Paella

FAMILY!
DAD GUESS WHAT. I finally had my first plate of paella. Needless to say I endured it well!

Wow can you believe that I only have one more week left of my first transfer?? It is so weird to think that next week I won´t be a newborn baby in the mission anymore… scary and exciting! I am pretty sure that I will be staying with Sister Phillips for the next coming transfer… usually you stay with your trainer for 12 weeks.  But the transfer after that, WHO knows?! This transfer has flown by and has crawled by at the same time. Haha time is such a weeeeeird thing especially on the mish! But we doing great work and working hard! I can´t believe that it is P-Day already... so much has happened this week!

So I figured you all probably want to hear about what I actually do?? Sorry I am realizing that I hardly give you any information. So I will try my best! It is hard because there are literally 58173424 things that go on in a day in the life of a missionary.

CALIMAS - Did you look them up? HOT winds and sand flies in from AFRICA.  Weird huh! Africa is only 90 miles away from my Island.. what is this world we live in haha?! Yeah so they have been part of my life for the past week. It has been sooo hot. Hotter than any lacrosse practice or day in newport. So hot! It is super exhausting. Life is HOT and humid. I am so close to caving in and buying a fan... Everything here is pueblos and pisos. And cockroaches! Really. They are EVERYWHERE. It is nasty! Another thing that I have learned is that carpet doesn´t exist here. It is really annoying! Haha everything is tile. I miss America ha! But I love the people here. The pueblo that we live in is called Los Cristianos. It literally is a vacation pueblo… so yay for us.. But it’s great! The church is here and the main bus station is here so we can´t complain. It is the most convenient place that me and my companion could live seeing that we don´t have a car. It can get pretty roudy here in Los Cristianons especially at night - not going to lie.. AND apparently this entire week is fiesta de los cristianos..  So we are just bracing ourselves for an entire week of no sleep and lazy surroundings haha. Not to mention this huge carival thing is being built right outside of our piso.. so there goes the little peace and quiet that we had.. But it’s OKAY!  We live in Babylon but we are strongggg ha.

So the schedule in Spain is different from the normal missionary schedule. We wake up at 7:30am and crash at 11:30pm. And then everything is closed from about 2 to 5 while everyone eats and sleeps. It is called medio dia! (we usually don´t have it though because we are always going to eating appointments or something) It is the best thing and the worst thing. Sometimes, it just feels like such a waste of time!  The Spaniards have fiestas and holidays all of the time. More than 50 percent don´t have jobs. It is sad! But these people are being humbled. We are finding people that are SO prepared and ready for the gospel to change their lives. They just have to wake up to see it.

So Hermana Phillips and I had a week of MIRACLES. It has been so cool seeing how hard we are working to build a good teaching pool, and now we are finally starting to see where our work is taking us! Ahhh it is so fun being a missionary. We have been really striving to find and work with less active members. It has been such a miracle that we have been able to find all of them without getting lost! The Lord is reallllly helping us to find this people. And something that we have been really trying to do is work with them and these part member families and get referrals from them because these menos activos have SO many people and friends that we could start teaching them with. With have found SO much success with it! They LOVE hearing about the missionary work that THEY can do. They love it! So now we are meeting with them so much and with their non-member friends. We are strengthening them SO much. They see the importance of it. And then they have a desire to be that example to their friends. It really has been incredible seeing all of the success that we have found with taking extra time to really find and strengthen these menos activos and teach with them.

