Dear Family. I have really excellent news.
I DREAMED IN GERMAN LAST NIGHT!!!!!! I am really really excited about that. That was the first thing that I said when I woke up today. I screamed it in excitement. German is coming along alright. I can communicate what I want to say mostly. With some awkward pauses because either I don´t know a word or have to think really hard about the word. But I feel like its coming pretty good. I don´t feel as awkward speaking and I´m not afraid to make mistakes (which is something that has kept my mouth closed for awhile now. But I´ve gotten over it, make mistakes, and speak German. I´m really happy!
It has been quite a bit wet this week. One night it was sleeting and it felt like ice needles were going into my face, but for some weird reason I had a smile on my face the whole walk. In Halberstadt we do more walking that biking. That´s been weird, but its been good. You asked how we got our Carribean family to church. We had to beg 2 members to pick them up. Their family is so big they need 2 cars. I want to live somewhere one day where I can willingly help the missionaries, because we really need so much help. Sometimes its hard for the members to see that. They´re a family we´re teaching and they have so much faith, they´re incredible. But they´re moving to the UK soon so it´s a big bummer that we won´t be able to baptize them. But we´ll pass on their info for sure.
Being in a drit is a lot of fun, but a lot of work. This week we´ve spent the majority of the time in Halberstadt. Halberstadt has a car so we use it to go back and forth to Celle. Except we are only allowed a certain number of miles per month and we´re almost out so we´ll have to take a train there and back this week. It´s hard to set appointments because we only have a few days each week in each city so we´re like "Can we meet you after the new year?" People aren´t anymore different than normal it seems like when it comes to missionary work. It´s also kind of hard to share the time in Halberstadt because I know there´s so much to do in Celle, I don´t want to leave it all alone with no missionaries, especially when I most likely will be transferred from Celle. We find out about transferrs on Friday, so I´ll tell you about it when I talk to you on the phone on Sunday. WEIRD I GET TO TALK TO YOU! But so exciting! You can call at 10 o´clock am your time. That will be 6 o´clock pm my time.
So, don´t worry about Sister Laubaugh and I. We are working so hard I´ve never been so tired. Sister Laubaugh is a little appalled that I told you she´s inappropriate. Just disregard that. Let´s just say she and Heather Fellows you and I would have way too much fun together. We´re behaving ourselves though. She really is a good missionary, I´ve never seen a missionary so obedient. It´s really nice because I want to be obedient so we help each other out with that.
We are getting all kinds of treats from members. Mostly chocolate, but we´ve gotten some decorations, music boxes, apple sauce and lots of random things. Nothing really pastry-like. DOCH! We have this big nasty thing of butter, flour, sugar, and raisens and powdered sugar. None of us have dared try it. It looks really fattening and slightly disgusting. But that´s all that I´ve noticed. Mostly bunches and bunches of candy and chocolate. Oh, you asked if I say German word on accident or purpose. I think them in my head and type them without realizing it and then I realize it and don´t feel like erasing it. Doch means "yeah huh!" Kind of thing. Schmerz means pain. Davood is doing good. He´s so amazing. I called him yesterday to see how he´s doing and he said he still has a lot of pain "But I know Jesus helps me and one day I won´t have pain of problems anymore." He´s so faithful. I´ve learned tons from him.
This week has been good! Like I said, the majority of it was spent in Halberstadt. Sister Laubaugh told me a few months ago that there was a Niebergall on a klingel so we went by on it and I MET A REAL GERMAN NIEBERGALL. It was pretty sweet. His roommate opened the door and I asked him if he was Herr Niebergall and he said no, but went and got him. This guy is Tobias Niebergall! I was expecting someone old, but it was about a 29 year old I´d say. I asked him if he by chance knew about his ancestry and he said he had no idea. Bummer. He did say that his mother´s side of the family was related to Casper. Crazy huh! But, I got a picture with him. I´ll have to send it to you. He put his arm around me so I look really awkward and uncomfortable and my face shows it. It´s rather funny. But he´s my great great great something great cousin so it was slightly more acceptable, right? Haha. As I was leaving I asked if he maybe had interest to speak about Jesus Christ. He said no thanks and that he´s Evangelisch. He asked if we were the Mormons. I told him yeah. So he knows what the Mormons are. That isn´t very common in Germany. So I said „Can we just give you a card then?“ and he willingly took it. He was a nice guy. Maybe one day he´ll join. That´d be sweet.
