Mon, Nov 28, 2011

Hey Family!!

 

I loved seeing all the pictures from you at Thanksgiving. It looked like a wonderful time! And lots of yummy food. And that punch bowl cake looked oh-so yummy, as did everything else! Germans don´t celebrate Thanksgiving, of course, so my companion and I celebrated by ourselves. Our planner was so full we weren´t going to have any time to eat at all until we came home that night, but an appointment fell out and so we went home to eat. I said the prayer on the food and said "We´re grateful for this wonderful feast." We ate grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and cake. I humor myself. But it was delicious.

 

Oh dad, that story of your mis-matched shoes made my day. So so so funny!! And thanks for the picture so I could visualize it. Oh dear. I wish I could´ve been there to give you a hard time about it, but I´ll just give you a hard time from here. Silly dad!

 

Yeah, I´m still totally exhausted but it is definitely a good tired. We´re getting a lot accomplished, and this Christmas season I know we´re going to see miracles. And I want to invite you all to have miracles this Christmas season at home. I´ll tell you what we´re doing here and Í´ll tell you what you can do to help support the work here in Germany and also in Utah!

 

This month we want to invite more people to church. Its the perfect time to invite people to church because it´s Christmas time. I want to invite you all at home to do the same. So if you can think of someone who isn´t a member/ is less active, invite them to church! Really, there is no harm in doing this! If you help people get on the path back to Heavenly Father they will be thankful, not annoyed! I really wish I would´ve done more member missionary work while I was home, but I can just encourage you to do it because I know it´ll bless your life. Please discuss this at Family Home Evening and talk about what you´re going to do to have a Christmas Season of Miracles!

 

Week 1: November 28-December 3

Invite someone to church every day. As missionaries we have been encouraged to invite someone on the street every day to church for the month of December and we´ve been promised miracles. I feel like I can promise you the same. This week, invite someone each day to church. Visit less actives and invite them to come! Let them know they´re missed! I know the Lord will help you say the right words and will make miracles happen! Study faith this week when you study your scripture study. Study: Monday Alma 32, Tuesday Ether 12, Wednesday Moroni 7, Thursday Hebrews 11, Friday Bible Dictionary Faith, Saturday Enos, Sunday D&C 8. Every day in your prayers and family prayers, ask Heavenly Father to give you the courage to invite someone to church and ask for the opportunity to see miracles! "It is by faith that miracles are wrought." (Moroni 7:37) Fast on December 3rd to see miracles in inviting others to church. Also, every day from now until Christmas, write down miracles you see in your life. Discuss them at dinner! (Jeff I expect you to call home and tell them about your experiences with this!)

 

Week 2: December 4-December 10

Get ahold of the missionaries and go teach a lesson with them sometime this week! Give testimony! Study repentance! Study: Monday Alma 36, Tuesday Mosiah 27, Wednesday 2 Nephi 31, Thursday Alma 34, Friday Bible Dictionary Repentance, Saturday 3 Nephi 27, Sunday Moroni 10

 

Week 3: December 11-December 17

Give an advent´s gift every day! (Advent is really big in Germany). Advent ideas: Christmas Caroling, Give someone a Joy to the World DVD, give a tour of the church to a non-member, do a service project for a member, pick someone up for church that can´t drive, do a service project for a non-member, bake cookies for someone in need, donate care package to a place that takes care of poor people (The name escapes me right now). Study scripture stories about service.

 

Week 4: December 18-December 25

Study "Christlike Attributes" in Preach my Gospel and pick one you want to work on. Set a goal for each day of what you want to do to improve. Saying you want to be better in one area isn´t enough, you have to make a plan of what you want to do! Follow up as a family every night and see if you did okay or not so okay and talk about what you´re going to do the next day. For those who don´t have patriarchal blessings and are of age, work towards getting yours this week (either the 17th or the 25th. It might be easier for the 17th) Especially think about Christ on Christmas day and think about what you want to do to be more like him. Think of all He´s done for you and what you´re going to do to follow him faithfully.

