the less actives in this ward, which is very needed.  And now we are trying to work to find new investigators since our current ones have no time. Partly due to Christmas.  With the new year we should be really busy when people have time again.  She is great and has a lot of kids in her family as well. 

We will be by our branch presidents house on Christmas eve and it will be super fun. I am way excited.  And then we will go earlier to the Sagmeisters house so that we can leave early to Skype.  Their family is so big. They have one son who is already home from his mission, two younger sons still at home, and one daughter.  And then the two sons on their missions in Berlin and England Leeds.  So it is fun to go there.  It is a huge family dinner.  And we all eat a ton!!!  

I really am praying that we can all talk and that everything will work really well.  And if not, we still talk every week so it will be OK.  Merry Christmas!!!   

Sister Poll

Getting Adjusted in My New Area

This week has been busy.  Thank you so much for the birthday package.  It was really nice and yes I love the skirt.  I didn't get my advent calendar before I left Tübingen, but it is OK.  This week was really busy. We had our Christmas Conference on Wednesday in Munich with President. It was awesome.  He surprised us and we got to watch Meet the Mormons.  I was super happy.  I almost cried, but managed to hold it in.  The movie is amazing.  Apparently it was super hard for him to get it here.  He thinks it is the only copy here in Europe.  He had to pull some strings. But we were all super excited.  One of the best Christmas presents ever.  I loved the coach and the mom of the missionary.  You never know whose life you can change. It was awesome.  I am excited to see it again when I get home.   Then we had a lot of finding this week.  But it was great cuz now we have 3 appointments set up for this week with potentials.  Please pray that their hearts will be softened and they will listen and be interested.  But if not, it is OK. We need to work more with the members as well and strengthening them.  We also went by one of the families in the ward.  They invite us every week to their house to feed us. They also have 2 missionaries out right now and one more preparing to go.  They are loud and crazy and I love it.  I can't understand 3/4 of what they say, but it doesn't matter.  I couldn't get a word in even if I understood the conversation.  :)  They are great.  Especially now with it being cold.  It is a struggle.  But on the bright side the food is amazing.  I haven't had a problem with a single meal yet.  I count that blessing every day.  I am getting fat here I think due to all that I eat.   Every Sunday we meet in a small chapel.  It is a small flat that we rent out and we made it into a chapel and a few other things.  It has a small kitchen and also some classrooms to meet in.  I think it is supposed to be for an office, but we make it work.  It is actually really nice that we have it.  Even though we are small, we still have some place to be.  No one in the ward plays the piano.  But we have 2 sisters and 2 elders who serve in the ward, and one of the elders plays really well.  So he plays every week.  But they know that I play, so if he leaves, I am up.  And I don't play near as well as he does. Which I pointed out already.  I realize that I lost a lot of piano skills.  I am super sad about it.  I can't play too much and I aim to fix that first thing when I get home. But I can still play well enough to play hymns and things which is all that is needed right now.  We actually had our ward Christmas party this week which was fun.  We sang songs and read poems and ate food.  It is kind of tradition here to read poems about Christmas.  Didn't know that.  And also found out that you can only sing silent night on the 24th.  Well you can sing it any time, but the people don't like it.  Almost made that mistake.  The 24th is the "heilige abend", here ( holy evening) And so they only sing that song then and it is really special.  I think almost more than Christmas.  Almost.   My companion is really good.  We get along really well. We laugh a lot. At one another and everything else.    We have some great people lined up for this week to meet and we are super excited for next week with Christmas and everything as well.  I am sad that you have no snow.  We also have no snow.  It is really sad.  But I keep hoping that for Christmas we get something.  I hope you do as well.  What is Christmas with no snow?  That party sounds like it was a success.  Sorry I couldn't be there.  But I have been a little busy and flights this time of year are ridiculous.  I may have to wait until next January (2016) before something opens up. Things are great here.  Don't worry about me.  Think of you always. Sister Poll

First Week in Passau

Hello family.

Well, Passau is good. It isn't the same, obviously. I am still adjusting. But it isn't as bad as I made it out to be. I thought for sure that I would hate it and want to go back to Tubingen every day. But I don't. There are sometimes that I wish I was still there, but it is really good here.

