2012, 11-26

Hello me own family!! It was good to read your e-mail! This week was really good. Unfortunately I don´t have too much time so I´ll just write about the highlights.

First of all, I´ll give you our menu:

Monday: Raezke´s. Some kind of yummy beef, broccoli, rot kohl, potatoes, and a HUGE cake with manderin oranges in it. It was delicious. Elder Nathan Elmer served in Elmshorn about a year ago and he was there to visit Schwester Raezke again and she went all out for him. We had so much food. More than normal. So we had a party and it was a lot of fun to talk with everyone together.

Tuesday: Tacos with our Branch President´s family. Also. Super. Delicious. It was fun to talk about missions with him and his wife. She also served a mission.

Wednesday: No eating appointment.

Thursday: Chili con carne with a lady who has cancer. It was so amazing to be with her and hear her faith and her love for Heavenly Father, it was a great way to spend Thanksgiving. We also ate cake and wheat coffee later with our ward mission leader. 

Friday: Lasagna. So yummy! With the same family that fed us yesterday.

Saturday: African food! Aka Rice with meat in it, tortilla type things, bean sauce, and don´t worry. Fried fish heads. I was feeling sick that day and somehow Heavenly Father blessed us and we somehow didn´t have to eat it. I wanted to eat it though to say I have, but I really wasn´t feeling well and didn´t want to puke in front of our sweet member Marcia.

Sunday: WE CELEBRATED THANKSGIVING. It was so amazing and delicious. This family has a tradition of doing Thanksgiving for the missionaries. It was really nice. We had the BIGGEST turkey I´ve ever seen, stuffing, stuffed mushrooms (oh my gosh, I have to get the recipe. They were so amazing), corn, beans, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, cranberry sauce, rolls, mashed regular potatoes, and mashed sweet potatoes. Then for dessert, an amazing chocolate mousse cake pie thing, apple crisp, pumpkin pie, cherry pie, and of course...jello salad (not the pink jello stuff though. Bummer!) The only thing that was missing was mom´s cheesecake. It was so amazing and I´m so grateful to have such nice considerate members. I hope that I can be that kind of member one day.

One day we were riding our bikes and we saw this guy crossing the road and for some reason he turned around in the middle of the road, cussed (in english), and ran back the direction he just came. We rode past him and I said "That was English! We´re from America!" and then got of our bikes and chatted with him for awhile. He mentioned before we even said anything about the Book of Mormon that he loves to read and then when we brought up the Book of Mormon, he got all philosophical and tried explaining faith with philosophy and it made no sense. But basically he wanted to tell us that we can´t ever know if our church is true. And to that I say DOCH! (pretty much the most common German comeback. The most direct translation I can think of for it is "Yeah-huh!") But its too bad that he didn´t have more interest. That would´ve been a great conversion story.

 

This week was pretty wet, not because it was rainy, but because it was foggy and misty. It was pretty interesting to ride bikes in.

This week we were looking through our area book and I found this paper with referals on it from a member who had moved. He had sent out a letter to his friends to say goodbye and in this letter he said "I know you all know we´re mormon and our religion means so much to us. We´re going to send the missionaries by your house." They moved about a year ago, but I decided to call this member and ask him about this list. I said "I´m sure the Elders went by on all these people already" And he said "I wouldn´t be so sure. I didn´t ever hear back from them and I´m really disappointed. Thank you for following up on that. Please go by on them. So we got 20 referals all in one sitting. That was awesome. We went by on one of them and she said we can come back. I have a feeling we will have a lot of success with that.

Yesterday we had church and it was crazy. We had met with a member this week who just barely moved into Elmshorn from Hamburg and let him know we are back in Elmshorn (it was too hard for him to get to church in Pinneberg) and he brought a friend with. A 15 year old girl. Everyone was SO nice to her. But I feel bad cuz I think it was overwhelming for her. And somehow a rumor got out that she was going to get baptized so there were several people going up to her and saying "OH! You´re going to get baptized!! That´s great!!" And she was freaked out saying "No! I haven´t heard anything about the church at all! I just wanted to check it out!" Oh man. It was too crazy. But we were glad to meet her. I don´t know how she would´ve been if Elders were there and not Sisters to be on a girl level with her. Yeah. That was fun.

