Monday, November 19, 2012

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

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