 

I really hope you will do this, especially since I took about an hour typing it up. Haha! I really know you´ll see a greater joy in the Christmas season when you do this! You will help others feel the love of Christ and help ease their burdens. I really know you´ll see miracles when you do that. Heavenly Father loves all His children. Help others feel that this Christmas season. I will be following up next week to see how its going and I hope to hear amazing things! I really really promise it will be a wonderful experience for you when you do this! I can´t wait to tell you about the miracles that happen here in Celle!

 

 

 

Anyway, back to the questions you asked:

 

Sister Stewart and I haven´t been in the city much this week because they´ve been setting up the Christmas Markt and its going to be huge. I will take some pictures today. It is so cool though, everyone has candles in their windows and the inner city has lights all over the place. I haven´t seen any nativities, but maybe I´ll see some when we go into the city today. I don´t think I can really see any similarities between Germany´s and America´s Christmas. Usually people are so much happier during Christmas time and are in the mood to serve others, but I haven´t really seen that here. Also, most people live in apartment buildings so they just put Christmas lights up in their windows instead of decorating their whole yard and putting blow up snowmen or Santa Claus. They don´t even have Santa here, just Nicolaus-who apparently is skinny and hits people with a stick (according to Sister Stewart).

I´m glad you got my letters! It was fun to write them and send them. I figured I´d send a postcard from Celle so you could see a little bit of what it´s like here. Seriously, whenever I buy things I think "Mom would die!" But maybe you could send me black ski gloves? They don´t have any here. Just cotton things that are super cold when they´re wet. We need wind/water proof for the bikes. Our hands get pretty cold. You could just send them straight here to Celle I think. If that´s too much to ask its no problem.

 

I can´t believe Patrick is engaged too! This is crazy. So much love in the air. It´s not even spring yet, wow!

 

Oh how cute that you got to see little Theo! You don´t see them til Christmas, right? Take pictures. I wonder if Mykenna loves to hold Theo as much as she loved to hold Lilah. I still don´t know about SKYPE-ing yet. We have president´s interviews this week and I´m sure we´ll hear something about it.

 

Oh, we may try to trade our P-day for Tuesday next week so we can go into the castle and into the church and do the things that you can´t do on Monday. So if you don´t hear from me Monday, that´s why. But if you do hear from me then you won´t have to worry about that.

 

I love being here! I love helping others so so so much. I´m seriously living the dream. I know that Heavenly Father loves all of us and we are His hands. He can´t be here on earth right now, so we need to be the ones that serve others and help them along the path. I love being able to do that every day. I love this gospel and I know it´s true! I love you all! I can´t wait to hear about your Season of Miracles!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

 

P.S. Sorry for the lack of adventure stories. We had plenty this week, but I took too long writing the Season of Miracles stuff. I guess they´ll just be surprise stories for when I get back from my mission. :) Love you!

Mon, Nov 21, 2011

Hey family! Thanks for the e-mail. Its always so good to hear from you.

 

This week was totally busy. We really didn´t have much down time and I´ve been so exhausted. I wonder if I´ll ever not be tired in my life after this. We´ve done tons of doors this week, with no success, but I feel successful because we are working so hard.

 

We are still having lots of appointments fall through, but we´ve been planning better so when something falls through we know exactly what we´ll do after. I know that Heavenly Father wouldn´t let us waste our time. If we´re in an area for an appointment and they´re not home, there has to be some other reason we´re in that area. We made an appointment with a long lost investigator this week. If our appointment with our other investigator would´ve worked out, we wouldn´t have made this appointment with this other man. Its really awesome.

 

There have been some cool days here but sometimes I forget its almost December. Yesterday the weather was so nice, it felt like mid-September. It hasn´t snowed yet and I´m scared to say that and curse myself. The Weihnachten Markts (Christmas Markets) are starting to be set up and next week they´ll start! I´m excited. Its going to be so beautiful.

