What a month it's been! We feel like the luckiest people to have made such special friendships and connections in our short time here. I'm so grateful for the feeling of belonging that comes from gathering. Small moments during the day, and intentional gatherings in certain places. Each help me feel more sense of family while were far away from loved ones.
I get to serve in the Relief Society, which means spending lots of time with these ladies! We met at the church & put up the Angel Tree for our ward.
Another friend from church invited Logan and I to a Disney Christmas baby concert. It was in a part of Spandau I hadn't been to yet. The building was beautiful red brick surrounded by a moat. A pretty cool place for a concert.
Logan was in his happy place surrounded by babies and music. It was such a fun event & there are so many similar opportunities for families all over the city. Lots of people comment on how kid-friendly Berlin is.
I loved getting to know my friend Clarissa and her daughter Olivia better. They're the sweetest family from Honduras & she was introduced to the church & baptized a couple of months ago!
Later that evening, we got to gather yet again with some of our Relief Society sisters for our Friendsgiving & Family History activity!
I love hosting & truly love the sisters in our ward. We're a diverse group who bring different perspectives, experiences, and goodness to one another.
We talked about the importance of us recording our own personal and family history & what that can look like. These were two quotes from Elder Soares that we discussed.
I love those words. We read a story from President Eyring who had the impression that our experiences are not given to us just for ourselves. We need to record them to help others learn from them as well. Lots of ideas were shared for what recording history can look like. Journaling, blogs, writing letters to yourself, a keepsake box, video and audio messages, etc.
One sister created an email for her baby boy and shared it with her extended family. Whenever they have an experience they want to share with Matteo, they send him an email to read when he's older. I loved that idea. How special to have messages from your family members to draw strength from throughout your life.
Everyone brought a holiday dish that's meaningful to them. It was such a fun night!!
This next "gathering" was a miracle to me. For months, I've wanted to get to know our neighbors Ludwig and Marlies better. We brought them cookies last year and have smiled and exchanged "hellos" in our coming and goings.
It's not the German way to be close with your neighbors and I considered the language to be a barrier. That's not an excuse though because now we're pretty good friends with them. <3
I was going out to the post office and some other errands and happened to run into them on my way out. We walked together for about ten minutes and had the best conversation! Their English is great and I was so grateful for the interaction. We brought them cookies again that night & they invited us in to see their Christmas decorations a few days later.
I was on cloud nine. Such a miracle & I LOVE them. Marlies sent us home with some cheesecake and we set up an appointment for her to teach me my first German lesson.
I loved our lesson! I showed up and she had my booklet and worksheets all printed out. Thankful for high school Spanish and Portuguese for giving me a head start on knowing how to conjugate verbs.
I learned more about her family and got to show her pictures of ours too. We have our next lesson scheduled for next week. Again, such a miracle and answer to prayer to have that friendship I've wanted for so long.
Thanksgiving!! <3 Thanksgiving was honestly not on my radar until the day before. So much of the excitement around holidays for me comes from the anticipation and talking about it. Since Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Germany, no one was asking or talking about their plans for Thursday! We got to celebrate with some of our best friends & Brazilian family.
I felt so comfortable and like I was at home. Another miracle to have that type of comfort and friendship. We ate some good food and enjoyed everyone's company.
Justin had a game that evening but the pressure of performing wasn't there due to the broken wrist. We've talked about how this time of recovery could be viewed as a really difficult time with Justin not being able to do everything he normally does around the house and with Logan. Instead, we've felt so blessed to spend so much time together and truly know we've been enabled by Christ to handle the situation.
Lastly, we got to see these two one more time before they head back home for the holidays! Sara and Joe match our personalities so well & we're so grateful for them!!
There's my gratitude post for the month on gathering. So grateful and so blessed. Can't believe it's December 1 tomorrow. Rabbit Rabbit!