October 13, 2014

Hi family!

Sounds like it was another good week back home. That is way cool that Taryn got to go home and visit with her friends. That meal sounded amazing too haha. And Estes and everything. Sweet. Sometimes I miss Colorado, and then I think, Oh wait, I'm in Germany. Thats cooler. Then everythings better. Troy, that job sounds awesome. I have been praying for you with your interviews, and Dad too. Hopefully everything will work out for the best. Oh, and mom, that was a good story. Gotta love Colorado. 

My best buddy, Yannick, from Heidelberg, is serving his
mission in my zone until he gets his visa and leaves
for his mission to South Africa. I got
to see him at our last zone.

Anyways, my week. It was another busy week. Aiyana was gone the whole week on the youth stake temple trip. We saw her yesterday at Church and asked her how it was, and she said it was just amazing. She said that the temple was just beautiful and a great experience, and she had a lot of fun hanging out with the other youth in the stake, and has become really good friends with a few of the over the past few months. We looked at pictures for a long time. Her mom also went through the temple this week for the first time. I asked Sister Gionker how it was and she just couldnt stop smiling. She said that it was the most amazing thing, and that she was just so happy and felt like a little kid because she couldnt stop smiling about it. She wants to go back ASAP. It sounds like they both had a really good experience, so that is awesome.

Raphael

We finally saw Elkin again this week. He has been so stressed and busy with his court case, but when he met with us, and just thanked us for our prayers, and said that he noticed them helping. He said that his problems were getting better, and that his prayers were just full of gratitude for that. Even through it all, he still has such a good outlook on life and God. He was just baring testimony to us that God was giving him these trials to help him grow stronger. We didnt have much time to meet... only 20 minutes, but we read Nephi's prayer in 2 Nephi 4 together. He just loved it, and was just going off about how he knew God would deliever him from anything. It was great. 

Raphael's doing great too. We met with him and just had a lesson focus on the Atonement. We focused the lesson straight out of Alma 7, and just bore powerful testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and everything that he did for us. Raphael has a really powerful testimony in Christ. We read further in the Chapter, and then said to him, "Christ did all of this for you, so what will you do for him in return?" I honestly dont remember his exact answer, all I know is that the spirit hit really hard just then. And he proceeded to tell us that that was the way that he felt when he was really focused on his prayers - that the spirit just warmed him from Head to toe. We brought up baptism again, but he just doesnt feel ready, even though he so is! He said he wants to understand more about the Book of Mormon, and everything before he makes that step, which is understandable, but he just always says that it will take a while. No, Raphael! But the cutest thing was that at the end of his spiel, he closed with, "and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." It was just so funny. Sister Heywood and I couldnt look at each other in fear of laughing. 

Found another one in the area we were
dooring. The history here never
ceases to amaze me.

We also met with Ola again this week. I don't think that I have really said too much about her. Her brother is an investigator in Dortmund, and she sat in on the Plan of Salvation there and was so interested, that she referred herself to us. She is just so caught up on the whole three kingdoms of heaven and hell topic, that we cant really talk about anything else, because it always goes back to it. I just never know when I should really answer her questions / how because they are all super deep doctrine, that I dont really know the answer too. Plus, I don't know how much is too much to share with her. Its a hard line. But I just feel like once she believes that, everything will just fly. Wish me luck with that one this week!

Ola's friend was doing her hair
and taught us how to weave.
The things I learn on my mission!

We also found another way cool investigator this week. His name is Damien. He stopped us on the street a few weeks ago, and asked us if we were from the church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints. He said that his dad was a member in Nigeria, and always bugging him to learn about Christs true church. So we finally got an appointment with him and it was awesome. But the beginning of the lesson was just hilarious. We go to sit on a park bench outside, and he is all nervous because there is bird poop on the bench, and he doesnt want to get pooped on. So we finally get him to sit down, and we start talking about his religious background for maybe three minutes, when all of a sudden, he gets pooped on. He FREAKS out, and just starts saying, "Ah man, I knew it. I never have luck with these birds. Man, I have poop (not the actual word he used) on me and its not even my poop! Ah crap, crap, crap" And he gets up and runs to the other pole. Oh man, Sister Heywood and I were DYING LAUGHING. It was just so funny. What are the chances? And his reaction was just priceless. Anyways, once we finally got back on topic, it was an extremely good lesson. We shared a lot with us and said that what he felt was missing in every church was love, and that he hasnt been able to feel Gods love or real happiness in a long time. We were able to bare solid testimony, and introduced the book of Mormon, and told him that if he read it, he would be able to feel the love of God more and that our message would bring him happiness. He seemed really interested, and wants that. He also is an amazing singing ,and sang gospel songs for us the walk back to the bus station. Damien is a cool guy haha.

