Monday, November 5, 2012

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

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