It Smells Like Ocean

Monday, June 22nd, 2014

Ah I dont have time like AT ALL.. but you guys.. 

I am living in a movie. I am living my dream! I have been sent up the north.. to VIGO! One of the prettiest places I have ever set my eyes on.

I wish I could give you the more details.. next week for sure.

I took an 8 hour train ride up and I felt like I was going to hogwarts/ narnia.. oh MY it was the prettiest thing.. I was dying

We are RIGHT next to the ocean (how I have missed living next the ocean!)

We are RIGHT above Portugal.

You eat tons and tons of spanish food.. like octopus! Dad I know how jelly you are!

I have officially successfully avoided the madrid summer 2 times in a row! The weather is perfect up here. Not a more perfect time to come to the beautiful land of the north i am telling you. Ha! I dont know how I am so lucky

God is so good

Missions are amazing

Another thing I learned this week is that MISSIONS BREAK HEARTS

But I would rather have my heart break than feel nothing at all

I can't tell you all how many times I feel my heart break.. Leaving Torrejon was so hard. Definitely a different hard.  But I felt so right about it. I just feel an overwhelming love for the people there. They are so so so amazing and have changed my life and strengthened my testimony. They have truly been my family. Ah really the best people ever.

Here is my address.. fyi probably don't send stuff to the mission home anymore.. it takes FOREVER for it to get to the north I have heard.

Rúa Pizarro 47, 2ºe 

Vigo 36204 

Pontevedra

SPAIN

I am in love with this city. And a little nervous at the same time. We are starting from scratch.. why have I had to do this my entire mission ha?? All you hard spaniard hearts out there...bring it! 

My companion and I are planning on changing the ATTITUDE up here

They say it rains a lot but that's okay. We are are going to throw our heads back and LOVE it.

...okay that was cheesy but I cant tell you how much in heaven I am!

I love my life and I love you all so so much!

Remember life is all about your attitude. We make things how they are! It's so hard leaving Torrejón but I know that God has so much even BETTER for me here! That's how life is.. don't look back and don't look too forward.  Live in the now and know that God does good things for you every day!

Hermana Nydegger

Nothing lower than 40 degree Celsius...It's hot!

Monday...June 16th, 2014

WELL... this week has been a crazy one ands that’s all the words I have got to say about it.

This has been a small part of my life the past 5 months..

get sick

go to the doctor

get better

go work

get sick again

We can just come to 2 conclusions. That Spain is a bit behind with the whole medical thing.. OR missionaries just don’t take care of themselves

I think that I am a mixture of the both.. either way.. I think that I am finally better!! Or lets hope so. Because being sick on your mission is like the worse because you have to think about YOURSELF and that’s not fun at all

ALSO.. this transfer has seriously been the fasting flying.. this area has been on FIRE and rumors has it that the ward is splitting. I wonder if I will be here when it splits.

Its still hot and I am a getting a very nice missionary tan line. Hahaha

Satan.. lets just say that he works very hard on people who he knows can make the most of a difference. He even works harder on the people who are about to CHANGE their live. I have realized that time after time after time on my mission but this week it has been more clear than ever.

Here is the story.

And it starts with the stud of a guy J.M.

As you know we have been teaching him for months now and he has had the longest journey of them all! He has made the biggest changes of him all. I expect a lot from him in the future just seeing how cool of a guy that he is.

Anways we met with him a few times this week to finalize all of the things for his baptism and he was doing great! I have never seen a person as excited and ready as him.

We planned the interview to be on Wednesday.. but sadly our district leader couldn´t come so we had to resport to doing the interview the day before on Friday. (I am not a fan at all of doing the interview the day before.. and you will see why)

So he comes on Friday and even comes early. We sat outside talking to him 

Meanwhile I am just calling the elders over and over and over and over again as 15 minutes..30 minutes roll by.  Turns out that the elder who lived in the other city.. his train pass wasn´t working AND he was just struggling to get over here. 

