Meißen Miracles! - Mon, Jun 11, 2012

Hello From Meißen!!

This week in Meißen was very busy, but the majority of it was spent finding. It was such a great week, and I haven´t laughed as hard as I did on Thursday for a long time. We´ve had so many adventures and I´m sure this week will also be full of adventures and Miracles.

I don´t think it was a bummer that we had such a great week and then I got transferred. I felt it was like Heavenly Father blessing me last minute. It was really nice to feel like I left Rostock better than I found it.

We are doing our e-mails in just a regular internet café. It´s EXPENSIVE! But oh well. We are actually in Dresden doing e-mails because there is no place to in Meißen. It´s about a 45 minute train ride from Meißen to Dresden and we are in the Dresden district so we come here every week for district meeting. That´s crazy to think that you were here in Dresden once. I´ll have to see the city sometime. It shall be fun.

Thanks for your concern about Bruder Schmidt. He got his operation Tuesday and I heard on Wednesday that he was going to be released from the hospital on Thursday so he is feeling so much better and is planning on playing Tisch Tennis in the near future. He´s so funny. There should be a letter coming your way answering your questions from last week´s e-mail. I talked a little about Bru Schmidt in that letter.

Things with my companion are AMAZING!!!! She is the sweetest person I´ve ever met and her heart is so set in the work and we laugh together A TON. She´s from Fair View where the wind smells like Pee-yew. She actually went to Snow College too and lived right across the street from each other (She lived in Canyon View and I lived in Mountain View and I´m from Pleasant View. Our companionship has a lot to do with views.) She´s been on her mission Since October and in Germany since January, so she´s Sister Noyes´s age. I wish I could just explain how much I love her, she´s so great. Meißen is a branch and is part of the Dresden Stake. There are about 40 members that come a week (according to the branch President, but it didn´t seem like there were that many there yesterday.) A huge majority of the branch is inactive so we hope to do a lot of reactivating.) Surprisingly the apartment was in GREAT condition. Everything was spotless and it looked like a brand new apartment and we felt right at home when we came in. We also had a cake and roses and brownies waiting for us and a card telling us welcome to Meißen. There has never ever been Sisters in Meißen and so it´s kind of a huge deal and the ward is clinging to us, especially the little girls. It´s so great to think we´re probably role models to these little girls.

 

Sister Noyes is still in Rostock and she´s with a Sister that I knew from the MTC, her name is Sister Nielsen. I hope things are going well there. I left when it was a pretty crazy time. All I know is that Bruder Schmidt is doing better and that pleases me.

I´m glad you liked your mother´s day gift, sorry it was late. I had the idea for quite awhile, so then I asked Jeff to send me a picture of him in Texas and he sent it to Berlin and I only get that every 6 or so weeks so, that´s why it was late. But he just randomly sent me a picture of his backside and I remembered that I also just barely took a picture of me facing away from the camera so it worked perfectly, I didn´t even ask that he´d do that.

That´s funny that you´d seen pictures of my companion on the blog. That´s great that you were able to hear from Sister Holbrook. I love that woman, she´s so fantastic. There aren´t Senior missionaries here in Meißen, but there are some in Dresden in our District.

I haven´t ever read Fabelhaven, but something that really helps the kids we teach get into reading the Book of Mormon is to act it out. I don´t know if that would be too hard, but maybe she´d enjoy that. You can at least try it.

I laughed really hard about Hannah drawing the picture of Sarah. Oh man. I remember those days. Good to hear that she hasn´t changed? Question mark? Haha she´s so funny, I love her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DREW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU AND YOU´RE ONLY 9 YEARS AWAY FROM GOING ON YOUR MISSION! Read the Book of Mormon!!!!!

Like I said this week was so great. We have seen so many miracles and so many adventures. Oh man. Since we are in a former Elder city and so that means we only have men´s bikes. My companion is really small so she can´t reach the ground when she´s on the bike and it´s especially hard and awkward in a skirt. Oh man, it´s so funny because since she can´t reach the ground on the bike, she can´t stop. There would be red lights and she couldn´t stop so she´d just have to go around the corner and turn around and come back. It was such an adventure. Then we rode our bikes to Weinböhla, a little dorf apparently just outside of Meißen, but it takes an hour to ride bikes there and it´d not an easy bike ride. (Meißen is probably the most hilly place in Germany I´ve ever seen) and so we got there to visit a contact, they weren´t home, so we rode around to find a short cut back, it ened up just being longer than if we´d have gone the same direction we came. Then there was one point we were right in front of someone´s house and my companion´s bike chain fell off so we were trying to fix it and I said "Oh man, Heavenly Father is putting us through Bootcamp!" Because all these crazy things were happening and then immediately after I said that, a dog comes out of nowhere from the house and barks at us really really loud and scared us to death. It was so hilarious and we were just laughing the whole time. I´m so glad my companion has such a good attitude otherwise this could be miserable, but since we laugh and have the attitude of "if I get lost, Heavenly Father will probably help us find someone" (which has been true a couple times) everything is so much more enjoyable and I´ll probably have a six pack from laughing. It´s been a really awesome time.

On Friday we looked at the map of Meißen and picked out a couple roads to go finding on and Heavenly Father does put people in our paths. We talked to this group of 3 people (a mother and 2 daughters). Normally my experience with talking to people in a group is that they laugh at you. But we talked to them on this street we picked out earlier and I asked them what God means to them and they said He meant everything to them. The mother and father just barely went through a divorce and she believes God is helping her through it. We talked to them for quite awhile and gave them a Book of Mormon. The lady asked US if we could come by another time and talk more about it and if she could come to church and asked US if she could give us her phone number and then later that night she sent us a text message wishing us a great evening. We are so so excited about this and it makes us wonder if the Elders would have talked to her if she would have been as responsive because of her issues with her husband. We are really grateful to be here so that we can touch people´s lives. 

We know that we are here for a reason and that there are many people ready to hear the gospel. We are so excited and are meeting amazing people every day. I know that this gospel is true! I know the peace and joy it brings and I just love to share it. I love the Book of Mormon. I wish I could read in it more than I already do. It is the word of God and we can learn so so so much from it. I know that Heavenly Father loves us. I know that He has a plan for all of us. Thank you for all your support. I love you all too! Thanks for the early birthday wishes. We hope to see miracles this week too and are excited to report to you next week. Love you!!

Love, Sister Niebergall