Black Mountain Retreat

Hey Mumma!

  Y'alls weekend in the mountains sounds fun! I'm glad that you all got to spend the weekend together. Well I did get transferred. I am headed to Bremerhaven, a port city about 4 and 1/2 hours away from Halberstadt. I feel a little jipped being transferred on General Conference weekend since we don't have church in our building ( we have to go to Braunschweig) but I called everyone and got appointments with them tonight so that I could say goodbye. It's weird packing all my things. I have a lot of books. I need to start slowly sending them home. A lot are just things I've collected since I've been here. My companion will be Sister Dean. She was in the MTC at the same time I was but just in another district so we are actually the same age on the mission.

  I REALLY enjoyed conference. I didn't realize just how badly I needed to hear from all the apostles and President Monson. I'm looking forward to next Saturday when we get to hear from President Monson again. It was amazing to hear President Monson announce the change for the missionary ages. I would have LOVED to go at 19. We have a lot of Elders in my mission already that are 18 because Germany was one of those countries with the exception to let the boys start sooner. I don't think there will be huge problems of flirting. It's an amazing piece of revelation and certainly a sign of the times that Heavenly Father is kicking missionary work into high gear. I think this will allow for a lot more sisters to come on missions. I'm grateful for when I did come otherwise I wouldn't have had a spot or scholarship at LSU but it will be such a privilege for all those girls who want to go and doubt those promptings to go between 18-21. I also think it will help a lot of youth to stay strong and focused on the straight and narrow and help them solidify their testimony of the gospel. I hope Eli does go when he is 18. What a neat experience it will be.

    So our P-day last Monday was really fun. Sister Tidwell and I enjoyed our time in Braunschweig and she was able to find some really fun cute dresses and really cheap boots. We even found a German version of Hobby Lobby. We spent easily an hour in there. It was wonderful! When we came home we stopped by Schwester Munke to pick up a cake she made for Sister Tidwell. She made the same beautiful huge cake that sister Openshaw and I got to eat several months back. We took it home and weighed it. You'll never guess how heavy it was, 17.6 lbs!

   Sister Tidwell and I got to do lots of finding this week and we had lots of interesting conversations. One man came out of his home to show us a book called the False Messiah  and just told us how wrong we were. I explained that Jesus is the Christ and that we were all brothers and sisters. He kind of looked appalled at that idea. He told Sister Tidwell to say "Hi" to Jesus for him. She said she would. It's sad how confused Satan likes to make people. The old man said at the end of our conversation that he would see us in the next life and he is right, he will. But he will be surprised at what he gets to learn. I hope he can be open to the gospel.

   Well Mumma, I hope you have a great 4 -day week at school and have fun with the family on your vacation day today. I love you and I'm very grateful for you!

-Ariel Nell