Being rescued to be able to rescue.

Monday, August 26th, 2014

THIS WEEK WAS THE SHORTEST WEEK!

Zone conference was amazing. I am amazed at how much Spirit exists and how much we can miss every day! I wonder what I must feel like to literally be in the presence of God. To be so overcome by the spirit that our natural bodies literally can´t take it.

I feel so tired lately but miraculously I am able to take another leap every day into this marvelous work of the Lord. Zone Conference was amazing and so fulfilling and enlightening. We went up there on the very same train track that over 80 people died on last year in the horrible train wreck (SCARY!) but it was a beautiful ride like always. We got there and went to lunch and then went to see the oldest lighthouse in the world. It was so beautiful! So Spanish and European and beautiful. Picture old men playing bagpipes on rolling hills hills and hills next to the ocean which was SO close! I live in a heaven that's for sure. A Coruña is just like Vigo minus the hills ha. I just love the members! Anyways, then we stayed in a hotel which was glorious and had an awesome fireside. We didn´t have a ton of time for the fireside so we didn´t do much but we watched Ephraim´s rescue.

It was the first time I´ve ever seen it and it touched my heart so much as a missionary of the Lord here in Spain. So many things ran through my mind. Here are some of my thoughts...

I thought back to M. The priesthood is so REAL and the most important thing that we need to strive for and support. The Lord rescues us so that we rescue others. The way that we rescue others is through perfect obedience. As we TRY and serve others while honoring and relying completely on the power of the priesthood, forgetting of ourselves and upholding our talents that God has given us to spark something in others, thus we are RESCUED.

I was thinking the other day in the street...Why is it that God allows the work of Salvation to be hard? Why do we have to send missionaries out, one by one, using all they have physically, spiritually, mentally, and a little more? Why doesn´t God just send Christ down again, so that He appears to everyone and says HERE I HAVE COME! WE HAVE THE TRUTH! It would be so much faster.. Why does it cost so much?  Why is it just as hard for missionaries as it is for the investigators.. or for everyone in life?  I was reminded by the Atonement. This work isn´t easy because it wasn´t easy for Christ. It requires something of our soul. God asks for the DESIRES of our heart and for our will. It's all we have that He may not. 

The time comes in everyone's life where they have to move and work and TRY. Another name for the gospel of Jesus Christ is OPPORTUNITY. Every child of God has a point in life where they need to be rescued. The gospel gives us opportunities to be personally rescued by Christ and to take part in the rescuing of others.

If God wanted, He could have everyone know of the truth right now! But he loves us so much and understands so much better to give us the opportunity to take part of his work and grow. God wants us to be rescuers of men.

Something I realized this week is why missionaries do go through the temple before the mission. We go to learn and covenant to live the law of CONSECRATION. I don´t think that there is a calling in life that requires consecration like that of a missionary. There is such a higher way of life that I am learning every day, day by day

I need to discipline my desires so that they become those of God. God can CHANGE desires. He works through desires and through faith. We can literally pray and plead with the Lord to change our desires and live the higher law. I came out on a mission to SERVE one, not just go on one. I need to give ALL I have, there is nothing more to give and nothing better! Give your will. Align in with that of the Lord through praying for help, and then TRY. Take a step forward and go. What a significant difference there is between sacrifice and consecration.

POWER comes from your heart. The place where desires are born! We can pray to have God give us higher and better desires. For the Lord worksthrough others to bring to pass his true work of salvation

I am here to save others and Christ saves me along the way. I have so many weaknesses they couldn´t even be counted, but I TRY and I am going and I am happy. WE are part of the plan of Salvation. We are part for a reason. We rescue. Abraham 1:1-2. He realized he needed a change of dwelling or a change of DESIRES. He pleads with the Lord and works and the Lord ultimately CHANGES his heart and he becomes a father of nations. He receives power. 

It was the weirdest thing sending Hermana Schaumann off in the tiny little night train! It is weird to be out but I know that the harder I work and the more I change my heart the more peace I will have when it's my time to go. It's nice being with Hermana Braithwaite. She is fearless and a hard worker. We have fun.

L. is doing AWESOME! He is this sweet Peruvian man who is so prepared. Everytime I run into these such prepared people I just am amazed.. God truly prepares the hearts of the children of man. We are here to find and teach these people who are ready now! We need to have the faith to drop those who aren't and have to faith that they will not be lost. He now has a fecha to baptized on the 27th of September.

I have absolute knowledge that God loves us. That He is literally our Father and He is oh so good. He knows us. And He expects us to pray and to trust. To not give up and to be believing and not panic when something seems to not be going our way. He expects us to stay in and keep moving and keep loving and keep trusting following that narrow and strait path. We will fall into His arms and feel His warm embrace.

OS QUIERO!