Sister Stewart is so awesome. She works really hard and when she doesn´t know what to say to the people on the street, she bears her testimony- which is so important. I´m glad I´ve learned that from her. She´s been in Germany for 1 year now and she has 2 more transfers left. I´m sure she´ll be in Celle for the rest of her mission. She is from South Jordan and has 6 older brothers. Crazy. She has served in lots of different cities: Dresden, Berlin, Rostock, Magdeburg, and now here. She never thought she´d serve in the west, but here she is!

 

I love the pictures of Drew and Hannah at Halloween. They made me smile so big. Drew looks so serious. Haha.

 

Our balcony predicament sadly didn´t help us get any leads, but we did have a really good conversation with the first person we talked to after.

 

Kenneth is doing fine. We tried teaching about the Atonement, but we don´t think he understood. We had to get down to the very basics like God, Jesus Christ, and Holy Ghost being 3 different people and God has a body of flesh and bone. When we told him those things he was very surprised. Like I said, I´m really glad he´s not baptized yet. But one day he will be.

 

Philipp, we haven´t been able to get ahold of him. He said he´d come to church, but didn´t. We called him and asked where he was and he was at his parent´s house and we set up an appointment for later that night and again, he wasn´t there. We hope he will come to one of our appointments sometime. Satan really does work hard on them.

 

Patrick also forgot about our appointment. We´ll reschedule for sometime this week.

 

Now that we don´t have a contact list, we´re doing a whole bunch of doors and a whole lot of finding. Its good. I think it happened for a reason. If we couldn´t get ahold of these contacts for 5 years, we need to find some different people.

 

I love that you have opportunities to teach RS. I loved teaching Sunday School and sometimes I love teaching lessons, but I love teaching lessons much more in English than in German. Maybe one day that will change. I love what Sister Snow said. Its true, you really have to look past the investigator´s outward flaws. They have had experiences in their lives that you don´t know about and that is why they are the way they are. Especially with street contacting, its common to see someone with a beer bottle and cigarette and matted hair, but really- we don´t know who God has prepared for our message so we need to talk to everyone and we can´t say "They won´t accept the gospel. We won´t talk to them." Heavenly Father is preparing everyone in some way or another and we have to talk to them and give them an opportunity to accept or not. When we judge, we disclude people from their Heavenly Father´s love. That´s a super cool discovery about Christ will bring you into His FOLD. I love that too! Those truly are the characteristics we all need to be what we should be at judgement.

 

I´m so glad things are going so well with your 6th grade, mom! It sounds like you really enjoy it and that everyone else enjoys you! It makes a lot of sense that teachers aren´t pro at every subject, so let the teachers teach what they´re good at. Thats awesome! 

 

 

Sorry that you have to clean my room. Viel Erfolg!

 

I´m sure Rachel is jealous that Sarah gets to spend lots of time with Drew. I love that picture of Sarah and Mark and Hannah in the turtle. Its my new favorite picture. It makes me happy that you think of me when you see turtles.

 

Do you have this whole week off for Thanksgiving? Eat a lot for me!

 

Tell Joelle congratulations from me- via facebook. I´m sure you´ll never see her again. Married people disappear off the face of the earth. :) Tell Josh congratulations for me!

 

The guy did fix my shoes and they work just fine now. Only problem is they really hurt my knee when I wear them and they freeze my feet off. But I wear them when I wear brown anyway. I´m silly. I hope you didn´t spend too much to send my package here. I just had a bunch of silly things that I didn´t really need.

 

 

Thats so great that they sang As Sisters in Zion/To Bring the World His Truth. (Was it you or D.J. that was crying mom?) I think that´s when I got my answer that I needed to go on a mission, when we sang that at EFY. At that time in my life I thought it was just to share the gospel with someone. Now that I look back, I think it was an impression that I need to share the gospel with as many people as I can and share the fulness of the gospel with those who are "only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it." I know that Jesus Christ is the only way to return to our loving Heavenly Father. He loves us. Everything in this life is for us. I´m so grateful for His mercy and love. "Jesus Christ is the way. Get on the path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just keep going. You don´t quit, and you will make it." I know that is true. I love you my dear family! Keep being amazing!

