Hello!!!!
First To Jeff:
It does kinda stink to have investigators drop you :( I know how you feel with the MTC investigators, even though they aren´t real you still feel so much charity for them. I love my MTC investigators still. Also, you think you will only use your shoes in the MTC, but that´s not true. You have P-Days with your zone and district and things where you go hiking or playing sports or walking around quite often as a matter of fact. Today we´re going to the zoo with our district. Also, do you have regular socks, and not just church socks? That´s something I had to bum off my companions. I felt like a loser. I remember the good days of new people coming to the zone so you notice how much your language skills are improved. Then you think about the people who are in your zone that were there a month when you got there and how good you thought their language skills were and then when you get to that point you´re like, "Oh, they were just as good as I am now. Crazy! They weren´t that great, but I have really improved!" Also, your spanish testimony looks really good to me! I´m proud of you! Keep up the awesome work!
Anyway! Life in Germany is grand!! I just simply love it! The weather has been HERLICH this week but today it was looking kind of cloudy. Hopefully it´s not too cold at the zoo, but we´ve endured worse so it´s no problem. My companion´s health has been really good this week. We are really grateful for that. We didn´t stay in the house longer than needed at all. We were able to get to Bad Doberan. We did more doors. We klingled someone and they were busy then but to 'please come back later', so that´s pretty good! We´re excited about that. We didn´t see Andrea because she said she´d call. If she doesn´t call sometime soon we´ll go by on her again.
We have interviews with our president once every 2 transfers. We have Zone Conference once a transfer. Zone Conference is next week already. I feel bad for president with how much traveling around he has to do, but he still manages to appear to have so much excitement and energy. He´s amazing. I really look up to him.
We don´t really split up our investigators depending on age or sex, only if our male investigators start being creepy, then we give them to the Elders and vice versa. We do have backpacks to carry things in. Maybe I´ll start to carry a Book of Mormon around. The German Book of Mormon is just a lot heavier than the English one and tends to hurt the back. I´ll carry one around this week and report to you.
About D.J.´s haircut--- NASTY!!! CUT THAT THING OFF YOU DON´T LOOK COOL YOU LOOK LIKE A RAT! That´s all. :) Sorry if that was rude, I have learned to be a little more bold here in Germany. But seriously Deej. Take it from me that you´ve always known has good fashion advice. Not cool. Get rid of it. I wanted to puke when I saw it. Okay. I love you still. I´m done.
I´m glad you got the chocolates I sent. I didn´t send those chocolates to Jeff but I sent him a little packet with some German goodies and things. I´m glad you liked the chocolate though. My personal favorite was the oreo one. Yummy! Brittany´s was a Pop Rocks one. It is so fun to eat it´s chocolate and poppy. I almost just typed poopy. Sick. Anyway, I´m not exactly sure what it´s called that´s in it, but it´s pretty much just pop rocks. I think I sent Grandma a whipped cream one. Sahnecreme. I´m glad everyone has been enjoying them. It´s kind of bad that these chocolate bars are so easily accessible. I don´t know how I´ll go back to American chocolate. I do miss Reese´s though, but that´s about it.
Fadi is totally awesome. We called to schedule an appointment with him, but he was out of town for the weekend. We´ll call him later today and set an appointment with him. I did ask my mission president if we´re allowed to baptize him because he´s from Jordan. He did some research and we found out it´s illegal until he has a permanant passport to stay in Germany. It breaks my heart that people kill others for changing religion and it does make me very grateful to be from America where we can have freedom of religion.
I do know who my new mission president is going to be. It looks like he´s Russian but was born in Germany and same with his wife. He´s currently a stake president in Moscow I think. Something like that. I´m not quite sure. I got an e-mail about him, I´ll forward it to you.
If I were writing e-mails from the church I´d be able to attach pictures, but I can´t from the casino. Sorry! Also, you should get on the website. This Senior Sister keeps saying "I´m so excited to hear what your mom thinks about the website." Don´t want to disappoint her!
That´s so sad that Rachel didn´t get a Valentine. Oh man. She probably was so devastated. That makes me sad just to hear that story cuz I can imagine how sad she probably was.