I walk by this beautiful wall everyday!

Everyone else that we are working with are doing well. We had to drop a few people this week because they werent making much progress, but I guess that gives us more time to find some more amazing people. With how much we are being blessed, I am excited to see what comes next. 

I get to go on a split tonight! With Sister McMurray. I am super excited. I get to go to Herne and just not have to worry about being the leader for a day, and spend time with my MTC comp. Sister Heywood will be going on a split with her MTC comp too, here in Münster. Shes super stressed haha. Time to see how well I have taught her! We spent a lot of time going over trains and buses and stuff during study today, so hopefully it works out. Its going to be FUN. 

Also, I was going over my general conference notes this week, and read the one from the Womans session about light and the living Christ. I have decided to memorize it in German by the time I go home. Little scary - germans hard haha. but I have seen how after just a few days, my mind really does revolve around Christ more, and everything that he has done for us. I am just so greatful for him and am honored to wear his name on my chest every day. 

Well, I love you all! Have a wonderful week, and I will talk to you all next week! 

Tschüß :)

Savannah 

October 6, 2014

Word of the week:  das Dazugeliörichkeitsgefühl.  It means sense of belonging.  Pretty cool, huh? Gotta love German!  Well, I hope you all enjoyed a great General Conference weekend!  From what I watched, it was really good. We haven’t been able to watch the last session on Sunday, but I'll get to it eventually. Dad, I am really sorry to hear about your job. Really. I don’t really understand why some things happen the way that they do, but I will pray and fast that you will be able to find another job. The Lord knows us personally and has our best interest in mind. I know everything will work out. Keep searching for a job, and I will keep praying for you. 

As far as school is concerned...I am just going to start during spring. It will be good. I will just move to Provo for a couple months, live with my friends, find a job, and then go to school on scholarship. I think it will be the best option for me. That way I can try to kind of figure out my life and what I want to do with it, be able to relax, but not stay at home in Colorado. It will be good.

Well then, glad that’s done. As far as my week, it was a solid week. Last Monday, my district decided to go "mushroom hunting" (don’t ask me why). So we got on a bus until we saw some woods and went exploring in them. It ended up turning into this giant baseball game, throwing mushrooms and hitting them with sticks. Not going to lie.  It was really fun. Amazing, the ways we find to entertain ourselves. 

 Aiyana is doing really well. We met with her on Tuesday, and just talked about the last weekend, and she was still just so happy. We talked a lot about the gift of the Holy Ghost and everything that He does for us.  I think that it opened her eyes to a new perspective. I feel like we don’t really grasp just how the gift of the Holy Ghost can help us, and everything that it does for us. I believe that we will never be able to use this gift to the fullness of its capacity, but we can try. I have been learning every day a little more about what the Holy Ghost does, and how it helps, and it is just incredible. And all of it is great, but I think that the thing I am most grateful for is that little warm feeling that it gives me in my heart, telling me, "Its all true. God is there. Christ loves you. That’s the truth." This little feeling has helped me through so much. I am super excited for Aiyana right now though. They are all on another random fall break, so the youth in the stake went down to the temple for the week to do baptisms.  Aiyana went too!  Baptized, and the next week she is already getting to do baptisms. That’s pretty neat. 

We have been in contact with Elkin a lot this week, but we haven’t been able to actually meet with him. It’s been really sad. At this rate though, I am thinking he will never go back to Spain. He has been super stressed, because he is involved in this big court case with his ex-wife, and it has taken up all of his time and energy. But he says that he is praying every night, and we have been sending him scripture passages to read, and he says that it is helping. Hopefully, werden wir be able to meet with him this week.

