Happiness is.....

Hello dearest family!

It is me own companion´s birthday today! Happy birthday Sister Curtis.
I love her so much. She is way too hilarious. I was so happy to do
something to surprise her for her birthday because she made my
birthday so great- I felt bad because last week when we went shopping
I was fresh out of money and I couldn´t buy her any presents. I didn´t
know what to do to make her day great. Last night it came to me! I
would make her a birthday card (we always sing to the tune of Secret
Prayer chorus "May her heart be turned to pray may she pray on her
birhday!" It´s fun. I love it.) I put a picture of someone praying
that I cut out from the Liahona. (Speaking of a picture of someone
praying! I saw a picture of the Wiser family in the George Albert
Smith lesson manuel. That was a surpirse!) Anyway, I cut out lots of
hearts and made a trail of post it notes that led from our bedroom to
her desk. I wrapped up a package she got in a scarf so that it would
be like she was opening a present. Then I put a several candles in the
shape of a heart and her plate in the middle of the candles. Sadly, I
couldn´t find a lighter so we just pretended. Sister Curtis is so
great. She is so appreciative of the little things people do for her
and she was so happy. It made me happy to make someone happy.
Happiness is forgetting yourself and making someone feel special.

Satan is a twerp, first of all. I don´t know if you remember in my
setting apart blessing where it said "You will bless your family more
than the people of Berlin" Well.... Satan loves to use that as "You
will never effect anyone here in Germany." You are right mom. Satan
tries to discourage us just as much as our investigators. We have been
trying and trying to get ahold of Sabine, Sabine, and Anna. We didn´t
want to call too much and overwhelm them, but there came a point this
week where we just had to know what they were thinking so we could
move on because this was effecting the work. First of all we walked by
their house Monday evening and we saw Anna on the balcony. We yelled
up to her and she heard us! She said her mom was in the hospital
visiting Sabine. We told her we´d come by the next day. We went by
Tuesday evening and rang the doorbell. No one answered. We yelled up
to the balcony. No one looked down. We walked around the city for awhile. I sat down
because I wasn´t wearing good shoes and I needed to let my ankles rest.
You could see the balcony from where we were sitting and I
saw someone walking around up there! We contemplated whether or not to
go because if they were ignoring us, we didn´t want to be annoying. So
we ran over there. We yelled up to the balcony and no one answered. We
ran to ring the doorbell and before we did I said "Heavenly Father,
President Pimentel said we could ask for miracles. And we need a miracle right
now!!!" I rang the doorbell, full of faith that they would open. They
didn´t. We turned around, feeling a little defeated. We walked away,
the balcony still in view. We were so sad, knowing they were obviously
ignoring us. We walked away, then turned around to take a last look at
their apartment, but for some reason we couldn´t move. Then we saw
Anna dump some water off the balcony so we yelled up to her. She
looked down and got the biggest smile on her face and said "We´re
coming down!!" Sister Curtis and I grabbed each other´s hands. We
still didn´t know if they were going to tell us to go away or if they
were going to be happy to see us. Sabine the daughter and Anna came
down. We hugged them and didn´t want to let go. They asked if we
wanted to go to the park with them. We walked to the park with them
and were on cloud nine. Happiness is taking someone in your arms
  who you haven´t seen for a long time.

After about 20 minutes Sabine the mom came, hobbling. I ran over to
her (quite litterally) and hugged her. What she said broke my heart "I
think God has forgotten me." She told us that Sunday Sabine was in the
hospital, Anna wasn´t doing well, but she wanted to come to church. So
she walked to church and right as she was less than 10 meters away
from the church, she broke her foot! What the heck!? If this doesn´t
tell you that Satan doesn´t want them at church or a part of this
gospel, I don´t know what does. Also this week, Sabine the daughter
was having a hard time with everything that is going on in her life
and she tried to hurt herself. This breaks my heart! They need the
gospel so bad. They asked us if we could come visit them again. She
told us that she quit her job (where she was just volunteering and not
getting paid) because she hasn´t been able to meet with us and she has
seen such a big difference and she knows she needs that spiritual
strength. We went and visited her and she asked us very concerned
"Will I still be able to be baptized?" We were so relieved that she
was still planning on being baptized. Happiness is seeing someone
strive to do what´s right, even when times are hard.

