Can I live in Segovia?

Monday, March 17th 2014

Sorry I really don´t have time to write a good email this week...we have a noche de hogar (family night) that we´ve got to prepare for and have to cut our email time to like 20 minutes. Lo siento muchooooo!

I have to say that this week has been one of the oddest weeks of my mission not going to lie.

I hit my 9 months... LIFE IS WEIRD

I think I may have an ear infection..

I accidentally drank tea without knowing... again and i like couldn´t fall asleep that night.. I am so grateful for obedience and how it really protects us in our life.

Met a guy on the street...he is a complete drunk who wants to change his life. He showed up to a lesson completely wasted and was just YELLING to us to help him change his life. He gave the most heart wrenching prayer I have ever heard in my life. I just started bawling in it as my heart hurt for him.

Went to SEGOVIA. I love Spain so much. It is so BEAUTIFUL! Pictures to come next time.

What else happened??

All of the missionaries danced the Cotton Eye Joe in our talent show with our investigators...HAHA I don´t think I have ever laughed so hard in my life.

OH the weather here has been amazing, finally warming up! I haven´t had to wear a coat this whole week. Plus the people are way more open to listening to us. Can't complain!

I LOVE YOU ALL. Have a good one! Sorry for the lame email...Hope all is well in the states!

Hermana Nydegger

OS QUIERO

Monday, March 10th, 2014

Querida familia... 

OS QUIERO!!!!

I love Spanish and more than anything - vosotros. Sadly missionaries are discouraged from speaking in vosotros, but I do a little bit with little kids and I LOVE it. I decided I am going to marry someone who speaks Spanish so that we can have little Spanish kids and vosotros…

You will never believe who I saw this week.. A.! She came to Madrid to go to them temple for the first time. She got baptized in June. I told you about her right?? She is the coolest most loving Canarian girl. I love her with all of my heart! I got permission to go over to Pavones and see her! It actually ended up being a very stressful day trying to get over there to see her and back in time for our lesson at 4pm. My baby and I ended up sprinting a combined hour and a half.. ha all WORTH it though. I got to see and chat with A. for about 30 minutes during medio-dia and I loved every minute of it. I miss those Canarians. and I miss there sloppy Spanish! I loved hearing it and talking to her.  I also ran into our cute  branch President. It was fun to see them and have a little Tenerife reunion.

Time is flyyyyying faster than ever! I remember someone telling me that where I am at in my mission age is probably about the fastest time. I sure believe it. I am really liking it here in Torrejon. I feel like I may stay here for a while too.. which that it totally fine by me! I love it and the people and the food. (even though I am legit gaining weight here... nothing wrong with that right?) But really I love it here! We had a SWEET relief society party on Saturday night. It was so fun. SO spiritual and so cultural and just fun. How I love the culture here! Anyways the party was seriously well done. HA! I was BLOWN away at just how cute it was! Our amazing relief society president P. put sooo much effort into making this night a memorable one and let me tell you all.. it was probably one of the most fun days I have ever had on my mission. Let me give you a run-down of the day.

-    studies... normal

-    CRAZY lesson with J... haha that awkward moment when members fight in a lesson to spit out any information they possibly know about the restoration of the gospel

-    English class

-    filling up the font 

-    eating free Burgerking "satisfries" haha (so burger king is nasty in America right? its good here...)

-    dragging a piano across the entire church (one with no wheels haha)

-    running across Torrejon to some stop-bys and potential lessons

-    BAPTISM

-    Relief Society Anniversary!

-    10 minutes lesson with Friday and J. (who is NOW ON DATE! I love them! they are so willing)

-    Sprinting home to make it on time

NOW. That is a day. It was the longest day of my life but also the funnest day. The relief society thing was so good and so powerful. There are really the coolest bunch of ladies here. They are so strong. I just felt so grateful for the program. It really is so inspired. We watched this beautiful slide show of pictures.. and I can´t tell you HOW much unity and love that could be felt with these incredible women that night. This ward here in Torrejon is incredible. I really just lay there at night and try to take in HOW lucky I have been on my mission to serve with such awesome companions and serve in such awesome areas. More than anything to get to know people on a level that you just wouldn´t if you weren´t a missionary. There are suuuuch incredible people here who are STRONG. I am continually amazed at how giving and loving they are. Most of them have so little yet they just give and give and give. They just GET IT! They get it and they know what’s important in life. We have finally been able to get more members to come with us in lessons and I am just amazed every time they share their such strong and heart-felt testimonies. I learn so much from the people here. I learn so much! Sometimes I really wonder what my testimony was before coming here ha… because I truly feel like I have grown immensely in my love for the gospel. I say this in probably every email but deciding to come on a mission was the best decision I have ever made in my life. It is the biggest blessing in my life and I don´t even know how I can come to thank my Heavenly Father for giving me this opportunity to be here in SPAIN as just a 19 year old girl! I guess all I can do is just work my absolute hardest day-by-day and give back what I have been given.

Last night we had SUCH a good lesson with cute M. and with his WIFE! Finally we have been able to meet with her. It was really a defining point on my mission for me. I saw this change in M. I remember the very first lesson with him... and the very first time we contacted him in the street! But seeing him last night was something different. Something so heart-warming. He LOVES the gospel.. he is so humble about it and just wants to share it with his family. He really is probably the nicest man that I have ever met in my life. He was SO cute and so happy as we shared it with his wife who he just cherishes. He has such a pure heart and is so excited for his baptismal date. He is ready. I love it he comes to church and loves it.. He makes the greatest comments in gospel principles class and I just die laughing every time because he has changed so much! The greatest blessing of being a representative of Jesus Christ is not only getting to see these changes in people but to be able to help them get there. The gospel of Jesus Christ can change people.  When we live it we are blessed. We are happier people in return. We have the light of Christ. It has been a miracle watching the light of Christ working on M. We taught the restoration to his wife and it was probably one of the most spiritual lessons I have had on my mission. 

