Deutschland hat mein Herz für immer!

Hello my lovely family.

I will just say right from the beginning that this week we were SICK! AUGHAIHGIAHGIASBFKL! Dang it! That was so hard for me to stay inside when I know how little time I have left. But we still managed to get a lot done, seeing as we were sick.

We had an eating appointment with Schwester Raezke and she made ham, potatoes, brussel sprouts (no rot khol this time), and a dessert, but I can´t remember what it was. Tonight is my last eating appointment with her and I´m thinking she´s going to go all out. We´ll have to see. By the way I have absolutely no idea if this is my last e-mail or not. I would assume this is the last one.

Tuesday we had an eating appointment and we ate chili. That is pretty much something you should NEVER give missionaries. It´s tasty, but it is painful. Then we went to Schwester Bruhn´s house (the one that gave us all the referals that one time). The poor woman. Her teeth had all just barely fallen out a couple days before and it really aged her. It was pretty traumatizing for her because she´s used to being this really young looking older woman (like I would guess she´s 59 years old, but she´s 73), but now she feels so old and it was so traumatizing on her brain that she became forgetful and, yeah. It really aged her. She asked me the same question like 3 times (if I had written in her missionary book). It was really sad to see. I don´t know what to do for her. Then we went to another less active member´s house, who we´ve never met before. She lives pretty much in the boonies and she has really bad cancer and she´s had it for 10 years. She´s only 40. She is so cool though. She is a music teacher and she plays every brass instrument and is teaching herself the piano and she had tons of music and tons of CD´s, so of course, we had to jam. It was a lot of fun. She also told us all her concerns about the church- the very first concern was that she didn´t know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Then she said she didn´t like that we say we´re all about free agency and making our own decisions, but then we have so many commandments. She vented about that for a long time. I really really wanted to say "If you know Joseph Smith is a prophet, then you´ll know that these commandments aren´t just rules he made up, but they´re from God." But for some reason I was too scared to say it. I was afraid of offending her and her not liking the Sisters. But now that I look at it, I don´t need to worry about offending someone when I feel prompted to say something. The spirit would testify and maybe help her testimony. Bummer. But I´ve learned a lesson from that.

Thursday our members were awesome and brought us the food (A soup with rice and chicken and dumplings) to our house and gave me a priesthood blessing, because I HAVE to get better, I can´t just sit around the apartment on the last weeks of my mission. I didn´t know if I should go to this other appointment with a less active member that we haven´t met yet, but we´ve cancelled on them so much that we decided not to cancel again. We went and found out that they don´t come to church because their son died in an accident and then they stopped believing in God. The spirit led us so much to say exactly what they needed to hear. It was such a neat experience to not have a clue what I was going to say, but opening my mouth and it was filled with words from our Heavenly Father. I don´t even really remember what we said, but I know we invited them with all of our hearts just to pray and ask Heavenly Father is there. I hope they did. It was a neat experience. She was from the Philipines. CooL!

Friday we had another appointment with a less active member, Bruder Brockmann, the man with the daughter (Nadja) with special needs. She was looking forward to us coming so much, so I´m glad that we went. She is so cute. It´s so sad, her mom disowned her because she has special needs and wants nothing to do with her, but Nadja wants so badly to have women around her, so I´m glad we can be there for her. Except she was sad that I´m leaving. That was really hard. She gave me a hug and told me she´d miss me. That was way sad. She´s so sweet. I hope she can get going to church soon. She really wants to go, but her dad won´t go for some reason. Then we had an eating appointment with an awesome family that have 2 girls (ages 17 and 18) that want to serve missions. We´ve set it up that we will go on splits with them this week. They are really excited. They´re also a really musical family and so we sang with her. It was awesome. I love the people here in Elmshorn. Oh they fed us chili too, by the way. 