Those are pretty much the main stories of the week. It was a good week and I´m looking for a good week this week too.

The tomato soup didn´t taste bad at all! It was just so yummy that we ate so much and we ate too much. We weren´t sick from food poisoning, just overeating. You wouldn´t understand until you´ve tried this soup. Oh my gosh. It´s so good. The Russian sweets are okay. They´re a little bland. Pretty much PURE sugar. We did find these cakes though that are like strawberry shortcakes. They´re yummy.

I don´t really understand what happened with the Romanian family. I guess they still live there. We were able to find a member in Hamburg that speaks Romanian and he came this week with us. He said they don´t live there but they do live there. I said "What??" And he said "It makes sense in Romanian." HUH? It doesn´t make sense in English. So I guess they live there. They love the Book of Mormon still and are reading in it and Gheorghe was even talking to people on mormon.org. That´s so cool! He´s researching it as best as he can and he still really believes that God sent us there. So we´ll see where it goes this week.

Bubble tea is something that I LOVE! It´s like a thin milkshake with little pearl/ball like things with fruit juice in the middle and they pop in your mouth. They´re amazing. I love them. Sister Odenwalder ate the pancake at home. The lady sent them home with us, it was crazy, they were moldy the day after we got them. Naja.

The people that have fears to leave their houses don´t live that far away from the church. They even are scared to grocery shopping. It´s just a fear of being away from home. I´m not sure if she got a blessing yet. I forgot to ask.

Thank you for following the spirit and telling me what it told you to say. We will do that when we meet with her. You´re awesome mom.

I want to find out what happened with the Felber´s too. I´ve called them every day this week. Sometimes it picks up and immediately hangs up or sometimes no one answers at all. I hope to get ahold of them soon. I cant imagine not staying in touch with the people that I´ve met here on my mission. I love them way too much. I bet that breaks dad´s heart. I hope he finds them again some day.

Tell Shayna congrats!!! That´s so exciting for her! Tell her she is going to be a great missionary. I wish I could go as a joint teach with her. She´s going to come back a cow-woman. 

I hope the card gets to me soon. We´ve used up all of Sister O´s money and we are living off bread milk and cereal that was paid by her personal money. But it´ll work out. I just hate bumming off of her personal money.

 

I´m glad things are working out for school. That´s hilarious about Sarah´s NAL. Pleasse........listen.

I love you my family! I am so glad you raised me in this gospel and that I can share it with the people here in Elmshorn. I love it and I know it´s true! I may not e-mail next Monday. It might be Tuesday. We might go see Lion King in Hamburg. We´ll see. We might do that the week after. Woot! Kay. Love you!

Love, Sister Niebergall

I know where I shall stay until I die.

Hello family!

Thanks for your e-mail! It´s crazy how little time is left, but I love ever second of it and I will work until the bitter end. Or in Germany Berlin mission terms "Til I die". I´m sure you´re wondering if I got transferred and I´ll have you know I did not get transferred. I will die in Elmshorn and Sister Odenwalder will kill me and I´m sooooooo glad about that. I´ve moved around so much during my mission, I was just ready to stay and influence the people here. I don´t feel like I could have been much of an influence on someone in a new city for 4 weeks. So I´m so incredibly happy. I know there is still much to be done here before I go. Anyway, so feel free to send my card to me and also any deathbed repentance letters/ packages that you want. You know the joy of getting packages. Now multiply that by 1000 and that´s how much joy I will have to get a single letter and multiply that by a thousand billion and that´s how happy I´d be to get one. last. package. hint. hint. hint. HINT!!!!!!!!! Please?