How I love this gospel. And how I love the light of Christ and the Holy Ghost! It’s real and is powerful- 

I love you all so much. Keep working hard and keep smiling! Sorry to hear about the fire at Oly Jr. Not so great of a day to be a bulldog, huh?? ha

OS QUIERO! Que tengan una buena semana, vale??

Hermana Nydegger

A. and me...Madrid Temple Square 

Find joy!

Monday, March 3rd, 2014

FAMILY WHAT UP! do you all realize that in about a week I will be hitting my nine month mark?? What is this life?! seriously what is this life!

This week so much as happened.

We had an AWESOME mission tour with Elder Teixera and his wife! WOW it was the most amazing thing ever. All of the missionaries from the area around me went to Pavones (the area by the temple) and we had a tour. We listened to them speak and worked with them! I love Elder Teixera! He is so cool and taught us great things on how to be better missionaries.  It was so great. It was SO fun being around so many missionaries. It really made me feel like I was in the CCM again! Good times! We all got there early to practice “We are the Army of Helaman” in Spanish. They added a new verse too and it was powerful. I have to say that some of my most favorite memories in my entire life are singing “We are now the Army of Helaman” in Spanish in huge groups of missionaries. I swear, I never have felt the spirit stronger than in these awesome precious moments. When Elder Teixera came in with his wife, they and the Jacksons stood in front of us as we sang the song to them. It was BEAUTIFUL. Not that we are good singers or anything of that sort, ha but it was the most incredible feeling. I really felt like I was a soldier in the Army of Helaman. Getting to sing that song with 100s of missionaries is such a privilege. I just had tears streaming down my cheeks as we sang it. I felt the love of my Heavenly Father sooo strongly! And then I felt very strongly the love of my family back at home. I honestly felt like a warm blanket of comfort and love wrap over me. And it like came out of nowhere! I just began to cry feeling so so so grateful for this awesome moment in my life. Wow I just LOVE being a missionary. I am so excited when I hear about all of these girls who are turning their papers in.. who are basically just signing themselves up for the experience of a lifetime. I know that I will miss it so much when my time is up. We talked a lot about the POWER and authority of a missionary. How we are really here to invite people to be baptized. Something that my companion and I have been diligent in doing lately is inviting others to be baptized in the very first lesson... it’s why we are here! to extend that blessing. He gave us SO much advice and I really feel like I walked away fully charged again and ready to give my all.

so.... C. Well I had been fasting and praying to find some direction of what to do when she ran into church late during the last hour yesterday and whispered into my ear that she has found a place to work in Toledo. She leaves tonight actually.. and she will be working in this house and living there with 5 other girls. She won´t get paid but they will allow her to live there. She doesn´t have any free days or phone until after about 15 days so we will see! She still breaks my heart. (HA I swear you heart gets so torn in so many ways on a mission.. but then again you come to love people in ways you never have before) But I am taking this as my answer! I will pass her number to the elders there (there aren´t any sisters there) and I will hope for the best and keep praying for her. Maybe this just isn´t her time. But I am beyond happy that she has finally found work and a place to live. I gave her a CTR ring and she gave me a clementine in return. How poetic haha??  Followed then by soaking me in her 5 quick sprays of her homemade body perfume... and then she ran off.. hahaha. I hope that’s not the end with her.

M. ... not sure if I have told you about him but he is just the nicest cutest old man in the entire world! He is so cool and is Dominican. He is tall too and I love it! You just don´t run into too many tall people here in Spain.. but you guys. I LOVE M. and guess what. We finally got him to accept a Baptismal date! He will be baptized on March 22. We taught him the plan of salvation and he loved it. It was like the final spark for him! He finally understands why he needs to get baptized and he is excited for March 22nd. And he just wants so bad for his family to bet baptized too. So we are trying to get his family dressed in white too. Ah he is so cute!

The work here is going greeeaaat! REALLY. It is going so great! It has been awesome to see the improvement from the first transfer of opening an area which is finding on finding on finding. Now we are teaching more and I love it. We are still finding a ton too! Speaking of finding.. we are finding so many people from Africa! They speak English. They are believing and they know it! I love it.  I am thinking of asking President Jackson how many priesthood holders we need to start am African branch here in Torrejón... haha I have faith it’s going to happen.. seriously every set of missionaries have countless African investigators.

I realized yesterday that African English is harder for me to understand on the phone than someone speaking Spanish!

Well we have met with just about all of the strange ones with interesting names of Torrejón. Here are a few: Friday (yes, his name Friday), Strong, Good works (HA my favorite), and Nana

OH and the other sisters have a man investigator named Love. Yes, LOVE. Haha, I die everytime I hear them call him and literally have to say, Hello Love!

Life is great and CRAZY. I seriously love this life! I have been a little sick this past week which has been a bummer but all is well. I think this upcoming week we have intercambios so that should be fun.

We are planning a talent show which I am SO excited for! Ah I can´t wait! I love those things. My companion and I were going to do the cotton-eye Joe with C., but now she is out of the picture... sad! Haha, that would have been the sight to see.

I TALKED TO R. ON THE PHONE! She called me! I just about cried. I miss that Cuban lady so much. More than I can even describe! AH I can´t wait to introduce you all to her one day. She is the most precious thing on the planet! I loved talking to her so much. Tender mercy!

I love you all! Have a good week okay??

Line of the week

M... so who goes to the Telestial Kindgom... HILTER??

Me.. God is the judge!

M. Yeah, He will send Hilter there.

  

HAHA. The concerns of some people here.

FIND JOY IN THE JOURNEY!

Hermana Nydegger

foto... blast from the past. R.