This next Transfer.......... - Apr 23, 2012

Hello Family!

I will tell you where I´ll be serving, because I´m sure you´re dying to know. I will be staying here in Rostock so there is no change. This transfer really really flew by. I was totally shocked, I really thought I´d leave, but it looks like the Lord needs me here and looks like I´ll be here for Svetlana´s baptism!

Yes, we did get to invite Svetlana to baptism last Monday. It was a really neat and spiritual expierece. She got to the appointment and she was totally in a huff and very freaked out. (She has a lot of family problems). When I saw her walk in I thought "Ohhhhh noooooo!!" Because we had a very special lesson planned and she would need to be open to feeling the spirit or else it wouldn´t mean anything. Luckily the Elders were at the church too, they were heading out and I said "Wait! I´m going to ask Svetlana if she wants a blessing. Will you stay here for a second?" So I asked her if she wanted a blessing and she did. The Elders gave her a blessing and it filled the room with the spirit. I´m so grateful for the power of the priesthood and that we can call the power of Heaven down to earth within a matter of seconds. It´s one of the greatest gifts on earth. Anyway, after her blessing we started into the lesson and we talked about how everyone has the capability to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost and that the Holy Ghost leads us and helps us feel which direction we need to go. But after we´re baptized by the proper authority we can always have this connection to God and we can always feel this spirit´s influence. We asked her if that´s something she´d want and she said yes and was crying and she knows she needs this influence in her life. After the lesson she was beaming and so happy. We had a service project at the zoo on Saturday and she showed up there and she came to church on Sunday too and she was telling all the members that she´s going to get baptized. That is such a good sign. We´re so excited for her! We know this gospel can change her life! She´ll be baptized the 27th of May. We can´t wait.

The weather is pretty warm, but rainy. It´s been really fun though, we´ve been singing and dancing in the rain. We don´t ride bikes here in Rostock so it hasn´t been a problem staying dry. We travel by Bahn (tram type thing) and bus so we don´t really have to wear rain gear.

So I still don´t have a jacket. My companion got pick pocketed in Berlin this week and we´re both scraping our mission fund money. So if you see some money going out of my account it´s because we have absolutely nothing. I think we can get it refunded too though, so don´t worry. I´ve spent 85 € in personal money so far (35€ of that is money I got from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas) but we are pinching our pennies so I just thought I´d let you know that if more money goes out of that account, that´s why. We also have to go to Berlin this weekend because some new converts are getting their patriarchal blessing and there are only 2 patriarchs nearby. One in Berlin and one in Hamburg so they are both about 3 hour train rides away. That also means our e-mails will probably come a little late. Just so you´re aware.

The Serbian family is doing great. We were there this week and it was crazy, our zone leaders sent us the Serbian pamphlets and we got them literally as we were walking out the door to go meet with them. So they were able to read along and it was able to explain the Apostasy and loss of priesthood and stuff in the language they could understand. Nikolai still kind of thinks we worship Joseph Smith, so luckily we have a Sister in our ward from Serbia and she is going to come with us and translate. Except she got baptized in Germany so she doesn´t know Serbian gospel language. (They have 2 BoMs in Serbian) But she will hopefuly be able to clear up some questions and bear good testimony. Nikolai had read to 1 Nephi 3 (which is more than most new investigators read in 4 days) and he said this family is just like his family, leaving their land and all their things behind. He also said to us that he prayed for 2 days for this book. We´re not exactly sure what he means, but that made us excited. We didn´t commit them to baptism yet, but we´re excited to do so eventually. It might take a little longer than expected because of the language barrier, but that´s okay. Thank you soooooooooo much for your prayers. We really can feel them. We have our next appointment with them Wednesday so if you can really pray hard for us Tuesday night (because you´ll be sleeping when we have that appointment) that would really be great. I always get nervous when I go to their house because I have really high expectations from them and I don´t want to be disappointed. We only visit them once a week because it takes about 30-45 minutes to get out there. We wish we could visit with them more than that because I think they might progress faster. Oh well, we´ll work with what we have. I know what you mean dad, that we begin to love these people so much and want what´s best for them. I definitely feel that way, especially with them and Svetlana.

