Yes, we are both staying in Meißen! HALLELUJAH!
This week, as always was full of miracles and adventures. I would like to quote a Sister from my district, Sister Linford. She said, in response to all of the problems we always have, "Man, Satan sure doesn´t like the work you´re doing over there." I totally believe this. Let me explain why.
For this whole time living in Meißen, Sister Curtis has been a little itchy. It´s been gradually getting worse and finally she showed her arms to Sabine, who had lived in Africa for 10 or so years, so she is very familiar with bug bites. She identified these bumps on Sister Curtis´s arms as FLEA bites. What the? So we called our mission president and we were evacuated from our house the next day. We had the day to pack our stuff and get out. So that means now we live in Dresden with the Sisters that work there. The Sisters are Sister Kläy and Sister Linford. It has been so fun and is a party every evening. We still work in Meißen, but we have to leave Dresden in the morning and come back at night. It´s only a 40 minute train ride though, so it´s not so bad. It reminds us of the Best Two Years, all of us in one apartment. It´s so fun. So that´s the adventure of this week. We´re not sure how long we´ll stay or if we´ll even be allowed to move back into our old apartment. It´s all up in the air right now. I don´t mind living in Dresden though. It´s pretty fun.
In my experience, the miracles always come after the big problems. We also had a random problem last week, I was walking and this dog comes running up at me and jumped on me and lifted up my whole skirt with his paws. His owner didn´t even take a pass along card. How rude. Anyway, now we see him all over the place with his dog. There was one time we saw him and we started laughing but I also saw a guy coming toward us and I felt like we needed to talk to him even though we were laughing. He made an appointment with us. As we were searching for his house we realized he gave us the wrong address. We were on the street, but his name wasn´t on the doorbell of where he said. So we started riding our bikes away, but Sister Curtis had the feeling as we were riding away that we should look at another building´s doorbells to see if his name was on it. And it was! We rang the doorbell and he let us in. We talked for a little while and then we took the Book of Mormon out of our backpack. He was drawn to it and he reached out for it and opened to the pictures at the beginning. He said "Das ist sehr fein" (That is very fine) and the tears welled up in his eyes. We explained where the Book of Mormon came from and Joseph Smith and he kept saying "Das ist sehr positiv" and then we told him "If it´s good it comes from God" We came to a picture of baptism in the Book of Mormon and Sister Curtis and I both had a very strong feeling to invite him to be baptized. So we did, and he accepted. Hooray!! It just goes to show you we need to talk to everyone, even if we are laughing! We´re not sure if he´s all there, but he understands enough to accept what we´re teaching, so it doesn´t matter.
We haven´t heard from Robert much this week. He always pushes away our phone calls. The stinker. We hope we can get ahold of him this week and help him get on the right path. He needs this gospel so bad. We went to the temple this week (which was so amazing/ fun to listen to in German and get new insights because of translation of words), but as I was there I could picture Robert sitting in the temple. He needs that peace! We´re working on it. It will take work, that´s for sure, but we have confidence Heavenly Father didn´t have us meet for no reason.
Sabine the elder is doing great. We taught her the word of wisdom this week. I feel bad, I didn´t even give her a chance to soak in what we were saying. I just layed out the list of things we shouldn´t take into our bodies: alcohol, smoking, coffee, black and green tea, drugs. Her eyes welled up with tears. She smokes and she loves her cappuccino. But the first words out of her mouth after she got herself together a little were "I´ll try". It wasn´t "But why? But!" It was "I´ll try." It was so awesome to see her faith. Then later this week it was hard to get ahold of her, her phone wasn´t working. We were doing street contacting in the near from her house and we saw an ambulance pull up to their house. I knew it was Sabine the daughter. We waited and watched, lo and behold! It was Sabine the daughter. She has been in and out of the hospital and no one can find what is wrong. Thank you so much for your prayers for them. We hope they can figure something out soon.
Svetlana didn´t end up getting baptized. I don´t know when this thing is going to happen. Bummer. Hopefully soon. Oh well.
I can´t believe Lilah is 2. That is craziness. I thought she was 1. The mission seriously warps your brain time wise. I can´t remember how old Rachel is at all. Everyone asks and I can never decide between 9, 10, or 11. Oh well. I guess my mind is so absorbed in other things I don´t think about sibling´s ages anymore.
That picture of Rachel opening the Webkinz made me PEE laughing. That was so so so hilarious. Oh meine gute. Too too hilarious.
There is a man in the internet laden sniffing and clearing his throat every 3 seconds. I´ve gotten used to nose blowing noises and I don´t usually care anymore, but it´s distracting me from my e-mailing and he´s GONNA PAY!!! Now he´s drumming on the desk. Little stink.
We haven´t heard from our lock man. We need to call him this week. We totally forgot. I´m not sure if he just felt bad for us or what, but he is a really sweet man, he´s only 22 and not German so he´s really open minded. Megan also celebrated the 4th on the 2nd? That´s crazy. Cool that I was celebrating with my cousin.
The missionary wall looks so cool! I was actually going to write and ask you to send pictures of the wall, but you did it without having to be asked! Thank you!! Sorry that picture made you sad. We thought it was funny and a perfect time to take a picture as we´re soaking wet. I knew that Rostock post would ruin your confidence in German mail. That´s crappy. Sister Curtis gets all her letters, so it works, you don´t need to hesitate sending stuff.
Funny that Nate Schoffield said that no one can convince the people, only God can. We just barely had that conversation with someone on a bridge yesterday. It´s so true, we can say everything we believe, but the person has to have the desire to believe and find out for themselves.
That is crazy that Westley got in an accident. Oh my goodness. I love the priesthood so much. It´s incredible the power from the priesthood. I remember when I got my testimony of it with my burns. There is no coincidence that I don´t have any scars from my burns. I know that is a gift from the priesthood power. Sometimes as a sister missionary it´s really frustrating not to have the priesthood ourselves. There are so many people we know that need priesthood blessings, but we can´t give them, obviously. But it teaches us that we need to be submissive sometimes and ask for other people´s help. We can´t do anything in the gospel alone. We really need the help of everyone. Speaking of which, good job for inviting Linda to the Lunch Brunch or whatever it´s called. She will really see how much you care when you keep in contact with her not just as a visiting teacher, but as a friend. Way to be awesome. Thanks for your example.
Mom, you asked the difference of serving in Meißen vs. the other cities. I guess the biggest difference is that I know for sure I´m supposed to be in Meißen. I knew that I was supposed to be in Celle and Rostock, but knowing that they made Meißen a Sister City and Sister Curtis are the first sisters ever in Meißen, and that President felt inspired to put us in Meißen, I am more assured that I am in the right place. It doesn´t feel as much like a luck of the draw and because one Sister leaves it means there´s a replacement that needs to come in. I know Sister Curtis and I are supposed to be here and we have a huge work to do. We see too many miracles a day to deny that. Also, having a positive upbeat companion who wants to work as hard as I want to work really helps bring the spirit. I just love my mission so much, I´ve honestly never been happier. I´m with people I love every day, I talk to people about Jesus and that His gospel on the earth. Why wouldn´t I be happy? I love what I do and you may have to pry me out of Germany one day. We´ll see.
I love you so much. I know the church is true. Keep up the good member missionary work.
Love, Sister Niebergall
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