After stalling foreverrr J. just gets up and suddenly just got SO mad! It was so weird! I was on the verge of tears. Just had the biggest lump in my throat the whole time trying to talk it through with him. I got the elders on the phone and was literally trying to talk to both of them when they told me me they were 3 minutes away and running. He got all dramatic and said that he was so busy and couldn´t wait anymore and left off storming. I tried all I got possible to get him to stay but he just wouldn´t. He was exploded and told us that he will get baptized one day when we are ready. As he left I shouted to him, we´ll see you at church on sunday right? no answer.

It was just hard seeing him like this! Someone who is literally the most Christ like person I know just lose it and get so frusterated. I know it was the adversary working him.

I called him later that night.. still no answer.

Sunday rolls around and it broke my heart to see him not come to church after 12 weeks of coming without missing a single one.

Wow it was rough.

I know with out a doubt that the adversary keeps up. I hope so bad and pray so hard that J.  isn´t gone.. I know he is better than that! He HAS such a testimony burning inside of him and it would hurt me to see him fall

Man the adversary is REAL. but we can be stronger than it. I know with all of my heart that there is no heart ache no temptation no saddness no adversary that we cannot overcome. Christ helps us. He helps us to be stronger that that. I know that he will be there to help J! I know its not the end.

Just one of the trials in the life of a missionary

On that note.. I have come to know on my mission more about the love that Christ and Heavenly Father have for literally everyone. They know our weaknesses.. and they don´t judge us for them because the KNOW our hearts perfectly. I feel it all of the time. as I walk down the street seeing people who are struggling with their lives and as I get to know people who fall. He loves us for no matter what and desires everything for us. Its never too late to change back. It hits me hard as I think of that. It makes my heart pump. 

every soul is of great worth in the sight of the lord

Every change begins with small and simple things.

The longer and longer I have been a missionary the simpler my testimony has become

I KNOW Christ lives

I know Heavenly Father is aware of us

He hears our prayers

He gives everything we need

He loves us

I have 6 months left and thats it. I am going to give it all I´ve got.

I have loved my mission and I hope to continue to feel the same way forever

I give God all that I´ve got and he is giving me something better. Something I can´t deny! How happy I am about it too. I am so excited for all of you future missionaries. It is quite the experience and WILL change your live.

Hermana Nydegger

Ps.. newest nickname! Niagra falls!... hahaha someone this week who couldn´t say my name called me Niagara falls...

Holy Calor

Monday...June 9th, 2014

Buenas tardes a todos! (Good afternoon to all)

Time is absolutely just slipping right from underneath of me.

And I don´t know what to do about it. I complete my year mark on Thursday.. weird huh! I remember when Hermana Phillips hit her year mark and thinking that she was so old and that I would never reach that point.. yet here I am now! I can´t remember not being a missionary and can´t remember so many things from my life before! Even like the lyrics to some of my favorites songs. The missionary vail is real.. 

So this morning as I was making this awesome huge list of good missionary plaque scritpures for katie.. (if any wants it they are free to have it) I was just reflecting on how much I love the scriptures and how little I read them before the mission. Holy cow, I LOVE the scriptures. It is just so CLEAR to me that they came from God. There are SO many good ones too. So many just heaven sent scriptures that we very indeed written for our benifit. But we can´t benifit from them if we don´t study them!  

I was just thinking about all of the time I wasted and the things that were important to me. Like how FAST I would be to open up a friend´s snapchat or scroll through insta haha but how slow I would be flip my scriptures open.

Moroni 10:32

I was also thinking about one of the greatest blessings of actually being a full time missionary. And the thought came to my mind that it was without a doubt my testimony. It literally just POUNDS within me. And it makes me happy and its all I need. I didn´t have it like that before! Missions are amazing. We are called if we have the desires. And with those desires we leave blindly into the field leaving practially everything behind other than our truest friend Jesus Christ. And really that is ALL we need. I was thinking and in the long run we really don´t leave anything behind! Missions are the best. They are oh so worth it. 