I think something that might help if you write me letters to Rostock (which you probably won´t trust to do anymore) is if you write Kirche Jesu Christi on it so they know which mailbox to put it in. Sometimes I still get the mail anyway without Kirche Jesu Christi on it, but I think some mail people don´t get it that the missionaries live in that apartment. I also need to put my name on the mailbox. I hope they have a collection of letters that they´re just waiting to give me once I put my name on the mailbox.

There are 200 something missionaries in this misison.

HelloMrs/sister Niebergall :D this is sister noyes. Your daughter had to go to the bathroom and left me alone with her computer. Big mistake. BWAHAHAHA actually I just wanted to tell you your daughter is awesome and I love her to death.She is an awesome missionary who really puts her heart and soul into her work. You should be very proud of her. i may or may not encourage her turtle collecting too so I'm sorry if she comes home with more turtles than clothes. ACK! got to go

Sister Noyes

Thank you Sister Noyes. Haha. She´s funny. Anyway, we have 200 something missionaries in the mission and it´s growing this transfer, we have 14 new missionaries coming in and quite a few leaving so maybe it isn´t growing, but it is the largest group of missionaries in Europe. It´s really crazy about President Pimintel, you asked if he´s Bishop or Stake President close. Well, I´d say he´s like dad-close. I feel like he´s my dad while I´m away. I don´t know how he does it with as many missionaries as he has, but he remembers everything I tell him, he asks how Jeff is doing in Texas, remembers my concerns, answers my e-mails. When you have interviews with him, it´s crazy because you really feel like he´s only thinking about you and your concerns and stuff. He´s an amazing man. He only has 2 more transfers, its sad. We have our last interview with him this transfer. It´s crazy.

 Heather and I have been e-mailing back and forth too and she told me she finally popped the little sucker out. I didn´t realize it was the same day as Mark´s birthday. (You still need to send me people´s birthdays please because I really wanted to send something to Mark but I missed it :(

That´s crazy that I´m the next missionary to come home after Nate Schofield. It flies by, I almost can´t handle it. I seriously want to cry every night knowing that one more day of my mission is gone. I love being here so much and I love serving the people here in Germany. I wish I could do it forever. Being a missionary is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have 3 hours to study and become more acquainted with my Savior. I get to look up scriptures that I think would benefit the people I teach or the people that I am around a lot whether its members or missionaries or whatever. I know that this church is true and it´s the only way to really come back to our Heavenly Father. It´s a hard path, but if we just hold on to what we know is right and trust the Lord, we will be able to one day be with Him again, and that is a day that I look forward to and I hope I´ll be in good standing with Him. I love my Savior. I love you all!

Love, Sister Niebergall

The Miracles Keep Coming! - Apr 16. 2012

Hello ladies and gentlemen!

This week was totally awesome. First of all Tuesday we had Zone Conference. It was really awesome and we talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. It´s always so wonderful to get these reminders of how we should be doing things. It´s these silly important things that we forget.

One day this week we had every single appointment fall out. We were scheduled completely booked, not even time for a break and we had zero appointments work out. We ran from place to place and we were to every single appointment on time, but none of them showed up/ answered the door. That was kind of a bummer, but oh well. Such is the life of a missionary.

JEFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!! How could you? I was reading your e-mail out loud to my companion and freaking out. Little dork. But I still love you. I can just imagine you snickering to yourself as you wrote it.

I did notice the pictures of the gorilla rock. I had to explain to Sister Noyes that we have to find that rock every time we go there. I loved the toilet paper in the tush. Did you bring it especially for the picture? P.S. Ben is growing up!!! Did I mention that in the last e-mail?