Hermana Emily

15 minutes

Monday, August 18th, 2014

Well.. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR NICE WORDS AND LETTERS YOU HAVE SENT ME! I loved your talk Lily, families and tempples are the most important things. I´ve only got like 15 minutes literally of emailing time! Just read everyones so now I´ll try to send this off quick. We just got off our train and we are now in A Coruna for this zone conference that we have to go to in 10.. so we just popped into this locutorio to say hi!

Sounds like you all had a great week.. mine was great too.

LOTS of walking. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all festivos and when it is festivo here in Spain, EVERYTHING closes down and everyone goes to either the beach all day or to portugal! Ha its real fun for the missionaries because almost everything that we can even get set up falls through and we are left walking and walking and walking and knocking and calling and walking until we find someone on the street. Sometimes these are the days that the only people who will pay attention to us is the drunks.. but hey we still were able to find a few miracles through it all.

The biggest miracle from the week is probably this man named L. Luis is a fisherman from Peru that we found on the street. We have only met with him once but he seems golden! Let's just say that as we taught him the restoration he randomly ran out of the room and than ran back in with a notebook to take notes haha. 

We also got stopped by a bunch of j dubs so that was fun.. I am so grateful for our knowledge that is TRUE of the gospel that just makes so much sense.

Hermana Schaumann goes home in 3 days and I am so sad!!!! I Love her so much and will miss her a lot. Go to her homecoming for me! She a great Hermana.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I thought of that day

WELL OS QUIERO A TODOS! YA ME TENGO QUE IR!

Hermana Nydegger

It's True!

Monday August 11th, 2014

SAD NEWS.  I found out the other day that M. hasn't been going to church the past 5 weeks and that no one has been able to get in contact with him.. I am going to try and call him tonight (after I get permission from pres). It really really breaks my heart. He is one of my strongest converts I have no idea what could have happen. Pray for him PLEASE. He is the coolest and most person I know.

GREAT NEWS...I found that R....my most favorite person in the world...is getting ready to go to the temple! I have never been full of more joy than when I found that out

Anyways.. how are family! Feliz Cumpleaños a ti, Katie! Cant believe that you will be heading out in just a little over a month.. I am so so so so excited for you! I am amazed every day about how INCREDIBLE missions are. Mom I loved the quote you sent me and I agree with all of my heart to it.

MISSIONARY JOY: "I feel sorry for the man or the woman who has never experienced the sweet joy which comes to the missionary who proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ, who brings honest souls to a knowledge of the truth, and who hears the expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving that come from the hearts of those who have been brought by his labor to a comprehension of life eternal. So also do I feel sorrow for those who have never experienced the sweet joy resulting from reaching out their hands and helping those who were needy. Assuredly there is more blessing [that] comes to us from giving than in accumulating; there is no question of this in my mind. There is also more blessing [that] comes to us in going forth to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and laboring for the salvation of the souls of men, than can possibly come to us by merely having a knowledge of the truth of our religion, and then remaining at home to mingle and labor in the ordinary affairs of life, and accumulate the wealth of this world that perishes with the using. One great trouble is that we ofttimes lose sight of what is the most valuable labor for us to perform, the labor that will be most pleasing in the sight of our Heavenly Father. 

-Heber J Grant

IT'S TRUE...the book is blue. Go on missionsss they are cooool. Thats my rhyme for the day.

This week has been an interesting one! Mainly its been interesting being in a trio but I love it! We all have the same goals and all like working hard so thats great. We have been focusing on using every minute effitiently too which has been great. (if you havent noticed I cant spell anymore its bad!) But its great I like Hermana Braithwaite a lot. Shes a great Hermana and we get along.

Interesting things from the week.. we are teaching a muslim man named G. who doesn't really speaking  english or spanish, sino french. Don't ask me how we do it! GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL. But its been just CRAZY teaching someone without a christian background again. Because first you have to get them to understand and to believe that Christ is literally the SAVIOR of the world. The Son of God. He such a cute man.  He is practically paralyzed on the right side of his body. We'll see where it goes.

I still continue to have nightmares as far as coming home. I am hoping that those will come to an end soon.. ojalá.

I've decided that I love BRASILEANOS! Holy cow they are just the greatest people also! And there food is so dang good. They are AWESOME missionaries. I love it so much. There is this lady S. who is brasilena and she is the funniest person I know. I die laughing every time! She is so nice and just a real person. We are working with her 2 kids who are less active but they are so cool! They are both just in there 20's and they are very good looking people.   My companion lived in Brasil for like 3 years and so she obviously is just in heaven every time we teach them. I have decided that I want to tour all of South America. Being in Spain, I get a taste of all worlds! I love Spaniards and I love South and Central america...such amazing people.

I am still in love with Vigo. With all of Spain actually. Weird how time crawls and then before you know it it is just flying right from underneath of you. I guess thats just life.