It was a really busy week with transfers and all. I said goodbye to so many people this week before I left which was hard, but also really therapeutic. It helped me feel better about leaving. So that was really nice. We made Christmas cookies with a member on Monday before I left and the were awesome. I literally am going to gain so much weight here. It is bad. Then we had two other eating appointments with members before the day was through. But like I said, it was really nice to do it. It helped me feel some closure I guess... Then on Tuesday we had district meeting with our district photo before we all separated. We had 2 of us leaving. So that was a little sad. Then I learned how to make spitzla with a member. And it was so good. She loves us and sent us home with soooooo much food. It was like she thought we were starving or something. The members really take such good care of us.

Then on Wednesday I said good bye to P and her family. That was really sad. And her son just sat by me the whole time. Apparently he told his mom "why can't the Chinese one leave and sister poll stay?" So that broke my heart a little, but Sister E took it ok considering. :) It also snowed here, but didn't stay.

Thursday was crazy. So many trains and traveling with 2 suitcases. Since I didn't have a bike in Tubingen I didn't have to take it with me, and even if I did, I would have left it there anyway. We have bikes assigned by areas, not by missionaries. So that makes things a little easier. But I was on a train almost all day. When I got to Munich I got to meet Sister E's new companion. She seems super nice and hopefully they will get along well.

So that brings me to Passau. All this stuff I just said feels like it was forever ago. Passau is great. I haven't seen to much of it yet, cuz we have been busy. Yes it is a small branch. On Sunday we had a total of 20 people and that included the 4 missionaries. So it is really small. It is an adjustment that is for sure. But the members are all really nice and I am excited to get to know them better.

I am back in a district with one of the elders from the MTC which is nice to have someone that I know. We don't have too many investigators, but we are going to change that. We are going to do a lot of finding and find some people who are interesting in learning, so please pray that we find someone. We work a lot with the less actives, cuz we have quite a few. It is definitely different here. We need to really strengthen this ward and help those who do come stay strong. I am trying to come up with good ways to fill our time and make sure we are doing things that are going to progress the work. Plus learn the area super well, since my companion is in her last transfer now. So I will definitely stay here for one more transfer at least, unless they close the area. We are having 9 sisters go home this coming transfer and only 1 coming. So sad, but what can we do. They are going to have to close 4 sister areas and put in elders instead. Hopefully not Passau. We are going to make it boom here this transfer so that they won't want to close it. :)

My companion is awesome. She is Hungarian, but luckily speaks really good English. I luck out all the time. And her German is awesome and she is really helping me learn as well. We both don't like to cook to much, so that should be interesting. We may just eat the same thing every day... But we get a long really well which I am super great full for. I was really worried. And even though she is going home, she is not trunky which is also a blessing.

This week is going to be good. We have our Christmas conference in Munich on Wednesday which will be super fun. I am really excited. We get to spend time with the Kohlers and I get to see Sister E and her new companion this week. Plus a bunch of other people who I haven't seen in.... one week... It feels longer than that.

Other than that, we are just working really hard on finding and trying to get appointments with our investigators so I can meet them. I really hope we find some good people soon and get some solid appointments set up. Also with some less actives. that is our biggest work here. Is to strengthen the ward and also the less actives. Teaching is important, but we really need to focus on them. It is a big job. We have more less active people than active.

 I love you all. Thanks for all your support. Pray for you always.

Sister Poll

I forgot the most important part!!! My address so you can send me letters. :)

Sister Danielle Poll

Nibelungenstrasse 5

94032 Passau

Germany

Transfer Week!!!

We had a great Thanksgiving here.  One of the members invited us and all her non member friends so that was awesome.  We are really hoping to make one of the families investigators really soon, cuz we have met with her twice now and she said that she would be interested to meet with us.  We have developed a really good relationship, and she would make an awesome member with her family.  So pray that it works out.   

This week has been crazy.  We had so many appointments, but they were mostly with other people.  For example we went with the Elders and helped them teach their investigator, and we also had a couple of Skype lessons with Mongolians.  So that was really fun.  I went to Stuttgart for a day, and that was interesting.  I am so grateful for my companion and that she loves to talk to people.  I really need to be better cuz I had a hard time with my companion in Stuttgart.  She doesn't like talking to people really at all.  I even had a hard time talking to her, cuz I would ask questions and she would answer and then be silent again.  She started to open up a little, but even when I was talking with someone on the train, she was silent.  And it isn't cuz she doesn't speak German.  She has perfect German.  She is going home soon and she studied german before coming.  It made me so grateful for what I have and for what I need to do to be a better companion.  I feel so bad for sister E that she has had to deal with me being so silent all the time.  But we are doing really well.

