Hello Family!
This week was great! I guess I´ll just start from the very beginning, because that´s a very good place to start. After I e-mailed last week we went to an eating appointment. Every Monday we eat with the same member and she STUFFS us to death. We honestly feel sick after Schwester Raezke´s. And the problem is every Tuesday afternoon we have an eating appointment too- and we´re still full from Monday evening. The 2 times we´ve been we´ve had Elders with us, but I don´t think Elders are coming this time. I hope she doesn´t make as much- I´m scared! Everything she makes is SOOO delicious and you want to eat more, but oh mensch- it just hurts. I hope we don´t get too sick from eating so much. Interesting how every day when I lived at home we had a home cooked dinner but now my body is not used to it. Too crazy. And then after we eat with this lady, we play a game that lasts about an hour or more (depending on if the missionaries work together to help one person win or not- otherwise there have been missionaries that have left her house at 11:30. This game is very similar to the game 'Sorry'). Apparently this has been the tradition with missionaries ever since this lady got baptized and I don´t think it will ever break. Just pray I don´t die of being overfed. We have an eating appointment every day but Wednesday because of district meeting.
Tuesday we had an eating appointment with our ward mission leader and his wife. The wife is so so sweet. She told this story in her testimony. She has to get some massages for some sort of therapy and as she was getting her massages, the massage therapist and she got into a conversation about the gospel. She had the feeling she needed to give her a Book of Mormon. She had a series of 6 massages and it was after the 2nd massage she decided she wanted to give her a Book of Mormon. She brought a book to the 3rd massage, but she had a different therapist. Same with the 4th and the 5th massages. She was so sad and she thought "Well, I might as well not bring the book because she probably won´t be there." But she had the feeling "Always be prepared". The cool thing is, she always had these massages right after our eating appointments with her, so we were able to encourage her and pray for her and follow up with how things went. We were so happy to finally hear in her testimony that she was able to give away a Book of Mormon and they had a conversation about the gospel the whole time she was getting a massage. Her series of 6 massages are over, but the therapist said that she probably needed a series of 6 more and requested that she be her therapist. She is so excited that she gets to continue to talk about the gospel with this lady. I went up to her after sacrament and told her good job. She is so sweet and said "I never knew how much joy it could bring to share the gospel with others. I always read my grandkid´s mission e-mails about how much joy they have, but now I know for myself how much joy it brings." I was so glad to be able to take a part in helping this dear sweet member share the gospel. It really does bring more joy than you could know until you feel it yourself!
This week was great! I guess I´ll just start from the very beginning, because that´s a very good place to start. After I e-mailed last week we went to an eating appointment. Every Monday we eat with the same member and she STUFFS us to death. We honestly feel sick after Schwester Raezke´s. And the problem is every Tuesday afternoon we have an eating appointment too- and we´re still full from Monday evening. The 2 times we´ve been we´ve had Elders with us, but I don´t think Elders are coming this time. I hope she doesn´t make as much- I´m scared! Everything she makes is SOOO delicious and you want to eat more, but oh mensch- it just hurts. I hope we don´t get too sick from eating so much. Interesting how every day when I lived at home we had a home cooked dinner but now my body is not used to it. Too crazy. And then after we eat with this lady, we play a game that lasts about an hour or more (depending on if the missionaries work together to help one person win or not- otherwise there have been missionaries that have left her house at 11:30. This game is very similar to the game 'Sorry'). Apparently this has been the tradition with missionaries ever since this lady got baptized and I don´t think it will ever break. Just pray I don´t die of being overfed. We have an eating appointment every day but Wednesday because of district meeting.
Tuesday we had an eating appointment with our ward mission leader and his wife. The wife is so so sweet. She told this story in her testimony. She has to get some massages for some sort of therapy and as she was getting her massages, the massage therapist and she got into a conversation about the gospel. She had the feeling she needed to give her a Book of Mormon. She had a series of 6 massages and it was after the 2nd massage she decided she wanted to give her a Book of Mormon. She brought a book to the 3rd massage, but she had a different therapist. Same with the 4th and the 5th massages. She was so sad and she thought "Well, I might as well not bring the book because she probably won´t be there." But she had the feeling "Always be prepared". The cool thing is, she always had these massages right after our eating appointments with her, so we were able to encourage her and pray for her and follow up with how things went. We were so happy to finally hear in her testimony that she was able to give away a Book of Mormon and they had a conversation about the gospel the whole time she was getting a massage. Her series of 6 massages are over, but the therapist said that she probably needed a series of 6 more and requested that she be her therapist. She is so excited that she gets to continue to talk about the gospel with this lady. I went up to her after sacrament and told her good job. She is so sweet and said "I never knew how much joy it could bring to share the gospel with others. I always read my grandkid´s mission e-mails about how much joy they have, but now I know for myself how much joy it brings." I was so glad to be able to take a part in helping this dear sweet member share the gospel. It really does bring more joy than you could know until you feel it yourself!
