Imagine GENERAL CONFERENCE!

Hello Family!!!

Conference.
Was.
Amazing!!!!!!!

I´M SO STOKED THAT SISTERS CAN SERVE MISSIONS AT 19!!!! WOOOOO!!!!!!!! I´m sure so many more young women will be considering a mission now, and if you are DO IT!! You will never ever regret it. It´s the best thing you could do for you and your future family. You learn to communicate and most of all you learn to love! No more girls waiting around for boys while they´re on their missions- you go serve one too! Just do it. People need you. I´ve seen it, and I know it.

Okay, that´s my spiel.

Every single talk had so much I could learn from and I am so excited to work on improving myself. I will talk A LOT about conference later. I was so uplifted and inspired. We haven´t watched the Sunday afternoon session. We´ll watch that not this week, but next week. This week will be fast Sunday and I´m sure it will be an amazing fast and testimony meeting because it´s right after Conference and after seeing President Monson. I am so excited and hope to be spiritually prepared to hear what he has to say. I love the gospel! My heart is so full!

That is the correct address, dad (And you did spell Schwester right too. Gut gemacht!). You may send packages, mail, love letters, postcards, anything you want for the next 2 months there. Okay? I would be very pleased to get a few or several more letters in the little time I have. Thank you you´re welcome. Also, speaking of postcards, I just realized I sent a postcard, but I wrote it as the Gingerbread man.... Do I need to write it as myself that I saw him or what do I need to do? I just realized I might have done that wrong... Naja.

We did get our music and make up and journals and things of importance this week. Things have picked up a little more this week. We organized our contact sheets so we can find people that live in the area easier if an appointment falls out. We went to a little city called Uetersen and we had an appointment with a sweet sweet funny old lady. She didn´t have much time but really wanted us to come back. As we left she was waving, crying, and saying "Aufwiedersehen" She was someone the Elders were teaching a few months back. We´ll see if anything comes of that.

As we were waiting for the bus back to Elmshorn from Uetersen, I decided to talk to a man that passed by us. He said he didn´t speak much German and he was from Romania. I said "Jesus Christus" ,which he understood, and his eyes lit up. He said "Just a minute. I´m going to find someone that speaks better German" And literally RAN away. He came running back a couple minutes later with 2 other women. We started explaining the Book of Mormon and they were really excited about it and asked us to come over to their house. We were crammed in a little tiny room where this family lived. They were so so excited to hear us telling people about Jesus Christ. There were 4 adults and at least 3 kids that lived there. It was kind of hard to explain because of the language barrier, but they started reading their favorite bible scriptures to us. Luckily I had my German bible on me so we could communicate through the scriptures. I´m sure thats how we´re going to have to continute teaching them. They were really excited about a modern day prophet, and said they´d come to conference. Unfortunately they didn´t, but we have a new appointment for Thursday. They were all crying when we were leaving and telling us they knew we were sent from God. That was really cool. I´m excited to give them a Book of Mormon and share the message of the Restored Gospel with them. We will definitely find more families to teach and baptize. I´m so ready for it.

You asked if most people we find are from other countries or Germans. We´ve had 3 lessons with Germans and 2 with out of the countries. Finding is going kind of slow here, but it´s pretty even (german to außländer ratio) I´d have to say. We haven´t gotten bikes yet. We have to go buy some this week because they can´t get our Meißen bikes to us. You are right, the river in Hamburg is the same river that flows through Meißen. It makes me feel closer to home. In Hamburg we went window shopping, looked at old cool buildings, and walked in a tunnel under the Elbe River and heard someone yodeling! Not many people can say that! That was pretty awesome. And we rode a Ferry that was Lion King themed because the theater for Hamburg´s Broadway Lion King is right on the Elbe. You have to ride a boat to get to theater, it´s pretty cool.

You said it was supposed to rain on us this week and I just need to let you know, it very much did. We were soaking wet most of the time. It even hailed extremely hard and we didn´t have umbrellas and my coat doesn´t have a hood so we were just walking down the street and laughing at our situation. There were other people huddling for warmth in random places and were super shocked at how we just owned the runway of mud from Bahnhof to our house. It was a good time. Glad to hear it´ll be a little more dry though. One day this week our heater was broken so we were FREEZING. Luckily we have tea that keeps us warm.

Sounds like you are about ready to be in MOTAB, dad. I hear they need more 2nd tenors. Falsetto is a good thing. I look forward to hearing you singing falsetto.

We did just switch cities with the Elders. That´s fun that Sister O´s mom put pictures on facebook. The weird thing about German grocery carts is that you have to pay to use them. Then when you put them back you get your money back. We didn´t live that far away from the grocery store and had a lot of groceries to carry so we decided we´d just wheel the cart home instead of trying to carry everything and risking dropping everything.