Well this Saturday is time for transfer calls already, this transfer has totally flown by and I can´t believe I might be leaving Rostock. It´s crazy. But we´ll see, I could stay here another transfer. I can´t believe Michelle was only in 2 areas. That´s crazy. I think I´d go crazy.

It hasn´t felt too cold this week. Not that I´ve noticed. I think we ran around without coats one day, but I can´t remember.

We went back to the Serbian family on Friday to give them the Book of Mormon. It was awesome when we put the BoM´s on the table the family passed them around and flipped through the pages and looked at the cover. The 13 year old daughter took one book and just flipped through the pages the whole lesson. She wasn´t reading it, but I´m convinced she could just feel the spirit of the book without even reading it.  We had found the Joseph Smith manual online and had them read the part about the first vision, because we wanted to make sure they understood everything correctly. The father (Nikolai) said "I´ve read the bible, but I´ve never heard of Joseph Smith." and started getting defensive that what we were saying couldn´t be right. This worried us a lot, obviously. We tried to explain that Joseph is just a normal person like us, but wasn´t clicking. I´m pretty sure Sister Noyes and I were both frantically praying in our hearts that he could understand and that we could overcome this language barrier. I took the Book of Mormon in Serbian and opened it to Moroni 10:4. He read it and said "This is good! This is about Christ and God!" and we bore testimony that it was another testament of Christ. He got the biggest smile on his face. We finally understood what his concern was. He thought we were calling Joseph Smith a God, but it clicked for him and he said "Oh! Joseph was just like us, but he helped other people come to Jesus Christ!" EXACTLY! We were so happy that he got it (unfortuanately he´s the only one in his family that speaks German so he kind of has to translate for everyone) Anyway, he opens the book and flips through the pages and said "This book is about Christ. I´ll have it read by next week. Well, I´ll have it read by next week, but not." We asked what he meant. He says, and I quote, "I can have it read in a week, but a book like this will need to be read over and over again for the rest of your life." AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! That was after reading one verse!! It was so awesome. Then as we were leaving we said to him, "Thank you for letting us come over." He said, "No, thank God that He brought me this book. We see them again tomorrow. I´m super nervous because I have such high hopes and expectations for the family and don´t want to say anything wrong. I just want them to know it´s true! It´s way awesome, I´m so glad we´re getting the chance to teach them. We didn´t warn them about Satan, we hope to invite them to be baptized tomorrow and if we do, I will try to warn them. I just hope they understand us.

About the letters, I got a big envelope full of letters from my Fellows cousins, but if you sent one with Niebergall letters, I haven´t gotten it. I´ve heard of this great idea where you put chocolate in your mailbox and if your companion gets a lot of letters and you´re sad about not getting any you are allowed to take a chocolate. I might have to start that in my next area. Good idea, right? The mailboxes in Germany are different so you need a key to get into the mailbox so the mailman wouldn´t be able to steal any. Anyway, if it comes back to you can you just send it to the mission home?

Where are the wardies going on their missions? I´ve forgotten.

I didn´t realize the people on the corner had moved out. Hmmm. Are the new people members?

Thanks for the best of facebook pictures! I love them a lot!

Olga is coming to church sometimes. She has a calling and teaches primary, but I think she comes out of duty, not out of desire. So she´s coming just as much as before, but now we have a relationship with her and it´s always fun to see her and chat with her.

Speaking of Russian speaking people: I´ve told you about Svetlana our investigator. She had a baptismal date, but shes had health problems and talks a lot so it´s hard for her to progress. Well, she came to church yesterday and she happened to start talking to a member who also REALLY likes to talk, just as much as she does. She unloaded all her problems on him (she does this to anyone who will listen) and then this member did something really bold. He said "If you get baptized your problems will be a lot better and easier." He invited her to be baptized! So we have an appointment with her tonight and will make goals with her and set a date for her. Way to be bold, members!!

The picture of me on the mission blog? I was definitely talking when they took it and that´s why I look so crazy.