Wednesday we ordered bikes. Hallelujah. We will probably get them
tomorrow- Elmshorn is too spread out just to be on foot all the time.
We´ll be able to get a lot more done now that we have bikes. We had an
interesting appointment Wednesday evening. It was a man who is really
fest in his faith and he was trying to convince us about his beliefs.
The problem was that what he said made NO sense. I left that appointment
so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so simple even a
child can understand it. There is a sentance in Preach My Gospel that I
really like and it´s something like this "Our message is that God called
a prophet to the earth to reveal the Plan of Salvation, and the
principles of the gospel are what we need to do to return to God again
one day." Our gospel is that simple. There are things in the scriptures
and things that make the gospel interesting- but the core of the gospel
is that we need to have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end and when we do that we can return
to Heavenly Father. I love the gospel. It just makes sense.
Thursday we had an appointment with the Romanian family. It went
really really well. We read the Restoration pamphlet with them and they
were always giving us thumbs up and saying "gut!" The hardest thing is
we can´t answer questions that they have. We´re trying to find someone
that speaks Romanian, but we´re not having much luck. But they really
like the Book of Mormon. They´re so funny- they always say Hallelujah
and Amen when they like something. So we know when they agree with what
they read. We also saw them on Friday and gave the rest of them a Book
of Mormon and each of them wanted us to find them a scripture in their
book for them personally. That was cool to be directed by the
spirit and give them scriptures to them that the Lord put into our
minds. We really are blessed that the spirit is the same in every
language. We are thinking about inviting them to be baptized at our next
appointment so please pray that they can understand the importance of
why they need to baptized with the right authority.
Saturday was President Monson!! (no, Sabine, Sabine, and Anna
weren´t there as far as I know). But what an amazing experience to see
the prophet of the Lord speak to the people that I love. It was so fun
to see so many members from my previous wards in which I served and so
many missionaries in one place, including missionaries from the
Frankfurt mission that I haven´t seen since the MTC. That was a big
surprise, but my heart was so full to be in a place full of so many
people I love. I felt my
heart so full of love while I was there and I can´t even begin to
describe it. Anyway, we thought President Monson was coming to say
something big because they only had it planned for a month that he´d
come. But he just spoke words of encouragement and love. Not one person
in that room that day can deny that President Monson loves the people of
Germany. It was so sweet and tender to see him counsel them. His main
topic was that Decisions Determine our Destiny and gave 4 points that
will help our destiny.
1. Listen- Listen to parents- they are on their knees every day
pleading for your benefit. Listen to them! Also listen to the spirit.
When you have righteous desires, the Lord will grant you with the
spirit. And one thing he said that really struck me is "Promise Heavenly
Father that you´ll listen to the promptings He gives you." I hope that
when I make that promise, that I´ll be able to follow through on it.
2. Learn- Learn by reading in the scriptures. Learn patience by
reading about the Savior´s life in the New Testament. Learn what
Heavenly Father wants you to learn from the people around you and your
situations.
3. Labor- Once you listen and learn from these promptings of the spirit, you need to do something. You can´t hear these things and learn that you need to change, you need to have the courage to change it.
4. Love- Learn to love others around you. Try to see people as He sees them.
It was so amazing to listen to him speak about Jesus Christ and
feel his love for the Savior. The last words he spoke to them were "Ich
liebe dich". Ahhh. I wish you could have heard those words come out of
his mouth. You could feel his love and the Lord´s love so strongly. The
closing song was "God Be With You Til We Meet Again" And in German it´s
"Aufwiedersehen." It was so sad to see all the German members sobbing as
they knew they might not see him again in their homeland. But it was so
amazing to hear the member´s testimonies yesterday. They spoke with all
of their souls as they testified that they knew President Monson was a
prophet of God. There was also a moment for me that was super short, but
undenyable that I felt without a doubt that President Monson is the one
that has all the keys to the priesthood and that He is the Lord´s
messenger to speak words of peace and to testify of Christ. I know
that he is a prophet, and I´m grateful to have the priviledge to see him
live as a missionary. That isn´t too common that a missionary gets to
hear the prophet speak to the people in their mission specifically. I
love him and I love my Heavenly Father for blessing me with that
sacred experience. I love the gospel. I love sharing it with others. And
I love you!!
Love, Sister Niebergall
No comments:
Post a Comment