Mon, Dec 12, 2011 - Cellberstadt!

Hey Family!!

 

We have some news from the Germany floor. Since there are many many missionaries leaving just in time for Christmas, that means there are many missionaries left companion-less. So, that means we´ve picked up a third Sister! Sister LAUBAUGH! Crazy, huh! So the three of us will be serving here in Celle and also Sister Laubaugh´s city, Halberstadt. Hence "Cellberstadt". We picked her up this morning and we´ll be together for the rest of the transfer (2 weeks). Halberstadt is about a 2 hour car drive from Celle so we´ll be commuting there and back. It will be an adventure. So if you want to keep track of me being in Halberstadt too, that´s a really fun idea!

 

As for this week, lots and lots of fallen out appointments. 10 to be exact. So that made it hard to be as productive as possible. But we also had a big ward Christmas Party this week and we helped a lot with that. It was really serious. Like...Crazy serious. They put on a little play and had a big dessert potluck things. There were tons of non members there that our members had invited and one of our investigators invited his wife and daughter who are pretty against the church. But that´s good that they came. It was a huge success and we met tons of new people.

 

Yesterday we brought a whole family of 6 to church with us. A woman with 5 sons (ages 17- 18 months) and they´re from the Carribean. Then Kenneth was there too so he helped out a ton. It was awesome to have an investigator help us out.

 

That´s really all that specifically happened this week. We´ve been getting tons of treats and stuff from members. We are gonna get stinking FAT! Its crazy.

 

 

German´s Christmas spirit is a little different than America´s. Their Christmas spirit is "Lets go to the bar!" And most people don´t really want to hear what we´re saying (but not any less than normal). It´s also really hard to set up appointments now that we´ll be going between the 2 cities. We´ll work it out.

 

Yes, I just want to make sure my Spring 2010 classes were transferred over. Thank you so much. I will rest at ease once I hear back from you about that.

I´m glad to hear that the package most likely made it here. I´ll let you know when I get it.

 

Thanks for your encouragement. Davood´s operation went well. He has a little schmerz but he´s doing okay. We have an appointment with him tomorrow. We´re going to invite him to baptism again. We hope he says yes! There is so much power in the priesthood, we are so incredibly blessed to have it. I can´t get over it.

 

I liked "The Best of Facebook" thing. I felt in the loop. I could ask you to stalk a few people for me, but that might be a little too distracting.

 

Unfortunately we didn´t get to go to the church where Bach played the organ. It was closed because there was a sing-a-long in it in a few hours. But we did go to the castle. It was beautiful and huge and it was crazy to think that people that wore wigs like George Washington lived there.

 

I did go with you to the David Archuleta Christmas concert. I remember getting a slight conformation about a mission there (I´m sure it was a confirmation, but I just wasn´t quite ready for it yet.) But in the 'Angels in the Realms of Glory' song when it says "Gather all the nations to Him, every knee will then bow down." I kind of knew that I needed to go. I think I cried too, but I can´t remember. Haha. I´m so glad that I´m here. Even though we´re not "successful" in the eyes of the world, such as baptisms, investigators and so on- I feel successful when we talk to someone on the street and they leave a little better of a person than when we met them. It´s an amazing sight to talk to someone that has their head hanging down looking as if they have nothing to look forward to in life, and leave with their head up and a beautiful blue book in their hands, seeing a glimpse of hope. I feel successful when we do that.

 

Thanks for your prayers and support. I love you all so much! Share the gospel! It´s too true to keep it to yourself!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

Tue, Dec 06, 2011

Hey family!

 

I hope you´re all doing well! I think about you all the time and hope school and work and everything is going well!

 

Dad, of course the right accent went through my mind when you said Little Girlie. :) My companion has been singing Carmen lately (I have no idea why) but I always start singing "I ask to be or not to be." She´s also a Gilligan´s Island fan, but she can´t quote it like our family can.

 

I didn´t know Albrechtsons had their baby already. I guess that makes sense, I´ve been gone 5 months today. Can you believe that? Its crazy!

 

It is really really hard to get investigators to church. We only have 4 fest investigators at the moment. Two have baptismal dates (Philipp and Kenneth. We just barely set a new date for Kenneth yesterday. February 4th.) Philipp has been flakey. Says he´ll be somewhere, then he´s not. Then comes begging for forgiveness. We forgive him, but its getting old. He hasn´t been to church since Stake Conference. Kenneth comes! He´s the only one that comes pretty regularly. Thumbs up to him! Then there is Davood. He will make a head topic this e-mail. He´s amazing. Then there is Herr Wedeking and he was ausgetreten. Not sure what that word is in English, but he wasn´t excommunicated because he took his name off the records before they could excommunicate him. But now he wants to be baptized. I don´t know what to do with him. He has some psycological problems and his whole life is a lie. We ask if he smokes and he says no, but we see huge boxes of cigarettes in his garbage can. Ask if he drinks he says no and we see him load huge cans of beer in his backpack. And many more other lies that I could write and write and write about, but I won´t. Ausgetreten people are supposed to work with the bishop. We can´t decide if they can be baptized, it´s up to the 1st presidency and the bishop. We just teach him even though he know the scriptures and everything front and back and more than us. Phew. Anyway. He says he´ll come to church but he doesn´t. Those are the only people we meet with regularly.

 

You´re right dad. The Germans do put their shoes out on the porch and people fill them with candy for St. Nikolaus Day. That´s supposed to happen today. I have no idea, but I´ll let you know if anything interesting happens with that. Germans have 3 days of Chrismas. Heilige Abend (Christmas Eve), Erst Weihnachts tag (Christmas), and Zweite Weihnachts tag (26th). The main celebration day is the 24th and they open presents and have a big feast. We get eating appointments all three days. Woohoo! I will still be in Celle. Transfers are the 27th so I will probably leave that day. Right after the Froh Fest! (Jolly fest)

Dad! Mom! That makes me SOOOOO happy that you are doing missionary work. That´s so great! There are always so many opportunities to invite people to come to church, but more importantly to come to Christ! Keep it up! This is the perfect, least awkwardest time to do that!!!

 

That sounds like quite the adventure, mom- with the power outtage. Don´t worry, sometimes I get scolded as a missionary too. There is so much we have to always think about about if we forget one thing that one person asked us, they let us have it. We´re human too here!!! Anyways, I know how it feels. Glad you learned your lesson.

Have you sent off my loan delay form? That just came to my mind. I hope so, or I´m in deep doo doo.

 

Also, PLEASE call USU and see if my Spring 2010 transcript is there. I would hate to come back and have to re-do ALL of music theory and anatomy! Please check for the peace of my heart :)

 

I need to buy some warm clothes cuz I, uh...... have none cuz I left mid-summer. I kinda freeze a little. I also need a hat one of these days. I think that´s all that I need. All that money I used was for you guys for Christmas.... Sorry that was so expensive. Your package is on its way though! I hope it gets there on time, but it probably won´t. Don´t be too worried if it doesn´t. As long as it gets there is all that matters. If it does get there before Christmas, DON´T OPEN IT TIL CHRISTMAS!

 

We didn´t learn anything about Christmas contact during interviews. We have Zone Conference the 14th so maybe we´ll find out then. I have no idea if it´ll be SKYPE or a phone call. I´ll keep you updated.

 

The weather here hasn´t been too bad this past week, but the past 2 days were kinda rainy and we have been soaking all day. Hoping we won´t get sick.

 

The Christmas Markt looks SO COOL! It´s not as big as other places, but I just feel so German walking between these Markets and timberwood houses. I really want you all to be able to see it one day. You have no idea how often I think  "Oh, this family member would love this" Or "I really hope that my family can see this one day!" Who knows. Maybe one day in the far far future.

So the cool story of the week was Davood. He is from Iran and a "new Christian" he calls himself. He was baptized in the Evangelisch church a year or so ago and then one day he prayed to know more about Christ. The next day Sister Martinz and her companion stopped him and talked to him(So that was in July) and we´ve been teaching him since. Its really hard to teach him because he doesn´t speak very much German and we have to talk really slow and repeat ourselves a lot so he can understand. He finally understands vollmacht (authority) so that is awesome. About a week ago we invited him to be baptized, but he said he had to think about it, but I know he will one day.  Davood has so much faith and is so so so optimistic. He is such a great example to me. He also said "I may not have shoes, but I have feet. I am so blessed." And I feel blessed to know him. He is amazing.Anyway, a month ago he had an operation on his leg and his wound hasn´t stopped bleeding. He has to get another operation and he has no money and tons of problems. So we stopped by one day and explained that because we have the authority to act in Christ´s name, we believe too that we have the same power that Christ had to bless and heal people. We explained we wanted people to come over and give him a blessing and it would be just like a prayer, but they lay their hands on his head. He said "Please! I need all the prayers I can get." So 2 members came over and gave him a blessing. It was such a sacred experience. After the blessing he said "Normally, I am really nervous before operations, but now my heart feels rest."

 

I know there are so many people looking for the peace and rest the gospel brings. I am blessed to be here. I am blessed to be able to share this. I´m grateful for the Priesthood power and know its real! Isn´t that such a huge responsibility to carry the exact same power that Christ had? I´m grateful to the worthy priesthood holders. I know this restored gospel is true! I love it! I want everyone to partake of its blessings. I love the Savior and am so glad this is a time set aside to think more about Him and help others. I love you all!!!!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Nov 28, 2011

Hey Family!!