NOCHES DE HOGAR.. aka my FAVORITE THING!  Family nights! We have been also having SO much success with these things. And they are so fun. We are teaching members and non-members how to have an noches de hogar and they LOVE them! It is awesome. So one of them that we had this week was with these AWESOME Colombians.  Gloria and Alex (her daughter) are menos activos that live right here with us in Los Cristianos. They are so cool! We found them I think our very first week and we have been working with them! And they love us and feed us SO much. Haha its fun! And this week they had their friends from Colombia move in.  So yeah basically we have been working with them in a house full of loud, fun, and hilarous Colombians. It is quite the experience every time. So we had a big noche de hogar with them and their non-member friends that just moved in. It was so cool. It was CRAZY and loud before and we arrived.  We wondered how it was going to work! But is was sooo cool watching the spirit come in and work. We played a fun game and then really wanted to focus and talk about prayer with them. And you would NOT believe how receptive they were! It was so cool. The spirit was so strong! Sooo strong. Then we painted PRAYER ROCKS. (yay so fun!..Haha mom you would not believe how much of a success we are having with prayer rocks here... they love it)  But we explained to them what they are. How in our lives we have hard burdens and rocks always weighing us down, but when we pray and pour our hearts out to our loving Heavenly Father, he will take those all away from us. It was so cool teaching them about this. Not only was their prayer rock a reminder, but also a symbol for what prayer is. Just like this night, we have been having lots of other noche de hogars with others! It is great and we are finding success with them. We will see where we go with them!

Ah I wish that I had time to tell you about everything that we do in just one week! About every investigator. They are all so different from each other but are all so amazing. We love them sooo much. Charity really wins over all. It is cool being a missionary. We are teaching people from literally ALL over! All over the world. A cute family from Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Romania, and Brazil. Cool huh?? I always have to take a step back and think about what I am really doing. Teaching people from all over... it is so cool! It is such a privilege to be serving a mission in such a rad place.

I love the branch sooo much. I love them all ao much! I have met some of the craziest people and also some of the nicest and purest people. There is so much to learn here from everyone..

I miss you all and love you all soo soso much.  YEAH HAVE A GOOD WEEK EVERYONE!

Line of the weekOld Lady: Where are you from?
Me: America..Utah.. (haha as if they couldn´t tell from my looks and spanish)
Old Lady: Oh you aren´t from Venezuela?
Me: No... haha..
*Apparently I look Venezuelan*

Hermana N

Pictures…  Self-explanitory other than one. My companion sometimes has me put a pen in my mouth as far back as it goes do help with my accent and ‘r’s... it is hilarious! I sound like frog.. but after it helps me with my ‘r’s!

The Calimas...look them up!

Monday August 19th...

SCHOOL STARTS ON WEDNESDAY??

Wow... crazy! Sometimes in the mission field we forget that there is real life going on and that people go to school and have their own crazy lives. Wow I just can't believe that summer is over! And more than anything I can't believe that in just 14 days I will officially be one transfer out. I can't tell if time is flying by or crawling by! For the most part it is going by faster and faster. SO much happens in a week and it is impossible to remember all that happened and all that is planned. Meanwhile when everything is in Spanish... yeah that is another story… haha. But it is a good thing that missionaries are trained to be organized to the T. Missions, for sure, are a time WARP! I love it. And I can't believe how soon JESS is leaving! And Annie and so many other people. And that Zac is already out in the MTC.  Oh and Sam! So cool! I am constantly remembering how cool it is to not only be on a mission right now but to be able to be on one at the same time with many friends and family! We are taking the gospel to the ends of the earth and it is SO COOL! Ah. It is so cool and so hard! It is a hard thing to comprehend. But I love it! And the fact that Sarah and Grace are putting their papers in too so soon gives me chills. So cool! Yeah MISSIONS! Such a priviledge. And so unique!  WE ARE NOT ALONE! Don't forget that :) Plus Sister missionaries are so cool.

I heard a way cool quote this week about sister missionaries and I LOVED IT. Jess actually emailed it to me and thought that you would like it to. It says:

"Many young women are serving MISSIONS. Many are preparing to serve, not because they aren't married or have nothing else to do, but because they have a desire to serve. Therefore they are being called to the work. The reason so many of them are going is because in the next generation, Heavenly Father will be sending His Priesthood Army to the earth and wants to send them to MOTHERS who have been trained and taught in the gospel. And what better training can a young woman have than that of serving a mission."

HOW COOL. How cool is it that we have this opportunity?! Times are changing faster than we know it. We need to FOCUS.

