FEAST OR FAMINE

Monday...September 23rd

Feast or famine is just about the story of my LIFE. Haha especially this week. As a missionary it is either a feast or famine. There is no middle ground no matter how hard you try. Life as a missionary is just about as crazy as it gets. I love it. Though, I can miss home, I am very happy.

Guess where I am right now? In the lovely home of LOS ANDERSONS. (by the way I forgot my camera cord this weekend so SORRY. no pictures until next week). They are just the greatest and this has been the most fun weekend in the history of traveling to other islands as a missionary. Haha This is definitely the closest that I will ever get to a vacation as a missionary. Love it.

So let me start from the beginning. Sister Phillips and I had suuuuch an incredible week of work. Every day we have been out leaving early to appointments at 10:30am and not arriving home until 10:30pm. If you ask me... that is a packed day. We haven't had time for one single medio dia this week because we have just been out working, working, working. Every night we come home just exhausted and literally sleep like a rock until 7:30am the next morning. We are literally running from appointment to appointment. And not just running - sprinting. Ha it must be such a funny sight to see to young girls dressed in skirts with big smiles on our faces just sprinting to catch the gua gua (bus).  Catching it literally by a second. We definitely get a wide variety of looks if you know what I mean.. It is so great. The work is really exploding here in Los Cristianos thanks to the Lord.

Yesterday I was practically on THE TITANIC. It was so fun and beautiful. So Saturday night after our work we took the bus up to Santa Cruz to stay over with the Andersons because we had to catch the boat over to Gran Canaria early Sunday Morning. AND guess what. The sisters here in Santa Cruz are currently staying with the Andersons until they find a piso soooo.. aka Hermanas Nydegger, Phillips, Money, Judy sleepover. It has been so so so so sooo fun.

Sunday morning we got up at the crack of dawn to catch the boat to Gran Canaria. I think it was the first time I have been on a boat as big and official as that. The view was SO gorgeous. The prettiest thing I have EVER seen. The sunrise was gorgeous. AND coming back at the end of the day we watched the sunset which was even more gorgeous to me. It was such a fun thing after such a fun and exciting day. I honestly have never had a better day! The Canary Islands are now officially a STAKE. 6 wards and 3 new branches. It is incredible.

Sometimes I honestly wonder how it is that I am here right now at this time serving a mission here on an island and how the Lord has directed my life in such a way that I can be here right now. It is so cool reflecting on my entire life journey.

Sorry the email is so short this week. I WISH I HAD MORE TIME! I really have so much to say!! Sooo much to say. Just a shortened time for emails. I will give you all more details next week I promise! AND pictures I promise.

I love you all so much! Keep up the good work and keep the high and positive perspective. Find the Joy in everything good or bad because it is THERE! I promise it is there... it is just up to you. Look to the Lord in every detail of your life and trust in Him with all.

MUCH LOVE!

Fried Sardines?

¡Que tal familia!...Monday Sept. 16th

How are you all? It is seriously SO great to hear from all of you every week. I can tell that you are all being stellar member missionaries! What cool examples. SO this week has kinda been a drag because guess what... BOTH ME AND MY COMP ARE SICK! Kinda haha. We all knew this would happen at some point. Press forward saints... life goes on. This week is going to be such a good one.. I CAN FEEL IT. We already have some great things planned PLUS... guess what next weekend is...

THE CANARY ISLANDS ARE BECOMING A STAKE

How coooooool is that? We may be few, but we are STRONG! And we are growing. I am so excited. We finally have enough priesthood holders to become a stake. All of the missionaries are headed to GRAN CANARIA early Sunday Morning.. I CAN´T WAIT! It is going to be so fun! Such exciting times here in enspaña!! AH I CAN´T WAIT! We are going to take the gua gua up to Santa Cruz on Saturday night.. sleep over at the Andersons and then catch a FOUR hour boat ride over to gran canaria Sunday morning! Elder Reina the area 70 will be there. We will have Stake Conference. We will eat. And then we will go back to Santa Cruz. Me and my comp will stay over AGAIN at the Andersons and then get to spend Pday with them and the other Hermanas in La Laguna. SO. EXCITED. Oh and I will finally get to meet the other hermanas and elders on the other islands!