Something that I learned more this week than any other week is this...

The more you learn about of the atonement, the stronger will your desires increase to share it.

It's so TRUE guys. Wish I had more time to explain.

I am just going to copy and paste a part of what I sent president jackson

"M. and her daughter A...I love them so much. They are progressing greatly and I feel like I have never loved investigators as much as I love them. I was brought to tears in a lesson the other day with them. It's been incredible throughout the mission. The more and more I learn and understand the atonement the more I want for them to feel and use the power of it. And to understand and feel it like I do. It really is true, the more you learn about the atonement, the more you will feel the desire to work and serve others forgeting of yourself. I felt it stronger than I ever have on Thursday night with those two girls."

Sorry this email is literally all over the place! Its been a strange but great week.

Love you all!

Hermana Nydegger

Por fin...FOTOS FROM MERCHYS BAPTISM!

Somas Viajas

Monday, August 4th, 2014

HELLO FAMILIA MIA!

Well... after M. baptism we got the awaited transfer calls and Hermana Braithwaite got sent up here to Vigo to make us into one OLD tired ugly and no energy Hermana trio haha. The good thing is that as 3 women, we can enter in whatever house or anything without dragging a member with us. The down side is that when we contact we kind of just ATTACK the people.. we are getting used to it though. It's fun! It reminds me of the most fun week when I had was in a trio with Hermana Christian and Money. She is one transfer ahead of me! Hermana Schaumann goes home in 2.5 weeks.. then Braithwaite, then me. so yeah.. we need to get our greenie fire back somehow because we are just so old. Man the mission.. SE CANSA! I can´t say it any other way. Have fun with google translation...not sure how well it even translates...Suerte! But really though...la mision se cansa. We say that every month is 5 years in your life.. so with that.. I am about to hit the big seven zero. Yeah mornings are rough as we roll out of bed crying. Okay just kidding.  Ain't nothing quite like a mission! It's the best life.

SO M. got baptized! It was a way special night. And her 3 kids came, so that was AWESOME! Really it was a really, really, really special night. They don´t have a font here so we have to literally spend 6 hours filling it up with a tiny hose and buckets. If it was anything other than a BAPTISM/ requirement into heaven I wouldn´t do it..haha but its kind of like the most important thing so yeah...venga! 

Well.. I don´t have much time today but I love you so much! We see literal MIRACLES every day. God has been a God of miracles today, yesterday, and forever he will be. Missionaries are so blessed and so guided without even knowing it.

I have been so so so completely tired. You know you are tired and old when everyone tells you constantly how tired you look but how happy you look. Time is flying. Literally last night I just had the thought as we walked home.. I don´t think I have ever been this tired in my entire life...can I really do this for 4 more months? And then I had the thought how can I not keep doing the thing that has made me the happiest I have ever been in my life? It's a struggle sometimes to keep running and working and loving like crazy and just giving my all, but man it is so easy at the same time. Knowing that my time is wrapping up is the most painful thing. And that keeps me going! Knowing that one day I won´t have the authority to do what I do now keeps me running around trying to give up my will. Honestly you come on missions thinking that you will do amazing and incredible things but then you get here and realize that you don´t do anything...it's the LORD! When you work your hardest and give your all and consecrate yourself, Heavenly Father allows us to be instruments in HIS hands.  We just happen to be there. I tell you there is not a better feeling than sitting there at the end of the night with your companion just completely exhausted but completely content as you just say to yourself, that was not me today. That was the Lord. I know that the Christ lives. And I know that everything that we are.. is because he has given it to us! 

The other night Hermana Schaumann and I stayed up talking in bed. I was telling her the most special moment and experience of my entire life...something so incredible and so amazing that I haven't even shared with any of you. Something I don´t share with many. And something that many can't understand. The hardest, yet most beautiful and real day of my life. Out of nowhere, we both just started crying about how much we love the atonement and how real it is. How happy we are and how hearts just pump. The spirit was strong in our little room as we just shared how much we have learned and loved on the mission and how much we have grown and seen the atonement work in our own lives and many others. Man it is so cool being able to talk and share so much with your comp as you have done the same things and just understand each other well. It was such a great night. Holy cow I just love companions. There aren't any people quite like your companions on your mission. Makes me get teary just thinking about the love within comps. I am eternally grateful for the mission.. words can't describe.  

We found this less active girl the other day who is about 27 and served a mission and I cannot tell you how much it breaks my HEART! I call her every day and always try to get in touch with her yet she hasn´t answered or anything. I pray so hard that we may be able to help this awesome girl. Pray for her! I will do ANYTHING to help this girl out and help her re-learn what she preached for 18 months. It breaks my heart knowing that someone who has served a mission can fall. Good thing is that the atonement is literally for EVERYONE. I read 2 Nephi 2 this morning and I think it's my favorite chapter. The atonement is for all. Christ made the intercession for all and the plan of salvation is possible through him. Because of him we are here and we can be perfected. Because of him we will be in front of God being judged with him begging our cause. I want everyone to know what I know! And to feel what I feel. 