Anyways... so this week FLEW by. Wow, it feels like just yesterday I was writing you! But this week was good. It ward laborious.. as always. Lots of disappointments, but lots of miracles. The Lord brings us lower so that he can lift us HIGHER. I know that I say this almost every week but only because I know that it is true. And everything that I experience is a testimony to me of how TRUE it really is! Thinking about a mission… my comp and I really decided that it is a FULL on refiner's fire. Completely and fully an intense, tear jerking, bone scraping, FIRE. Hahaha it is true! So true. But I am so grateful for it and I am learning so much.

It has been hard opening up an area. Dad, just like you.. both of us had our first area in the mission an area we opened up! Here we call it WHITEWASHING. Sister Phillips and I are doing great though. We are starting to really build our teaching pool and I KNOW that we will see the fruits of all of our hard work. We are working so hard. We are so exhausted! It’s cool though. Everything we do, we do with purpose.. That is our goal - to fully consecrate ourselves! This is her 3rd time opening up an area and she told me that while this has been her hardest area... it has also been her best so far with whitewashing.  We have been having such success! It’s cool for me to hear that because I wouldn't know any other way seeing that this area is all I know about so far. We are giving our all and it feels great! When we have disappointments it can be really rough though. Of course I mean that’s why they are called 'disappointments'! But we know that it is because Heavenly Father is preparing us and testing us for MIRACLES. They will come!

I am learning to really love the grind of missionary work. It is SO rewarding. Almost every night I feel happy, so exhausted, and so content. Mornings are a different story haha. But usually by the end of the day I feel incredible and ready to sleep.

During personal study this morning I came upon one of my favorite passages of scriptures. Doctrine and Covenants 121:5-20,

"My son, peace be unto thy soul, thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment, and then, if you endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high, thou shalt triumph over all foes. Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands."

I LOVED THAT. Don't you all? What a cool passage. What cool promises! Dad, I have been thinking a lot about whether a mission is purely enduring. I have decided that it is not! There is such a higher way that we can serve rather than enduring. When we not only endure but endure it WELL.. God will exalt us on high. We are not alone in this work or in this life! We are not alone, we just need to focus harder than we ever have before and endure it well... while sharing the gospel! Mom I love hearing about your missionary aspirations. I LOVE IT. You are so great and so strong. Keep those aspirations high! Missionary work is the most important thing that anyone could do name tag or not.

The language is coming... kinda. Haha poco a poco! Little by little. I am feeling improvement. I feel everyone's prayers for me! Thank you all so much.

The Church is true, the book is bluuuuue!

I LOVE YOU ALL!
Sister N

Cats Everywhere

Family what is up!  I just wanted to say that there are CATS EVERYWHERE.  Literally everywhere. And of all shapes and sizes.  Tons of stray cats every where... hahaha Lily you would be in HEAVEN.  One night me and Hermana Phillips where walking back from an appointment and all of a sudden, no joke, 15 kittens jumped out of this tree right before us. Haha it was quite the experience!  LILY you would love all of these skinny to the bone stray cats everywhere!

There is never a dull moment or day on a mission!  Especially here in TENERIFE!  Or at least that is how it seems right now!  Before coming on a mission I wondered if days would seem tedious or same old everyday.. and so far it has not been that way at ALL.  Wow, every day is like a whole new adventure! It is SO crazy at the end of the night thinking about everything that happened.  It really is a new crazy adventure everyday!  I hope it will always be like this.  Whether it be being dragged around by Ursula´s autistic dogs (the things we do to serve our investigators... ), talking to an awesome hippie mom for an hour, seeing an old man walk around in tight leather booty shorts, getting proposed to by a "satanist" (..??) and MANY other weird things... HAHA there isn´t a day that goes by without something weird or exciting.  I love being on this Island.. It is so fun!

This week was good!  I am learning so much.  A mission really is your MOST TWO YEARS (1.5 for sisters) It takes alllll of your energy in everyway possible.  It takes all of your strength emotionally, spiritually, and physically.  I am so grateful for this once in a life time experience that I have right now to GROW!  The Lord always STRETCHES us enough for us to grow and there is NOTHING that He gives us that we cannot overcome.  We are not alone in this work.  The Lord is with us in every little step!  We just need to press forward and lean on Him.  I am constantly reminding myself that this work isn´t about me!  How lucky am I to have this short time in my life to completely break away from everything, forget about me, and lose myself?  I am trying to cherish the most of this time that I have here.  Although it seems hard and never ending (haha) right now... This work is SO important and so real.. and I do not want to ever have any regrets of not wokring my hardest.  I love being a missionary!  It is way cool to be set apart as a representative of Christ.