 

I loved seeing all the pictures from you at Thanksgiving. It looked like a wonderful time! And lots of yummy food. And that punch bowl cake looked oh-so yummy, as did everything else! Germans don´t celebrate Thanksgiving, of course, so my companion and I celebrated by ourselves. Our planner was so full we weren´t going to have any time to eat at all until we came home that night, but an appointment fell out and so we went home to eat. I said the prayer on the food and said "We´re grateful for this wonderful feast." We ate grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and cake. I humor myself. But it was delicious.

 

Oh dad, that story of your mis-matched shoes made my day. So so so funny!! And thanks for the picture so I could visualize it. Oh dear. I wish I could´ve been there to give you a hard time about it, but I´ll just give you a hard time from here. Silly dad!

 

Yeah, I´m still totally exhausted but it is definitely a good tired. We´re getting a lot accomplished, and this Christmas season I know we´re going to see miracles. And I want to invite you all to have miracles this Christmas season at home. I´ll tell you what we´re doing here and Í´ll tell you what you can do to help support the work here in Germany and also in Utah!

 

This month we want to invite more people to church. Its the perfect time to invite people to church because it´s Christmas time. I want to invite you all at home to do the same. So if you can think of someone who isn´t a member/ is less active, invite them to church! Really, there is no harm in doing this! If you help people get on the path back to Heavenly Father they will be thankful, not annoyed! I really wish I would´ve done more member missionary work while I was home, but I can just encourage you to do it because I know it´ll bless your life. Please discuss this at Family Home Evening and talk about what you´re going to do to have a Christmas Season of Miracles!

 

Week 1: November 28-December 3

Invite someone to church every day. As missionaries we have been encouraged to invite someone on the street every day to church for the month of December and we´ve been promised miracles. I feel like I can promise you the same. This week, invite someone each day to church. Visit less actives and invite them to come! Let them know they´re missed! I know the Lord will help you say the right words and will make miracles happen! Study faith this week when you study your scripture study. Study: Monday Alma 32, Tuesday Ether 12, Wednesday Moroni 7, Thursday Hebrews 11, Friday Bible Dictionary Faith, Saturday Enos, Sunday D&C 8. Every day in your prayers and family prayers, ask Heavenly Father to give you the courage to invite someone to church and ask for the opportunity to see miracles! "It is by faith that miracles are wrought." (Moroni 7:37) Fast on December 3rd to see miracles in inviting others to church. Also, every day from now until Christmas, write down miracles you see in your life. Discuss them at dinner! (Jeff I expect you to call home and tell them about your experiences with this!)

 

Week 2: December 4-December 10

Get ahold of the missionaries and go teach a lesson with them sometime this week! Give testimony! Study repentance! Study: Monday Alma 36, Tuesday Mosiah 27, Wednesday 2 Nephi 31, Thursday Alma 34, Friday Bible Dictionary Repentance, Saturday 3 Nephi 27, Sunday Moroni 10

 

Week 3: December 11-December 17

Give an advent´s gift every day! (Advent is really big in Germany). Advent ideas: Christmas Caroling, Give someone a Joy to the World DVD, give a tour of the church to a non-member, do a service project for a member, pick someone up for church that can´t drive, do a service project for a non-member, bake cookies for someone in need, donate care package to a place that takes care of poor people (The name escapes me right now). Study scripture stories about service.

 

Week 4: December 18-December 25

Study "Christlike Attributes" in Preach my Gospel and pick one you want to work on. Set a goal for each day of what you want to do to improve. Saying you want to be better in one area isn´t enough, you have to make a plan of what you want to do! Follow up as a family every night and see if you did okay or not so okay and talk about what you´re going to do the next day. For those who don´t have patriarchal blessings and are of age, work towards getting yours this week (either the 17th or the 25th. It might be easier for the 17th) Especially think about Christ on Christmas day and think about what you want to do to be more like him. Think of all He´s done for you and what you´re going to do to follow him faithfully.

 

I really hope you will do this, especially since I took about an hour typing it up. Haha! I really know you´ll see a greater joy in the Christmas season when you do this! You will help others feel the love of Christ and help ease their burdens. I really know you´ll see miracles when you do that. Heavenly Father loves all His children. Help others feel that this Christmas season. I will be following up next week to see how its going and I hope to hear amazing things! I really really promise it will be a wonderful experience for you when you do this! I can´t wait to tell you about the miracles that happen here in Celle!

 

 

 

Anyway, back to the questions you asked:

 

Sister Stewart and I haven´t been in the city much this week because they´ve been setting up the Christmas Markt and its going to be huge. I will take some pictures today. It is so cool though, everyone has candles in their windows and the inner city has lights all over the place. I haven´t seen any nativities, but maybe I´ll see some when we go into the city today. I don´t think I can really see any similarities between Germany´s and America´s Christmas. Usually people are so much happier during Christmas time and are in the mood to serve others, but I haven´t really seen that here. Also, most people live in apartment buildings so they just put Christmas lights up in their windows instead of decorating their whole yard and putting blow up snowmen or Santa Claus. They don´t even have Santa here, just Nicolaus-who apparently is skinny and hits people with a stick (according to Sister Stewart).

I´m glad you got my letters! It was fun to write them and send them. I figured I´d send a postcard from Celle so you could see a little bit of what it´s like here. Seriously, whenever I buy things I think "Mom would die!" But maybe you could send me black ski gloves? They don´t have any here. Just cotton things that are super cold when they´re wet. We need wind/water proof for the bikes. Our hands get pretty cold. You could just send them straight here to Celle I think. If that´s too much to ask its no problem.

 

I can´t believe Patrick is engaged too! This is crazy. So much love in the air. It´s not even spring yet, wow!

 

Oh how cute that you got to see little Theo! You don´t see them til Christmas, right? Take pictures. I wonder if Mykenna loves to hold Theo as much as she loved to hold Lilah. I still don´t know about SKYPE-ing yet. We have president´s interviews this week and I´m sure we´ll hear something about it.

 

Oh, we may try to trade our P-day for Tuesday next week so we can go into the castle and into the church and do the things that you can´t do on Monday. So if you don´t hear from me Monday, that´s why. But if you do hear from me then you won´t have to worry about that.

 

I love being here! I love helping others so so so much. I´m seriously living the dream. I know that Heavenly Father loves all of us and we are His hands. He can´t be here on earth right now, so we need to be the ones that serve others and help them along the path. I love being able to do that every day. I love this gospel and I know it´s true! I love you all! I can´t wait to hear about your Season of Miracles!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

 

P.S. Sorry for the lack of adventure stories. We had plenty this week, but I took too long writing the Season of Miracles stuff. I guess they´ll just be surprise stories for when I get back from my mission. :) Love you!

Mon, Nov 21, 2011

Hey family! Thanks for the e-mail. Its always so good to hear from you.

 

This week was totally busy. We really didn´t have much down time and I´ve been so exhausted. I wonder if I´ll ever not be tired in my life after this. We´ve done tons of doors this week, with no success, but I feel successful because we are working so hard.

 

We are still having lots of appointments fall through, but we´ve been planning better so when something falls through we know exactly what we´ll do after. I know that Heavenly Father wouldn´t let us waste our time. If we´re in an area for an appointment and they´re not home, there has to be some other reason we´re in that area. We made an appointment with a long lost investigator this week. If our appointment with our other investigator would´ve worked out, we wouldn´t have made this appointment with this other man. Its really awesome.

 

There have been some cool days here but sometimes I forget its almost December. Yesterday the weather was so nice, it felt like mid-September. It hasn´t snowed yet and I´m scared to say that and curse myself. The Weihnachten Markts (Christmas Markets) are starting to be set up and next week they´ll start! I´m excited. Its going to be so beautiful.

Sister Stewart is so awesome. She works really hard and when she doesn´t know what to say to the people on the street, she bears her testimony- which is so important. I´m glad I´ve learned that from her. She´s been in Germany for 1 year now and she has 2 more transfers left. I´m sure she´ll be in Celle for the rest of her mission. She is from South Jordan and has 6 older brothers. Crazy. She has served in lots of different cities: Dresden, Berlin, Rostock, Magdeburg, and now here. She never thought she´d serve in the west, but here she is!

 

I love the pictures of Drew and Hannah at Halloween. They made me smile so big. Drew looks so serious. Haha.

 

Our balcony predicament sadly didn´t help us get any leads, but we did have a really good conversation with the first person we talked to after.

 

Kenneth is doing fine. We tried teaching about the Atonement, but we don´t think he understood. We had to get down to the very basics like God, Jesus Christ, and Holy Ghost being 3 different people and God has a body of flesh and bone. When we told him those things he was very surprised. Like I said, I´m really glad he´s not baptized yet. But one day he will be.

 

Philipp, we haven´t been able to get ahold of him. He said he´d come to church, but didn´t. We called him and asked where he was and he was at his parent´s house and we set up an appointment for later that night and again, he wasn´t there. We hope he will come to one of our appointments sometime. Satan really does work hard on them.

 

Patrick also forgot about our appointment. We´ll reschedule for sometime this week.

 

Now that we don´t have a contact list, we´re doing a whole bunch of doors and a whole lot of finding. Its good. I think it happened for a reason. If we couldn´t get ahold of these contacts for 5 years, we need to find some different people.

 

I love that you have opportunities to teach RS. I loved teaching Sunday School and sometimes I love teaching lessons, but I love teaching lessons much more in English than in German. Maybe one day that will change. I love what Sister Snow said. Its true, you really have to look past the investigator´s outward flaws. They have had experiences in their lives that you don´t know about and that is why they are the way they are. Especially with street contacting, its common to see someone with a beer bottle and cigarette and matted hair, but really- we don´t know who God has prepared for our message so we need to talk to everyone and we can´t say "They won´t accept the gospel. We won´t talk to them." Heavenly Father is preparing everyone in some way or another and we have to talk to them and give them an opportunity to accept or not. When we judge, we disclude people from their Heavenly Father´s love. That´s a super cool discovery about Christ will bring you into His FOLD. I love that too! Those truly are the characteristics we all need to be what we should be at judgement.