 

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Nov 14, 2011

Hey family!
How is everyone doing? Things are going here in Celle. This week we had a ton of fallen out appointments so we had a lot of finding time with no success either. No one wants to listen to us in the cold, especially when they´re running toward their warm car or warm house. Too bad they don´t invite us inside, but its all good! We´re still trying and that´s what matters :) Also, Sister Martinz is leaving Celle and going to Langenhorn (Hamburg) and my new companion will be Sister Stewart. I´m pretty nervous about having to be the one to keep everything here moving smoothly. I hope I can do it! I will miss Sister Martinz a lot. She is wonderful and I´m so glad I had her to start out with.

We lost contact with Philipp our baptismal date for a week but then he called us again and has been really busy with work. Phew! We met with him yesterday and he read more than we asked him to and his face seemed to have a different countenance to me. He´s trying to give up smoking his own way and we hope that it works out for him. But he really is trying hard and its wonderful to work with him.

Kenneth didn´t end up getting baptized this week and it was good because this week he FINALLY opened up and told us some things about his past that will take quite a bit of time to repent of. We are super glad that it worked out this way so we can make the Atonement come alive for him and that we can open up a whole new view of Christ for him. I know he´ll be baptized one day, but I´m not sure if it´ll be when I´m in Celle or not. You are super lucky, dad that LA mission was small so you could see the baptisms if you were transferred. I´m sure I´ll be transfered next transfer, right before Philipp´s baptism. But who knows! Maybe I´ll still be here. Its super unpredictable. How many Zones did your mission have, dad? Do you remember? Also, when people ask how the language is coming tell them "It´s coming."

Haha, I knew that you all knew what a klingel was because of Michelle´s story :) Sometimes I forget English words and I rejoice when it happens because it doesn´t happen too often yet. I´m a little scared of having to be the main German leader for awhile in Celle when I am the only one that knows these people and their needs. But I just need to fully trust in the Lord and in the gift of tongues. I haven´t dreamed in German, but I always wake up and my first thoughts are in German. The next step maybe is to dream in German.

We´ve had a couple crazy experiences this week.
#1 We left our contact list (List of people that we´ve contacted that have had interest since like 2008) in our bike and someone stole it. Stupid stupid of us! So now we don´t have any contacts to visit when we have no appointments. So we were on the search for this bag and on the search we found a neu bekehrt (new convert) smoking at the train station. Uh-oh. That was awkward. But he was baptized in January and hasn´t come to church since. We still visit him and he tells us that he keeps all the commandments, but we didn´t really believe him and now we know he was lying. Maybe this can open the door to sincere repentance. We hope. We´ll see.

#2 We were doing doors and people live in apartments so all of their doorbells (aka Klingels) are on the outside of the apartment building and you just push Klingel after Klingel until someone pushes a button to let you in. There is also a speaker you can speak through so the people that live there can ask who is there. Sometimes they just push the button and let you in though. So someone pushed the button to let us in so we frantically ran to find which floor they lived on and who opened the door for us. At this particular place we ran up the stairs but there were no rooms. So we were confused. We saw this door that led to a balcony and there was a door on the other side of the balcony. We assumed that was where the people lived so we ran over to that door, but it was locked. We went back to the other door that we just came through, and that was also locked. Oh dear. We were stuck on a balcony. We were probably there for 45 minutes total and after awhile we called a member to Klingel someone and ask them if they would open the door for them so they could rescue us. It was embarrassing, but really funny.