This week went well. Monday we ate at Schwester Raezke´s and she gave us this AMAZING tomato soup that is a secret recipe, so I can never make it. DANG IT! The only problem is we feel horrible after we eat it. The Elders from our district that came with us to eat also got sick after. But it tastes so good while you´re eating it, but you hate life after.

Dienstag we went to a member to eat and they are from Sachsen and if you know anything about German dialects, Sächsisch is one of the hardest dialects to understand (Meißen and Dresden are in Sachsen, too). Anyway, they fed us cabbage and potatoes mashed up and it was pretty rank. We were still trying to recover from Raezke´s, and we both almost threw up AT the eating appointment. Luckily Heavenly Father blesses us. So after we went home and recuperated. We didn´t end up throwing up though. Luckily. Then we went and helped Timon Skrotzki with Englisch.

Wednesday was good. We had district meeting and it was a really good district meeting, it was awesome to see everyone´s motivation and desire to serve the people in their cities. Then we went to get a Bubble Tea after and on the way we saw this guy playing a guitar and someone put money in the cup and he said "Senorita" and I was like "AHH! That dude is not German or Turkish. We need to talk to him!" So after we got our bubble tea we went up to him (he was singing Billionare by Bruno Mars-english) and so while he was playing I went up and stood there watching him and asked in English "where are you from?" He was from Portugal. It was a good conversation starter. We talked about music for awhile and then he asked why we´re in Germany and then we started talking about the gospel and were able to make an appointment with him. Unfortunately he wasn´t at the appointment, but maybe we´ll see him on the streets again some day. Then we went with Schwester Bruhn and Bruder Basnak to the Russian store and he bought us a billion Russian sweets. Then we were going to have an appointment with him after, but unfortunately he was so tired from work he couldn´t anymore. But we still talked to Schwester Bruhn for awhile and she has the fear of being too far away from home, so I recommended that she get a priesthood blessing for that. And she said that was a really good idea. Then we taught an ex J-Dub named Steffie. She is 26 and really sweet. It is just hard because she isn´t really looking for truth, she just finds religion interesting and wants to talk about it with someone. It´s hard cuz we ask what she believes and (for example "Do you believe there is just one truth?") And she says no. And then we don´t know what to do after that because we don´t want to tell her she´s wrong, there is one truth. So we aren´t sure how to help her now.

Thursday we got a notification that someone found my wallet! Yay!! So we went to pick it up and EVERYTHING was still there- including the cash. We were so shocked, but so grateful. Then we had to go fix our heating in our apartment. Oh man. The life of a missionary. Then we went to a member´s house and ate tons of pancakes, but we didn´t eat a number big enough to please her. We ate about 3 pancakes (The ones she makes are super thick and sit like stones in your stomach) and she was disappointed, but we´ve given up caring, we don´t want to be so sick we can´t work. Then we went to another less active member´s house named Schwester Feudel and it was the first time we´d met her. She was really nice, but she also has a fear to go too far from home. I don´t know if that´s a real fear or an excuse. Keine Ahnung. Then we went to Gemeinde Rat (sorry, not sure what it´s called in English) and got re-reminded that there is so much to do as a missionary. So many people to care for and to please. We hope that we keep doing an okay job here in Elmshorn.

Friday we went to an eating appointment and we ate spaghetti carbonara and she asked us to teach a lesson in young women´s. Then we went to the Romanian family. We found out that Carmen and Gheorghe (the mom and dad that went to Romania) were able to find a bigger apartment, so we don´t know where they live now, but luckily we found someone that speaks Romanian that lives in Hamburg and he is coming to help us translate on Wednesday. We hope to Skype Saturday. It´s so rough not to be able to communicate with them.