Saturday we had an eating appointment with our Ward mission leader. They made us meat loaf and potatoes. It was yummy. Then we had an appointment with Tony and Jordan was supposed to come with, but Jordan wrote us and said he couldn´t go. So we started heading towards Tony´s, but we had a feeling that we shouldn´t go. So we didn´t. I don´t know why we had that feeling though. Naja. Then we had a ward Christmas party and it was themed "Christmas around the world" And we have a really diverse ward so people from different countries talked about how Christmas is celebrated in their country. We didn´t talk, but we sang a song. We sang one bright star, a cappella and we were both sick. But everyone was quiet and intent. We even saw people crying and coming up and telling us they felt the spirit so much. That was crazy. We didn´t think it sounded bad, but it definitely wasn´t something to rave about. Also it was awesome, a lot of members brought their friends with to the party and we talked to them and made appointments with them. Unfortunately one appointment is after I´ll be gone, but the other is this Thursday. It´s the same lady that our members invited over to eat cake and kind of overwhelmed her. She asked us if we could come to her house. So we´ll have an appointment with her, and we´re way excited about that. I see huge potential in this lady. Then the other people we made an appointment was a family from Africa. A member works with the dad and invited him to the party and he brought his wife and kids and we klicked with them way fast and that´s so cool! Another family!! Oh, we got the handwarmers too. Thanks so much! I´m sure the member will love them. And thanks for the letters. I look forward to seeing everyone.

Sunday I was feeling good again, but then Sister Odenwalder got sick. She felt so bad, but she had stayed in the house for me for the past 3 days so it was no big deal. That´s just always how it seems to go. One gets sick and when they´re better the other gets sick and it goes back and forth for awhile. So we stayed home the whole day, but the ward is so sweet, people came over and gave a priesthood blessing and called and asked how we´re doing and said they missed us. They are so nice. I really have learned the kind of member I want to be from serving here in Elmshorn. They are so amazing! I can´t say it enough!

Unfortunately, I won´t be able to see the Romanian family before I leave. I´ll just have to stay updated through Sister Odenwalder. Our week this week is totally packed. We´re making Tausch today and I´ll be with Sister Linford until tomorrow morning and then Sister Laubaugh is coming to me. It´ll be fun. Wednesday we have Zone Conference, Thursday we have Frau Stegeberg (member referal who´s daughter was going to get baptized but died), and then Schemus- a new investigator. Friday we will be doing splits with the Siems daughters and then an eating appointment with the Siems family again. Saturday we´ll have 2 eating appointments (one with GML and one with the African lady from our ward where a fish head was present) and then we´ll go by on those referals. And Sunday I´ll sing in church and speak in church. And then my last eating appointment is with Cy and Anja. I´m really excited. I love them, they´re so awesome. And that´s my plan for the week in case I don´t get to write next week. And then I go to Berlin Monday morning. Then we have a testimony meeting and eat dinner. I don´t know what else.

I love you all so much. I know this church really is the true church. It was restored to the earth from our loving Heavenly Father through a prophet Joseph Smith. I know Heavenly Father loves all his children and He has made it possible that we have direct guidance from Him in this day through a prophet. I know that Jesus Christ has really made it possible that we can return to Him and Heavenly Father one day if we take the right steps and follow the commandments. I understand the gospel so much more now, but I understand that it isn´t anything complicated, it´s so simple. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and we can come so close to Him when we read it. I know only God can create this love that I feel for these people here in Germany. I know this is the work of God. I´m humbled and grateful that I  could be a part of it and hope that I will continue to be a missionary for the rest of my life. I will never stop giving testimony of Him. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He is always there and He is my best friend. I love telling others about Him. I will do this for the rest of my life. I love you.

Bis Bald. Ganz Liebe Grüße (I looked that up on google translate, and it´s a super bad translation. Whatevs. Love you!!!) Aufwiedersehen!

Love, Sister Niebergall

Moroni 8:3 and 1 Corinthians 16:24

2012, 12-03

Dear family! Hello my loves!! I hope all is well with ya´lls.

This week has been pretty dang good. Monday someone roped us into doing karaoke at the opening day of the Christmas markets saying there wouldn´t be enough people there, but uh........ DOCH! There were tons of people, so we didn´t really need to go there. So we cancelled Schwester Raezke´s eating appointment for no reason. But we went over to her house and played the game that we play with her every week. It was fun. I love Schwester Raezke.