The appointement with "He Hears Me" guy (A.K.A. Patrick) went very very well! We taught him the first lesson properly (Restoration), and he seemed to accept it. Then Sister Martinz said the closing prayer and after he said "Thank you for the prayer. It was amazing! I felt something warm in my back and then it moved all throughout my body. It was a weird feeling, but it was a good feeling!" I started smiling really really big because I knew exactly what he was feeling. We told him it was the Holy Ghost. Woohoo!! Someone that knows how they feel the spirit already! Thats wonderful! He then asked "When can we meet again??" and was really excited. He is also a 24 year old German guy! Coo-hool!

I can´t believe Tyson Hone is home from his mission. Thats nuts.

BLAKE IS GOING TO THE PHILIPPINES!!!!!! SO COOL!!!!!!!!!! Tell him congratulations from me and also tell him good luck concentrating with that wait! Is he doing school or anything or just waiting? Yeesh! That´s crazy that he´s leaving around the same time I got my mission call. I can´t believe it´ll almost be a year since I´ve had it when he leaves. So awesome!

Tell Scott and Kerry congratulations for me. I want to see a picture soon! Tiny little baby, tiny little baby, tiny little baby born Cal-i-for-ni-a Tiny little baby! And so on. I hope you know what song I´m singing.

I got the letters from the girls. I was smiling from ear to ear when I got them and was reading them and laughing. It was wonderful! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Oh man, I don´t remember what I´ve asked for for Christmas. Please look back in other e-mails. My mind hasn´t been thinking about that very much, except I would like some gloves, scarves, hats, and maybe chips and salsa :) Or muddy buddies. That sounds yummy!

Speaking of yummy (Or not) I had Rotcol (or something like that) yesterday. Red cabbage. It was fine, I didn´t have to gag it down, but it isn´t something I´ll go out of my way to eat. We had a dinner with this family and the father has had a really really hard life. He definitely has PTSD. When he was little he was playing with his friend in the field and it was either short after the war or in the middle of the war, and his friend found a bomb and started playing with it and it blew him up and this Brother in our ward saw it happen. He cries every time he tells the story. So sad. Then also he was 14 when he got baptized and when his father found out, he beat him until he was 'black and green'. He also cried really hard when he told that story. He´s a really sweet sensitive German guy and its crazy that he´s experienced so many awful things in his life, but he is still so faithful and has such a huge testimony. Its such a good example to me.

Tell President Keller hello and thank him for his amazing example and testimony.

Let me know how your lesson in RS goes mom! What are you teaching?

I hope you have pictures of Mark and Heather´s halloween costumes. That sounds so amazing. And Sarah´s going to California??! Crazy! But fun! It sounds like its going to be a little quiet for Thanksgiving. But it will still be tons of fun! And how fun that Karl and Nanette are going to Spain. I really look forward to one day coming back here with you all and visiting the people I love here.

I´m so glad that Austin´s leg is fine. We have been praying for him every day here. Its so sad to see little kids with cancer. Or anyone with cancer really. That´s one thing that people always say to us on the street. "If there were a God, he wouldn´t give people cancer, especially not little children." Maybe Grandma Fellows can write me about her experience with fighting cancer and how believing in God helped her through it? That´d be super awesome!

I know this church is true! I know Heavenly Father loves His children and this is His work here on the earth. I´m SO glad I can serve His children and bring hope to their lives. Thanks for your support and prayers! I love you all so much!!

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Nov 07, 2011

Hey my favorite family!