Saturday. I feel so bad, I forgot my planner and I can´t remember at all what we did this week. I can´t remember what went down Saturday. OH! We had transfer calls and then we were supposed to have the appointment with this guy from Portugal, but he wasn´t there. Then we were supposed to have an eating appointment with this 92 year old member, but she had forgotten, but it was no big deal. Then we went home and prepared for our lesson for young women´s and then we went and talked to Cy and Anja about the priesthood and answer questions they may have because Cy was going to get the Melchizedek Priesthood on Sunday. It went really well. I love them so much, I just want to be best friends with them. I can´t remember if I´ve said this already, but Cy reminds me so much of Mark Fellows. Every time I´m with them I just laugh my head off. And then it makes sense to me why Mark went to Taiwan on his mission. If all Asian people are like Cy, then I bet Mark just clicked with all of them. Anyway. That was that day.

Sunday we had church. Unfortunately the less actives haven´t come back to church yet. Still are working on that. We taught our lesson in Young Women and it went really well. They asked us to talk about the process of going on a mission, so that was fun to do. I think we got a couple girls pumped up about going on a mission, so that makes us happy. It was funny, for part of our lessons we told the girls our first names, and I almost said "my name is Sister Niebergall" I´m pretty sure I said "my name is ssssstrisha Niebergall" That might be a challenge when I get home. Mal sehen. Then we had an eating appointment and we ate pork, mushrooms (I´ve grown to love mushrooms), and noodles. It was so yummy! Then we did weekly planning and then we went to a concert that our ward and the Pinneberg ward had. It was really awesome, it made me miss singing a lot.

And that was my week.

I don´t know if I´ve seen any of these wood picture box type thing. I´ll print out the picture and ask members where I could find one. The meeting with the ward mission leader´s friend is this week. We´ll see how that goes. The school schedule looks good. Can you get me the institute schedule maybe? So I can know what institute classes I can take? I bet you´re an Access Banner pro, dad. I can hardly maneuver around that website. 

  

I´m glad you liked that I made sure there was the perfect amount of colors and numbers of candy for you mom. Did the cd work? I hope it did. And I also hope you liked the cd. I don´t think you need to worry about talking to your principal about your schedule. That isn´t normal to have no break. Every other teacher gets a break. It´s hard to go without a break, and isn´t healthy. I´m pretty sure she won´t judge you for that. No worries.

I can´t believe you are getting iPADs and also that all of Jodi´s kids have iPADs. That´s crazy. Everyone has them here too and they seem to come in handy. I´m glad you´ll be able to use them for your kids learning. That sounds like it´ll be a good tool. I´m sorry you ran into that girl´s car. That sucks. Bummer. I´m glad you didn´t get arrested for your ditziness. :)

That´s funny that DJ was going to go be all high school actor on that junior high schooler´s hiney. I´m glad Sarah did a good job. I´m excited to hear this carol of the bells. 

 

Thanks so much for your support. I love the gospel. I know it´s true with all my heart. I know the Lord hears our prayers and He knows when we are crying. He loves us and He is there for us. He answers our prayers if we just come to Him. I love Him and I love the gospel. And I love you!

Love, SIster Niebergall

2012, 11-12

Hey the best family in the world!

Thanks for your e-mail. I love hearing from you so much- I look forward to it every Monday! Today we´re going to a carnival here in Hamburg and it should be pretty exciting. I´m going to just write about the week and come back after the fair and e-mail you about the answer to your questions.

Monday we pretty much stayed at one store all day. The stores here in Germany are HUGE and like a mall, but it´s just one store. It´s so fun. PS I lost my wallet this week. Yeah. That stinks. So I´ve already called and cancelled my card, but I don´t know what to do, if I should wait for a new one til I come home or if I should get a new one now. I can´t buy any souvenirs or anything without it, but I don´t really need souvenirs. I don´t know I don´t want to do anything complicated. Anyways, Monday evening we ate with Schwester Raezke and she gave us ham, rot kohl, broccoli, potatoes, fruit salad, berliners, and chocolates. Luckily- Sister O and I didn´t try to eat ourselves to death this time. We decided it´s not worth it to try to please Sr. Raezke and know she still will love us even if we only eat one plate. Phew. That´s a relief to not try and eat a billion pounds of food and I felt so much better the next day.