Raphael though. He’s a golden one. We asked him what he thought about the baptism and confirmation, and he just went off for about 20 minutes. He told us that he was mad at himself, because on Sunday (it was our Fast Sunday), he wasn’t true to himself. He said that the whole time during testimony meeting, he had a feeling in his heart that he should go up and bear his testimony, but he was too afraid. He was so frustrated with himself for not going up there!  So he just proceeded to give it to us. He told us that what he wanted to say was how grateful he was for the missionaries and the message and feelings we shared with him. He said that he was just so grateful for all that he had learned, and how he wanted to keep learning more and eventually be baptized. We just need to help him see now that he doesn’t have to know EVERYTHING right now, just simply know in his heart that what we say is true. Slowly but surely. I feel like we have been teaching him so much longer and have known him so much longer than we actually have. I'm getting impatient, ha-ha. 

We also met with a really cool kid this week. His name is Calvin. We met him at a street display about two weeks ago. He is a study abroad student here from Minnesota, and he started talking to us because one of his best friends in Minnesota is a Mormon. We met with him on Thursday, and had one of the greatest first meetings I have had. He has almost no religious background, but he is so willing to learn. He just soaks up everything. He told us that he is here to be independent and figure out his life, so he might as well figure out religion with it. He said that he was always so fascinated with the Mormons and loved how they all seem to love their religion so much, so if he was going to learn about any Christian religion, it would be the Mormons. I love teaching Calvin, because he is just a happy, regular teenage American boy. He is just happy and nice, and it is just easy to talk with him, and share everything. No language barriers, no trying to get him to open up. We share, he shares, he asks perfect questions, and we answer with the Spirits help. Bingo, perfekt lesson. Sad part is, is that he is going on vacation with his host family for the next 2.5 weeks (dumb random German holidays... EVERYONE is leaving this week), and so we wont meet with him until then. But he has a Book of Mormon now and he said he would start reading in it!

Then, we ended the week with General Conference!  Wasn’t that great!  We had to go down to Dortmund to watch it, so between the train time down there / cost, we just spent the night with the Herne Sisters on Saturday night. Which means, I got to spend some quality time with Sister McMurray!  I LOVE that girl. It was like being in the MTC all over again. She is just great. We get to go on a split in 2 weeks, and I am just super excited. 

But anyways, General Conference. I think my two favorite talks were during Saturday Morning by D. Todd Christopherson and Elder Uchtdorf. I was SUPER bummed that Uchtdorf didn’t get his talk in German. I mean, I understand why, but that would have just been so cool. I think all the members were disappointed too. But at least I understand English ha-ha. Yeah, those two were my favorites. Probably because the topics that I am obsessed with right now are Light and Justice vs. Mercy. I have been studying both of these topics a lot recently, and so to have these talks centered on it.  Man it was just like Christmas. Full attention ahead!  I can’t wait to get a copy and just study them, along with all of the rest. I found it interesting just how many were centered on the prophet, too, and how every member really needs to strengthen his or her own testimony first. Makes me wonder what is about to come, but until then, I will definitely work on strengthening myself so that I can help those around me better. Thank goodness for 3 hours of study a day!  Ha-ha. 

Well, as of now, my pictures aren’t working. I think I sent off one, but the rest aren’t working. I will try to get it working at the church, but if not, sorry! 

I love you all!  I hope that you all have a great week. Dad, I will pray for you every night. Just keep the faith, and things will work out!  Troy, hope to hear from you soon....

ICH HAB' EUCH LIEB.

Savannah

September 29, 2014

 

As much as it stinks getting information about school and stuff, thanks for all of the information.  Going to school for free sounds pretty great, Troy.  I am thinking at this rate I will probably just wait until Spring Semester, if it means that I can just go for free.  I'll think about it this week, but that’s probably what I will end up doing.  Then I can just earn some money and go do fun things with my friends and get my English good again.  Because I'm struggling with that one.  Then I can really figure out what to do with my life, and it would give me time to look at classes for myself and stuff.  Thanks for the information though, I'll let you all know next week.  Thanks for the ring mom!  You're the best.  Hopefully it will get to the apartment... haha.  As for the other package, Mission Office is definitely a safer bet! 

As for my week, I don’t know how or why, but Sister Heywood and I are just being extremely blessed right now.  It was the craziest week EVER.  I think I can say that it was my busiest week on the mission.  And we were able to teach a lot.  It was just great. 