And the biggest surprise of the week.  I AM GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!  Crazy!!!  I have a lot of emotions about it actually.  I am really sad cuz our ward is amazing.  In church yesterday I just cried and had to bear my testimony.  All the members were telling me how much they would miss me and how I need to come back and visit.  I had 2 people offer me their homes to stay in when I come back. :)  This ward is amazing.  We also had Mission President and his family in the ward yesterday which was such a blessing.  Sister Kohler really helped me since I was more than a little sad.  But I only cried once which was a miracle.  Something about the mission has really changed me and I have become the most emotional person I have ever met.  I feel like Chelsie, cuz I always want to cry.  I don't like it.  But I know that where I am going needs me and even though I am sad to be leaving right before Christmas, and leaving this amazing ward, I will be ok.  But it doesn't stop me from being really sad about it.  President said if we didn't have so many sisters that needed to be trained, I probably would have stayed here.  But this is the life of a missionary I guess.  I hope I get used to it one day and stop getting so attached to everyone.  The hardest person to say goodbye to was P.  She was super upset that I was leaving.  She told me I needed to come back for Christmas and I had to explain that I couldn't.  And her little boy was the worst.  Every time I go over he says "Sister Poll is here!!!" and then gives me a big hug.  And I had to try to explain to him that I am leaving.  I don't think he really got it.  Saying goodbye is the worst!!!  But I keep telling myself that I a just going to make my family bigger with the people in my new area.  And President said that it might be possible for me to come back, since we are loosing so many sisters.  Next transfer we are closing 4 sister areas because we are losing 8 sisters and only getting 1.  And this transfer we lost 11 and only got 9.  It is really sad. So I am really hoping that maybe next year for Christmas I will be back in Tübingen.  One can hope right? :)

That brings me to where I am actually going.  Sister E is staying here and training a new golden.  I am heading to a place called Passau.  My companion is from Hungry.  So that will be interesting.  I think I am just bound to have international companions.  First from Saudi Arabia, then Mongolia, now Hungry.  But it has been the best experience ever.  Hard, but the best.  I am excited and really nervous.  I have so many conflicting emotions.  Cuz I am excited to go someplace new and have a new companion, but I am also terrified.  Cuz we all know how I deal with change.  So I am praying that my anxiety won't be too high.  I am going to ask the elders for a blessing this week which I know will help.  But I have heard a lot of great things about Passau.  It is really pretty and the ward is little.  That will be different, but hopefully I will adjust.  Apparently they only have 15-20 people.  I am just hoping we have some good investigators.  And it will also be good cuz I will speak more German than I am here.  I speak a lot, but not as much since all our investigators are English speaking.  So I am excited for that.  I have no idea what my address will be yet, but I should by next week.  And when I do you will be the first to know.  Just keep a prayer in your heart that I will be ok this week.  

I also went by and said goodbye to M this week.  I have a super cute photo of her baby and hopefully I can send it soon.  She is on track for baptism, kind of.  She just needs to realize that she needs to do it, but she isn't quite ready to give up her wine yet.  We are working on it.  She knows and wants to be baptized, but her desire isn't quite as great as it needs to be to give up her vices yet.  We are really praying for her. 

I am super excited for Christmas here.  I have a hard time remembering that it is ok to enjoy the experience and look at things. So I am excited for Christmas and what it will bring.  There are already so many Christmas markets up and we haven't had a chance to go to one yet, but they are up for the whole month of December.  I am really excited. 

This week is going to be so busy.  We are going by as many members as possible as well as investigators so that I can say goodbye.  It is really hard, but it will be good.  I am excited for Sister E to train.  She is nervous, but excited as well.  I am going to miss her a ton.  I learned a lot from her.  And I have learned a ton about myself.  I am so grateful for this opportunity to be here as a missionary.  It is hard and trying, but it is also amazing.  I have learned so much about myself and how to become more like my Savior.  I have gained a strong testimony about this Gospel and I know without a doubt that it blesses our lives.  The Church of Jesus Christ is true.  Our Savior loves us so much and wants more than anything for us to return home to him.  I am so grateful to have grown up in this Gospel, and that I have received my own testimony that it is true.  I am grateful to be sharing it with others as well.  

Love you all and think of you always.  You are all amazing examples to me.  Have a wonderful week!!!

Liebe Grüße

Sister Poll