 

I´m so glad things are going so well with your 6th grade, mom! It sounds like you really enjoy it and that everyone else enjoys you! It makes a lot of sense that teachers aren´t pro at every subject, so let the teachers teach what they´re good at. Thats awesome! 

 

 

Sorry that you have to clean my room. Viel Erfolg!

 

I´m sure Rachel is jealous that Sarah gets to spend lots of time with Drew. I love that picture of Sarah and Mark and Hannah in the turtle. Its my new favorite picture. It makes me happy that you think of me when you see turtles.

 

Do you have this whole week off for Thanksgiving? Eat a lot for me!

 

Tell Joelle congratulations from me- via facebook. I´m sure you´ll never see her again. Married people disappear off the face of the earth. :) Tell Josh congratulations for me!

 

The guy did fix my shoes and they work just fine now. Only problem is they really hurt my knee when I wear them and they freeze my feet off. But I wear them when I wear brown anyway. I´m silly. I hope you didn´t spend too much to send my package here. I just had a bunch of silly things that I didn´t really need.

 

 

Thats so great that they sang As Sisters in Zion/To Bring the World His Truth. (Was it you or D.J. that was crying mom?) I think that´s when I got my answer that I needed to go on a mission, when we sang that at EFY. At that time in my life I thought it was just to share the gospel with someone. Now that I look back, I think it was an impression that I need to share the gospel with as many people as I can and share the fulness of the gospel with those who are "only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." I know that Jesus Christ is the only way to return to our loving Heavenly Father. He loves us. Everything in this life is for us. I´m so grateful for His mercy and love. "Jesus Christ is the way. Get on the path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just keep going. You don´t quit, and you will make it." I know that is true. I love you my dear family! Keep being amazing!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Nov 14, 2011

Hey family!
How is everyone doing? Things are going here in Celle. This week we had a ton of fallen out appointments so we had a lot of finding time with no success either. No one wants to listen to us in the cold, especially when they´re running toward their warm car or warm house. Too bad they don´t invite us inside, but its all good! We´re still trying and that´s what matters :) Also, Sister Martinz is leaving Celle and going to Langenhorn (Hamburg) and my new companion will be Sister Stewart. I´m pretty nervous about having to be the one to keep everything here moving smoothly. I hope I can do it! I will miss Sister Martinz a lot. She is wonderful and I´m so glad I had her to start out with.

We lost contact with Philipp our baptismal date for a week but then he called us again and has been really busy with work. Phew! We met with him yesterday and he read more than we asked him to and his face seemed to have a different countenance to me. He´s trying to give up smoking his own way and we hope that it works out for him. But he really is trying hard and its wonderful to work with him.

Kenneth didn´t end up getting baptized this week and it was good because this week he FINALLY opened up and told us some things about his past that will take quite a bit of time to repent of. We are super glad that it worked out this way so we can make the Atonement come alive for him and that we can open up a whole new view of Christ for him. I know he´ll be baptized one day, but I´m not sure if it´ll be when I´m in Celle or not. You are super lucky, dad that LA mission was small so you could see the baptisms if you were transferred. I´m sure I´ll be transfered next transfer, right before Philipp´s baptism. But who knows! Maybe I´ll still be here. Its super unpredictable. How many Zones did your mission have, dad? Do you remember? Also, when people ask how the language is coming tell them "It´s coming."

Haha, I knew that you all knew what a klingel was because of Michelle´s story :) Sometimes I forget English words and I rejoice when it happens because it doesn´t happen too often yet. I´m a little scared of having to be the main German leader for awhile in Celle when I am the only one that knows these people and their needs. But I just need to fully trust in the Lord and in the gift of tongues. I haven´t dreamed in German, but I always wake up and my first thoughts are in German. The next step maybe is to dream in German.

We´ve had a couple crazy experiences this week.
#1 We left our contact list (List of people that we´ve contacted that have had interest since like 2008) in our bike and someone stole it. Stupid stupid of us! So now we don´t have any contacts to visit when we have no appointments. So we were on the search for this bag and on the search we found a neu bekehrt (new convert) smoking at the train station. Uh-oh. That was awkward. But he was baptized in January and hasn´t come to church since. We still visit him and he tells us that he keeps all the commandments, but we didn´t really believe him and now we know he was lying. Maybe this can open the door to sincere repentance. We hope. We´ll see.

#2 We were doing doors and people live in apartments so all of their doorbells (aka Klingels) are on the outside of the apartment building and you just push Klingel after Klingel until someone pushes a button to let you in. There is also a speaker you can speak through so the people that live there can ask who is there. Sometimes they just push the button and let you in though. So someone pushed the button to let us in so we frantically ran to find which floor they lived on and who opened the door for us. At this particular place we ran up the stairs but there were no rooms. So we were confused. We saw this door that led to a balcony and there was a door on the other side of the balcony. We assumed that was where the people lived so we ran over to that door, but it was locked. We went back to the other door that we just came through, and that was also locked. Oh dear. We were stuck on a balcony. We were probably there for 45 minutes total and after awhile we called a member to Klingel someone and ask them if they would open the door for them so they could rescue us. It was embarrassing, but really funny.

The appointement with "He Hears Me" guy (A.K.A. Patrick) went very very well! We taught him the first lesson properly (Restoration), and he seemed to accept it. Then Sister Martinz said the closing prayer and after he said "Thank you for the prayer. It was amazing! I felt something warm in my back and then it moved all throughout my body. It was a weird feeling, but it was a good feeling!" I started smiling really really big because I knew exactly what he was feeling. We told him it was the Holy Ghost. Woohoo!! Someone that knows how they feel the spirit already! Thats wonderful! He then asked "When can we meet again??" and was really excited. He is also a 24 year old German guy! Coo-hool!

I can´t believe Tyson Hone is home from his mission. Thats nuts.

BLAKE IS GOING TO THE PHILIPPINES!!!!!! SO COOL!!!!!!!!!! Tell him congratulations from me and also tell him good luck concentrating with that wait! Is he doing school or anything or just waiting? Yeesh! That´s crazy that he´s leaving around the same time I got my mission call. I can´t believe it´ll almost be a year since I´ve had it when he leaves. So awesome!

Tell Scott and Kerry congratulations for me. I want to see a picture soon! Tiny little baby, tiny little baby, tiny little baby born Cal-i-for-ni-a Tiny little baby! And so on. I hope you know what song I´m singing.

I got the letters from the girls. I was smiling from ear to ear when I got them and was reading them and laughing. It was wonderful! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Oh man, I don´t remember what I´ve asked for for Christmas. Please look back in other e-mails. My mind hasn´t been thinking about that very much, except I would like some gloves, scarves, hats, and maybe chips and salsa :) Or muddy buddies. That sounds yummy!

Speaking of yummy (Or not) I had Rotcol (or something like that) yesterday. Red cabbage. It was fine, I didn´t have to gag it down, but it isn´t something I´ll go out of my way to eat. We had a dinner with this family and the father has had a really really hard life. He definitely has PTSD. When he was little he was playing with his friend in the field and it was either short after the war or in the middle of the war, and his friend found a bomb and started playing with it and it blew him up and this Brother in our ward saw it happen. He cries every time he tells the story. So sad. Then also he was 14 when he got baptized and when his father found out, he beat him until he was 'black and green'. He also cried really hard when he told that story. He´s a really sweet sensitive German guy and its crazy that he´s experienced so many awful things in his life, but he is still so faithful and has such a huge testimony. Its such a good example to me.

Tell President Keller hello and thank him for his amazing example and testimony.

Let me know how your lesson in RS goes mom! What are you teaching?

I hope you have pictures of Mark and Heather´s halloween costumes. That sounds so amazing. And Sarah´s going to California??! Crazy! But fun! It sounds like its going to be a little quiet for Thanksgiving. But it will still be tons of fun! And how fun that Karl and Nanette are going to Spain. I really look forward to one day coming back here with you all and visiting the people I love here.

I´m so glad that Austin´s leg is fine. We have been praying for him every day here. Its so sad to see little kids with cancer. Or anyone with cancer really. That´s one thing that people always say to us on the street. "If there were a God, he wouldn´t give people cancer, especially not little children." Maybe Grandma Fellows can write me about her experience with fighting cancer and how believing in God helped her through it? That´d be super awesome!

I know this church is true! I know Heavenly Father loves His children and this is His work here on the earth. I´m SO glad I can serve His children and bring hope to their lives. Thanks for your support and prayers! I love you all so much!!

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Nov 07, 2011

Hey my favorite family!