I have also been praying fervently for the Felbers. I was able to talk with them for the first time yesterday on the phone. I talked to each of them and it was so sad to hear each one of them crying. They are enduring and doing their best, but they can´t wait for the court case on the 22nd of November so they can finally have peace. It was so sad. Sweet little Anna asked "Are we ever going to see you again?" Ahh I almost started crying when she asked that. I hope and pray that they have the courage to leave their house to see the prophet. They need that boost from the spirit. Please pray for them to be able to do that too.

There isn´t much to say about Elmshorn. It´s really rainy and the members feed you A LOT, and sometimes it smells like cookies because there is a cereal factory. There aren´t really any landmarks that you´d take pictures by or anything. No castles or Germany things. It feels pretty normal. I don´t know if it feels German normal or American normal. I can´t remember what America is like... Its weird. I would say that most German towns are totally different. They each have their own personality and Celle, Halberstadt, Rostock, Meißen, Dresden, and Elmshorn are all totally totally different. There are hardly any similarities except that Germans live there and speak German. Some speak different dialects of German, but it´s all pretty much German. :)

I´m so glad you have a fun girl´s night. Those pictures were hilarious, especially of Rachel. I could tell she was kinda freaked out. It made me smile so much. Wasn´t that such a realaxing sticky feeling?

Other than that this week, the main highlight was of course, CONFERENCE!!! I learned so much and I just ate it up. I´m so spiritually exhausted from it, but it is such a good feeling. To answer your question, mom- someone speaks in German over the speakers. I wonder how it will work at the conference this weekend- If someone will stand next to him and translate or what´ll happen there. I loved the talks from the Relief Society meeting, especially the one from Schw. Reeves. I loved the video they showed of Jesus comforting Mary and Martha and I just started crying. Usually these movies about Jesus make Him seem untouchable and so powerful that no one can really develop a relationship with Him. But this video of Mary and Martha and Christ holding them just made me realize that´s exactly how it is when we are in sorrow. He wants to hold us and comfort us and He will if we let Him. I loved that video clip, it really invited the spirit for the rest of the talks.

One thing that really hit home to me this conference was I need to learn to follow the promptings of the spirit more. I want to be someone that Heavenly Father knows He can give promptings to. I don´t want to question these promptings as my own thoughts. I want to not hesitate or postpone a prompting. I want to change my to-do list if I have to so I can help someone. I know this will take A LOT of work. It will take a lot of studying, messing up, and trying again. But I want to be Heavenly Father´s helper and I know that I need to concentrate on this. This gift might not come by the end of my mission, but I look forward to developing into someone that the Lord can hopefully trust with everything. So I have been studying in Preach My Gospel "How to Recognize and Understand the Spirit" and know that I will learn a lot from studying that and applying what I learn from there. I just pray that I don´t give up when I mess up. That is my biggest desire right now. I also learned that if someone asks us a question about our doctrine, I don´t want to dance around the answer (for example- baby baptism) I want to say exactly what we believe and be proud of what we believe. It may be an answer to their prayers and I shouldn´t be ashamed of what we believe.

I really think that there is going to be a huge explosion in the missionary work. I agree mom. The Sisters serving missions will make a really big difference and I don´t know what will happen to Snow if girls and boys can both leave pretty early. I wonder if it won´t be such a young school. Crazy! And with all the talks about missionary work and living in the world but not of it(I still haven´t even heard the Sunday afternoon session. maybe there is more) I´m sure many people have gotten a confirmation/ started seriously considering a mission, and that makes me sooooo happy!!! Nothing will bless their lives more than going. I´m sure some places that aren´t open to missionary work will be able to be opened because of this increase in missionaries. I know this revelation comes from Heavenly Father and He knows how to best help His children. So excited!

I loved President Uchtdorf´s talk about having no regrets. I want to write a sign next to my bed and on my desk that says "Today did I: a) spend meaningful time with those that matter? b) Become more of the person Heavenly Father wants me to be? c) Was I happy regardless of the circumstances?" I feel like these things are a recipe for a happy life.

I LOVED the talk from Elder Nelson "ask the missionaries". It made me ask myself if I know all the things he just told everyone to ask us about. I will study up on these things.

I loved the quote from Robert C. Gay "With justification of petty sins, Satan triumphs" Ouch. But it´s so true! We need to not give in to those silly little sins that "don´t hurt anyone" or "aren´t that bad". That means Satan is winning if you say those things, and I personally don´t want him to win.

But one of the things that hit me so hard (even though I´m not a returned missionary yet) was Elder Holland talking about how we watched our investigators get in the baptismal font and raised our arm to the square, hoping the gospel would change our life and it was most certainly meant to change our lives. Wow. Those were some strong words and I hope that when I am one day a returned missionary, that I will be converted enough to stay true to everything I´ve taught these people in Germany. That is my biggest desire. I know this gospel can change lives. It´s changed mine, and I know if you let it, it can change yours too.

I love you SOOOOO much!!

Love, Sister Niebergall