Tuesday we ate with a member and she gave us fish with this vegetable gravy over it. It was good, but she forced us to eat more than we wanted to. Then we also had cake and cheese cake left over from her birthday the day before. She made us eat 3 slices. It was mean. Oh well. Then we went by and contacted some of the referrals (or tried to). We made an appointment with one of them (I´ll tell you how it went later in the Thursday synopsis). Then we went to the Romanian family and found out they were going to Romania for a couple days to pick up their kids. They´re pretty stressed because they don´t have much money and they don´t have a very big room and there will be 8 people living in a room smaller than our living room at home. Maybe as big as mom and dad´s room. So we weren´t able to skype this last week and we won´t be able to this week, but we will try to next week. They are awesome like always, I´m just always uplifted when we are with them and they always tell us God sent us there. Well, hopefully they´ll accept our message then.

Wednesday we had Zone Training Meeting. We were able to do interviews with president too and that was nice. We just talked about how to be better missionaries and I love leaving those meetings and feeling motivated. Then after that we went to a member´s house and helped the son with his English homework. They have a less active son and I think that he just needs to be around people his age and feel the spirit. Their family needs missionary power, they´re a great family, but their kids are inactive. It´s sad to see. But I´m sure we can help out there.

Thursday we went by on a lot of less active members. We met with a 21 year old girl and we´re not sure why she doesn´t come, but we just got to know her a little bit and hopefully we can be ones to help her regain her testimony. Then we went by a 19 year old girl that is less active and just got to know her too. We hope to get gospel related next time. I think it´s important with the less active members to have a friendship foundation before you chew them out about not coming to church. Then we went to an appointment with the contacted referral. We brought a member with and it was a really weird lesson. The member bore great testimony, but this man seemed like he felt guilty for doing something and that he wasn´t in good standing before God and didn´t even want to touch the Book of Mormon. It was kind of sad, but he said he´ll call if he ever feels ready to take the book from us. We will send missionaries by in a couple months though. Then we had an eating appointment with the family that was with us for the appointment. We went to the store and I´m pretty sure that´s where I lost my wallet. We searched everywhere and can´t find it. Bummer. So I need a new drivers license too and everything. Oh well. We ate lasagna with them. I love this family (Cy and Anja) He is from the Philippines and she is half Filipino. They have a cute little kid and they are new converts. I just want to be best friends with them, they really are so cool.

Friday we went to a less active member´s house and I think the reason he doesn´t come (or the reason he says he doesn´t come) is because of work. He also has a 12 year old daughter- she is so cute and she has special needs. So of course I just loved her. That was fun. We´ll try to work a little more with them too. Then we ate pizza with a member. We had an appointment with an open Muslim and she had read in the Book of Mormon, but she´s getting married so she´ll be back in December.

Saturday we called and cancelled my card at Cy and Anja´s house. They invited us over to breakfast (breakfast for them, lunch for us) and we ate bread with butter and meat on it. We also had this liver spread for the bread and it was stinking YUCKY. At least the smell was yucky and it made it unappetizing to eat it because of the smell. Naja. Then we tried to contact the rest of the referrals from the lady, but couldn´t get ahold of any of them. Then we had an appointment with this lady (Her name is Schwester Bruhn). It´s kind of a weird situation, but she has a boyfriend (she´s 73 and he´s 57) and he is also inactive. She really wishes she could come to church, but I think she doesn´t come cuz he doesn´t come. He hasn´t had interest to meet with the Elders, but when he heard there were sister missionaries he was curious to meet us. So we met with both Schwester Bruhn and Bruder Basnak and at first he was kind of closed off to us, but luckily the man had a BEAUTIFUL blue (in my favorite shade) guitar (double wammy. No guitar pun intended). And so I asked him about his guitar and he played it for us and sang and that really broke the ice. I love music. It´s so awesome and ice breaky. This man is from Russia and so he had tons of Russian treats for us and he was so excited to share them with us and for us to try everything. After our appointment he was so excited to invite us over again and told us he would take us to the Russian shop so he could show us what the best stuff is and he said "we have to make an appointment right now to make sure we actually do that". After we talked to Schwester Bruhn and she said "He has never been so excited to talk about the gospel and I´ve always asked if we can pray or read the scriptures and he always said no, but when he heard about you he was curious to hear what you have to say. I think this is going to the be the start of him coming back to church" and she started crying. I really feel like this could be the start for him too. When we were in the appointment with him I had the thought "If I´m only here in Elmshorn to reactivate this man and woman, I would be totally okay with that." It was a really nice appointment. We´ll meet with them again on Wednesday.