I hope all is going well with you all! Germany is so wonderful, I´m so happy to be here! This week has been so good. I´ll tell you right off the bat why. Because we set a baptismal date with someone! Yeehoo!! (as sister martinz always says) His name is Philipp and he´s 25 and he´s German!!!! WOAH! Thats not normal! :) He met with the missionaries before, but only because he was dating a member. Now, as far as I know, he´s not dating her. He told us he just really wants to change his life and that he´s doing it for himself now. We set the date for January 14th. we´ve met with him 3 times this week! Its crazy how we came in contact with him. We just rode our bikes past him on the way to an appointment once and he called after us. We asked him if he knew us and he told us he met with missionaries before and that we should have his number in our phone still and that he still has ours and he´d call us. We thought. "Yeah, sure. Okay." So we waited a couple weeks and decided to call him. We made an appointment with him and when it was appointment time he didn´t show up. We thought "okay, he´s really not serious about this." but then a couple weeks later he called and said "I´m sorry, I´ve had so much stress, but I really do want to meet with you!" So we set another appointment and he was there and HE asked "so when can we meet again?" so we met like 2 days later and invited him to baptism and he said yes! Then we also invited him to stake conference (Yes stake conference was in Hannover) and he came to that and I overheard him saying he wishes he could get baptized earlier. Wow! Sister Martinz also has lots of friends in Hannover because all of the YSA in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany do things together so she introduced Philipp to them, because he just needs good friends that don´t get into trouble. He made some friends and it was awesome. I´m convinced friendship is an important factor to staying in the church. But yeah! We´re meeting with him Wednesday and helping him stop smoking. He also said to us "Is there a story in the Book of Mormon where someone has done really stupid things in their life and they just really want to change?" Why, yes, yes there are a couple stories here and there. Cool!

Amy goes to the MTC this week. WOAH!

Oh, when I sang "He Hears Me" it was in English of course. We´re meeting with this guy on Friday. Maybe we´ll invite him to baptism too! I have a feeling this is the start of many people accepting the gospel in Celle. I think I´ll stay for at least one more transfer. Sister Martinz will probably go. There are 6 new sisters coming in not this coming transfer, but the one after that so since Celle is such a great place to get trained, we´re thinking someone will come be my companion and get aquainted with the town and we´ll spend one transfer together and then I´ll get sent to who knows where and a new golden will replace me. But who knows? Not me!

It ended up that we didn´t get fed by the Bishop´s wife this week because her daughter in law had a baby. I´m sure she´ll offer to feed us next week so then I can have the Chicken. That sounds so yummy! I miss ranch dressing quite a bit and tortillas..... haha Thats all I can think of though at the moment. I´ll add some later if I think of anything. My favorite new food....hmmm... well there hasn´t been anything too new. I really like Nutella now though! Pumpkin soup is pretty good. I was really scared to try it but it wasn´t bad at all. Also, the grocery stores here, at least in Celle, are really small and have hardly anything. I haven´t seen colored eggs though, unless by colored you mean not white. But do you mean like green and blue? That´d be cool! Yeah, I have no idea what Germans eat because the store has pretty much nothing in it. Just lots of meats, but we don´t have time to make meaty stuff. Also a big alcohol section. Silly Germans.

Hey, that´s what its called. A klingel! I´m sure when I get back there will be many German words and phrases that stick because I´m already somewhat forgetting some English. I was trying to think of the past tense of make and i was like "Maked? Maked? That sounds so weird." A while later I remembered it is made, and not maked.

I hope you get better soon mom. Your sicknesses always seem to last way longer than the average person´s! If you´re sick, go to the doctor silly! That´s why they´re there!

When I saw the picture of Rachel and her beautiful hair I gasped too! I wondered if it was required for the show to have her hair like that or what. But she really does look so so gorgeous and the first thing I thought when I saw her hair was "Does she not fight it anymore??" Hopefully she will continue to let you do her hair. It looks so good. Wow!

I can just imagine Drew´s costume! I know how all-out Heather goes. Oh, good ol´ Mark and Heather. What were Hannah and Lilah? Sister Martinz and I carved little tiny pumpkins for Halloween. It was fun!

I can´t believe Jeff is endowed. Seriously so weird to me! But so wonderful! I was thinking about that the other day that Jeff and I will be home when DJ goes through the temple. That will be awesome! I was glad to see you got a camera and I could see these lovely pictures of snow (YEEHOO NO SNOW HERE YET!) and Temple and Joseph pictures. They made me smile.

So when DJ is the baker does he sing "There I was standing with baskets of bread- with butter"? That would be cool if he did. :) Break legs Deej and Rae!

 

Tell Blake (if you see him again) hello from me and tell him the wait is worth it! One day he can join the army in Germany serving the Lord! (Hopefully. Because this is the best mission on earth!)

We have a whole list of people we pray for every day and I will definitely add Austin to our list. Good thing he got injured! I mean, its not a good thing, but you know what I mean. How old is he? There will definitely be prayers coming from Celle!

I know that this gospel is true. I love the Book of Mormon so much and it just breaks my heart when people don´t even give it a chance because it really does bring you closer to God than any other book and it really does give you power to resist temptation and avoid deception and stay on the straight and narrow path. It has an unexplainable power and I just want everyone to love it and use it and feast on its words! I don´t know if the Ensign at home is an all Book of Mormon Ensign, but we got the Liahona here and its all Book of Mormon and it is so wonderful. I love reading from it and hearing people´s experiences with it. It is true! I know it! I´ve felt it! I hope we can all make our study of the Book of Mormon more meaningful. I love you all so so so so so much!

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Oct 31, 2011

Dearest Family!

I can´t believe its Halloween today and almost November! That´s totally crazy!! In honor of it being Halloween time (even though they don´t celebrate it here in Germany), we have had 3 eating appointments and they´ve all made pumpkin soup. Luckily it tastes good and I really like it, otherwise that would be something I have to missionary down. But no, I´ve been super lucky and have enjoyed everything I eat. This week the bishop´s wife made tacos for us so it was wonderful to have a little "American" food. This week she plans to make Chicken Parmesean, because she pryed out of me what my favorite food is that mom makes. I didn´t want to tell her because I´ve seen how much mom slaves and slaves to make it and didn´t want her to take the time to feed us that when something else would´ve been perfectly fine. But she insisted so I´m not complaining!

I´m glad you got my pictures! I hope you liked them. I think petting a hedgehog is just like petting a cat! Except a hedgehog is nicer and doesn´t like... hiss or anything.

I don´t really have to take too many buses, and I´ve figured out the Bans now I think so thats good. Not next week but the week after is transfers so who knows if I´m staying or not. I knew last transfer I would stay, but this time I don´t really know! I hope I do, I want to see Kenneth get baptized. He won´t make it this week. He´s cancelled appointments in a row and didn´t come to church. I hope that he won´t be an inactive member right after baptism. That wouldn´t be good. We´re planning to emphasize what baptism really means and its not just something that you randomly do, but you need to work towards it. We hope he´s doing okay.

May the camera rest in peace. (pieces?) I hope you get one soon, I always enjoy your pictures.

Jeff, if you´re still awake when you get my e-mail this week: GO TO BED! It´s late!

Rachel is a leopard? How many years in a row has she been that now? Is Freckles running away from Rachel or is she just standing there and enduring it, like normal? Hahaha, I was at a member´s house the other week and it totally reminded me of being home. One of the little boys was under the table scratching at our legs and pretending to be a cat and his mom was so embarrassed, but I just loved it. But this boy was 6 and not 10... haha!

Oh I wish I could´ve been there to hear what President Monson said about rescuing people! That would´ve been amazing. Wow. So cool! We have stake conference this week so maybe he´ll be here and give the same speech. I hope so! Don´t worry, I´m not expecting it. Maybe President Uchtdorf is more realistic :)

Tell Sarah "Hi" by giving her a spank on the bum from me :) Because that´s how I would´ve said hi back if I would´ve been there. Silly Sarah.

The play starts this week, right? So weird that I won´t be able to see it, and a bummer too because Deej and Rae are in it. Take good pictures (That means you have to get a camera now) because I want to see their cute costumes!

I´m sorry you´ve been sick, mom! Bleh. I can just imagine the noises you´re making and feel free to make them! Haha. But I haven´t escaped those noises. People here in Germany don´t hold back nose blowing or sucking snot into the back of their heads. So, no matter where I go, its that time of year where everyone sounds beautiful.

Oh meine gute Joelle sent me the cupcakes?? Thats so so so so sweet of her! Awww that makes me happy to know because I was always so puzzled who could´ve sent me these cupcakes! If you see her again please tell her thank you! They actually showed up on a really bad day, so it was perfect timing. Ah! She´s so great. Also tell her congratulations from me on the engagement!

I can´t believe Jeff is going through the temple. He´s just a little boy!! Wow. So crazy. Congratulations Jeffy boy! I´m sorry that you chose drilux garments. I do not do not like the drilux ones, but who knows, maybe you will. Also I saw that your birthday is on Thanksgiving this year! Pig out for me!

Texas Straße man never called back, but I´m hoping he´ll read the whole Book of Mormon and decide he wants to be baptized. We´ll see what happens.

So, are you going to be the Narrator for the RS Christmas party then? You should take that as a compliment I think! I call the word for Relief Society evil because anything that is hard to say is evil in my mind. Such as Melchisidekischen Priestertum. Looks like you´d say it the same way as English, but false. Its really hard to say. Also Entscheidungsfreiheit means agency. I like it though because it means "decision freedom" if you directly translate it.

I hope you had a good time and SYTYCD. I don´t feel like I missed out much cuz I didn´t really see the season. I´m glad to be in Germany.

 

This week we had tausch again and I went to Halberstadt with Sister Hamblin from Roosevelt. She is such a sweet sweet girl and she knows the Roosevelt Niebergalls and knew I was related when she heard my last name. She also saw a Niebergall on a klingel one time, but they didn´t answer the door. Maybe one day I´ll serve in Halberstadt and I´ll make sure to get in contact with them. We had a good time and went inside a HUGE Cathedral. It was so amazing and really cool looking! The outside is kind of damaged from smoke from bombs, but its still so beautiful. We had a good time together!

