Christmas in Germany

Liebe Familie--

Ahhhhh, meine GUTE. I hate saying goodbyes, it sucks. Yes, for everyone else to know, transfer calls have come and gone and it's my turn to finally say goodbye to my Golden city. I will be going to Eisenhüttenstadt and will be in a Dritt for 3 weeks, because Sis. Lankto (I think that's how you spell it) is going home in 3 weeks, and my new more permanent companion is Sis. Neukom, from Switzerland. From what I hear, she only speaks English on Pdays--as the Elders said to me, "Wow, you get to learn German."

But my new address is as follows:
Heilbornring 11
15234 Frankfurt Oder

So my new city is called Eisenhüttenstadt but I live in Frankfurt Oder, which might be easier to find on a map. I don't know exactly if they're two different cities or something, but that will be something to report next week! Apparantly I have to go to Berlin every week to do emails, darn! I guess it's a nice consolation prize, but it's really sucky saying goodbye to everyone. Bischof announced yesterday during church that I was leaving, and I held up pretty well until then, and then I got up to bear my testimony and yup, bawled like a baaaaby. All my favorite members came up to me and said, "awww, don't cry!" and patted my cheeks like a baby, too! I think they're used to it--seeing missionaries come and go. I've just put so much love and care into the members and just wanted to serve them as best as I could and so I hope they remember me--some of them I hope will add me on Facebook! :)

Before I go any further THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the great Christmas gifts! Meine gute! So much American food! It might take me a while to eat through it all, and I will probably share with Mitarbeiterinen so it doesn't all end up eaten by meeeeee...but it was all pretty great. The clothes fit--and to my pleasant surprise they were a bit big for me, so there's hope for me yet! The members have been really stuffing us Sisters to the max the past few weeks--I will be leaving behind a lot of candy that I just can't eat anymore of for the new Sister--Sis. Anderson will be training a new Golden in Cottbus! It's a pattern! There was a Sister here before me that was a Golden here for two transfers, and then me for two transfers, and then now this new Sister! It will be a welcoming sight for someone coming straight from the MTC for sure!

Anyway, this week's happenings! This past Tuesday we went to the Freiberg temple again! It was really fun a second time around. And a good thing too, because the Berlin Zone is too north for us to be able to visit the temple, so I'm especially glad we had this chance to go.

It's nice being able to travel as a distrikt--I've been lucky to have two really awesome distrikts, one in the MTC and here in our Dresden Zone, they're all like brothers, and I imagine Jordan will have the same kind of fun, travelling with other missionaries and supporting each other and their work.

But yeah, another fun thing; we teach Chrys German once a week and this week he invited us over to make us African food, he's from Nigeria! I wish I took pictures, but it was really good and really fun. He made us grilled plantines (bananas), rice with beans, salad and chicken, and he said he hoped it wasn't too spicy. It was a good kind of spicy, but he said he toned it way down--apparantly they make their food SUPER spicy! So he says he doesn't like German food because it "doesn't have any flavor" haha! What was even funnier, was that he had music in the background--Reba! Country music! heheee

So the deal on Herr Ram, as I call him. We klingeled him and to our surprise, his son was there, and he speaks German! He was able to explain that there was some kind of trouble they had in Moldovia where they're from, and Herr Ram was beaten up pretty badly, enough he needed brain surgery, so his speech is hindered because of it. Which makes sense because many people who have tried talking to him say his Russian is really warped and messed up--not only is it hard to understand but he doesn't construct decent sentences or the content itself is totally off. Anyway, he met missionaries in his country and got his BoM there and has met previous Cottbus Sisters. We hope that maybe in the future we can teach with the son present and he can translate for us (and indirectly teach HIM!) and also enlist the help of Fred, our less active who knows Russian to help us sort of figure out how interested he is in the gospel--apparantly the son and father are Jewish, so we're not quite sure if they're practicing or something. We gave Herr Ram a Christmas card that we tried to write in Russian and he started to cry, I think he really likes our visits! We also during this visit was very lucky to have Sis. Lehmann's son-in-law come by and help us communicate with Herr Ram--he served a mission in Russia and was able to give him the first lesson! Woot! But our ward loves Herr Ram. Can you imagine trying to say goodbye to him? I'm all weepy and he can't understand why, and all I can do is shake his hand and say "dasvidanya." Ack, meine gute.