We picked her up for church on Sunday. She was shaking as she was
walking. She knows that Satan does not want her there. As she got into
the church she had a panic attack and it was hard for her to breathe.
We asked her if she wanted a priesthood blessing and she said yes.
Right as she was about to get the blessing she said "I think I should
just go." I told her to just get this blessing and promised her she´d
feel better. It was such a sacred sight to see 2 righteous worthy
priesthood holders lay their hands on her head and give her a blessing
of trust and counsel. I may or may not have kept my eyes open during
the blessing. It was also incredible to see Sabine from shaking almost
uncontrollably to calm and breathing normally. I know the priesthood
is real. I´m so grateful we have God´s power on the earth today. It
was amazing to be next to her and having the lesson and all the
testimonies that were borne, being exactly what she needed to hear.
Happiness is watching your investigator grow from someone who has
never heard of the Book of Mormon into someone who says "I just love
Alma!"

We saw Robert Monday evening. He still is not making the greatest
decisions. He has really bad friends. He told us that he needs to get
rid of this one friend in particular. We hope he has the courage to do
that. We prayed that we could find him (He´s always on the go, and we
are always able to find him). We found him drinking in the park with a
bunch of his friends. His friends started making fun of us and saying
"There is no God! Ooooh now I´m going to hell!" And asking all these
silly questions like they were so smart and clever like "If there is a
God, why are there so many bad things on the earth?" They started
laughing and ridiculing us and Robert turned to us and said "Come on,
let´s go." We went and were able to teach him and help him feel the
spirit. He knows what he´s doing is wrong, but he has such a hard time
getting out of these chains. We don´t know how to help him. But he has
such a good heart. Happiness is seeing your investigator stand up for
you and explaining the gospel to his friends. (I can totally picture
him as a missionary! We even asked him if he would go on a mission and
he said yes. We´re not sure if he understood what we were asking, but
it made us happy anyway.)

We went to Weinböla and had a great second appointment with the man we
talked to on the street. We were so glad he came! But unfortunatley,
he didn´t come to the next appointment and we don´t have any contact
information for him. But we were able to make 4 appointments in
Weinböhla. Happiness is being in the right place at the right time.

Our apartment is doing fine. We aren´t itching, and it´s a little hot.
We´re not quite sure why Germans don´t believe in Air Conditioning,
but we´re living. It is nice to be back in our own place and not have
to spend tons of money on eating out, and actually being able to rest
during your break.

President´s interviews were great. He shined my shoes and asked me to
report on my mission. I mentioned I might want to go home in December.
He asked if I was going to school. I said yes (Here´s to hoping, that
is) and he didn´t even give it a second thought and wrote down in my
book that I need to go home December 18th. I don´t know when my
release date is, but that is when I will leave Germany.That´s crazy to
think.

One of our bikes got stolen last week, but we have a new one now. We
literally have a new problem every day. I´m so glad Sister Curtis and
I have just learned to laugh it off. We have a saying "Was kann Mann
tun?" Directly translated: What can man do? We do get a lot of
exercise though, on Saturday we probably biked about 10 miles or more.

Jeff said they found a naked guy.... Yeah..... That may or may not
have happened to me quite a few times. There are quite a few funny
stories I look forward to sharing with you if I come home.

I can´t believe Andie is on her mission now! Cool! Tell hello to the
Minerts for me and let them know that Andie is in for the biggest
treat of her life. Quote unquote.

That makes me sad that Sarah is feeling down about herself. She is
TOTALLY gorgeous. When you sent me those pictures that Rachel took
when I was in the MTC, I literally gasped at Sarah´s single picture.
She is gorgeous. I hope she is doing okay. If I were to give
her advice (Which I know is hard to understand when you´re 14 years
old) Don´t worry about others! Be you and love who you are. You don´t
need to be anyone else. Be Sarah Niebergall. That´s who Heavenly Father
needs you to be. There´s a sweet talk by President Uchtdorf called
"Your Happily Ever After." She should read it. I hope Sarah looks for Sariah too. They are seriously twinners or something.

That´s so cool that you Rachel and Sarah will sing in sacrament soon!
I am so happy that Rachel has such a harmony ear. It will be fun to
sing with you all if I come home.

I love that conversation you had with D.J., Sarah, and Dad. When dad
said that did it break the tension? Hannah is too funny. Give her a
hug from me the next time you see her. I can´t believe Rachel is
almost in Jr. High either. Oh man. Junior high days were hard
emotionally. That´s a weird time of life. I hope she does well in this
math program.

Happiness is loving someone the way Christ loves them, happiness is
reading the Book of Mormon and finding an answer you´ve been searching
for, happiness is hearing from you, happiness is serving someone who
has it worse than you, happiness is telling others of Jesus Christ
every day, happiness is sharing the good news of the gospel.

I love you so much!!

Love Sister Niebergall