Mission, Finals, Temple

Once again, such a long silence that I desperately need to fill... so much happening in such a short time!

First and foremost of all important news: I received my mission call a few weeks ago, and the result is that I will be spending 18 months serving in the Berlin mission, which now covers basically all of east Germany. It was a little hard to be excited about that at first - I had really wanted to learn another language. However, I am becoming more and more excited about the opportunity I will have to serve the German people who I already love. East Germany will be a new kind of experience for me... when I lived in Wuppertal we only made a few trips to the East - Leipzig, Dresden, Freiberg and Berlin. Since we focused on West Germany while we were living there, I will now be able to get a better feel for the whole country. My MTC (Missionary Training Center) entrance date is the 23rd of June, and since I already know the language I will spend only three weeks there, learning how I can best serve and reach out to the people.

After that extremely stressful week where I last wrote, things began to wind down quickly. In the last week of classes Bradford surprised me yet again with an amazing adventure. Blindfolding me, he threw me over his shoulder, sat me in his car and drove me to rock canyon park. When the blindfold came off I was sitting at a park bench at a table that could have been snipped out of the fairytale magazine that advertises "perfect romantic set-ups that make hearts melt." The complete darkness was illuminated by about 20 tea candles, with a larger candle in the center of the table. The table had all of the trappings you could wish for for a wintry picnic in the wilderness - dainty goblets filled with sparkling apple cider, flowers, with a fire in the grill just behind us. The meal included a small salad for starters, followed by grilled chicken and steak, the special Melluish campfire potatoes, rolls, topped off with some amazing s'mores. With a bucket of water from the Martin family across the street, we put out the fire and magicked everything from the table into the car :)...

Finals week was surprisingly low-key for me - I didn't have to go to the testing center once. In fact, I didn't have a single test-like comprehensive final!!!! The only rough spot was Saturday morning, where I had 4 papers due for my German lit class. Brad saved my life on this one, staying up all night to edit my 15 page research paper that involved comparing Harry Potter's ultimate sacrifice to another heroine's sacrifice in one of the books we read in class. Because finals week wasn't all that bad, Brad and I were able to spend lots of quality time together (we decided we'd never just hang out). That included making a couple of amazing gourmet pizzas to use up some leftover food and inviting everyone we could find to come and try some, packing some of our things, taking each other to campus to get finals done/run errands... the grand finale was crazy. Final cleaning checks were extremely stressful... I didn't realize that we would have final checks on our apartment the day before I had scheduled my final check... so Friday night Brad cleaned the front rooms and I desperately started packing the rest. I BARELY passed, and only because the RA was EXTREMELY nice, and trusted me that I would continue to clean and get things done after he left. The night wore on as I transported suitcases, boxes and bags to Brad's apartment, and then we packed up his car with both of our things. Around 4:30 am we put the bike on the back of his car, and around 5am I went through my apartment again, re-cleaning the bathtub, re-sweeping the floor, doing several final touch-ups and getting the last few things together. At 5:40 am I fell into bed, and at 6:20 got up to go to the temple with Brad, who didn't get to sleep at all. Miraculously we managed to make it right inbetween groups, so that it took only about an hour. The sun rose on our way out, and the day was golden. I was shocked when I looked at the car - in order to put the last few odds and ends in, you had to roll down one of the back windows, stuff it in quickly, then roll the window shut again. After Brad's final check we were on our way to my Grandmother's house in Sandy, and after quickly unloading the things I wanted to store, we were off to the airport. Wow, goodbyes were hard!

In the airplanes I was able to meet some wonderful people, such as a family from China - 2 parents with their adorable 18 month old son, and then a really nice stewardess at the Houston airport during my layover. Surprisingly enough slept only about an hour altogether on the plane, but when I got home I was completely out-cold on my beautifully soft bed :). I love the TLC of home, spending time with my family. This Saturday I went to the temple in Manhattan, NY to receive my first endowment. It was a marvelous experience, one I will never forget.

Well... that's the update for now. Hope you are all doing well!

Love,

Margaret