The cool story of the week is a long story. It goes something like this: A month or so ago we were waiting for our Straßen Bahn and there was a girl about 17 years old from Afghanistan that asked us for an Euro so she could buy a ticket for her little sister because she realized she didn´t have money. Her mom was there and her little 5 year old sister. It´s always sketchy to give people money but the Bahn was coming so we had to act fast. We gave her an Euro so they were able to get on the Bahn and sat and talked to us. Her mom didn´t speak a word of German, but this 17 year old girl was so grateful that we would give her money. We talked to her for quite awhile. She´d been here awhile and we asked her if she had made a good amount of friends. She said no because everyone avoids her because she´s from the Middle East. It´s really really sad. So we told her we play Tisch Tennis every Saturday and we´d love to have her there. We gave her our card and told her we´d love for her to come. She left saying "Finally I have friends!" We prayed so hard that she´d be there because we were excited to be her friends and to help her feel more welcome here in Germany. Anyway. She didn´t show it. We were super devistated and hoped we would be able to come in contact with her again because she was super awesome. We figured that wouldn´t be very likely because Rostock is kind of big.
Fast forward in time to this week. Before we left the house on Wednesday we prayed specifically in our companionship that the prepared people would be put in our path. We went to see if a less active member was home and on the way back to the S-Bahn we took a different path than we normally take because the regular one was muddy. We were walking and saw a guy and knew we had to talk to him. We talked to him about God and set an appointment with him.
We kept walking to the S-Bahn and as we were about to get on the S-Bahn I look to the left and see a woman and little girl sitting on a Bahn. The little girl was looking at me with a big smile on her face like she knew me. She looked really familiar to me too. Then it him me and I said to my companion "Is that the mother and sister of Tisch Tennis girl??" (Sadly we didn´t ask said 'Tisch Tennis girl' what her name was). We were already pretty much past them and I wasn´t sure. We went to wait for our S-Bahn and looked at them accross the S-Bahn tracks, seeing if it was them. My companion saw them and said "IT IS THEM!" But they were waiting for a bus. A bus pulled up and they walked up to the bus. Right then our Bahn pulled up and we couldn´t see them anymore. We were a little bummed.
We rode weiter in our S-Bahn and we were stopped at a certain stop and my companion looks out the window and starts flipping out and hitting my shoulder and pointing. I turned around and saw this woman, her little 5 year old daughter, AND TISCH TENNIS GIRL and most surprising of all, with the group of them was the man we just made an appointment with. That was crazy. From that moment on we started praying that that man would be at the appointment so we could come in contact with Tisch Tennis girl again and maybe start teaching their whole family! Leider, he didn´t show up to the appointment, but we have faith that we have planted a seed for their family for the future.
I love this gospel. It´s amazing the miracles that Heavenly Father gives us so bounteously, all we have to do is ask. I know he hears our prayers. I´m so glad to be part of this great work. I read my mission call the other day and it says "when you work with all your heart might mind and strength, the Lord will direct you to those who are ready to be baptized. I know this is a promise from God given to us missionaries through his prophet. I´m so blessed to be here. I love this gospel so much and I know it´s true. I guess I´ll give my testimony in German since Jeff gave his in Spanish.
Ich weiß daß das Buch Mormon wahr ist und daß es uns näher zu Gott bringt als jedes andere Buch. Ich weiß daß es ein lebendiges Prophet auf der Erde gibt und als wir sein Rat zuhören, werden wir begleitet sein. Ich weiß daß diese Arbeit das Werk Gottes ist und daß wenn wir glauben an Gott und seine Barmherzigkeit vertrauen, werden wir Wunder sehen und erleben. Ich bin so dankbar hier in Deutschland und Rostock zu dienen. Ich bete daß wir noch Wunder hier sehen werden und daß wir mehr Menschen einladen können zu Christus zu kommen. Ich hab euch alle lieb!!!!
(Translation for those non-German speakers per google translate)
I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that it brings us closer to God than any other book. I know that there is a living prophet on earth, and as we listen to his advice, we will be accompanied. I know that this work is the work of God and believe that if we trust in God and his mercy, we will see and experience miracles. I am so grateful to serve here in Germany, and Rostock. I pray that we will see more miracles here, and that we can invite more people to come to Christ. I love you all!!
Love, Sister Niebergall
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