My mission has changed me and helped me to change others. It is the greatest experience that God has given me than I could ever give myself. It has been my biggest miracle.

We has a SWEET missionary activity on Saturday. It was weird because I felt like i was in the MTC again! It was just fun being around tons of excited people with name tags getting ready to go get some WORK done. It was fun. We listened to these great talks before from rms which i loved and then we did a fun practice to teach them how to approach people without being awkward haha.. we are funny. I will just say that. But then we got our companions and I ws so happy to be with my good friend the bishops daughter G! We worked sooo hard and I just loved being able to give her a little taste of the missionary life. We then came back.. sang the efy medly (which by the way is very tricky to play on the piano with tons of latinos and their great musical talent hahaha) and then we had really one of the coolest testimonies meetings.

PURE and simple testimony. It is the most powerful thing to hear. And the most powerful thing to feel. I love the spirit. That is also a huge blessing of the mission. The spirit.. you learn SO much about it and how it works and how much we need it. I want to do all I can for the rest of my life to have this same spirit with me.. even the tiniest things. My cute companion Gabby and many other members gave incredible testimonies. I hope every single one of these youth choice to serve a mission. It will bring them more joy than anything. I felt so happy sitting there listening to them

We worked way hard talking to everyone possible on the streets for 3 hours straight and not going to lie.. it was hard! But the feeling you get after is so so so worth it! I mean think about how you feel after doing sometime really hard compared to how you feel after you sleep in really late or after hours of of playing games. Which is more worth it? The first is.

With hard things comes GREAT reward

So this week has been awesome!

Hermana Carroll and I have been working so hard and having so much fun. We are happy here just trying to enjoy these last few weeeks of the transfer.

The Madrid summer has officially come. And apparently its not even here in full blast yet.. great because I am dying already! Ha it is like the WORST at night trying to sleep and not getting anywhere with it. Luckily we found this ancient 100 years old fan thing in our apartement that we drag around with us everywhere during the morning and night.

We met and now are officially teaching a Spaniard BUDDHIST named M.  who is from Bilbao. Ask me how many times I have met a spanish buddhist?? 

ZERO. I am taking advantage of it! and I am in love with her accent. She is so cute.

J.M. is finally getting baptized on Saturday! He is so incredible. He is the truest example of someone who has discovered the gospel of Christ. I am happy that he can finally get baptized and that he now is stronger than ever before. I love this cool guy! What a journey with him. Definitely a defining moment of my mission.

Well.. time is up! I love you all a lot. Keep of the good work and keep up smiling. We have a lot to be happy about. 

Hermana Nydegger

Ps... this little african boy is poking me right now. I don´t know him haha. Enjoy the pic

Running of the Bulls setup has begun.  So fun to see it right by where we live.  

Tory John

Monday...June 2, 2014

  

I LITERALLY FEEL LIKE I WAS EMAILING 2 SECONDS AGO.

This week has absolutely flew.. well they all do! but this week there was not one single slowish day. It was a good week too! I felt so good last night just laying there thinking about it. I can´t believe my time may be finishing up here in the good old tory john. (as my companion and I call it) I love torrejón!

Also, seriously this area has just been ON FIRE the last few transfers. Wow I love it. I feel so exhausted but man it is so worth it! I love love love love being a missionary.. its hard but it sure is great.

Cute E. got baptized on Saturday night! There were actually 5 baptisms and we had SUCH a great turn out. It really was great! So many people came and it was just so great warming to feel of all of the love and support from this incredible people here. E. was so cute.. I asked her when she plans on going back to Guatemala and she was like..

"As soon as you leave... I´m out of here too!" haha I LOVE her. Can we make a round world trip after my mission so that I can visit all of my dear life friends?

