Grandma Connolly 💕

Family,
Words cannot describe the feelings and experiences I have had with all that has transpired this week. On Christmas day, Heaven gained the most beautiful angel they have ever seen. I started calling my Grandma Connolly "A Queen" this past year because sometimes I would just look at her sitting in her little chair and my breath would be taken away by her beauty. I feel like sometimes, I was able to get glimpses of the majesty that she now has in Heaven. 

I cannot lie, there have been tears shed this week as I have tried to imagine a world without silly ole Barbara Burta, but I cannot deny the gift of peace that I have been given. This peace has come through my testimony of the Gospel. If I did not know that I will be with my family for ETERNITY then I guarantee you I would be on a plane coming home right now with a broken heart full of sorrow. But, Christ has taken the sting of death. Because of his Atonement, I know that my Grandma has been welcomed into heaven with angels singing praises. I know that she RAN into my grandfather's arms and when I imagine their embrace, tears of joy gather in my eyes. I know that when my time comes to leave this earth, whether that be today or when I am laying in my bed at 90 years old, my Queen of a Grandmother will be right there, welcoming me home. 

Memories of Grandma:

- When I was little and she would babysit me, we would sit outside and be "bird watchers" peering up into the willow tree with my toy binoculars

- How "innocent" she would look after she would let a cuss word slip or after she would beat us all with no mercy at skip-bo!

- How she would crunch up her whole face anytime she would take a bite of someone else's food (she holds the record for the biggest bites too!) 

- That time when she lost a bet playing old maid with her grandkids and had to eat a moldy piece of celery from the trash can 

- Our morning walks we took the couple of weeks before I left when we would talk about everything under the sun.

- When she shared her conversion story with me one day while I was laying on her bed. She bore her testimony to me of the feelings that she had when she spoke to the missionaries in her teenage years and how she somehow knew that what they said was true. She also told me about how she did not gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon until much later in life until she had read it from front to back and then prayed.

I could go on for hours, even days, because our lives will forever be intertwined. I used to think that death meant that our lives were torn apart and the more they had been intertwined, the more it would hurt, but I was completely wrong. Death does not tear us apart, instead, it solidifies our bond and our memories because we are reminded that we are spiritual beings having an earthly experience and that our life on earth is just the blink of an eye in eternity. 

I will continue praying that my family is able to feel the same peace that I feel and I will also continue praying that the Lord will help me find those who are ready to hear the Gospel so that they will NEVER again have to feel the hopelessness that seems to accompany death. For I know death is not the end. 

Much love, Sister Reay

(Or as grandma would say, "XOXOXOXO 😘  💕  😘  💕).

Here is a goofy picture of me! Apparently, there is a rule in the German culture book that says that you have to give the missionaries chocolate Santa's because we have quite the collection from this week!!!

The One with the Russian Tea

Hallo from Germany! 

I have been assigned to the Singen, Germany area! 

I was so scared when I left the MTC, but everything has its season! I LOVED meeting President Brown and his wife! They took such good care of us!

My trainer is so sweet! Her name is Sister McClellan and she is from Utah. This is her last transfer and it is a short one so we will be together for 8 weeks. 

SOOOOOOOOOO my confidence in speaking the language went from about a 4 to a 0 and my confidence in understanding other people went from a 1 to a negative 10000. BUT all is well! It is just frustrating when I have this burning testimony and People are placed in our path and I cannot share it... But I am just trusting that The Lord wants me here for a reason.

I was really grateful that our teachers spoke so much German in our classrooms because I did not have too much culture shock! Honestly, I am just overwhelmed with having to get from place to place... I am so directionally challenged it is NOT even funny and it doesn’t help that I have never used busses or trains. NEW ADVENTURES!

Our area is fairly large, but we only have a small branch of members, but they are the coolest!!! I was asked to bear my testimony on Sunday and it was so funny because I wanted to say a couple things before I told everyone that I was new so that it didn’t sound like being new was my crutch, but when I finally said, "I just came from the MTC so I have been learning German for 5 weeks" everyone just started nodding and smiling with this encouraging look. They really are the sweetest when it comes to learning the language... they are just so pleased that I am trying!

So, something that they have changed that I love is that they aren’t allowed to call us "greenies". Instead, they call us "Goldens"! I would not have been bothered by being called a greenie, but being called a golden is the bomb! I love it!!! My Golden power is seriously blazing because I would rather knock on 30 doors instead of going to a member’s home for dinner because there are so many people out there that just need the Gospel!

My first full day, we went caroling with some of the members and it was a blast! We went to one lady's house who is originally from Russia and my companion warned me before we went inside that she grew up during the world war and they did not have very much food so she is VERY offended if you do not eat everything you are given and she gives about 5 times more than what you have room for... After we sang her songs, she INSISTED that we stay for some herbal tea and cookies (we really did not have time, but no joke, you cannot say no to this lady... so we all had to stay) She gave us each a huge cup of BOILING tea and I am not kidding, I think was literally boiling in my cup... So naturally, I wanted to wait for it to cool down... well she came around to force everyone to have seconds and she saw that my cup was still full and she was a bit upset. I tried explaining that it was too hot so she got another empty cup and handed it to me and was saying a bunch of stuff I didn’t understand! I was so confused and my face was turning pink. Apparently, she wanted me to pour my tea into a new cup to cool it down... ANYWAY I ended up spilling and my companion was just dying from laughter because of what a confusing mess it was! It was so funny! But there was a happy ending because I drank all of my tea and she was happy!

One of the highlights of my week was getting to participate in a family's advent traditions after church on Sunday. It was my first experience with that tradition so they were so excited to share everything with me, including their traditional "advent cake" which was delish!

We have a STELLER investigator whose name is Daniel. He has been taking the lessons for about a year and apparently, he has made HUGE progress in the last couple months. I don’t know what he was like before, but now, he is the kindest and most genuine guy. And he is so spiritual! 

I am adjusting okay to the missionary life. I want to talk to every person that I meet because this Gospel fills me with so much peace and HAPPINESS!!! Germany is so beautiful and we had our first snow fall this week! 

All is well and I cannot believe that it is already Christmas! I GET TO SEE MY FAMILY THIS WEEK!!!

Random Things:

· I have "sea legs" on the busses and trains so most conversations start by people catching me as I fall

· We went to the Christmas market today! At every market, they have traditional "punch" and other drinks, but we have to ask for "kinder punch" (children's punch) because all the other drinks have alcohol in them! We also ate this delish stuff called "Drender Handbrot" and I almost died!

· This computer only has German spell check and a couple of the letters are different so enjoy the lovely typos

· Our ward mission leader always plays pranks on the new missionaries so when I first met him, he was dressed up in a Santa Clause outfit and was pretending to be drunk. It was a blast!

Love,

Sister Reay