I'll start with Aiyana, since, well, SHE WAS BAPTIZED THIS WEEK.  All I can say is that Satan played a hard game this week, but like it always should, good came out on top.  She had her baptismal interview and everything went well.  We were having daily contact.  We played games at Anna’s and everything.  And then on Thursday night, Sören called us, saying that Aiyana sent him a message with just a mile long list of concerns and doubts...most of them caught us off guard.  We were feeling pretty discouraged, because well, we didn’t know about any of them.  We had asked her a million times and she said she was feeling good and was ready to be baptized.  Well, we had an emergency meeting on Friday, and talked through with her about all of her concerns, and had her tell us what all she believed and why she wanted to get baptized.  It was a really powerful meeting, and when the time came for her to be baptized on Saturday, she knew it was right, and we knew it was right.  The spirit was so strong during that baptism, during the whole service, and she just looked happy.  It was amazing to me to see how the spirit can just chase away all of these doubts and fears.  That is where the power is, and we could feel it and Aiyana could feel it. 

Her and Bruder Rosendahl.
I love this picture!

I think the greatest part was her getting confirmed though.  As Bruder Dröge started speaking, you could just tell that it was coming from God.  And when he pronounced, "Receive the Holy Ghost," it was so strong that every single person in that room could feel it.  It just overcame my entire body, and I can only imagine how Aiyana felt at that moment.  You could see it on her face afterwards though.  She was literally glowing.  She was so happy, and just hugging everyone.  She went up and bore her testimony, and it was short, but so sweet.  Practically what she said was, "I know this church is true, and because I know that nothing could stop me from being baptized." And that is exactly right.  That testimony that this church is true is exactly what it needed to overcome any doubt, and obstacle that could face her.  And this is just the beginning.  Her testimony will grow stronger and stronger.  This week was intense though.  There were doubts and fears, but in the end, we all know that that is the time when Satan tries to play his hardest game.  He knows that once they have the Holy Ghost with them, it is so much harder.  But he didn’t win this time.  Aiyana is baptized, and she is just glowing.  I couldn’t be happier for her! 

Which brings us to Raphael.  I.  Love.  Raphael.  I don't know how many times I have said that, but every time we meet with him or see him, it just grows even more.  We met with him on Friday, and we talked about prophets to get him ready for General Conference.  We asked him if he had been reading in the Book of Mormon, and he said that he had been studying the Thema Charity.  Which was just awesome.  He said that he loved learning about the love of God, which just fit in perfectly, because we wanted to show him a clip of President Monson's last General Conference talk, which was titled, "Love—the Essence of the Gospel." He just ate it up.  At the end, Sister Heywood and I always close with our testimonies, and after we said ours, he asked us, "Should I say my testimony now?" He proceeded to give the best testimony ever.   It was an awesome lesson.  Then he went to the baptism on Saturday.  We were asking him after how he felt, and he said, "Sometimes we just have these experiences where we feel so good that we forget if we are in heaven or if we are still on earth.  This was one of those times." Oh man.  We ended up just talking to him forever, and he said that every time he met with us, his head told him that it was right.  He knows that it is good, and he just wants his heart to be in as much as his head is.  He says when those two align, he will get baptized.  He is so close!  He loves this church and he loves the ward.  He loves the Book of Mormon.  This guy just glows.  Yesterday at church, he just soaked in fast and testimony meeting, and after sacrament, he just sat there reading the conference talk that we gave him during our last lesson.  I can't wait until he realized how ready he is. 

Elkin is also doing great.  We taught him the Restoration and the gospel of Jesus Christ this week, and he has been reading and praying to know if it is true.  He is just such a humble guy, and just soaks up everything that we tell him.  He wants this light that we have, and brings everything back to it. 

We also met a guy from Mexico this week.  Two Spanish investigators!  This is getting crazy.  His name is Ruano and he is here studying.  One of his friends gave him a Book of Mormon in Mexico and he read all of the Nephis and part of Jacob.  He loves Christ.  He came to church on Sunday, and although he understands almost no German, he was just smiling and nodding the whole time.  During Aiyana's confirmation, he leaned over to me and poked me and motioned to his heart and told me, "I just feel something so strong here.  Whoa." I couldn’t stop smiling.  He’s a cool one.  We also found an exchange student from Minnesota named Calvin.  He has a best friend that is Mormon and says that she always just talks so highly of it, and so he wants to learn more.  We are meeting with him Thursday! 

Bananagrams...they weren't really happy
with me by the end, because I kept
winning. But I thought it was fun!