This week was so busy! I seriously felt like a was a chicken running around with its head cut off! So many things to do... so little time haha. But anyways so last p day i like broke my finger kind of and our ward mission leader was like trying to fix it or unjam it because it was literally BLACK and as thick as my thumb...

Word of the wise... never let a latino try to fix your broken finger

I was resisting as much as I could! I told him that I would pull it really hard later tonight by myself. And then we was like.. "When investigators don´t pray with you in a lesson and say that they will later when they are alone, do they end up praying?" I was like... "true" hahaha. Then I sadly got pressured into letting him try to fix my finger.. which only made it worse! 

Luckily we got to go to the temple on Wednesday (which by the way was amazing) and I could show my finger to President Jackson and he could take a nice american look at it. Thank goodness for the doctors and stuff from America! 

This week we have got some AMAZING stuff going on. We are having this HUGE missionary work activity on Saturday that I CAN´T wait for... it is really going to be so cool! Oh and its a stake activity too so hopefully tons of people come! But we are going to do is meet together at the church that morning and some awesome pep talks and teach people how to do a contact and what not! (we are doing skits too of what a good one is and what a bad one is so that should be funny) And then we are going to do some major split action and have all of the missionaries go out on splits with as many members as we can get. Ah as we were planning it earlier this week I really felt the spirit SO strongly and got the biggest chills just thinking about it. We are hoping to have over 100 people come and go out with us. So yeah we are going to go out and get some serious work done! We are dividing torrejon into a bunch of different zones and each missionary is going to be a leader of that zone and basically we are going to contact every living soul in the zone. I can´t wait. Torrejon is FULL of a bajillion people just so prepared and we the missionaries and members and going to be taking them on HARD!! ha i can´t wait. And I am exicted to see who will be my mini missionary! Then we are coming back and eating and then having a sweet testimony meeting. So cool.

Why don´t we ever do stuff like that in america? Oh thats right... we live in Utah! But still.. we can still do awesome stuff like that!

Also random thought.. I realized this week that before my mission I never not even once went out with the missionaries. After my mission... that will be my life! Literally any spare minute ha. If there was anything that I wish I would have done before it would be GO OUT WITH THE MISSIONARIES! Seriously one of the better ways to prepare yourself for a mission other than getting a testimony.

This week sadly one of our elders had to go home for health reasons and it was so weird for me! Ah and I had another weird dream about coming home which made me feel so weird and sad. I´m trying to live in the now and be as consecrated as a missionary that I can be.

I love missions. One of the things that you can really learn is obedience. I heard that it can be the greatest blessing of your mission or the greatest trial. Well, its true! But as we know.. the Lord is OBLIGATED to bless us when we do what he wants. So why wouldn´t we? I love the mission! I am trying to be perfectly even in the tinest things even though its hard for me. LAtely I have just been feeling a desire to really perfect the smallest things! Its hard but the Lord Jesus Christ can and will and already has helped us if we but put our trust in him. 

Those on missions right now... ENJOY this time in your life to be so perfectly obedient! It is really one of the only times in our lives that we have to be so obedient! To follow the rules so exactly with a purpose so grand. I know that there are blessings that come from exact obedience. It is something that I have learned soo much and it is something that I never thought I would say that either.. but there ARE. And one of the biggest ones is the spirit and protection and guidance we get from Heavenly Father that we absolutely cannot live without.

Our purpose in life is to follow Christ! To simply just follow him and love him and in return be like him! 

I love you all... FELIZ CUMPLE TO DAD AND CARI AND NIK! I took a moment with my companion to sing to all of you great people on Saturday before going to bed when I realized what day it was. 

LOVE YOU ALL! Make good choices!

Hermana Nydegger

E. baptism...Love her!

We fit 6 people into a 3 person elevator and almost got stuck!  It was faster and plus we didn't want to walk up 8 flights of stairs.

My Mother's Day view of my familia.