Sunday we had stake conference so our ward mission leader picked us up and we drove with him and his wife. It was a good meeting- we were in Neumünster for Stake conference. It´s about an hour away. President Kosak and Sister Kosak were there and they spoke very well. Then we went back to our ward mission leaders house and ate some kind of pig meat and potatoes and carrots and peas. It was really yummy. Then they explained to us they had planned to bring a non member friend over for dessert. Apparently this lady´s daughter almost got baptized, but then she died really suddenly (she was 38 years old) and so the Müllers wanted to ask her if they could do her temple work for her. She said yes. Then they asked her if we could meet with her and tell her what her daughter was so interested in so that she knows why it meant so much to her. And she said yes! I LOVE MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK! So we´ll see how our lessons go with her. We don´t have our lesson this week, but next week. That was super cool. I know this gospel is so true and so important to share it with others. I love sharing it with people every day. We are so blessed to have this knowledge and to have grown up with it. I love the Book of Mormon. Every single word in that book is true, and I know it with all of my heart. I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the chance to serve the people here in Germany. I love this time of 18 months of thinking about nothing but serving and helping others come to Christ. I´m so glad I chose to go on a mission. I hope it´s changed my life forever. I love it. I love my Heavenly Father. Thank you for your support. I can´t imagine what it would be like without you! You´re amazing. Have an awesome day.

Love, Sister Niebergall

2012, 11-05

Family!!

This week was AWESOME!!!! I am so happy to report. I can´t remember it being too terribly cold, only when I was in Rostock.

Monday we ate at Sr. Raezke´s house and I ate SOO much. It wascrazy. I ate two huge platefuls of turkey, potatoes, rot kohl, peas, beans, broccoli, and then after I ate fruit salad, mini berliners, and cookies. We wanted to puke, I don´t think I´ve ever eaten so much in my life. But it tasted yummy.

Tuesday we ate with our ward mission leader and they fed us a lot too. I still wasn´t recovered from the night before. We ate Roladen (meat wrapped in cabbage) and potatoes. It was really yummy. I really do have to pray to be hungry sometimes though. Then we went and had a lesson with the Romanian family (more like asked them if they could do Skype on Saturday and read a couple scriptures) and they said yes! We were so excited. Then we taught this couple (the Bornholdts) They have super crazy beliefs and the man is going to California to preach that they need to repent because Hollywood is Babylon and Babylon will sink into the ocean December 21 and they believe really complicated things. We wanted to teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ is simple, but they kind of had control of the conversation. We plan to bring someone with next time. But they love us and love when we come over. They´d love us even more if they knew what we were saying were true. We´re working on it.

Wednesday we had this awesome appointment with a less active member. She asked us if we just felt like we should come over or if someone told us to come over. I told her the truth which was that we were looking at our Gemeindelist and felt like we should visit her. She told us that she really needed it and that that feeling was definitely a prompting. We had a great time with her, she is musical and had lots of instruments so we related very quickly (I got to play her accordian) and she gave us 9 people that we should visit- so that was really cool! She was really awesome- she wanted to give us more people to visit, but she said she´d wait til next time so that we aren´t overloaded. We are glad that she immediately trusted us and now we can contact these people that may have interest in the gospel. That was really cool.

