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
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