The Skog Blog: The One With All the Sheep...

So, we are taught in the scriptures to feed His sheep... but here we just eat his sheep. Literally every meal is lamb. and not only is it lamb but it's lamb from Christ's time on earth I swear. It's really rough because nobody can eat it, it's that bad. And we have it like every other day. Sister Hunter describes it as tasting the way sheep smell. Ya know like if you were out on a farm and you saw a sheep and went up and licked it? That's how we feel the lamb here tastes, not that we know from experience, it's just a guess, but I would say it's probably pretty accurate.

I'm going to give a rundown on the food because honestly, food is so important, like let's be real here. Breakfasts usually consist of yogurt (I couldn't even tell you what kind of yogurt it is because in reality it's honey with a some yogurt mixed in..) or cold cereal (frosted flakes, cocoa puffs, or rice crispies [which by the way the rice crispies are not like real rice crispies because they too are covered in 3 layers of sugar)) So basically breakfast is 1000% sugar and there is no way to get around it because the things that should be healthy are actually coated in sugar. And all of the actual meals never have fruits or vegetables in them or with them... We have a salad bar but the salad option is kale and let's be real- nobody wants to eat kale. so as far as nutrients go.. there are none. So I don't think I am going to accomplish the goal that the MTC president had of gaining weight in the MTC since I appear to be doing the opposite.

Our teachers are extremely nice but as it turns out one of the boys in our district grew up with his father and grandparents always speaking German to him so he's basically fluent and the teachers keep expecting us to be at his level of understanding and speaking and whatnot, because he said he didn't know any German... but he's like fluent. So it's been stressful and hard to get the teachers to see that we are not at his level and that the rest of us haven't even been speaking German for 2 weeks so we need some patience and understanding. (because they really do expect us to be fluent too which is basically impossible if we are being honest.)

I've had some absolutely amazing experiences here, there is so much love. So last Wednesday we got some new missionaries-all of them are going to England missions but lots of them are ESL (English Second Language) so lot's of them are trying to learn/master their English, which is pretty cool. With those new missionaries we got a senior couple! The wife is from Switzerland and her husband is from Austria! It's been so cool to have them because they've told us so much about where we'll be going, and about the people, and they've spoken to us in German (and I've been able to understand a lot of it!) Also, on Sunday I gave a talk for our Sacrament meeting which was stressful for many reasons, 1) I wasn't told I was going to be speaking until about 10 minutes before Sacrament 2) It was supposed to be in mission language 3) nobody would understand me, the only people that would understand what I was saying was the couple from Germany, which means I actually had to say real things and watch my words... 4) I was going after another fluent german speaker who should have been in the 3 week program not the 6 week. Anyway the fluent speaker spoke in English which threw me off a lot. BUT, I gave my talk and the Senior Couple came up to me after and told me that it was really good and they understood everything I said, and that I did really good, especially for someone who has only been speaking German for like....9 days. So that was really cool.

We had a really cool family home evening on Sunday night as well. Elder Lipp (the married senior missionary) had something planned for us that was actually way cool. (Some of these facts may be wrong, I'm being a lazy bum and I don't want to get out of bed to find my notes about it so this is what I remember...) Apparently in like 1976 Spencer W. Kimball gave a prophesy about the German Speaking Areas (Germany, Austria, Switzerland..MY MISSION). The prophesy contained information about those areas having more than 100 stakes. (Right now there are about 20 stakes I think he said) but anyway, the prophesy said that because of missionary work the amount of stakes was going to dramatically increase in the future. Which is way cool. So now all of us 11 missionaries going to the mission are determined to do our part so that we can be contributors to the amazing work in German speaking countries. To finish off family home evening President Bunker had everyone share their favorite scripture and why it was their favorite, I have like 40 new favorite scriptures

So I'm just going to leave a list of some really great ones, so you can edify yourself & enjoy.

2 Nephi 25:26 (This one is just a classic, but it's a classic for a reason, it's seriously a great one.)

Alma 37: 36-37

Moroni 6:4 (don't you want Christ to be the author and finisher of your faith? Such a great line.)

I love this gospel, I love my savior. I love this opportunity and privilege to serve and teach his children. I am honored to be called of by God to bring his sheep back to him (not to eat them). I hope you all know that I really do believe in this gospel, and I know that Christ is my savior. Through Him, we can do all things.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

PS. Sister Hunter, Sister Lau, and I make the best trio. We are the only companionship so far who hasn't had issues... Except for the fact that Sister Lau was originally in another companionship.. but since we've been a trio we have been the dream team.