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
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