So yesterday a member (Bruder Schteitza) brought a friend to church (woohoo!!!) so he was here for all 3 meetings. Thats a lot for someone who isn´t a member of the church. Thats hard sometimes for people who are members of the church. But his friend asked if we could have a special class for him so we did. The people in the class were me, Sister Martinz, Bruder Schteitza, his friend (Patrick), and our GML Bruder Netbal (GML= Ward Misison Leader). So the GML started giving a lesson, just the basics- God is our Heavenly Father. We got into the fact that He has a body of flesh and bone. That was a new concept for Patrick and he didn´t especially believe it. Then Bruder Schteitza and Bruder Netbal kind of attacked him and were trying to convince him that it was true and were a little bible bashy and it was really really uncomfortable for me and Sister Martinz. We couldn´t feel the spirit at all. Then after awhile we told the GML we needed to go potty and we left and Sister Martinz said "The spirit is not there at all!! Will you please sing something?" and I was like "uh.....okay...." so then luckily the topic eventually turned to prayer and Sister Martinz piped in as soon as prayer was mentioned "Ja! Das Gebet! Und Sister Niebergall hat ein wunderschönes lied darüber!" Meaning (Yes! Prayer! Sister Niebergall has a wonderfully beautiful song about that!) So I sang Hilary Weeks song "He Hears Me" and the spirit was so strong it was hard not to cry and sing, but Sister Martinz cried really hard and gave her testimony about prayer and then the class was finished. It was a really good way to end the class and we were able to get this guy´s contact information and he really does want to learn more. Sister Martinz said to me "Your song saved him." Ah! I´m beginning to think music is the way I´ll be able to communicate best here in Germany. It was so amazing to be able to use music to invite the spirit.  I´m so glad that Heavenly Father has given me this talent so I can help others feel the spirit and feel closer to Him! I know that music can invite the spirit stronger than words can and can really help others feel the love of our Heavenly Father. I know this church is true and I know that Heavenly Father hears every word of our prayers and He loves us so much that He answers our prayers too.

I love you all!

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Oct 24, 2011

Trisha and her companion

Hello dear family!!!

First of all I want to apologize for causing a scare! That wasn't my intention at all as I'm sure President reassured you. Everything is fine and I thought it was comical. You don´t need to ask for forgiveness, mom! Its really okay :) I wasn´t angry in the slightest, just felt bad that I scared you. But yes, we usually do emails at the church but lately the internet on one has been broken down so we don´t want to spend 4 hours at the church on Pday but I convinced Sis to come to church today because the internet cafe is ridiculously expensive. Like.... a dollar for 11 minutes. so an €uro for 22 minutes. Its kinda crazy. But yes! Everything is wonderful!

Thats super funny that you had your greenie teach the chastity lesson and he was embarrassed. I would´ve spoken, but I think Sister Martinz thought I would´ve been embarrassed too, but its as much part of the gospel as any other topic we teach.

Germany is a melting pot for sure! Seriously, I think people from every country live in little Celle! The people from the Middle east that we teach are Christian, but some don´t have their passports so they have a risk of being sent back to the Middle East so we´re not allowed to baptize them. But some do have passports and so we are strongly encouraged to baptize them.

As for the work on Texas straße, we had a lesson there yesterday and for some bizzare unknown reason Sister Martinz said as we were leaving "When you´re interested, call us and we´ll be glad to talk more about Christ" instead of setting a time we could come again. We never do that, normally we set an appointment, so I don´t know what came over her. Hopefully hopefully hopefully we´ll have a miracle and he´ll call us. Other than that we´re just going to go back in a couple weeks and talk to the other people that had interest so we aren´t too overwhelming. We´ll overwhelm them with the gospel later.

The physical therapy, when I´ve had time to exercise, has been good. This week has been so crazy busy that we haven´t even had time for study. So bad! I got registered as a Celle citizen one day so we didn´t have time to study or exercise, then we went to Hannover one day and then we went to Braunschweig twice. So we haven´t really had time to do anything in the mornings except get ready and leave. But the days we had time, I´m pleased to say that I have done the therapy exercises.

Just curious, who all reads my e-mails (besides the family that you forward it to) Just you and mom or do my dear siblings read them too?

Hallelujah that Rachel wore a different dress to church! Haha, how funny. You should take a picture and send it the next time she wears it, or are you still camera-less? How exactly did it meet its fate? I hope everything goes well with her anxiety. I knew she needed to be treated for it, its really extreme.

Are you called as a Relief Society teacher, mom? The word for Relief Society in German is so evil. It´s "Frauenhilfsvereinigung" meaning "women united to help". Cool huh! Crazy that you talked about the Second Coming. There was a bad earthquake in Turky yesterday, right? We were at an investigator´s house and they were watching the news and it was talking about the earthquake. It really is coming closer and closer to the second coming. I may or may not have slapped my forehead and shook my head when I read about your opera solo in Relief Society. But that´s my mom! I love you for it, even though I may act embarrassed :)

I´ve heard of missionaries being able to Skype, but I haven´t heard if I personally will be able to. We shall see.

Wow, crazy that Steven, Josh, Jeff, and Megan will all be in the MTC at the same time. By the way HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!

Well, we are really getting taken care of by our members lately. We had 4 eating appointments this week, which is so not normal, and they all sent us home with bags of food. All we need to buy today for groceries is bread and milk. Crazy huh, one lady gave us bags and bags of apples, cuties, tomatoes, etc. And one lady is a missionary mom and you can tell because she gave us warmer gloves, which has been so nice! There´s one member who sends us home with cakes every Sunday. Its so sweet. We´re hoping we don´t plumpen up. We have another couple eating apps this week too. Crazy!

I dunno if you´ve sent the package, but one last request (I think)- hot chocolate bitte? The hot chocolate here is NASTY and its nice after a long cold day to have a cup of hot chocolate. Thank you for always being willing to take requests! :)

Joelle is engaged. What the devil??

Random: we cornered and pet a hedgehog the other day. I have pictures. Its pretty cool :)

We moved Kenneth´s baptismal date to November 5th, but I still think it´ll be later than that. He needs a testimony of Joseph Smith still and needs to stop cancelling our appointments. He cancelled both this week. We stopped by randomly in the week and he didn´t even realize his baptism was scheduled for this week. Oh dear. We´re going to talk to him about it better tomorrow.

So I got a letter from my branch president´s wife at the MTC because Elder Holland came and spoke the DAY after we left the MTC so she sent his talk. And I´m just curious because it says in the talk that we´re not allowed to give up on this because of all the people that have died for the gospel, the most recent being four hours ago.....what does that mean? Did someone die for the gospel on August 29th? Fill me in please!

The intense part of this week was that we had "Golden Tausch", meaning the trainers had training on how to be better trainers so the trainers were companions in Hannover and the newbies were companions. That means Sister Laubaugh and I were companions for a day in Celle. It was super intense, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I could actually understand. I think I just became dependent on Sister Martinz speaking and didn´t really listen because I knew that she could speak to them. But I was forced to listen when both Sister Laubaugh and I have little German experience. We even were able to make an appointment! It went a lot better than I was anticipating.

Well everything is going well in Celle! I love the work so much and I´m so glad I can be here!! I can´t get over it. Even if I just make someone happier I feel like I´ve been successful! I know that Christ loves us and wants us to use the Atonement! Use it! I love my Savior and I´m glad I can serve Him.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Love, Sister Niebergall


P.S. If you haven´t sent those letters yet, you should consider doing that. You have a missionary checking the mailbox every day anxiously waiting. :) Love you!

Mon, Oct 17, 2011

Hey family! Thank you for your e-mails! I love reading them every week they make me oh so so happy!!

So thank you for all of your support and prayers for our investigators. It makes me feel good that Sister Martinz and I arent the only ones praying for our investigators! Kenneth probably won't be baptized this Saturday, we still have some things we need to review just to make sure he knows how big the step of baptism really is and what he promises to Heavenly Father. But he loves the Book of Mormon. He always reads farther than we ask him to. Its wonderful it makes me so happy! This week we taught him Keuscheit....that means chastity. It was my first chastity lesson. Haha. I didn't say very much but Sis was really bold and did a good job. Yes, we teach him in English, which is nice. I love when we get to teach in English. But we're going to change his baptism date when we visit him tomorrow. I'll let you know what we change it to. Probably early November.

We teach several people. Not many are progressing, but we're teaching people from Iran, Iraq, Russia, England, Nigeria. We teach them in German.  Its pretty tricky sometimes when they don't speak good German and especially don't understand gospel vocabulary. Its like a whole new language itself. But! One of our investigators got baptized!! The surprising part is he is the one that always would say "i'm already baptized" The next surprising part is that he got baptized into the Russian Orthodox church and not ours!!! Weird huh! He said it was a good experience. We're tschssing him this week (Saying tchss = saying see ya).

You're right, it is getting chilly here in Celle. Some days the sun is shining but its still really cold. This week was pretty rainy though so I put on my boots and guess what I found. A NOTE FROM DAD! It made me smile from ear to ear and reminded me how great my family was! I enjoyed finding everyone's notes in my suitcase at the MTC and it was really great to find another note. Thanks so much dad. That made my day. And yes, I have been using my coat. Its very warm and puffy. So puffy in fact that when I sit down it pushes the air out of it and shoots my name tag off of it. That happened on a train on the way to Braunschweig and I didn't notice til I was off the train so I ran back on the train to find it and Sis just stood outside the train pushing the button to open the doors so it wouldn't leave with me on it. It was adventurous! But I found my tag and made it off the train, so all is good!