Our other investigators are doing well.  Anna too.  We had FHE with her family again, and they all love it.  When we got there, Anna said that Leon had been waiting the whole day for us to come and play Bananagrams.  Anna loves it.  She loves having her whole family together.  It is great. 

Man, just thinking about this week, it was just so hectic.  I am just blessed.  We are working with some of the coolest people right now, and it just strengthens my testimony so much to be able to teach them, and testify and learn from them.  This  hurch is true.  This work is great, and I am loving every moment of it.  I crawl into bed every night exhausted, but ready to go, because I just can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds.  Miracles, for sure. 

I found this door really funny,
because their family name is
"Deutsch" and they have the
 most solid, metal door ever.
 Classic stereotype of
closed off Germans...literally. 

I cannot wait for this weekend.  We have the opportunity to hear from a living Prophet.  How blessed are we!  Life is good for sure.

I love you all. 

Savannah 

September 22, 2014

Our most successful display yet :)

Hallo everyone!  Well, before I tell you about my AWESOME week, thanks for all of the emails.  Sounds like life is going well down there.  Mom and Dad…as cool as it would be to have you come to Germany, don’t worry about it.  It will be sweet just to fly home with all of my friends in January and to see you at the airport.  We will just have to plan a family trip to come to Germany next summer so that I can see everyone :) Or if that doesn’t work, Taryn and I will come out here.  She always seems to find a way to do crazy trips, so I think it would work out.  So Taryn, next summer, Germany?  I want to see everyone again.  Mom, I have absolutely no idea what my BYU user name or password is...  I’m sorry.  I am freaking out enough knowing I’m going home on the 16th.  I thought it was the 21st!  5 days less than thought.  Shoot. 

Anyways, let me tell you about one of the coolest weeks on my mission. 

Aiyana's fashion show 

So first, there’s Aiyana.  She is getting baptized this Saturday!  I literally cannot contain my excitement.  Last P-Day, she wanted to go shopping with us to try to find some modest skirts, because…well in Germany, that’s pretty dang hard.   So we went to just about every store possible, and she either didn’t like them or they were a millions euros (okay, exaggerations, but expensive).  Finally, we told her to go sit down, and Sister Heywood and I just went crazy and got every skirt in the store and had her try them on for us in a little fashion show.  FINALLY we found one that was just too cute.  We ended up buying it for her, (It was only 10 Euro!) and telling her that she couldn’t wear it until her baptism.  You should have seen her beam after that.  We met with her again on Tuesday, finished all of the lessons, and then went over the baptismal interview questions with her, because she was way nervous.  After we were done, she was just like "Wait, is that all?" Yup!  She is so ready.  Her testimony is so strong, and she is just bereit.  She has her final interview tomorrow with our district leader and then on Saturday, AIYANA IS GETTING BAPTIZED.  I couldn’t be more excited. 

Second, Raphael finally came back!  He was at church yesterday, and watching him walk in in his fancy little suit just made me beam from ear to ear.  He was just smiling and saying that he had missed us and was happy to be here again.  Turns out his little trip was a job interview at a University down somewhere, but he rejected it because he just started getting to know us and the branch here and he didn’t want to leave it.  SERIOUSLY.  How much cooler could this guy get?  And he wants to go to the baptism on Saturday.  I really hope he can, because if he feels the spirit there, well then, fill that font back up and let Raphael get in! 

We also had a way fun FHE with Anna’s family.  We played Bananagrams and did a mix of English and German.  Good stuff, and yours truly won. 

I love working with Sister Heywood.  Days just seemed jammed packed with greatness.  We had two street displays this week, and through them, we were able to find a couple of potentials, and we were able to give out 12 Books of Mormon this week.  That’s really good for us.  We had a couple of first appointments with a couple people, which sadly didn’t go anywhere, but we also found this way awesome girl named Ola from Nigeria, who is amazed by the three kingdoms and the Plan of Salvation.  We are meeting with a woman from Brazil tomorrow with the cutest little boy ever.  Yesterday, we were walking and a guy from Nigeria came up to us, asked us if we were from the Church of Jesus Christ and we said yes.  He said he had heard a lot about us from a friend of his that we talked to on the bus a few weeks ago.  He also said that his dad was a member of our church in Nigeria for the past 15 years, and that he has been bugging his son to find this church in Germany and join it.  So we got his number and are meeting with him this week!  SICK.  People just seem to be crawling out of the cracks.  It is great.  We have a goal to find some Germans, though...because for some reason, none of them are ha-ha. 