Tuesday we had Zone Conference and it was super good. I was so glad to go. Normally there are only 2 zones but this conference had 4 zones, So I got to see Sister Curtis! She´s serving in Celle now! Crazy huh! And then we had it scheduled to have the Romanian family skype, but I don´t think we planned well enough. We didn´t have anywhere to skype or anyone to drive the family. But we got that all figured out on the way from Hamburg to Elmshorn (I was crying from the pressure, there was literally so much pressure on me that the tears just came out. It was a weird sensation). Anyways, we got that luckily all organized and the person picked us up from bahnhof, the person that would pick up the family. Then she was like "we´re not going to make it in time so you need to call the Romanian missionaries and let them know we´ll be 15 minutes late. So we did and it ended up the Romanian Elders didn´t even know about it. So that was extra stressful. So they called up the Elders and asked if they could cancel their plans and come skype, which they said they could do. So then we went to pick up the family. They weren´t home. OOOOOOOOOOH man. We felt our stomachs drop. Everyone went to all this trouble and then it didn´t work out. We felt so silly. But it´s okay. That happens sometimes. Maybe the Elders needed to be in that area of town to find someone awesome: I just hope that the Elders in Romania trust us. We´ve scheduled and cancelled so many appointments, so I hope they trust to set up another skype. Otherwise we´re just going to have to hope and trust that the Lord will give them another chance to hear the gospel in Romanian sometime.

Wednesday was sitting and studying....and then I went CRAZY!!!!!!!! There was so much crap the Elders have left behind and so much crap that needed to be thrown out and cleaned that I just went crazy....And luckily we didn´t have any fest appointments because we ended up cleaning the whole day. But now our apartment feels like home. Finally.

Then Thursday we went and ate and Schwester Skrotzki´s house. I love that woman so much. She´s one of my best friends from the mission too. She has 4 kids, 19, 17, 14, and 11. And the 2 oldest are inactive, but like I´ve said in e-mails before- I think she realizes that her house needs missionary power. But anyway, the poor lady has been sick with the cold (Grippe in German is the flu. Jeff talked about how gripe in spanish is the cold. That´s kinda crazy!) Anyway. She made fish sticks and mashed potatoes and vegetables, but her 3 sons were pretty hungry and ate it all pretty fast. So we left sill a little bit hungry. Then we went to talk to our Ward mission leader and talk about our investigators. He was a little overwhelming at the class with Tessa last week, so we wanted to teach a lesson of how we can be good teachers. Needless to say it backfired because he would interrupt us and wouldn´t listen and let us talk (which is exactly the point we wanted to emphasize with him. Ironic) But oh well. They gave us caro kaffee (the wheat coffee. Not made with beans, but with wheat. It´s pretty yummy) and cake. Then we picked up an Advent´s calendar that the Seminary students made for us. It´s so cool, but more about that later, when the advent calendar begins.

Friday We had an eating appointment and ate Gyro meat over rice. It was yummy. Then we had a lesson with a less active (the man who´s daughter is special needs) We really clicked with him this time, because we had his daughter act out the story of Nephi with us and I think it touched his heart to see how we interacted with his daughter. Then he invited us to come back again. It´s so great that he likes us and trusts us and wants us to come back, but we´d be even happier if he were in church. We´re still hoping that it´ll work out. Then we had an appointment with Tony from Nigeria. We had an app with him a couple weeks back and he thought we worshiped Mormon. Well, he still has these big concerns about the Book of Mormon. We had the coolest joint teach with us and this member is also from Nigeria (Jordan), and so they immediately clicked. That made us happy. So he kept expressing his concerns about the Book of Mormon and was only talking to us and Tony said "If Christ gives me a witness then I´ll know." (and was expressing these concerns about praying and asking for some reason.) Then Jordan said "How will you know if you don´t ask?" The question stumpped him and then he said "You´re right." Then after a couple minutes Tony said "But something is ringing in my conscience that it is against what I believe" And Jordan said "You can´t just depend on the wisdom of man, bro. Ask God." And stumped him again. It was awesome. I love it when the joint teaches are just right.