This week I had the COOLEST EXPERIENCE thus far on this mission.  I finanlly was reminded of the GOAL and reward of missionary work.  Anyways it was increíble.  TUESDAY NIGHT!  We were just leaving a noche de hogar (FHE) when the Elders called us.  They wanted us to come with them to an appointment... which was weird.  We don´t do that very often!  But for some reason they really felt like we needed to come.  We were visiting a less active family who also had friends over that were not members.  This house was full of like 8 girls!  Anyways they had come to church on Sunday which was a MIRACLE in the first place. (the elders were thinking about dropping them because they really weren´t progressing.. but then they randomly showed up to church! talk about a miracle)  Anyways to teach to the needs of the investigator.. we decided to teach about families and the importance of them AND the power we have with TEMPLE WORK!  What was cool was that we totally followed the spirit!  Wow it was a m a z i n g.  Though I still can´t understand Spanish haha... I understood the spirit with them. Ah:) I can´t even describe how amazing it was.  It was literally an experience sent from heaven!  It was was amazing.  It felt like one of those amazing district videos when someone accepts the baptismal invitation and then music starts playing to add to the effect but there was no music and it felt amazing. It was just real.  I completely forgot about myself and my flaws and just felt the spirit work a miracle as ALL of these 8 girls were changing right before our eyes!  These girls were so worldly. sooo worldly is was sad! But something happened tuesday night and the spirit worked a milagro.  It may have been even one of the strongest spiritual moments that I have ever had!  It is really hard to describe what even happened!  Anways, so we taught about families and temple work and how we have this incredible power to open the door of eternal life for members of our family who are no longer living.  We can OPEN their door! We can open the door for them to return to their Heavenly Father.  The door of baptism.  And how crucial it is!  And while we do have this incredible power.. we need to first do it for ourselves.  We need to open the door for ourselves and then for our family and then for others!  They were so receptive!!  They were blown away by the idea that they could be baptized for people who have died and SAVE them.  We finally got into the hearts of these girls.  The spirit was SO STRONG!  When the spirit was at its peak we asked them how they were feeling. We then told them that that is the SPIRIT and love of God.  Then pure and good Elder Malan invited them to be baptized. (totally not part of the plan... but the spirit changed hearts that night and we followed.)  Although he stumbled over the words in spanish.. he was just GLOWING with the spirit.  And when he asked.  If they would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized... they said yes:) We were so excited!  They spirit was SO strong.  We couldn´t stop smiling!  It is was incredible!  At that moment I knew how real this whole thing is. How important baptism is. How everyone needs this!  At that moment I knew what kind of missionary I want to be!  What kind of missionary I am going to be.  Any extremly heavy burdens and discouraging things in my life were lifted off of my shoulders. wow.  They just completely left!  I wasn´t worrying about myself and I just felt so strongly my Savior´s love for me and for the people that I was with.  Wow.  It was a celestial moment.  Missionary work is the coolest.  It is the hardest.  It is hard!  It is so dang hard.  But the moments like we had tuesday night with Jaynish and Adriana was what we work for!  We work soooo hard so that we can save others and bring them to Christ through the waters of baptism.  We work our hardest with exact obedience and prayerful hearts so that we can have celetial moments like these.  Because this is what life is all about.  Family, gospel, and saving others.  There are hard times but when you endure and give it your all with an eye single to the glory of God.. you will overcome.  The highs will always eventually outweigh the lows.  That night was a high!  I had never felt more alive in my life!  I will always work my hardest.  This work is God´s work! Not mine.  The quote, "The Lord pushed you lower so that He can lift you HIGHER" is SO true.  Wow, it is soooo true.  Without struggles and desafios... we cannot grow.  And why are we here on this earth?? To grow.  I want to give everyone this knowledge and this incredible spirit that we all felt that night!  I want to have more of these moments.  And I have the faith that I can.. as I work my hardest and forget about myself and lose myself in the work.. I can!

