Where I'm Supposed to Be

Francy left for her hometown today. I, being the indecisive buyer that I am, looked at coats and debated for two hours! (What do you think, should I spend 75 bucks on a peacoat and 50 bucks on a waterproof coat that's longer so I can layer?) Finally, having bought nothing, I was mad at myself for being so indecisive and for having wasted so much time, so I went to the Aldi to get some food for the next few days. I gathered the basics: some cheese, some vollkornbrot, some frikadellen, some nutella, and a mango. Then I found out that they don't take Visas. Great. So I put everything back except for the frikadellen, deciding that I needed meat desperately (which is funny, because I'm not usually a big meat eater) and that I had enough change. Then when the lady rung it up, it was more expensive than the sign I read. I said that to her, but she just shook her head and I left, without any food except a cheese roll I had bought with some change.

I figured I had enough to scrimp together some meals until the morning when I could go back with some paper money. I took a nap, looked all over the internet for inexpensive Wellies that have polka dots on them (they don't come in the "inexpensive" category that I can tell), and decided to go see what was going on at the institute (known as the "RIZ," pronounced "Ritz"). There I had wonderful conversation with the Seiperts and a girl named Geeta. Elder Seipert delivered babies for years, so I learned all sorts of interesting things and told him what I could remember about Mom's pregnancy with Heidi. They also gave me advice about visas and restaurants and getting a bank account. I told them about not being able to get groceries today and Elder Seipert insisted I take a ten-dollar bill from him to be paid back later. They said they were hungry, so I went into the other room for a game of ping pong, promising that I'd play just for a bit and then tell the guys that we should leave.

Ping pong was great. There's this guy named Mike who has been at every single activity. He loves doeners and pretty much anything that has to do with food. He cooked the FHE meal, which was really good. So Mike, Sam, and I played around the world. With three people, once someone had a miss, the other two played a normal game to three and then we started over. Mike had this really vicious-looking serve but it was gentler than it looked. They invited me to play football tomorrow. I was so excited! Then I remembered that I don't have any good shoes for sports with me. They asked my size and called the sisters. They're picking me up in the morning.

The Seiperts said they would give me a ride home, but they kidnapped me and took me to their apartment, where we ate all sorts of good stuff, including some marzipan. Mmmm. They gave me an American pillow and we talked about eastern Germany behind the wall and how the saints were blessed. I told them all my President Monson stories. I am so grateful to have the Church here. Can you imagine what a week this would have been without all the things because of the Church community?

In Manchester, I noticed that Marie is really good at recognizing the blessings from the Lord. We'd be talking about something and she'd say, "You know Michelle, we're really blessed being members of the true church, aren't we?" Despite the difficulty of moving here, I'm where I'm supposed to be.