We've been lucky to be able to meet with investigators this week--we still had 14 lessons for the week! I was smart and took pictures with those we could meet with, because we met with most of them before transfer calls, and I had a nagging feeling that I was saying a more permanent goodbye. Saying goodbye to Anna was hard.

As far as our Christmas activities, we did lots of caroling--in our city and in Forst with the Elders and their YSA group. We delivered Christmas cards to investigators and members, we gave treats to our Straßenbahn drivers on Christmas Eve (Heilige Abend) for their service, and lots of cleaning! So far packing is going fairly well! I'm going to have to find room for all that food, meine gute! Our Heilige Abend was way awesome with Skype and also spending time with members. The ward members were really nice and gave us gifts--mostly chocolate, nylons and shower soap--I won't have to buy shower soap for like, 3 transfers! haha! Oh, and a few fun ornaments, too. I got one that actually looks like a little Nissemand girl, with white long hair--so I drew a little nametag on her dress and wrote "2011" on the back! :) Sis. Münch and Familie Seidl made us the best Thuringerbratwursts auf die Erde, with Kartoffel and you guessed it! Sauerkraut! I've learned a few tricks, that Germans do, too--I can get it all down if I eat it all together, rather than seperate. So a bit of sauerkraut, then one of bratwurst. YUMMMM. They made us eat threeeeee big bratwursts, I was reaaally full! When we got home we also opened our gifts from each other. I got Sis. Anderson cool scarf and I knitted her a small Texas flag 'cause she's a true blue Texan for sure. She loved it, though! I got a Tangled coloring book (which will most certainly be cherished!) and the original "Ohne Dich ist Alles Doof" book, pretty nice!

We were also pretty patient and waited to open gifts on Christmas morning--right at 6:30 when we usually wake up! I really appreciate all the treats, gifts and love received from the family--on both sides of the world! I feel really lucky and spoiled by being out here everyday, and especially for being in the family that I'm in.

Christmas Day we went to church, where as previously mentioned I was weepy and I had to say goodbye then & such. I had to pull myself together, because we were going to Familie Schult's for Christmas dinner and I didn't want to dampen the mood, which worked, it ended up being fun and fine. Bruder Schult made us a Christmas Goose! Nicht schlecht! So yeah, the last thing I want to do right now or for the next while, is eat. Baaaaah. It was fun, because they too have a spoiled cat that they treat like a child (because they don't have children) and it was playing with the tree ornaments--don't worry! I got pictures! :P I think it's name is Mopsie. Anywho, he found out quickly that I'm an expert cat petter--he plopped right on the ground and in that fat-cat pose Link has, waiting to be petted! Meeeine gute.

So the plan is that I will be leaving Cottbus tomorrow evening and meeting my new comps tomorrow--but we're all going to Berlin to help with the 7 new Sisters and such. We will actually be in Berlin all day on Wednesday (cool!) and then I will go to Frankfurt Oder and Sis. Anderson will stay behind in Berlin for Golden Conference where she will take home her new Golden Thursday morning. Meine gute!

So that's been my week, phew! This next week will be probably calling lots of people to set up new appointments with and getting to know a new ward and such. It'll be weird being in a dritt, especially how they've served together for a while I think. But we'll rock Frankfurt Oder! woot!

It feels weird, though, not gonna lie. I feel like the past two transfers have been an eternity and a blink of an eye at the same time. At times I feel like we've done so much and gave our all and now I feel like I've just started to even make a dent. So I hope to hear good updates from Cottbus and hopefully our taufe candidates will see it through!!

So I think that's all I've got for this week. Christmas in Germany...it's weird to think I had this chance 4 years ago to enjoy and now I get one more!

I love you all and thanks again for everything! I hope Santa brought lots of fun stuff! I also hope Christmas was still enjoyable--it made me sad to think that everyone missed me so much, ack, I don't want to be a downer!

Alles gute! I love you!
Sis. Whit