It´s really true what you said Chris Gibson said. You have to be converted before people can be converted. There was an Elder in this area who was very disobedient and he was going home soon and so he forced someone to be baptized. Pretty much what he did was he just buddy buddied it up with this guy and said "you have to get baptized before I go home!" He did get baptized. He didn´t show up to his confirmation in church the next day and he was in China. So we always have a joke here saying "Weidi is chilling in China without the Holy Ghost." He actually is back in Rostock now and the Elders have met with him. They said "Weidi, why did you get baptized?" And he said "Because the Elders told me to"....uh oh. Yeah. Not good.

I e-mail Heather Coombs and she does sound VERY ready to have her baby! And Caydee had a baby! And apparently Michelle Applegate, Heidi Hawkins, and Krista Cook are having babies too! It´s that time of year I tell you.

I hope everything is good with you all. I know that the Book of Mormon is the scary truest book on earth and I love to read it every day. I love my mission, it means everything to me. I love these people that Heavenly Father has entrusted to my care. That´s such a huge responsibility but he helps me with it every day. He helps me with the language, with my doubts and concerns, with saying the right things that His children need to hear. Without Him this work would be kaput. This work has to be from God otherwise these silly 19- 21 year olds would have messed it up a long time ago. I love you my family! You are amazing!

Love, Sister Niebergall

I love miracles!!!! - Apr 08, 2012

Hello everyone that I love love LOVE!

 

This week was totally awesome and I can't wait to tell you about the miracles that we've seen here!!!

 

First of all, Tuesday was the start of the miracles. None of our appointments fell out which hasn't happened since.... I don't think my whole mission. The lessons were great and we were so happy. Later that night we went door to door with a less active member who speaks Russian. We had made an appointment with a Russian man a couple weeks ago and couldn't communicate with him. We brought our member to him and she was so AWESOME. I accidently forgot to bring a Russian Book of Mormon, but she had one in her bag and she testified and the spirit was so strong. It ended up that he wasn't interested. We went door to door and no one was interested, but we were so glad to have Olga with us to communicate with these people and give them a chance to accept the gospel.

 

The other miracle this week was we found GOOOOLD! We're so excited. We found a family from Serbia doing door to door. It's a whole family with a father, mother, 17 year old boy, 13 year old girl, and 9 year old boy. That is very rare to find a whole family in Germany. Anyway, as we started talking to them at the door we told them we talk about Jesus Christ and have a book about him that we give to people. They said they would like that and so we made an appointment to come back next week. We were about to move on and keep doing doors, but they invited us inside. We talked about Jesus and I went around and asked if everyone believed in Christ and the little 13 year old and 17 year old do. That was way awesome because there aren't that many young people that believe in Christ. Anyway they all strongly believe and we had as good of a conversation as you can have when both parties have broken German. As we were about to leave I asked if we could say a prayer and so we said a prayer and at the end of the prayer the father's eyes were filled with tears. We'll go back to them on Friday so please pray for Nikolai, Duda, Natasha, and Judah (we didn't meet the 3rd child so I don't know his name). We have seen many miracles already with this family and we really think they will be baptized. We want to watch the Restoration DVD with them, but you can't watch it in Serbian so we didn't know what to do. We searched on the internet to see if we could find Joseph Smith History in Serbian. We didn't. But we found the life of Joseph Smith Sunday school manuel in Serbian and now they'll be able to read the First Vision story and understand it. Then we'll show the Restoration DVD so they can feel the spirit and hopefully invite them to baptism. We are way excited. Pray for them please!

 

Those are the highlights of this week. You can e-mail me about last week and maybe we can e-mail you later tomorrow, but don't get your hopes up. We're not sure. Sorry, I'm so distracted there is a conversation going on behind me. I hope to give you a better e-mail next week.