I love that you used the fruit vinigarette. Did Rachel cover her mouth and make a throw up noise when she saw you were using it on the salad? Haha, tastes like chicken. I'm not angry. I forgot about that. Toooo funny. But sad that my delicious Costa Vida didn't work out.

We don't spend too much time doing doors it seems like. We do more street contacting. But a few weeks ago we found "Texas Strasse" on a map so of course I knew I had to go look at it and take a picture! So yesterday we went there and figured we should do doors while we were there. And we found FOUR potenial investigators on this street!!! We made an appointment with one who was clinically dead but then came back to life so faith plays a big role in his life and others told us to come back (that happens a lot that they say they don't have time but to come back and they're not really interested, but this time they were sincerely interested!!) So thanks for getting called to Texas Jeff! Maybe Heavenly Father inspired someone to name the road Texas so we would go there!

 

So weird thing just barely happened, we're at the internet cafe again today and a man came up really close to my name tag and then I looked at him and said "Hallo...." then he rubbed my arm, looked at my computer screen, and walked away. CREEPY AND KOMISCH! But funny! Hahaha!

 

I sent a letter from my mission president to you about packages. I don't know what it says, but you can get info about packages there. I would also love WHS cds (Christmas and not) if thats possible! At least my and Jeff's chamber and A Cappella songs. Also, if you could send me some more sheet music maybe from defordmusic.com or something that would be great. Or copy some more music from my efy books? I'd love that. If not its okay, but that would be wonderful if it were possible. Also, it would be great to have fast and easy recipies too. I'm a little tired of toast with ham and cheese on it.

 

Oh.... about physical therapy. I haven't really been doing that.. Its so hard in the morning to do any exercisy thingy! But I commit to doing it this week and will report back to you about it.

 

Also, I can't remember if I paid any of my loan before I left. Do you remember? Can you look in the yellow folder and see if there's anything that needs to be done? Also, will you call USU and see if my Spring 2010 semester is showing up on my transcript? I really don't want to retake anatomy and all of music theory. And will you tell me what you find out so I don't have to think about it anymore?

Random question- whats the population of Pleasant View, I want to compare it to Celle.

The man just looked at my tag again! I think he's writing down my name! Maybe in his journal or something. Weird!!!

I'll be sure to take some pictures of the half timber houses for you dad. And see if we could arrange on a different week to have P-Day a different day so we can go and see the sights of Celle.

I AM SO EXCITED TO HEAR SARAH IS PLANNING ON A MISSION! Stick with that decision, babe it could never ever be a bad decision. It blesses so many people around you and I could go on and on and on about how great a mission is. But I won't. But my advice is START NOW! Read the BoM and pray. Don't think its too early to start preparing because its not. There was a talk in conference fore preparing for a mission. I can't remember who gave it, but it was Sunday afternoon. You should look at that again when you can.

Tell Nick "Hello, I hope you're doing well and aren't too awkward" for me please! Tell him also that "I agree that its cool that I'm in Germany." Sometimes I forget that I'm not in America and then I see the beautiful scenery and think how could I forget!!!

Ohhhhhhh Pop's concert.... how I don't miss it. How were the choirs though? How's chamber sound. Probably different without a Wood son in it!

Tell Brittany hello for me and that I love her.

 

That's about all I think. I love you all! This gospel is the most precious thing on the earth and we are so so so so blessed to have it. I am so glad that I can share this gospel with those that are searching for the truth but know not where to find it. I know that Christ is my Savior and that He knows me personally and completely. Stick to the gospel! You can never ever go wrong with it in your lives. I love you all so much! Thanks for your support!

Love, Sister Niebergall

Ps. There is no way to attatch pictures on this computer at the internet Cafe. Sorry! Hopefully they'll fix the computers at the church soon.

Mon, Oct 10, 2011

Hey family!

Yes, yes, YES I´m doing so so well here in Celle! I love it with all of my heart! It really is the best. Its so weird that I´m a "real misisonary" Sometimes I forget, but I shouldnt, because its such a huge responsibility! But I´m so happy to be here having my own misisonary experiences, making my own memories, strengthening my own testimony, but most of all bringing others to Christ!

Not this Saturday, but the next we have a baptism!!! His name is Kenneth, he´s so great! He´s from Nigeria and oh man I can´t express how cool he is! He´s had a baptismal date since before I got here and he is progressing so much and is so ready for baptism. He hasn´t got a firm confirmation for himself that this church is the only true church, but I think he´s getting closer and closer to finding it. He used to say he was too busy to read in the Book of Mormon (oh, he´s english speaking by the way. YES!) because he has school and such, but we started reading with him, just from the beginning to show him how cool it is! We used to give him a verse a day and he wouldnt read, but since we started reading it with him, he has a huge desire to read by himself! We read about Lehi and the pillar of fire and I said "see! The Book of Mormon is cool!" And he started giggling like a little girl. I think that means he agrees :) I think thats the key to keeping someone a solid member of the church is the Book of Mormon. When they have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, its hard for them to fall away. He´s great. Please keep him in your prayers, when people get closer to baptism Satan hits harder. He´s great and we dont wanna lose him!

 

I love Hilary Weeks!!! Thats nice that you tthought of me when you heard her song. I actually sang at a member´s house at dinner one of her songs. I cant remember if I mentioned that before. I was going to ask if its too early to start requesting Christmas stuff, haha! Because I want some cds! Our music code isnt very strict at all, just as long as it doesnt distract from our work. So I was wondering if I could have some Christmas cds that are on our itunes (i hope our itunes is still working) so I can get in the Christmas mood...yes...already. Any Christmas music will do, even Jingle Bells and things like that. It doesnt have to all be Christian Christmas stuff. Of course I want some Christian though.Haha. Also for Christmas I´d love to have some regular church music cds like Hilary weeks, efy, MOTAB, Voice Male, anything thats good in the religious section of itunes! If you could do that, that´d be great! Also I´d love some thermal garments for Christmas too. Its getting chilly.

 

For transfers we get told on Saturday and then we leave Tuesday so we have time to prepare. Thank goodness. I cant imagine being told the night before, packing, and figuring out train times. Its so weird to think i´m not the goldenest golden anymore! I think we have 22 sisters in the mission now. We played soccer in Hannover with the Elders. Sis Martinz and I were the only sisters and it was so fun. We were both really really sore for a couple days after though. Haha. How pathetic!

 

I look forward to getting those letters. Stick them in the mail box :) That will make my day to receive them since I havent received anything here yet.

 

I heard of President Uchtdorf´s talk in Relief Society but didnt have a chance to watch it. I´ll have to look for it.

 

I´m not the farthest north I could be in Germany but my mission is the northern part of Germany so I´m somewhat north. We don´t go into other countries either except I think one Elder city goes a little into Poland. One of my MTC district Elders is in that city now. How hard to have to speak German and Polish in your first city. Crazy!

 

Guess whats stuck in my head right now? "Hot cold, shy bold, lahahahaugh cry, wet dry, eeuhheavy light, day night, wrong right!

 

You don´t bore me with your school talk. I´m so glad that you´re enjoying it so much! I´m also glad they´re enjoying you so much! Of course they are! I seriously think you´d be the greatest 6th grade teacher cuz then you can show your personality better!

 

Our investigators are great. The one that broke his finger has a huge cast on and his hand is so swollen. He´s the sweetest guy ever. He gives us little treats every time we come and one time he ran out of drink when he was pouring it for Sister Martinz so she had some and I didn´t and he felt so bad and promised he didn´t do it on purpose. It was so funny. He´s the sweetest AND he´s German. Its rare to teach Germans. Weird, huh! We taught him the first lesson and normally I just sit and smile and nod since I can´t say much but we planned for me to share the Joseph Smith story and we practiced it and when I actually taught it the spirit was so strong and I wasn´t stumbling over my words like normal! I know Heavenly Father helped me. And Herr Hustedt is this man´s name, and he accepts everything so well. But he doesn´t ask questions so we hope he sees the importance of what we´re teaching. He´s so great. I can´t explain how cool he is. Everyone we teach is cool!

 

Oh could you find out where Bach played the organ so I can go see it? That´d be really cool if you could find the address!

 

I know this church is true! We are so blessed to know that our Heavenly Father really knows and loves us! There are some people that don´t know this! Why don´t we share it!? I hope you all will share it when you have the chances. Also, have you done any missionary family home evening thing? I would love to hear what you think of. Let me know!  You´re all the best family I could ask for! I love you!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Oct 03, 2011

Guten Morgen/ Tag/ Abend/ Whatever time of day you read this Familie!!

Oh my goodness who was not just filled to the brim with good stuff from Conference!? I didn`t get to see all the sessions so I saw the first 3 and I can´t wait to read the Relief Society and Sunday Afternoon sessions! I want to hear about everyone´s favorite talk! I forgot to prepare you to report before hand, but here it is! What was your favorite talk?? And what was the common theme you saw in the talks and what are you going to do to improve!? Ah! So much to improve on but I am so motivated right now!! Aren´t we so blessed to have living Prophets and Apostles on the earth today to edify us??? We are so blessed. I`m so happy.

My favorite talk, since I asked you I should report, was President Uchtdorf´s. I know Heavenly Father knows me, loves me, and is so aware of me!!! I didn´t pray for anything in particular to receive at conference, just for the speakers to be inspired. When the time for conference came that talk was just the icing on the cake. It was so good. Oh, I began listening to conference in German and it was a little tricky to understand, but then they set up the English in a different room for me and a man from England who speaks...well... English. My companion is completley fluent in English so she watched too. We also went to Hannover so we could see the Saturday Afternoon session in English on Sunday morning. It was so cool to see the Pleasant View/ North Ogden choir. I´m pretty sure I gasped when they announced it and ran to the front of the room where the TV was so I could be closer and look for Rachel, because I figured she would do that. But I didn´t see her, obviously. Oh, it was only missionaries in the English session, so I wasn´t really making a huge scene. But cool!! Made me happy! We will get copies of the conference reports when they come.

