Meißen is continuing to treat us well. I can´t remember your weather forecast, dad- but it was pretty darn stormy this week. But I love it here so much. I guess I´ll give you a Day by Day recap so I can try to remember everything I wanted to tell you.
Monday we had to pay the rest of the money for the lock. Yes it cost €319. We found out 2 days ago that it´s illegal for them to charge that much, but some people try it on the people that don´t know any better. Ugh. Those people that take advantage of other people. So sad. But we did follow up and ask if he´d read and he said he had a little bit. We told him we´d call and follow up in a week. So maybe we´ll call this week.
Then some members invited us over for a barbeque because they thought Independence day was the 2nd. Haha, it was cute. We ate some pork, potato salad, jello, and the best part- S´MORES! The members had never tried S´mores so it was so funny when they were roasting the marshmallows and they were all stringy and sticky like normal they said "Is that right? Is this normal?!" It was a lot of fun. And they really liked S´mores, the 14 yr old son said that S´mores are his new favorite food. Haha. The table was even complete with American flag in the middle. It made us so happy that they thought of us. Our members here are awesome! When we came home it was a big lightning storm, so we sang some of our favorite firework songs and pretended like it was fireworks. It was so fun. We were laughing our heads off. I love my companion. But Germans don´t really celebrate the 4th... it is an American holiday :) But I am actually surprised that they didn´t just adopt it as a day to get drunk. It´s been awhile since there´s been a holiday. I don´t think there´s even been one the last 6 weeks.
Tuesday I had a really strong feeling to go to Robert and see how he was doing since we hadn´t seen him since we made the baptismal date. We knocked on the door and he wasn´t doing too well. Satan is coming on him harder and I just want to kick Satan´s tush, but he doesn´t even have a body so he doesn´t have a tush! We went over to Robert and he explained that his mom was having major problems with her boyfriend and she needed to go to the Frauenhaus (Women home...?) Then his dumb ex- girlfriend lives above him and she came down to visit him Monday and cuddled with him and kissed him and said she´d come back, but never did. He was alone and lonely and didn´t have any company so was just thinking about his problems and he was about to hurt himself right when we came over. Oh man. I hate that Satan thing. It is such a jerk. I won´t even call it him or her cuz it doesn´t have a body! Grrr. We were crying with him and telling him that God loves him even though he does stupid stuff in his life, He still loves him. He doesn´t really know if he believes that or not. Then we could hear his girlfriend upstairs with her new boyfriend and wasn´t listening to what we were saying because he was distracted. We asked him if we should go to the park, so we did. We walked around with him just to distract him for quite some time, then we read Lehi´s dream in the Book of Mormon. It went really well and he understood it. We told him that we have tasted this fruit and want him to taste it too.
Wednesday we had an appointment with a 20 yr old who is friends of a member. He´s not really interested in the church, but we´re going to change that. He is studying English so he just wanted someone to speak English with. So we walked around the castle with him. It was fun. They also invited us over yesterday for cake and tea. I think they´ll come around to a desire for the gospel soon. Then we went to a sweet 87 year old member´s house. Her husband reminds me of Grandpa John SO much, it makes me smile so big. Grandpa has lots of German blood in him, he´s just like the older people here, it makes me laugh. Love it. Also SORRY Grandmy and Grandpa that I haven´t said thank you earlier! I did get your letter and I was so so so grateful. Sorry I haven´t written and thanked you yet. You are too nice. I´m either going to buy a GPS with it or a new backpack, mine is starting to rip. We´ll see what happens. But thank you so much, I appreciate it.
Thursday we had Tausch so I was in Dresden with Sister Kläy for the day. It was fine, nothing too special. There was LOTS of rain this week and there was a huge thunderstorm while we were in Dresden. I don´t think I´ve ever heard such loud thunder in my life. It was crazy.
Friday we had Zone Conference. We ment our new Mission President and he and his wife are so nice. They are kind of intimidating, though. But I learned so much in the Thema he gave. I´ll have to write about what he talked about later because I don´t have my notes with me. But we ate Roladin! I don´t know if anyone else would like it besides you dad, but I love it! You need to try it and tell me what you think. We went to Sabine after and we hadn´t seen her all week, which was weird because we usually see each other 3 times a week. They are totally rocking. Unfortunately Sabine the younger has been in and out of the hospital and they can´t find out what is wrong with her. We hope and pray they can figure it out soon, but we also kind of think it´s for a reason. Sabine the mom and the daughter are not to the same spiritual level, so we think we need to teach some lessons to Sabine as she´s in the hospital. So we plan to go by on her often this week. Also the young women in our ward and the leaders are going to visit her today. We are so blessed that we have such willing members. When Sabine finally has the chance to come to church she will be integrated right in there. We are so happy about that. Then we taught the 3rd lesson to them and it went well. They understood it and accepted it. She had read SO much in the Book of Mormon while we were gone and found answers to questions that she´s been searching for her whole life and that makes sense. Wow. She´s awesome.