I hope all is going well with you all! Germany is so wonderful, I´m so happy to be here! This week has been so good. I´ll tell you right off the bat why. Because we set a baptismal date with someone! Yeehoo!! (as sister martinz always says) His name is Philipp and he´s 25 and he´s German!!!! WOAH! Thats not normal! :) He met with the missionaries before, but only because he was dating a member. Now, as far as I know, he´s not dating her. He told us he just really wants to change his life and that he´s doing it for himself now. We set the date for January 14th. we´ve met with him 3 times this week! Its crazy how we came in contact with him. We just rode our bikes past him on the way to an appointment once and he called after us. We asked him if he knew us and he told us he met with missionaries before and that we should have his number in our phone still and that he still has ours and he´d call us. We thought. "Yeah, sure. Okay." So we waited a couple weeks and decided to call him. We made an appointment with him and when it was appointment time he didn´t show up. We thought "okay, he´s really not serious about this." but then a couple weeks later he called and said "I´m sorry, I´ve had so much stress, but I really do want to meet with you!" So we set another appointment and he was there and HE asked "so when can we meet again?" so we met like 2 days later and invited him to baptism and he said yes! Then we also invited him to stake conference (Yes stake conference was in Hannover) and he came to that and I overheard him saying he wishes he could get baptized earlier. Wow! Sister Martinz also has lots of friends in Hannover because all of the YSA in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany do things together so she introduced Philipp to them, because he just needs good friends that don´t get into trouble. He made some friends and it was awesome. I´m convinced friendship is an important factor to staying in the church. But yeah! We´re meeting with him Wednesday and helping him stop smoking. He also said to us "Is there a story in the Book of Mormon where someone has done really stupid things in their life and they just really want to change?" Why, yes, yes there are a couple stories here and there. Cool!

Amy goes to the MTC this week. WOAH!

Oh, when I sang "He Hears Me" it was in English of course. We´re meeting with this guy on Friday. Maybe we´ll invite him to baptism too! I have a feeling this is the start of many people accepting the gospel in Celle. I think I´ll stay for at least one more transfer. Sister Martinz will probably go. There are 6 new sisters coming in not this coming transfer, but the one after that so since Celle is such a great place to get trained, we´re thinking someone will come be my companion and get aquainted with the town and we´ll spend one transfer together and then I´ll get sent to who knows where and a new golden will replace me. But who knows? Not me!

It ended up that we didn´t get fed by the Bishop´s wife this week because her daughter in law had a baby. I´m sure she´ll offer to feed us next week so then I can have the Chicken. That sounds so yummy! I miss ranch dressing quite a bit and tortillas..... haha Thats all I can think of though at the moment. I´ll add some later if I think of anything. My favorite new food....hmmm... well there hasn´t been anything too new. I really like Nutella now though! Pumpkin soup is pretty good. I was really scared to try it but it wasn´t bad at all. Also, the grocery stores here, at least in Celle, are really small and have hardly anything. I haven´t seen colored eggs though, unless by colored you mean not white. But do you mean like green and blue? That´d be cool! Yeah, I have no idea what Germans eat because the store has pretty much nothing in it. Just lots of meats, but we don´t have time to make meaty stuff. Also a big alcohol section. Silly Germans.

Hey, that´s what its called. A klingel! I´m sure when I get back there will be many German words and phrases that stick because I´m already somewhat forgetting some English. I was trying to think of the past tense of make and i was like "Maked? Maked? That sounds so weird." A while later I remembered it is made, and not maked.

I hope you get better soon mom. Your sicknesses always seem to last way longer than the average person´s! If you´re sick, go to the doctor silly! That´s why they´re there!

When I saw the picture of Rachel and her beautiful hair I gasped too! I wondered if it was required for the show to have her hair like that or what. But she really does look so so gorgeous and the first thing I thought when I saw her hair was "Does she not fight it anymore??" Hopefully she will continue to let you do her hair. It looks so good. Wow!

I can just imagine Drew´s costume! I know how all-out Heather goes. Oh, good ol´ Mark and Heather. What were Hannah and Lilah? Sister Martinz and I carved little tiny pumpkins for Halloween. It was fun!

I can´t believe Jeff is endowed. Seriously so weird to me! But so wonderful! I was thinking about that the other day that Jeff and I will be home when DJ goes through the temple. That will be awesome! I was glad to see you got a camera and I could see these lovely pictures of snow (YEEHOO NO SNOW HERE YET!) and Temple and Joseph pictures. They made me smile.

So when DJ is the baker does he sing "There I was standing with baskets of bread- with butter"? That would be cool if he did. :) Break legs Deej and Rae!