The Woods are going to be in Mo-Tab?????????? CRAZY!! That´s exciting. I´ll have to look for them. Fun! Also, about the ward choir director, mom. You will be amazing!! Seriously! Don´t doubt your abilities! The Lord called you to this position. He could´ve called anyone else and knew you´d be great at it. I envy you. I´d love to be ward choir director and choose the music we sing. defordmusic.com has amazingly beautiful songs and you should look there for songs to use if you´re stumped what to sing. The ward will love you for this. You´ll be great, I´m excited for you.
I got your package, by the way. I had my companions open it and make sure everything was wrapped. For some reason I thought they wouldn´t be wrapped and if they weren´t I wanted Sister Stewart and Laubaugh to wrap them for me. But I was so excited to see all of them wrapped and have my name hidden into the wrapping paper like normal. :) Also the turtle pillow pet poem taped onto one of them. That made me smile really big. I´m trying to stay away from them because I really want to figure out what is in them. So I´m avoiding our Christmas tree. It´s a lot of fun.
The other day we went and sang songs at an old folk´s home some Christmas songs. It reminded me of why I want to do music therapy. It made me really really happy. There was one sweet lady who said after every song we sang „Do we have 3 extra beds here? We´re not letting you leave.“ And she was serious. She really didn´t want to let us leave. It was cute. I really enjoyed it. I always get so excited to use music with the Germans.
I finally had to missionary down something. Yesterday we had a dinner and it was TONS of food. She brought out soup, meat, apfel rotkhol, potatoes, clementines, two different salads, and a dessert. There was one salad that was really gross, it was a greek salad and I had to gag it down. It was funny. This lady was an 84 year old and made everything from a can. She dished us up too and put tons on our plates. She was back and forth from the kitchen a million times so when she´d leave we´d put some of our helpings back into the pots. We couldn´t eat that much. It was a fun experience.
How´s your season of miracles going? Are you all doing the things I assigned you? I hope so!
We had this really cool experience. We were in Wernigerode, which is a really touristy place of Halberstadt. I´m sure Sister Stewart and I kind of looked like tourists too because we were looking through windows in amazement. There was one particular window that had these treats called “Snowballs“ and they looked like left over cookie dough that was baked and packed into a ball and dipped in caramel and powdered sugar on top. We were looking at these Snowballs in wonder and the shop owner beckoned us to come in and buy one. So we came in to escape the cold and to look at these snowball things. We spoke a little in English to each other and she asked what language we were speaking. We told her English. She asked if we were in Germany because we were students. We told her we were here because we speak to people about Jesus Christ. She thought that was awesome and said „Das ist schön!“ We invited her to come to church and gave her a pass along card. She asked if she could keep the pass along card because she really wanted to try to come to church sometime. We told her, „Why yes, yes you can keep that pass along card!“ She told us she was on the fence about believing in God and Jesus Christ. Then Sister Laubaugh said that we have a book that testifies of Jesus Christ. All of us bore testimony of how its helped us in our lives. She took the Book of Mormon and held it against her heart like it was a precious treasure and said, „Das werde ich lesen!“ which means „That, I will read.“ It was so awesome to see someone treat the Book of Mormon with such respect. Lots of people just chuck it in a bag and the pages get all bent and it makes me cringe, but this lady held it so carefully. I wish you could´ve witnessed it. It was great. She´ll get baptized. I just know it.
I love this gospel. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I´m so grateful to be telling people about how to have hope in their lives and what truly brings happiness. We are so blessed to have this. Really. I´m sure if people understood what we were offering them, they would treat it just as precious as this lady treated the Book of Mormon. It is a precious book. I love it. I learn something new from it literally every time I read from it. I hope we are all feasting from it as often as possible. I love this gospel. I can´t express it enough. I love you all so much! I´ll talk to you in a couple days!!!! Love you so so so so so much!!!
Love, Sister Niebergall
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