Saturday we unfortunately didn´t get to go to the temple (but we´re going Friday this week). We went to see Robert again, though. He wasn´t home so we decided to go to the park by his house, where he always is. We found him peeing on a tree. He said he didn´t have time to meet then, but in an hour- he still wasn´t doing too well. We came back and hour later and he wasn´t there. We said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help us find him. We drove around the city and right as we were about to give up, we saw him sitting in front of a store with his friend, drinking a beer (he drinks when things aren´t going well). We went up to him and asked what was going on and he said he wasn´t doing good. We tried to talk to him about it, but he didn´t want to. We tried to ask him to put the beer down, but he also didn´t want to. We don´t know what to do about this fellow. He really just needs a mighty change of heart. I hope he can experience that. He needs the atonement more than anyone else I´ve met.
We went to Sabine on Saturday too and were going to teach her the 10 commandments. She told us she was looking through the Book of Mormon and decided she wanted to learn about the 10 commandments so she studied it before we came. Wow. She´s so amazing. She also has a big problem with taking the Lord´s name in vain. I have to tell you, I am so much more bold than I was a year ago. This is a gift from Heavenly Father. Normally I wouldn´t mention it, but Heavenly Father helped me tell them that they shouldn´t say those things. Both Sabine and Anna were really embarrassed and covered their mouths and said "I say that all the time! Oh no! I won´t say it any more" It´s totally incredible how the spirit helps people not be offended. You just need to say the truth with boldness and love.
Yesterday we went to church and had FIVE investigators there: Anna (Sabine had to take Sabine to the hospital, so she wasn´t there), Robert, Fr. Meiwald (a lady the elders always met with to eat cake and read in the Book of Mormon- but makes no progress), a granddaughter of a member who is not baptized, and a member brought a friend. We were so busy running around taking care of our investigators and members. Oh man. I had a headache. But it was awesome. We also taught sharing time in primary about being nice to each other and being nice to people they don´t know (Hoping they would get the hint to be nice to Anna) Then after we ate with a member. I hope you don´t mind that I tell people if they´re ever in Utah they can stay at our place. We told this member if she were in Utah she could stay with us. Then we ate with Robert some noodles and he just really needs a change of heart like I said.
Great news!! I just got an e-mail from Sister Noyes and Svetlana is getting baptized this weekend!! Hooray!!!!! I wish I could be there, but I´m so glad she is finally going to be able to do that!
Did you find the new blog for our mission? Did you see Tucker is on it? Cool! I don´t know if you have the new address but its germanyberlinmission2012-15.blogspot.de. Elder Roberts comes in NEXT week to the MTC. Totally crazy, but super exciting. Maybe I´ll see him, who knows?
I am so excited to get this President Monson letter! Please sent it to Meißen, because I don´t know the next time I get my letters from Berlin. I´ve gotten every letter sent to me in Meißen (as far as I know) It seems to be working okay.
I´m
so glad Rachel isn´t as shy as she used to be and that she is singing
in front of people. She really has a great voice. Tell her to keep it
up. Is she in school choir or anything?
I love those pictures of Hannah in her dance costume. She was made to move, really. Oh mensch. Keep the pictures coming, I love them.
I love those pictures of Hannah in her dance costume. She was made to move, really. Oh mensch. Keep the pictures coming, I love them.
This week is already transfer calls. I hope we stay. I hope so so so badly that we stay. I feel like Meißen needs both of us right now. We´ll see what the Lord thinks.
Tell Andrea Capener congratulations!! She´s a sweet girl. That is definitely a man of German decent that she´s marrying. :) You go girl. How´s Rachel Stephens doing? Tell her hi for me if you ever see her.
That sounds like a lot of fun the water fight parade. Weird that no water was allowed, is it because of the drought or something? I love that they were merciless to the cheerleaders. This makes me happy. My companion and I also pretended like we were riding our bikes in a parade and waved at the people. They probably think we´re crazy. Oh well.
That was nice of you to help grandma. We need to do that to our house too. That would be awesome to get rid of that stuff. Garage sale! Save the money to come to Deutschland. Just a thought.
.
Be sure to save the best dances to share with me one day (if you ever convince me to come home =)
Being a member really doesn´t mean you aren´t called to do missionary work. The missionaries don´t have time to do reactivating- that has to be our job. D&C 18:13-16. Thank you for being an example mom, of how I want to be if I come home one day. :)
We were able to go to Ratebeul this morning, where President Monson dedicated the land. It was awesome to imagine him there. We were able to actually listen to the prayer he said. It was so powerful and I know that there are people here in Germany waiting to hear the gospel. I feel like most of these people in Germany have had such hard lives and need Christ to heal them. I feel so blessed that Heavenly Father has entrusted me to take care of them. We were then able to say our own dedicatory prayers for the rest of our missions. It was a really sacred experience. I love it here in Germany. I´m so glad to be here, I wouldn´t want to do anything else. I know the gospel is true and I get to tell people that every day. I hope to work my hardest every day so that I don´t miss one soul who is ready. Thank you all for your support back at home. I pray for you and hope you´re doing well.
Love you!
Love Sister Niebergall
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