 

Tell Blake (if you see him again) hello from me and tell him the wait is worth it! One day he can join the army in Germany serving the Lord! (Hopefully. Because this is the best mission on earth!)

We have a whole list of people we pray for every day and I will definitely add Austin to our list. Good thing he got injured! I mean, its not a good thing, but you know what I mean. How old is he? There will definitely be prayers coming from Celle!

I know that this gospel is true. I love the Book of Mormon so much and it just breaks my heart when people don´t even give it a chance because it really does bring you closer to God than any other book and it really does give you power to resist temptation and avoid deception and stay on the straight and narrow path. It has an unexplainable power and I just want everyone to love it and use it and feast on its words! I don´t know if the Ensign at home is an all Book of Mormon Ensign, but we got the Liahona here and its all Book of Mormon and it is so wonderful. I love reading from it and hearing people´s experiences with it. It is true! I know it! I´ve felt it! I hope we can all make our study of the Book of Mormon more meaningful. I love you all so so so so so much!

Love, Sister Niebergall

Mon, Oct 31, 2011

Dearest Family!

I can´t believe its Halloween today and almost November! That´s totally crazy!! In honor of it being Halloween time (even though they don´t celebrate it here in Germany), we have had 3 eating appointments and they´ve all made pumpkin soup. Luckily it tastes good and I really like it, otherwise that would be something I have to missionary down. But no, I´ve been super lucky and have enjoyed everything I eat. This week the bishop´s wife made tacos for us so it was wonderful to have a little "American" food. This week she plans to make Chicken Parmesean, because she pryed out of me what my favorite food is that mom makes. I didn´t want to tell her because I´ve seen how much mom slaves and slaves to make it and didn´t want her to take the time to feed us that when something else would´ve been perfectly fine. But she insisted so I´m not complaining!

I´m glad you got my pictures! I hope you liked them. I think petting a hedgehog is just like petting a cat! Except a hedgehog is nicer and doesn´t like... hiss or anything.

I don´t really have to take too many buses, and I´ve figured out the Bans now I think so thats good. Not next week but the week after is transfers so who knows if I´m staying or not. I knew last transfer I would stay, but this time I don´t really know! I hope I do, I want to see Kenneth get baptized. He won´t make it this week. He´s cancelled appointments in a row and didn´t come to church. I hope that he won´t be an inactive member right after baptism. That wouldn´t be good. We´re planning to emphasize what baptism really means and its not just something that you randomly do, but you need to work towards it. We hope he´s doing okay.

May the camera rest in peace. (pieces?) I hope you get one soon, I always enjoy your pictures.

Jeff, if you´re still awake when you get my e-mail this week: GO TO BED! It´s late!

Rachel is a leopard? How many years in a row has she been that now? Is Freckles running away from Rachel or is she just standing there and enduring it, like normal? Hahaha, I was at a member´s house the other week and it totally reminded me of being home. One of the little boys was under the table scratching at our legs and pretending to be a cat and his mom was so embarrassed, but I just loved it. But this boy was 6 and not 10... haha!

Oh I wish I could´ve been there to hear what President Monson said about rescuing people! That would´ve been amazing. Wow. So cool! We have stake conference this week so maybe he´ll be here and give the same speech. I hope so! Don´t worry, I´m not expecting it. Maybe President Uchtdorf is more realistic :)

Tell Sarah "Hi" by giving her a spank on the bum from me :) Because that´s how I would´ve said hi back if I would´ve been there. Silly Sarah.

The play starts this week, right? So weird that I won´t be able to see it, and a bummer too because Deej and Rae are in it. Take good pictures (That means you have to get a camera now) because I want to see their cute costumes!

I´m sorry you´ve been sick, mom! Bleh. I can just imagine the noises you´re making and feel free to make them! Haha. But I haven´t escaped those noises. People here in Germany don´t hold back nose blowing or sucking snot into the back of their heads. So, no matter where I go, its that time of year where everyone sounds beautiful.