 

I know this gospel is true! I know that Heavenly Father absolutely knows his children and he leads us to the people that are ready. I love you all! Thanks for your support!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

 ---------------------

PART II - April 9, 2012

 ----------------------

Hey family,
Thanks for the e-mail! I was able to read it today! It looks like you had TONS of fun at Goblin Valley and Ferron and I really loved looking at all the pictures.(Too bad you didn´t see mysterious goblin valley girl). It´s still really weird to me to look at the pictures and Jeff and I aren´t in them. Easter here in Germany was fun. We didn´t do any easter egg things or get bombarded with chocolate like we did at Christmas (thank heavens). We went to church and went to eat dinner with a family. The Elders and the Sisters usually always have eating appointments together on Sundays so that was fun. There is one Elder in this city who has just been here 3 weeks and he is really brave about speaking German. He took it for 6 years at school so he is pretty dang good, but he doesn´t think so. It was funny, I made a funny German mistake in the middle of our eating appointment and it was I asked if the cake had cream in it (Sahne- pronounced zawnuh) but I accidently said Zähne (pronounced tsaynuh) and asked if the cake had teeth in it. It was funny. The Elders gave me grief for it. We ate Kohl Roladen which is meat wrapped in cabbage baked in a sauce. It was really yummy and we all left super full.

I´m glad you liked the April Fools joke. We have a lot of fun picking on each other here. We have lots of stories.

That´s great that you remembered about Pres. Keller talked about miracles in my blessing. I really don´t remember that, so thanks for reminding me. I think this whole time I´ve been here I´ve been in the attitude of I probably won´t find anyone to teach the gospel to, but meeting this family has changed my attitude and given me hope. Thanks for the warning about Satan. We´ll be sure to let them know. Thanks so much for your advice.

Today we went to the beach for an annual ward Easter walk on the beach thing. The weather was kind of poopy so no one really showed up except the ladies in charge and the missionaries. But it was fun anyway. I ate raw fish on bread! It was yummy! I have pictures that I´ll have to send. You´ll probably get them in 2 weeks because we can´t print them today because all the stores are closed down. If Germans have an excuse to have an extra holiday, they take it, so they make Easter into a 4 day holiday. Everyone is more drunk than normal. Who´d have guessed Christ´s ressurrection would inspire such great partying?

Thanks for the e-mails and the pictures. That made me really happy!

The Lord lives! He is risen! I´m so grateful for this knowledge that we can overcome physical and spiritual death! I know He lives and I´m so grateful to Him for all the suffering He went through for us!

I love you all! Be good!

Love, Sister Niebergall

Oh how I love conference! - Apr 02, 2012

Oops I accidently sent you that e-mail without writing anything in it. Silly me.

HELLO!!! I love you all so much. Wasn´t conference awesome? It always makes me want to get up and be a better person and like...... never sin again. I loved Elder Uchtdorf´s talk too and felt like the main topic of the conferece was forgiveness. It must be a major problem with a lot of people. I am so excited to get the Liahona so I can read them again. We didn´t get to see the Sunday afternoon session, but I´m sure we´ll watch it next Sunday in church, and if not I´ll just have to read it or watch it next P-Day.

I thought about you every time it mentioned missionaries too. I always said "I bet my mom is crying." Was that true? It was really awesome to stand and sing called to serve with all the missionaries all over the world. I kept thinking to myself "Jeff is singing this right now with me!" It was really neat. I really enjoyed it. I did see Mr. Wood. It was fun! I also saw happy lady. And that made me, you know, happy. :)

Rostock has been a little cold the past couple days. And when it isn´t freezing it´s too warm for my big coat but too cold for no jacket. I don´t have a jacket. Can I get one? They do have April Fool´s day in Germany, but I don´t think it´s anywhere near as big as in America. We pulled a prank on the Elders and Christian. We offered to make dinner because they always do. We made stuffed bell peppers (YUMMY!) and we decided to make the meat at home the night before so we could just put it in the peppers after conference and wouldn´t have to cook. We had a brilliant idea to put food coloring in the meat so when we pulled out the meat and took the tin foil off it looked like it was moldy. I was like "WHAT IS THAT??" and everyone swarmed over and started making scientific guesses of why it was green. Elder Sniatynsky said that it was because we put it in the fridge with tinfoil over it while it was still hot and it discolors the food. Christian said the funniest thing which was "Just bless it and we´ll be okay" haha. People were still making guesses about what it was and how it could´ve happened and I said "Maybe it´s from food coloring because it´s April Fool´s day or something." All of the guys flipped. They admitted that it was a good one. But yeah. My companion and I still get along really well.