Find Joy in the JOURNEY!

Love you SO much,

Hermana 'no entiendo español' Nydegger

IT IS TRUE!

Monday...August 5, 2013

PACKAGE!!!

I got the package finally! Wow and I have to say it could not have come at a better time! I didn´t think that I would be getting it for a long time because I kind of am stranded on an Island. believe it or not... ITS TRUE! But my zone leader had to go to Madrid for a leadership training meeting and he brought it back from me! But THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. Thank you all of the letters which meant so much to me! You are all such inspirations to me. Those letters were such a treat to read last night. Sounds like NewPort was fun! Its awesome being here in Tenerife but it also hard because we live smack dab in the middle of a touristy place.. its hard to work hard and feel happy when everyone else around you is on vacation and just doing whatever they want! But it is good.

So GUESS WHAT! One of my prayers has been answered and so far I have been able to totally EAT EVERYTHING. Haha seriously.. I ate a green olive. *round of applause for Emily* Haha and a ton of other things but food here has not been as much of a problem as I had originally feared! I eat rabbit.. squid.. oh yesterday I had a blood sausage at the Villalobos house! Usually I don´t know what I am eating until after I eat it.. and I think it is better that way. But i have been able to do so. It is A MIRACLE! Also it is a miracle that my companion and I haven´t gotten lost. Our area is MASSIVE! So big. Normally we would have a car but she doesn´t have her license and I don´t know how to drive stick.. so we take the wawa! (bus) But we literally have pratically half of the island.. so yeah! Its incredible that we haven´t gotten lost. Sometimes we don´t know where we are.. and literally have to guess where to go.. but it all works out eventually we find what we are trying to find.

Well. I AM SO EXHAUSTED all of the time. And the thing about missions is that you never stop! You never ever stop working no matter what. There are no breaks! Missions are dang hard! Especially when I feel so inadequate and want to cry a lot... haha just for the record I have not like broken down yet in tears! Haha I have gotten teary but I am being strong. My companion told me how impressed she is how strong I have been.. I don´t want to worry any of you.. but I really feel like I am just enduring. Does is get better than this haha?? I am trying so hard to forget myself and lose myself in the work.. but wow it is hard. Feelings of homesickness have never been stronger... Any advise of what I can do to totally give my all to the Lord? I am trying so hard..

I LOVE YOU ALL! Crazy things have happened and we already have some investigators!

I will tell you about one... her name is... URSULA! Yes this is real life. Not the Little Mermaid. She is SO COOL! She is like a cat woman haha! Or animals in general. She has a million fish and piranas everywhere and she has bunnies and turtles and birds.. but the best are her dogs! Actually they are the worst.. they scare me and my companion so much everytime. And they attack us. The dogs here are weeeeird and scary. they kind of look like a mini form of the dog monster things in hunger games. One of her dogs is blind and one of them is autistic i think that is what she told us. Just giving you a visual.. but yeah they like attack us but we LOVE her so much. She is great and she speaks a little of English so i am happy. But we have been teaching her and we can see so easily how much SHE NEEDS the gospel. She has problems with the word of wisdom majorly we we can´t wait to teach her.. haha but she is one cool and one prepared woman. She is so receptive. Oh and she lives in our same appartment building! She is really concsious of how little of spanish I know which is a nice tender mercy to me.. she tries to translate for me and it is so cute. But she is great.. I know she will get baptized one day! I love her. She was so cute and tried to make us a nice American dinner of fries and hamburgers Friday night.. what a nice girl. Not to mention she has had the hardest life.. but this gospel will help her so much!

So the hardest thing about the language for me is understanding. I can speak in Spanish.. but it is hard for me to understand people. And so exhausting. Sometimes I wonder when it will end. but apparently it will! I know that this is probably the hardest time of my mission.. I have no doubt haha! Its just such a give your all kind of work. It is such an adjustment from the ccm. It's real life! And it can be hard. but I know that I am here for a reason and that I just need to keep pressing forward. The Lord is stretching me so that I will grow!