Saturday was the first of the month and that means the beginning of advent´s calendars. This calendar that the Seminary made for us was awesome. They put so much effort into it. The theme for the calendar was the seminary scriptures. So they colored pictures describing the scripture mastery scriptures on lunch bag type things and then inside the lunch bag they wrote the scripture and then they wrote an assignment that we have to do during the day that relates with the scripture. So this scripture talked about needing to be strong to fight the adversary. So our assignment for the day was "In order to fight the adversary, you have to be strong! Do 50 pushups throughout the day." So we did. It´s so weird, my abs are sore, not my arms. But I´m okay with that. We also went by on a lot of the referrals and unfortunately, most of them aren´t interested, but one of them said we could try by again. Then we taught the Bornholdts (The ones that believe LA will sink into the ocean) It went really well, we had a good discussion about faith for awhile, but then the conversation just turned over to him and he said it was really pressing on him to tell us what he believes. He thinks that we need to be converted and really believe in Jesus. So then I asked if I could share my conversion story with him. I talked about when mom took me to 7-11 and asked if I even believed in Jesus, and of course I believe in Jesus! He is like the core of my testimony and I decided that I never wanted to act in a way that my mom would question if I believed in Jesus (I know I didn´t do too good of a job at that a lot of the time) but then I bore my testimony to Herr Bornholdt that I know that Jesus Christ is there and He is my best friend. I knew I couldn´t do anything else for this man except let him know that I know Christ is there and that I love Christ with all my heart. I love these people and they´re good friends, but unfortunately they don´t give us a chance to share our important message and I know if they´d listen and hear what we believe, then they could feel the truth. Don´t really know what to do about that. But oh well. Then we had another appointment with a guy that we met on the street a couple weeks ago. It´s crazy because we have had to cancel, or he´s had to cancel for the last little while, but today he called US (We thought he´d cancel again) but he called to remind us about our appointment. Crazy! Then we met him and gave him the Book of Mormon and the appointment went pretty well and we were able to schedule another appointment with him! Yay! But that is in a couple weeks because he will go to Russia. Then we had an eating appointment with Cy and Anja, and I love eating with them. I feel just like I´m at home. They have the cutest 4 year old boy and Cy reminds me of Mark Fellows. And it´s English speaking so we can really show our personalities. It was a nice time and they gave us fried chicken, (KFC style, but home made), kohl slaw, and mashed potatoes. And of course for dessert. ROOTBEER FLOATS!!! AHHHHH We were pretty excited about that. It was super yummy.

Sunday was church and fast Sunday. We were sitting next to this really awesome musical family and then we get a note from the member "I personally expect all those who are set apart from the world, with a special responsibility to bear testimony of Christ, to do so at every opportunity they get including fast Sunday. I´d love to hear from you." (don´t worry, the note wasn´t angry. He´s a super chill guy.) Normally we don´t bear our testimony on fast Sunday because we want to give the chance to members, plus we gave our testimonies last week. But we did anyway. But tons of people came up to us after and thanked us for our testimonies. So maybe we needed to say them. Then we ate at a family´s house (chicken gravy over rice and dessert was cake, then brownies, then bratapfels [cinnamon, almonds, and butter dumped inside an apple that´s core is cut out, and vanille sosse poured on top, baked in an oven. SOOOOOOOO yummy]. Then we called our Branch President and asked if there was anyone we could visit. We went by on the people he told us to (less actives) But none of them wanted to talk to us. Oh the assignment for the Advent´s calendar was to give away a copy of "The Living Christ" And bear our testimony on it. So we did some doors and I was able to hand her the living Christ, and say "I know that Jesus is there" but she didn´t have time so she went back in her house. But maybe she´ll read it and need to read what is written there. So that was a good day.

I did get your package by the way. I was SOOOOOOOOO happy! I cried when I read the letters. I love you all so much and even though you didn´t send letters too often, I think that makes the letters and packages I do get, sweeter. I feel your love so strongly through these things and I will really treasure and cherish them. I did get the Chase card too and I hope you put money on there because I´m going shopping today. I haven´t got the hand warmers package, but how much was it so that I can let Sr. Skrotzki know how much she owes you. I didn´t go to Lion King, and it won´t happen unfortunately because (I hate saying these words) not enough time. It would´ve been in German though. So cool! I´ll just have to watch in on youtube one day. No luck getting ahold of the Felbers. So sad. The money situation is back in order. It´s the beginning of the month so we all have money. I can´t believe Leslie is engaged! I´m so happy for her! Thanks for keeping me up to date. I will speak to her about this later! SO awkward that your principal came in during the switchblade part. But I´m glad she understood.

Today´s assignment is to think about God´s will. I figured that would be a good thing to write about in my e-mail. It is so important to trust completely in the Lord, but one of the hardest things to do. I heard the coolest quote at Zone Conference "Accepting things as God wants them sometimes takes more faith than to change your situation." Or something like that. But that´s so true. Heavenly Father really does see where we´ve been, where we are now, and what direction we´re going, so we really should realize that He knows what is in our path and what is best for us. I have definitely been praying for Schwester Crouch, and I´ll keep praying. But I know the Lord knows better than us. Sometimes the Lord gives us hard times so that we can know how to help others through their hard times. I know that Heavenly Father has everything perfectly organized for our benefit and vorteil. He loves us and everything that happens (even if its hard) is for our eventual happiness. I know this is true! I love you family!

Love, Sister Niebergall