Blondie in Berlin: UNEXPECTED TRANSFER TO COTTBUS!!

June 2, 2014

Holy crow. I just dont even know where to begin about this past week. On Saturday morning I got a call from President Kosak. (I think I am getting immune, because my heart doesnt beat so fast anymore . . . Either that or we are moving up in friend status ;)), and guess what! I am going to Cottbus! Today! It is a city very far East in Germany, almost on the Polish border. And I am going to be companions with Sister Nilson. MEINE LIEBE SISTER NILSON :D

So I had a couple days to say goodbyes, which was so HARD, but also so wonderful. When you are actually in a situation where you have to leave loved ones and cut off ties with familiarity you can really appreciate the richness of everything. When I was in Langenhorn I left a changed person. Changed because of people, situations, and experiences. How I responded to everything. And I feel the same thing now. Life is full of beginnings and ends, but at the same time life is just one big circle. Without beginning or ends. And so, it all just comes together, branches becoming a part of a tree trunk that just keeps growing upward.

One of the scariest things about saying goodbye is worrying that you will be forgotten. I don’t want to forget either. Something I felt yesterday in the church was that I am really going to miss the people here. I am going to miss Berlin. And I realized as I said goodbyes that I am going to be missed as well. Yesterday at the church I got up and shared my testimony in sacrament meeting. I think it was a blessing that on my last Sunday, it was a testimony meeting. The Spirit is so strong, and it is a good way to part. When I got up to bear my testimony I felt so filled with the Spirit, and I realized that there wasn’t really much I could leave behind except for my testimony. That I really do know that God lives, that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I can show my love and hope that they feel it and hold on to it. I was brought to tears which doesn’t happen all that often.

I think the urge to cry was the strongest was when Jialu walked away in the other direction and I actually had to turn around and put my face up against the door to the bishop’s office. When I turned around I couldn’t even see him through the window. I gave him a gift that I got from a dear friend in Hamburg. Just like the gold star that I gave to Abel, it was another gift that was meant to be passed on. I can tell it is a good gift when it actually is painful to part with. Jialu really changed my life, and I will not be able to forget the words he said to me this week. ''Sister Shelley, you changed my life.''

***Heidi's email was short as she had to catch the train to Cottbus. She said she'd write more about her week when on the train to Cottbus.I'll post her letter when we receive it.