I love you all so much.

Keep strong in faith!

Hermana Nydegger

Line of the week: "Tienes facebook?" says the 3 year old boy.

Canary Islands

Monday...July 29, 2013

¡¡¡HOLA FAMILIA!!!

If you haven´t heard all ready.... I AM ON AN ISLAND! OPENING AN AREA! Ahhh it is SO CRAZY! So much has happened this week. It has been suuuuuch a change. I miss the CCM so much! But now it is great to be doing what I have been called to do. SO yeah my companion and I are on TENERIFE! THE. ONLY. HERMANAS. HERE. its craaazy and kinda lonely but AWESOME. It must be privilege. We are the FIRST sisters that they have had here in over 9 years I think.. so cool! And they NEVER send greenies here... so I don´t know why they sent me?? It is hard because me and my compainoin are both new here. It is so hard to start an area from SCRATCH. But it is cool and I am learning so much! And learning how absolutley little I know haaha... yeah its rough. BUT WHAT UP I AM ON AN ISLAND! Who ever would have thought!

Let me start from the beginning though!

So last Sunday.. (feels like it was FOREVER AGO!) I had my first interview with the JACKSONS. It was awesome! THey are the BEST people in the world and I wish that I could just have them with me always! It was SO fun. I kind of feel like a weirdo because whenever I am with them I can´t help but smile so big. He was so nice. So nice! And so fun and they really just had this INCREDIBLE spirit about them. He told me how much he loved my smile so many times. He told me to ALWAYS keep that with me. The only things I need to wear everyday are my name tag and smile. People will feel the light of Christ through you and will convert! I am trying my best to do it! Then we had an awesome fireside by the Jacksons! How cool is that! Not many people can say that they had a devotional by their actual mission presidents in the CCM. They were great. Best people ever I am convinced! So motivating. They made me feel at peace with wheverever they would send me! Everything that I have ever done and everything that I have ever experienced up to this point in my life has prepared me to be who I am today. That hit me hard! It boosted my confidence as a representative of Christ. Fear and faith cannot coexist. You have to chose one or the other! I am choosing faith and my lack of Spanish will not stop me! All I have to do is open my mouth. If you don´t know what to do you sometimes.. just do SOMETHING. You always have to act. Then, will the spirit and guidance kick in? Yes. Act on faith first.. even if it is just a desire. We are promised the Lord will help us if we just act. Anyways after the devo we went outside to sing one last time. It started POURING! but we wanted to do it one last time. Many people and neighbors came despite of the weather! It was cool. Really peaceful actually. The last song that we sang was "God be with you til we meet again." The Spirit was AMAZING! many people cried! WE then went in and had our last testimony meeting. It was increíble. I love every one so much. I am miss everyone so much! I have no doubt that they will do amazing things in this hard but rewarding journey. All of the testimonies that I have heard have strengthened mine so much and have held mine up in ways that I can´t even put into words. Honestly. I could not have had a BETTER ccm experience. Wow I am so lucky! I had the best experience. We sang God Be With you till we Meet again and their was not a dry eye in that room. I felt the presence of many angels. It was peaceful and so powerful. It was sad but it was a cool sight seeing everyone go off into different places to teach different people. But I am excited to see them one day! Maybe here but for sure in heaven.