Thanks for Grandma and Grandpa´s e-mail, but weirdly enough I want their home address so I can send *GASP* snaaail maaaail! I don´t know if you are familiar with it because e-mail is so predominant. :) They do send me occasional notes and I rather enjoy them! But can I get their home address please? I want to send them a picture of their missionary granddaughter!

Yeah our district only has 2 elders and they`re both German! Funny huh! They´re great. We`re going to Hannover today to play soccer with our zone. It shall be fun. Our District Leader is being transferred to Neubrandenburg though. Crazy that I`ve already been here for a Transfer. But I´m staying in Celle and Sister Martinz and I are still companions! I haven´t met Elder Sheppard yet that I know of, but maybe some day (Insert cheesy choir song)

 I can´t believe Jeff is buying missionary stuff already. Its nuts!! Soon you´ll be a double missionary mom, mom! Thats exciting. I´m so excited for him and his experiences! What was your fav talk, Jeffy? I realized you and Megan will be in the MTC at the same time! Cool!!!!!! Take a picture together and send it to me! I love pictures!

Sarah! You hotty! Way to get asked on a date! But, way to stick to your standards and realize that listening to the prophets is much more important than going to a silly theme park. What was your favorite conference talk?????? I WANT TO KNOW HOW YOU´RE DOING!!!

Crazy that Grandma may move up! Let me know how that works out! I don´t blame her, that would be super lonely!

Thats so so funny Deej! How are you liking choir? What other classes are you taking? What songs are you singing in choir? How is play practice? How does it feel to be in high school? It is so weird to me that you can date and you look way too young to date in your homecoming picture! Heehee. So crazy. What was your favorite conference talk?

Rae, I was sad to see that you weren´t in the choir, that would have been so cool to sing where the prophet was! But thats okay, it might have been hard to sit still and be reverant the whole meeting. How is school? How do you like your teacher? How are your webkinz? Any new Webkinz that you`ve gotten since your birthday?

Oh mommy, that is the coolest note that someone could give you! And words mean so much to you! So great! Always remember that! I think about you and how you believe in me a lot too and it keeps me going! You really are such a great influence to people!

We had Tausch this week and I can´t remember the English word for it but I switched companions for a day and went to Magdeburg for the day. It was way fun! Good to meet another missionary. I feel like I don´t know any missionaries here!

There is a person we teach English who is a dress maker.... So I´m taking him my shoes to see if he can do anything with them. We´ll see.

All of our investigators were sick one day. It was crazy. One has a brain tumor and she is very forgetful because of it. She forgot we were coming over. She had a new phone number to give us but she didnt know if the number she was giving us was her new one so she had us call it to see if it worked and it did. Then when we left she called us and asked us why she called. Wow. Poor lady!

Then we went to an investigator for an appointment and when we got their his finger was completely broken and bleeding. He apologized and promised he didn´t break his finger on purpose, but offered us cookies and fruit and chocolate even though he was on his way out to the taxi to take him to the hospital. He is the sweetest old man.

Then we had an investigator tell us he was working out and had a stroke type thing and they found out he has a cyst in his brain and he doesnt find out if its malignant until November. SO he has to wait awhile. The Celle folk need prayers for health!

Here is a bit of a letter I wrote to President Pimentel this week:

"Sometimes its easy to lose faith. Sometimes its easy to lose sight of the real goal. Its easy to make assumptions about what will happen according to what we´ve experienced. In a way, it becomes easy to walk by sight and not by faith. We´ve seen before that a person has a hard time accepting the Word of Wisdom, so we assume a different person will have the same problem. We´ve seen before that a 17 year old boy seems interested in the gospel, but he really is pretending to be interested so he can meet up with 2 cute girls. From what we´ve SEEN before, we may be able to guess how something may work out. But we are told to walk by faith, and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

When Christ beckoned Peter to walk on the water, Peter began to work a miracle. Normally Peter´s experience with walking on water was that he would fall in. But he began doing something that normally would have been impossible. He walked faithfully towards Christ- comepletly focused and doubting nothing. But its when he "saw the wind boisterous he was afraid." Its when he awlked by sight and not by faith that the miracle of him walking on water stopped. Its when he let doubt creep in that he began to sink. When we begin to doubt is when miracles cease!

In Moroni 7:37 it says "for it is by faith that miracles are wrought...wherefore if these things have ceased it is because of unbelief...if these things have ceased, then has faith ceased also. We need to walk by faith trusting that Heavenly Father will provide miracles. Because after the trial of our faith is when we get the witness. After we trust in the Lord and believe we can work miracles is when we see miracles happen.

Faith is hoping for things which are not SEEN which are true. Its interesting how faith and sight are always linked together. Because the Brother of Jared had such great faith, God couldn´t hide his finger from the SIGHT of the Brother of Jared. It was after his faith that the miracles were wrought and he SAW. But as it says in James 1:6, we need to have faith, with nothing wavering.#

We need to go from place to place- believing with everything we have, that we´ll be able to perform the miracles he wants us to perform. Believing that we can walk on water, see God´s hand, part a sea- or at least that we can learn German, or our appointment will show up at the park, or that our investigator will progress. We must BELIEVE in the people we come in contact with and most of all we must believe in Heavenly Father´s ability to lead us to those prepared. With every person we meet we must believe that THIS is the person Heavenly Father knows is ready.

Its easy to base our life on what we´ve experienced and SEEN, but it is when we walk by FAITH and not by SIGHT that miracles truly will be wrought."

I know that with faith we can do all things!!

I LOVE YOU!

Love, Sister Niebergall

Sorry this is long.

Mon, Sep 26, 2011

Hello, this week we`re at an internet cafe and so we have a time limit. So sorry if i don`t respond or make as much sense as normal.

 

I´m glad you were able to share some missionary experiences, mom. Thats fun, i wouldve loved to be there in the primary and here missionary stories. theyre my favorite.

 

It is beautiful outside here! Especially since i bought my coat its been really really warm! I don´t know how to describe my apt. you walk in and first thing you see is the bathroom. you walk farther and to the left is the living room with our desks and some couches with a table in the middle and then to the right is our kitchen. then walk some more and then is our bedroom with bunk beds and then we have a bookshelf with many many different language book of mormons...... yeah book of mormons and pamphlets and such. I´ll send a picture sometime. And of Celle sometime too. I still need grandma and grandpa´s email address

 

I gave away my first book of mormon while speaking german and without any help from my companion. it was a very big accomplishment. i think he just took it cuz he felt bad, but oh well. as long as he reads it and finds out its true it´ll be a good story for him to tell.

 

 

I think it´d cost a lot to send my shoes home. Maybe more than buying new ones. I dunno. i dont have time to thihnk about it so you figure something out and tell me what to do and ill do it.

 

We had presidents interviews this week and it was very motivational and so so so good. He talked about the atonement and how its like a gift certificate. its already been paid for. we can either use it or we can just let it sit in the drawer and collect dust and it does neither person any good. the giver of the gift would want us to use it.

 

I think i should send this so the computer doesnt shut down on me. i don´t know if i´ll be able to write later or not. But if not, I know the church is true and I am so so so so grateful for the atonement! I love all of you so much and hope all is well with you! thanks for all writing. i promise i´ll write to all of you next time. it may be later today and it may not. i dont really know. I love you!

 

Love Sister Niebergall

Mon, Sep 19, 2011

Hey family!

 

Things are going well here in Celle. The only thing is people keep saying to us "Ich bin schon getauft" Look that up on google translate and if it doesn't show up correctly ask Rob and Michelle. Does anyone have a good rebuttle for that besides proper priesthood authority? Please fill me in!

 

 It actually hasn't been too cold here this week. Maybe a day of two of rain, but really it hasn't been bad. I haven't bought a coat, the $300 was for the bike fund that we were required to pay so...... uhhh...  I hope there's some money in there cuz I don't want any issues with overdraft or anything. I have to buy one today if I buy one this week so I don't know what to do. I was hoping to buy a winter coat so that's not a problem.

 

I love Celle! Its so beautiful! I've never heard that Bach played the organ here, but that is so cool! I wonder if I could go take a look at it. There's a ward here. Its not very big- only about 70 people but most of them are inactive. We are the only missionaries in the area so that puts a lot of responsibility on us to find the people here who are ready for the gospel. In our district are the Elders from Braunschweig and Sisters from Halberstadt (so Sister Laubaugh is in my district here!) We have cell phones and text messaging so we're following the trend of modern missionaries here. We get up at 6:30 and go to bed at 10:30. I don't know if anyone here takes a siesta, but we do when we come home for lunch. We have an hour break and I usually pass out on the couch. Its hard to eat, sleep, and go bathroom in just an hour. So I usually only get two of those three in. We do have our bikes in the winter here too, I believe. Thanks for your e-mail dad, I love hearing from you!

Have you read the talk like I told you to? Feed my sheep find my lambs or whatever, i can't remember the exact title. Next time I expect to hear that you've read it and I want to hear what you're doing to help the missionaries. We need so much help and I would just love to have someone volunteer to help us. You should all do that. The missionaries would love you forever!