Honestly the biggest miracle brought forth from a mission is the change and testimony within the missionary.

I love missions! I love my life so much. I am so tired. Sometimes I think I can´t do this for another day but then I think of Christ suffering and think about how tired he must have been and it helps me trust and FULLY trust in his infinite love and atonement to give me what I need to give. I love Him.

Con mucho amor,

vuestra hija en galicia

Pink Is Coming To Madrid

Monday...July 28th, 2014

COMO OS VA MI FAMILIA!

So.... my comp and I think that we have both received revelation as far as what transfer calls will bring this Saturday!

The other night I had a dream. So in this dream.. actually wait it wasn´t just a dream it was a NIGHTMARE. So in my dream it's Saturday night and we are getting transfer calls when the phone rings and instead of our district leader calling us we get this mysterious call from President Jackson tell us just that..

PINK CONVERTED AND YOU ARE TRAINING HER CONGRATULATIONS..

I freeeeaaaaked out in my dream and was so RELIEVED when I woke up that it wasn´t true. 

Really though... of all people.. PINK????! Imanginaos. Hermana Schaumann and I have been DYING laughing all week about how we are going to train the recently converted celeb PINK. Needless to say every comp study we sing the hymn like our dearest pink would sing them in preparation. Ya veremos...

The Lord's hand is soo in his work its incredible. I LOVE it up here. I hope to finish my mission up here. 

First off I got to do a way fun intercambio with Hermana Snelson on Tuesday! That was really fun. She is a great hermana and it was fun going over to area Pontevedra. There are only like 7 members there its crazy. Its fun getting a taste of so many different worlds here in the mission.

President and Sister Jackson came to Vigo with their sons this past weekend and I cannot even express how much I LOVE them. They are truely amazing and have made SUCH an impact on me throughout this time on my mission. They literally are like my second parents. I finally had an interview with Pres and it was so great. They are such special people. I remember when the MTC president in Madrid first told me that the Jacksons were born to mission presidents. It's true. And I love them so much! How grateful I am to be able to be with them my entire mission.

This week has actually been really hot but thank goodness for the OCEAN BREEZES that come in every here and now. I am in love with Vigo. Other than the part that it is ALL up hill and we are literally hiking the entire day.. and my calves are getting bigger by the second.

I am continually amazed at how amazing the mission is. And how time goes by so fast. I can´t believe I have only 3 transfers left. That John is leaving and Anna has already finished. The mission time is such a sacred time and it really is up before you know it and there in nothing you can do about it! I am here just trying to cherish every moment and stay focused and give up my will.

Christ says, "Give me All. I don´t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don´t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down... Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked- the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours."

All that Christ ever asks is for our WILL. Give up our will! It is the only thing that he doesn´t not have. Our will. Our thoughts. Our heart. 

The more we give ourSELVES the more we become like Christ. "Give up your will! and I will give you something more beautiful. I will give you mine." We can literally become perfect through the atonement of Christ. Man I literally can´t put it into words. The atonement covers ALL. It is literally an UNLIMITED power that each and every single person can access. It is what gives us hope and it is what allows us to change every day.. for every day we are changing. It just makes so much sense to me. I love being a missionary and putting more pieces together every day of WHO I am and WHO I can become. And then being able to help others let Christ help them and do likewise.

Elder Scott said it perfectly with,

"Through the atonement of Jesus Christ makes possible our becoming more like our Father in Heaven so that we can live together eternally in our family units."

The atonement is what burns inside me as a missionary as I strive in my journey of completely and fulling giving up my will. I am so happy here. I have truely never been happier in my life! How good God truly is. How great our lives are with the knowledge we have of our dear savior. 

I may not be perfect but I do try and I do give what I have to give everyday. Through daily and consistent prayer and DOING can we truly align our will and truly have peace.

I wouldn´t give up my mission here for anything in the entire world and I can´t express how sad it makes me that it will soon be wrapping up. I also can´t express how EXCITED I am for those who are embarking in this great work. I love my Heavenly Father so so much. For blessing me and my family so much. I have seen so many life changing things and I am continually humbled day after day as I learn more and see more.

I love you all so much! 

Line of the week..

Sitting on a bench making phone calls when a little girl and her mom walk past us, look at us, and the mom says to the 2 year old

Mom: Quieres ser monja?? Do you want to be a NUN?

Me: No somos mojas!! WE ARENT NUNS!

Haha I can´t tell you how many people think that we are nuns!

Photo...on our way to Moaña! We travel via boat sometimes here seeing that its faster... I love this picture! With the spain picture and Vigo in the back.