The next day we went to the MISSION HOME! WOW. It is the cutest one ever haha. Oh my gosh I loved it so much. We had such a good lunch! GOOD FOOD! Haha mom it reminded me a lot of what you would make. Then we chilled there waiting as President Jackson finished some last area assignments. The anticipation was CRAZY! So crazy. You could just feel it plus nervousness in the air. Then we went we met our trainers kinda.. still not know who exactly was ours and where we would be going. But it was SWEET! We were all in a room. I was one of the last people to know where I was going haaha! My companion ran in and as soon as she saw me she was like YOUR THE GIRL FROM THE VIDEO! And I am just like YEAH haha and then President Jackson called us to be COMPANIONS! Going to the TENERIFE! OPENING. Yeah it was intense and crazy! I was shaking! Haha I couldn´t BELIEVE that I was going to an Island. Let alone that me and my companion would be the only hermanas there. crazy! Anyways so my mom is Hermana Phillips. She is practically perfect at Spanish and it is GREAT! We then took our stuff to some other missionary appartment.. dropped off our stuff and did some street contacting. Then we came back later that night and guess what I had to do! I had to pack only ONE suitcase 23 kilos to take! Yeah so that was stressful not knowing what I would want. But it was cool! I quickly packed one suitcase that I could take on the airplane with me and then we crashed and went to bed. Next morning the APs picked us up and we went to the airport and took off for tenerife. CRAZY STUFF HUH

I am about as south as you can get in the missions. It is SO COOl! Where we live is super touristy so it is kind of hard to find people who live here.. but its cool! We have talked to people from all over. Literally all over the world it is cool!

Something that I have realized. I don´t know Spanish. Only if people speak as slow as a snail can I understand them. Haha it is rough! I feel soooo inadequate It is hard because I want to be myself with the people here and I want to be the best missionary I can be and I want to BE BOLD.. and it is so hard and like really discourging from the language barrier. I am learning though! It is a process poco a poco a poco. At least my mom can speak great. It is just easy to feel really inadequate. Like the first day as soon as we got here we had an eating appointment and I literally I had NO idea what they were saying. I almost started to cry.. haha true story but I was able to keep it in. But I am getting used to it! I try my hardest even though it is exhausting to try to understand and not just zone out. At the end of the day my brain hurts so much.. but I just need to press forward. So many times in the scriptures it says to press forward! Dad, that was one of the last things you said to me before I left and I will always keep that thought in the back of my mind. It is hard to not get discouraged and feel stupid.. but I know I just need to keep the perspective and keep the spirit!! I am learning though I think. Little by little by little I am learning. They just speak so dang fast hahaha.

But here is one the greatest things about being here... THE BRANCH IS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD! Wow my companion said that she has never had a better ward. So i really feel lucky to have such an amazing first area!! Me and my companions are like celebs here to the branch.. because we are the first sister missionaries in such a long time! They have been waiting for us for so long and now we are here! Seriously the branch is so loving. It is is so hard for me to understand but its great! My favorite parts of the week are whevener we do anything with members. They have patience for me and it is great! I love all of the young women. There are only like 3 though that are active... so we will change that soon! But yeah I can´t wait to understand Spanish perfectly so that I can reallllly be good friends with them and gain their trust. Its a process but I am enduring!

Apparently things DO get better than this.. so until then I will endure and do my best! Haha. Thanks for all of the support! I LOVE YOU!

Love,

Hermana Nydegger

 CCM District

Hermana Fowers, CCM teacher and Hermana Nydegger

Hermana Nydegger and Hermana Phillips...my new trainer!

Leaving the CCM and out to the field

Monday... July 22, 2013

I am leaving tomorrow morning for the FIELD!  I AM SO EXCITED!  So sad to leave the CCM but excited! Pretty nervous but happy.  I feel really at peace so it is GREAT!  They gave us time for me to tell you that everything is great and I that mañana I am off to wherever they send me in Madrid!  Tomorrow morning the President and his wife are picking us up at 9 and then we are going to the mission home where they are going to feed us (YAY I think Sister Jackson is making the food and she is SO cute and so funny so I think that quality will transfer over to the food hahaha) and then they will introduce us to the mission and we´ll have some great orientation and then we are sent off to wherever we will go!   I am so dang excited!  This will be good.  I LOVE you all!  Thank you for all of the letters!  I feel the love and support and it helps me be the best that I can be during this awesome 18 months.  Good things to come in next weeks email!  Also, looks like I am not having a P Day this week so plan on Monday I think??  Talk to you then!

HASTA LUEGO!

Hermana Nydegger

PS  The Canary Islands are becoming STAKE!  It is so so soooo SOOO exciting!  His work is hastening!