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| Birthday Package from Home |
Hello all!
This week was absolutely amazing. So many good things.
First of all, we had a lot of member appointments. So Sister Harger and I decided to come up with a good spiritual thought that goes with Christmas. We came up with an object lesson with a Christmas tree, so we lugged part of our fake one all over Hamburg on Monday. Then we decided that was a lot of work, so we made one from a freezer pizza box and used it at all of our appointments. Object lesson: the Christmas tree might have a lot of nice things on it, but won't stand without a stand. The point is, like it says in Helaman 5:12, that Christ is the only true solid foundation that we can build upon.
So, I turned 20 this week! We were so busy I didn't even have any time to think about it. Thank you thank you thank you everyone for all the emails! I'm so sorry that I don't have to respond to lots of them, but it made my day. I wasn't really expecting it to be anything special, but it was an awesome birthday! Schwester Glöyer invited us over for lunch. She made me cake and painted our nails for my bday. It was so sweet!
We had Zone training meeting this week. Sister Harger and I were asked to give a 20 minute theme on obedience. I've studied it a lot throughout my mission, because we hear it all the time as missionaries... but I feel like every theme I've ever hear on it doesn't quite hit it on the head. Anyways, it went pretty well even though I am not very good at giving themes. The whole meeting was super awesome, and it ended with a white elephant and President dressed up like der Weihnachtsmann. :) We had to recite a scripture auswendig in order to receive a gift.
Christmas Eve was pretty interesting. We had an appointment with a family, which we thought was an eating appointment and they thought it was just a spiritual thought. So we ended up really hungry and a lot of extra time. So we went to a Döner laden (the only place open on Christmas Eve because it's Turkish). Later, we had an appointment with the Jensens. We ate legit American Turkey, potatoes, Rotkohl, super yummy ginger ale. Then their kids acted out the nativity for us, and we sang together. The kids opened all their presents and it was super fun to be there with them. Their Christmas tree had real candles. I love Germany.
Sunday was great because we had church, then an eating appointment with the Schmidts. Peggi came to church, and the talks were perfect for both her and Eunice. It was such a blessing to go to church to worship and remember my Savior on the we celebrate His birth. My heart has just been so full this entire week! At the Schmidts, we basically grilled meat on this hot plate thing on the middle of the table. And we played Tabu in german, which was hard. But Melanie and I won! Then we went to the church and I skyped my family. I'm glad we only skype every 6 months, because it's hard. It's the only time I ever get homesick. I love y'all so much.
Monday was a bonus Christmas Day, because Germany has two. We had three eating appointments. We ate breakfast (more like brunch) with Schwester Franke (typical Brötchen with meat on it), lunch with the Ewerts/Giesens (lamb, potatoes, Rotkohl, and jello.. fun fact, "jello" auf deutsch is "Gottesspeise" or food of the gods. Lol), and dinner with Ana N, a sister in our ward from Croatia. She's so cool, and her nonmember sister's family was there. She made us Croatian food and it was so fun. She made a dish called "sarma", which was basically meat and rice covered in cabbage. It was a mixture of English, German and Croatian.. haha. Her kids were adorable. Hopefully, we'll be able to teach them, because they're so cool!
Anyways, that was basically this week. Sorry for the food explanations. You're welcome, brothers. It was all delicious. Also, I opened your Christmas/birthday packages from you guys and also from family in Arco! So fun. THANK YOU! Our ward also gave us a ton of chocolate, marmelade, and other fun stuff. We felt so loved.
Happy New Year! As a district, we decided to pick one Christlike attribute and focus on developing that next year. Every day is an opportunity to come closer to Jesus Christ. I am thankful to be alive. I am thankful for my family (and friends). I am thankful for my Savior.
Alles liebe,
Sister Simpson
P.S. Sister Harger and I went to the Hamburg Art Museum today for like 4 hours. We saw some Picasso, Monet, Renoir and a ton of other amazing art!
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| Christmas Eve Döner (pronounced: dun-er) |
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| President as the Weihnachtsmann |
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| Christmas tree with echt candle.. yes that's me playing the piano |
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| Croatian friends :) |
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| Croatian friends :) |
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| Christmas Eve |
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| Us + Kalle (Christmas eve) with our owl light keychain we got |
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| Art Museum in Hamburg |
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| Art Museum in Hamburg |
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| Old Jesus paintings (plus bible) |
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| Monet |
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| Double Picasso ft. sister Harger |
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