Don't worry, I have a journal here so I can write down the things that happened. I bought 2 journals before the MTC but there just wasn't enough room for it to bring here. I figure I'll just fill up my journal and then before its full have you send me the other one. I alsoI bought 2 converters before the MTC so I do have a converter here. My companion has an alarm clock so I wake up to hers. Tell Jeff to get a battery powered alarm clock for his mission. I mean, maybe it won't matter for him because he'll be in USA, but at the MTC it would've been nice to have too so I wouldn't have to walk across the whole room and wake everyone else up.

 

 My shoe shining kit was also WAY too heavy to bring. Funny you ask about protecting my shoes because my brown Dansco's broke the other day. I don't know how it happened, but I was quite mad. Haha. Luckily it was almost time to go home anyway. I don't know how to protect my shoes, but when I sent it home I was very rushed and just knew I wouldn't have the weight. I sent the tape recorder, again, because there just wasn't enough weight in my bag and I figured I wouldn't ever get a tape or anything so I sent it back.

 

I'm glad that Rachel was able to sing with her and that she was brave enough to! Thats great! Go Rachel!!! Also, I accidently left Rachel's letters at the MTC cuz they were hung up in my closet and I forgot to take them down. So please send more pictures and letters, Rachel!! Love you!

 

I was so sad that I wouldn't be around to see Deej bless the sacrament, but I'm glad he got the chance to do that! I love it when they make the mistakes because sometimes just hearing the prayer one time isn't enough to really ponder what you're truly promising!

 

Homecoming!?!?!? I keep forgetting D.J. is old enough to date and its really weird!! I look forward to hearing these details! Please, don't keep me waiting.  It was so funny at the MTC there was a visitor once and you could see her knees and all the elders were either looking away or were looking too long. Haha. Oh MTC. Its like the biggest bubble ever. I'm also super proud of D.J. for getting the Baker! Thats so great, even though it doesn't end well for him. At least he doesn't have to be the groovy butler, or was that just Greg's version? Haha just kidding. Thats super cool that Rae gets to be in it too! Poor Sarah. What is she going to do being home all alone? Do you know the musical this year for Orion? Let me know when you find out. Also, who is playing Joseph? And any other important parts that maybe I know the people who are playing them.

 

Thats so great that Jeff's mission president was in the NBA. What team did he play for? I bet Jeff is just eating that up! Haha so funny! I keep telling everyone that my brother has his mission call and that I'm so proud of him. I don't know if anyone really cares, but I care so I tell everyone! Also Jeff make sure to learn the difference between "How long have you been here?" and "How long will you be here?" Maybe its not as hard in Spanish, but I never know which one they're asking me.

 

Also, has Amy got her mission call? I haven't heard it from her yet so you have permission from me to tell me.

 

I'm sure I'd be proud of Sarah if I knew what was going on in her life! What is going on Sarah, how's school, BoM reading, and so on?? Please fill me in. I haven't heard from you for awhile. Feel free to write me a letter or e-mail! Hope all is well! Also, keep learning German. Dad Jeff and Deej will speak spanish, I need a German sister buddy! When is the Brigham City temple going to be done? Thats super cool that you got to go look around at it! I miss the temple! Take advantage of the temple, even though its 45 minutes away- thats closer than 6 hours like my temple!

 

I'm so glad you're still loving school. I knew that you got that 6th grade job for a reason. I love that your kids quote kid history. Seriously, you're too perfect for a sixth grade teacher. You are probably the coolest one in the school or even the district! (Do schools have districts or am I just thinking missionary? I don't know.) Are you gonna stick with 6th or do you not know yet?

 

Dang, how are my letters always so long? I still have more to write!

 

So we found this guy on the streets and went to have a lesson at his house. An old lady opened the door, and she was talking to someone behind her then we asked if the dude was there. She said no and that she lives alone. We asked if the dude ever used to live there and she said "Yes, but now he lives..... in... the woods." I think that's the worst lie I've ever heard! (Even though I didn't understand, Sis Martinz translated for me later) but we are pretty sure she was talking to him and he told her to tell us he wasn't there. But she told us he lives in the forest? Thats too funny.

 

Also, we were going door to door and we knocked on one door. A lady opened and she asked if we were the Mormons. We said yes and asked if she knew other missionaries. She said no but she knows members of our ward. She asked if they gave us her address. We told her no and that we were going door to door. She said "Really? Wow. Because I've been wanting a Book of Mormon because I'm searching for the truth." WHAAAA???? We were smiling ear to ear and told her that we could help her with that! So cool!!!

 

Celle is great and being a missionary is great. I know one hundred percent that Heavenly Father loves us and that He wants to help us so badly. I know that from personal experience this week and I know that He loves us and we just need to turn to Him and He will willingly give us those answers. Also sometimes our answers to prayers come to someone else. If you have a prompting, DO IT because you may be answering someone's earnest prayers. I'm so grateful Heavenly Father is looking out for me. I love you so so so so so much and think about you all the time! I hope all is well!!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Sep 12, 2011

Familie!!

 

First of all JEFF'S MISSION CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so so so so so so happy to find out from Sis. Pimentel. She called up while we were having comp study and she read the e-mail and I cried! I was so happy! Jeff will be so amazing in Dallas and I just had to laugh because he's going state side Spanish speaking, just like dad! He is dad I swear!! But Congratulations Jeff or should I say Felizidades! (Ich weiß nicht) Gratulation! Woo! I'm tri-lingual with that word! Also, I love that you ate at Texas Roadhouse. Thats so fun! And yummy food there! That's super crazy that Derek is going to Dallas. I think Mel Fry's brother may be going there too (Spanish speaking also), but I can't remember. That was where Jacob Wiglama served his mission! CooL!!

 

Anyways it was wunderschön to hear from you!!! It was fun to read e-mails from several of you! 

 

I'm glad to hear the language will get better. I just need to remember that. I speak English with Sister Martinz most of the time, but the other day we had a nur Deutsch tag (only German day) and it went better than expected. I need to do that more often so I just get in the habit of speaking German. Yesterday was a big accomplishment, I said a whole two sentences to someone on the street instead of just one! Yay!!

 

I knew you would look up Celle and that just makes me so happy that you watch the weather and look at pictures (right? if not, you should. Its SO beautiful!!) Its part of the old West Germany. There is a castle here in Celle, its a museum and is only open Tuesday thru Saturday. So we can't go to it ever cuz its not open during P-Day. Bummer, huh! We are on bikes and I love it!!! Its good exercise and I may be showing off my garments, I'm not really sure, but people probably think they're biking shorts if they do see them. Its also a little awkward when the wind blows the skirt up when you're riding. Oh well (naja) its no problem. We do still do a lot of walking though because its easier to talk to people when we're on foot. We just bike from place to place and when we get there walk around. Its a lot more exercise than I got in the MTC. Its great!

 

I can't believe 9-11 was ten years ago! Was it really that long ago? Dang! I'm glad you watched music and the spoken word! Its so good! I miss watching it! But yeah, wow I totally forgot about it yesterday. Deutschers don't really celebrate it. Weird, right? ;)

 

We have 9 investigators and are hoping to get more this week. We met a Jehovah's Witness family that we have an app with on Wednesday. It would be great to have another family in the ward. There isn't a college in Celle. I'm not really sure why people come here except that its beautiful and lots of fun places to shop! 

 

Haha Sister Martinz is great. I love her! She's always singing and humming on the streets. I always hiccup and she said one time, in her Austrian accent (Just jokingly, I hope) "Why do you always make that SCHEEOOPID noise?!" (that's how she pronounced stupid) it made me laugh. She really is great and I'm so glad to have a nice supportive companion when my Deutsch is not so good and she can help me learn!

 

Its raining here a lot in Celle and I have no coat. This morning we looked for some to buy, but every time I saw the prices I thought "mom would die!" But I may just have to settle for one of the coats. Sorry!

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the story of the lady on the bike. Every time I think about it I get goosebumps. Its so cool! And if Jeff doesn't write stories I'm gonna have to pry them out of him cuz I want to hear them!!! I'm glad you got my stuff from grandma and my package. It would've been a disaster if I didn't have grandma to give my stuff to!

 

My average day diet is toast with nutella for breakfast, bread with cheese and ham for lunch and a frozen pizza for dinner. Sometimes we have pasta too. Not too much time to cook though. But yesterday we ate at a members house and we had roast and potatoes (Before you laugh), it was crazy cuz the roast was rolled up and inside was a pickle! I was scared to taste the pickle at first cuz I thought it was a jalepeno, but then it was a pickle! It was very very delicious. I wanted to ask for the recipe, but I don't know how to say that. I have had the chocolate too! I swear that's also part of our diet. Bread, cheese, pizza, pasta, chocolate. Its wonderful, I quite enjoy it!

 

 I 'Pulled a Sister Niebergall' again, meaning garments in the skirt. I went potty at a members house (She has special needs so I don't think she noticed, but Sis Martinz got a kick out of it. Also while we were visiting this lady and I was saying the prayer, and was trying to say "We're grateful we could visit Sister Koppke" But forgot her name and so it was like this "We're grateful we could visit *crap what's her name (to sister Martinz)* We died laughing and had to start the prayer over. Again, I'm not sure if the lady noticed or not.

 

The pictures are of Me and Sister Martinz and also when I found out where Jeff got his call!

 

Man! This is a way long letter!! I hope all is well with you and I'm so glad to be bringing people unto Christ! It really is such a great feeling!!! I hope I can continue this work for the rest of my life! I know its the work of our Heavenly Father! I know He knows and loves us personally! I love you all SOOOOOOOO much!!!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

Talking to Sister Pimentel about Jeff's Mission call

With Companion