Thursday I went to Rostock. It felt SOOOOO weird to be back, but so good. Apparently Svetlana has been struggling and meeting with the J- Dubs (Jehovah´s Witnesses) and she is really struggling with her testimony and won´t let the missionaries in anymore. I knew I could fix that problem. We went by on her and rang the doorbell a couple times (that´s a cue in Germany that it´s your friend at the door) so then she opened the door for us and then we had to climb the stairs to find her actual apartment door and we stood in front of it and she would´nt answer. So I called her on the cell phone and she answered. I said "Svetlana! It´s Sister Niebergall! I´m in front of your door!" And she said "I don´t feel well. I can´t let you in" And so I said "Can you just come out so I can see you?" So she did. She looked horrible, she doesn´t have a light in her eyes anymore. That was hard to see. She was really cold at first but eventually warmed up to us and let us in. We testified to her of the truth and she said "Jehovah is God" And we said "No... Jehovah is Jesus Christ" She said "Oh......what´s right? Nobody knows" And we said "God knows" She said "Oh yeah.......! I need to pray like you always told me" And I said "Yes you do!" That was really good to remind her of what she needs to do to find out for herself.

We had another appointment Thursday night with a boy (Hugo) that came to institute and his friend (Jason) tagged along. He was interested in learning about how to stop smoking so we taught him the word of wisdom for the first lesson and a member was there too. I felt that was kind of weird, but I didn´t know him so I just went with it. They showed up and Hugo was really interested, but his friend seemed to have misunderstood what we were doing. It was a completely awkward lesson and I felt like we were just bashing them for smoking and drinking and they were fighting back. I was like "why are we doing this for a first lesson?" So I asked about their belief in God and Jason was totally a jerk and against God and Hugo was totally cool and had a lot of potential. They only had like 15 minutes to meet though and then they left. So then we left and I was raging about how much of a jerk Jason was. Then we got a phone call from the member that Sister Moon left her umbrella at the church so we went back. We walked into the institute and there sat Jason and Hugo with nametags on. On the train ride here Sis. Moon explained that there were people dressed up like zombies in Innenstadt and these zombies stole an Elder´s name tag. So when I saw them with the name tags on my first thoughts were "It´s the ZOMBIES!!!" But of course....... it was just the elders and I was totally punk´d. I had no idea that they were pranking me, but it was funny because I was so clueless. 

Friday we had an appointment with Bruder Schmidt and he fed us of course. He was so excited to see me, which was so nice. Even Moppel, his dog remembered me and jumped up on me and licked my face. I loved being there, but it felt so weird to be back again. I felt like I´d never left, but then I felt like it had been forever. It was so weird. But it was a nice day. That´s all we did because then we had to take a train back to Hamburg to tausch back.

Saturday was awesome! We were able to do the Skype!! It was amazing, I could tell the Elders teaching were good missionaries and the family felt the spirit so strongly. Whenever we went over to this family, they didn´t realize we were trying to invite them to pray and ask if what we are saying is true, but the Elders explained that and they were so touched and said they would definitely study and search and pray. They also asked if they found out it was true if they´d get baptized and they said yes they would. We are so exciting. The spirit was soooooo strong in that room and I just am so happy and humbled to have been trusted to be a part of their conversion experience. I love being a missionary! I know what we are doing is true and that this gospel is for every person on this earth, if they just open their hearts to the truth, they´ll experience joy more than they could ever imagine. I love the gospel and know it´s true. I´m grateful for Heavenly Father´s mercy and patience for when I do something wrong that He has sent Christ to pay for that, so that I can live with Them again some day. I look forward to that so much! I love you so much too!

Love, Sister Niebergall