Oh meine gute Joelle sent me the cupcakes?? Thats so so so so sweet of her! Awww that makes me happy to know because I was always so puzzled who could´ve sent me these cupcakes! If you see her again please tell her thank you! They actually showed up on a really bad day, so it was perfect timing. Ah! She´s so great. Also tell her congratulations from me on the engagement!

I can´t believe Jeff is going through the temple. He´s just a little boy!! Wow. So crazy. Congratulations Jeffy boy! I´m sorry that you chose drilux garments. I do not do not like the drilux ones, but who knows, maybe you will. Also I saw that your birthday is on Thanksgiving this year! Pig out for me!

Texas Straße man never called back, but I´m hoping he´ll read the whole Book of Mormon and decide he wants to be baptized. We´ll see what happens.

So, are you going to be the Narrator for the RS Christmas party then? You should take that as a compliment I think! I call the word for Relief Society evil because anything that is hard to say is evil in my mind. Such as Melchisidekischen Priestertum. Looks like you´d say it the same way as English, but false. Its really hard to say. Also Entscheidungsfreiheit means agency. I like it though because it means "decision freedom" if you directly translate it.

I hope you had a good time and SYTYCD. I don´t feel like I missed out much cuz I didn´t really see the season. I´m glad to be in Germany.

 

This week we had tausch again and I went to Halberstadt with Sister Hamblin from Roosevelt. She is such a sweet sweet girl and she knows the Roosevelt Niebergalls and knew I was related when she heard my last name. She also saw a Niebergall on a klingel one time, but they didn´t answer the door. Maybe one day I´ll serve in Halberstadt and I´ll make sure to get in contact with them. We had a good time and went inside a HUGE Cathedral. It was so amazing and really cool looking! The outside is kind of damaged from smoke from bombs, but its still so beautiful. We had a good time together!

So yesterday a member (Bruder Schteitza) brought a friend to church (woohoo!!!) so he was here for all 3 meetings. Thats a lot for someone who isn´t a member of the church. Thats hard sometimes for people who are members of the church. But his friend asked if we could have a special class for him so we did. The people in the class were me, Sister Martinz, Bruder Schteitza, his friend (Patrick), and our GML Bruder Netbal (GML= Ward Misison Leader). So the GML started giving a lesson, just the basics- God is our Heavenly Father. We got into the fact that He has a body of flesh and bone. That was a new concept for Patrick and he didn´t especially believe it. Then Bruder Schteitza and Bruder Netbal kind of attacked him and were trying to convince him that it was true and were a little bible bashy and it was really really uncomfortable for me and Sister Martinz. We couldn´t feel the spirit at all. Then after awhile we told the GML we needed to go potty and we left and Sister Martinz said "The spirit is not there at all!! Will you please sing something?" and I was like "uh.....okay...." so then luckily the topic eventually turned to prayer and Sister Martinz piped in as soon as prayer was mentioned "Ja! Das Gebet! Und Sister Niebergall hat ein wunderschönes lied darüber!" Meaning (Yes! Prayer! Sister Niebergall has a wonderfully beautiful song about that!) So I sang Hilary Weeks song "He Hears Me" and the spirit was so strong it was hard not to cry and sing, but Sister Martinz cried really hard and gave her testimony about prayer and then the class was finished. It was a really good way to end the class and we were able to get this guy´s contact information and he really does want to learn more. Sister Martinz said to me "Your song saved him." Ah! I´m beginning to think music is the way I´ll be able to communicate best here in Germany. It was so amazing to be able to use music to invite the spirit.  I´m so glad that Heavenly Father has given me this talent so I can help others feel the spirit and feel closer to Him! I know that music can invite the spirit stronger than words can and can really help others feel the love of our Heavenly Father. I know this church is true and I know that Heavenly Father hears every word of our prayers and He loves us so much that He answers our prayers too.

I love you all!

Love, Sister Niebergall