But I think that the coolest story by far is from Elkin.  So flash back to my email from August 18th...  Over a month ago... 

We had a really cool miracle this week.  So we were trying to find this potentia’ls house, and we just couldn’t find it.  Well, we didn’t want to just go all the way out here, get frustrated that it wasn’t there and then give up and leave, so we decided to go dooring in the area.  Well, like usual, nobody had interest, and it was getting late, so we decided to head to the bus stop to go home.  At the bus stop, there was a guy, who kept looking at us, and he had way broken German, but he kept saying awkward little comments to us, and smiling.  We were a little weirded out, but felt like we should talk with him.  The bus came, and so we got on, and he sat down across the isle, and didn’t really look at us.  Well, behind us in the bus was this black lady breast-feeding her baby, which was completely awkward, but then the bus hit a bump and her stuff went everywhere.  So Sister Heywood went and helped her, and came back and sat closer to the guy.  Then, she just started talking to him.  Within a minute, we learn that he is from Spain, so I practically jump out of my seat, and start speaking to him.  Turns out he is living here, but has seen our church everywhere in Spain, and wanted a Book of Mormon.  He told us all about his life, and we ended up getting off the bus with him, taking him to the church, and giving him a tour, and setting up an appointment for tomorrow night.  Thank you, Sister Heywood.  We now have a potential Spanish investigator, and I am so excited!

Well, my letter the next week, I never told you what happened to this guy, because I was just so disappointed.  That day that we were suppose to meet him, he gave us a call and asked to reschedule the appointment for the next day.  Well, I missed the phone call, and for some dumb reason I had forgotten to ask for his number that last week.  When he called, the number showed up as private, so we had no way to respond to him.  I was crushed, and just prayed and prayed that he would call back again, because I didn’t want him to think that we just ignored him and didn’t care.  Well, flash forward to last Wednesday.  Over a month later.  We were on our way to an appointment, when all of a sudden, we were getting onto a bus about to leave and Sister Heywood grabbed my elbow and pulled me out of my seat yelling, "That’s Elkin!"  We shouted to the bus driver to let us out of the bus, ran out and jumped onto the bus that he got on right before it left.  Sister Heywood ran up to Elkin screaming his name and I just laughed out of surprise.  We talked to him and cleared up the issue of the call.  He said that he still wanted to learn more and asked to meet the next day.  We met on Thursday and had the most amazing lesson ever.  We introduced the Book of Mormon and he just ate it up, sitting there asking what more we could tell him.  We ended up meet with him Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and we are meeting with him again tonight.  I just love teaching Elkin, AND I teach him in Spanish.  Sister Heywood just tells me what she wants to say, and I translate it.  It is amazing.  And at the end of every lesson, when we start to wrap it up, he just asks us, " I have 10 more minutes, what more do you have to tell me?" I still can’t believe our luck.  He is so prepared, and he loves the Mormons.  He always says that we have this special glow to us, and he wants to know more about why we are so different.  He just asks us questions about everything and eats it up.  The only sad part about it is that he is going back to Spain this week, and he doesn’t know for how long.  It could be a week, or two or two months.  He has no idea.  He has to get documentation stuff cleared up for Germany, but Spain isn’t in the best spot right now.  I am going to be crushed when he is gone.  But until then, he is just soaking everything up, and hopefully he can continue to meet with missionaries there and will be back in a week!  I have no idea though.  All I know is that Elkin is awesome, and that I am so glad that Sister Heywood say him on the bus last Wednesday. 

Lucky took us out to a Chinese buffet.
I think I ate enough for 10  people!

There’s always so much more that happens, so many more miracles, but right now, I am just counting my blessings.  Sister Heywood and I work awesome together, and we are just seeing miracle after miracle up here in Münster.  I feel like I just crawl into bed at the end of every night.  I honestly can’t remember the last time I even stayed up till 10:30.  We always seem to crash after planning when we should be writing in our journals.  But that’s just how I would have it. 

It’s going to be another busy week, and definitely one that I will remember.  Get excited for pictures from the baptism!  Just 5 days!!! 

I love you all.  You’re all great.  I hope that you have a fantastic week, and I will see you around January 16th.  Ahh, weird.  But until then...bis nächste Woche! 

Love you!

Savannah