This week was full of organizing the things in our records so that we can get some effective work done here in Rostock. We also made and printed and delivered a bunch of General Conference invitations. The majority of our lessons fell out this week. It was really bad. I have felt like a terrible missionary this week. And I`ve been working my hardest, but it´s really hard for me to feel like I´m not even making a scratch on the missionary work here, but Heavenly Father told me He needed me on a mission so I´m trying to stick with it and try to find out why He needs me.

The biggest adventure of this week is we were desperately feeling like we need to get something done here in Rostock so yesterday Sister Noyes and I poured out our hearts and said that we really want to find the people that are hungering for His word. We prayed and said "We´re going to Evershagen" (Evershagen is to Rostock as Pleasant View is to Ogden). "Please confirm that we´re going to the right place" We went and started walking and the first person we talked to on the street we made an appointment with him. Then we got on the Bahn. There was a guy staring at us so I felt like I should give him a card or talk to him. I went over to talk to him and was tapping on his shoulder and then he decided to ignore me. It was odd. So I sat down on a seat and I saw a guy reading a Russian magazine so I started talking to him and said "Do you speak Russian? We have a book in Russian that we would love to give you!" We pulled out a picture of Jesus and explained the book was about Jesus. He told us he´s a Jew, but he still said we could come by with our member that speaks Russian (his german was pretty rough). And so we´re going to go by on him Tuesday evening. I hope you can pray extra hard for us that day. There are lots of Russian people here in Rostock and this Russian member is always busy so we need to see miracles when she helps us because she won´t be able to help us too often. That´s our adventure. We actually didn´t make it to Evershagen because we were talking to the guy. But it was nice that Heavenly Father gave me the courage to talk to this man and that hopefully we can bring him to the fold!

It was painful to come to the e-mail and not have one from Jeff. But I can´t wait to read it next week!

When we eat at Bruder Schmidt´s we eat TONS. We always have potatoes with some sort of gravy and some kind of hefty meat. Sometimes Rotkhol (I can´t remember if I told you that I´ve actually learned to love Rotkhol now), sauerkraut, tea, vanilla pudding with either applesauce on it or raspberry sauce, cake, cookies, chocolate. The other week we had Eis bein which is pig´s leg from the lower part of the thigh to the upper part of the shin. The best part is that it still has the skin and hair on it. Luckily it was on a different plate and we were to dish ourselves and I didn´t get any skin. I was too scared. But now I wish I did so that I could tell people I ate pig skin with the hairs on it while I was on my mission. It´s always fun to eat at Bruder Schmidt´s. I want so badly to start a fund and get him to America for General Conference one year and have all the missionaries that have ever been to Rostock help out, but I don´t know how possible that would be. But I just know that his dream in life is to go to the Salt Lake Temple. I´d love to help him with how much he does for the missionaries.

I knew that David Archuleta was going on a mission, but I´ve heard no one knows where. Is that still true or has it finally leaked out? Oh man. Poor Elder Archuleta. He´s probably the MTC celebrity. 

Well thanks for everything you do family! I hope that we can not only listen to the words of the prophets and apostels, but do what they´ve told us to do and have the courage to make the changes necessary to become the people he has in mind for us to become. I know that the prophet and apostles are called of God and inspired to say what the Lord wants us to hear. I hope we will review the conference talks when we get the Ensign so that we can remember the spirit we felt. I love you family!

Love, Sister Niebergall