So this week I ate probably the NASTIEST thing ever! AND I ate probably my most favorite thing ever. Good week yeah? Haha okay so to start with the nasty. Blended up sardines breaded and fried. Haha OH MY I NEVER WILL EAT ONE AGAIN. On Friday we went wayyy far out to the middle of nowhere on a windy and sketchy gua gua for a food appointment we had. So we FINALLY get there and then as soon as we walk in I smell sea food. And not the good kind. The bad RAW kind. I was like NOOOO in my head. It was badddd. So she puts on our plates these weird fried things. I cut it open. The insides are just gray. We asked what they were. "Oh they are just sardines blended up! I breaded them and fried them. I hope you like them because I made a lot!" You should have seen the smile on my face. But guess what. I downed like 9 of them. She just kept piling them on our plates. I am becoming mentally strong with things like that. Yay for gift of tongue.

AREPAS!

This week our friend Leonor taught us how to make arepas. AH so fun. First off let me tell you about Leonor. She is incredible. She is a less active that we found. Probably the nicest old lady. We have been meeting with her and I just LOVE HER. The first time I met her she made me sit down and put my legs on a chair. She just started massaging them and saying some interesting little chant. I was dying. She is so great! So loving. And she has been coming to church so it is great!! So arepas are these really popular things from Colombia and Venezuela. SO good. You will have to look them up. They are so simple and easy to make! It’s amazing because they are so good. And it was so fun learning how to make them. I wish so badly that I had my camera that day. But it was fun. We then put this super good meat stuff inside. Haha then we had this big Colombian feast! Also... Leonor has a grandson named David that lives with her in their tiny piso. David is this REBELIOUS little 19 year boy who smokes all of the time and has tons of tattoos. He isn´t a member. He is so mean to Leonor and it is so sad:( but we are trying to get him to change and have a better life!) We FINALLY got him to open up that night! He prayed outloud for the first time with us and was really interested. So we will see with him! We are slowly opening him up little by little. Either way I now know how to make arepas. So get ready in 15 months I will make you all some! they are cool. You can practically put whatever you want in them. Also I just love the word "arrrrepas."

COOL story that happened this morning! So we get this random call this morning. We answered and it turns out that it was a lady and a grandson who want to learn English! (she saw our advertisement or something for the class.) Anyways so she told us that she was in Los Cristianos at the moment and we were - SO ARE WE! So we ventured out to go find this lady and show her where the chapel is so that she can know where to come for English class tomorrow. So we finally find her! This cute old lady with a cane. So we met her and walked with her to the chapel! I can´t remember her name.. but this nice lady is from Cuba. Anyways so finally we are like 7 steps from the door to the chapel. And guess what. As soon as she sees the little chapa (I forget what it’s called in English.. it’s like a nametag thing). As soon as she sees the name of the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints she just stops in her steps and starts CRYING. She just starts crying. And she begins to tell us how much she just loves Christ. It was such a cool experience. She then started to say, "Cristo vive! Alelujah!" It was SO cool! She looked at my chapa on my shirt and just hugs me. We then decided to give her a church tour! She was very teary throughout the whole thing! I don´t quite know how all of this happened so fast. but I KNOW that it was inspired. It was the coolest thing hearing her talk about how she felt. She then told us how before when she was waiting for the bus one day, that she saw our flyer and that it just GLOWED to her. She described it as something from the heavens. She told us that she knew she had to call that number.

The Lord works in mysterious ways!

My comp and I have great hopes for this cute little lady from Cuba

More than anything lately my testimony has been growing of following the spirit. I know that if you are living your life, in a way that Christ would live his life, and if you are doing ALL that you can do... Your paths will be directed. We are here in the Lords hands! If we are worthy He will 100% use us as his instruments. Often times not in the way that we would expect. Some of the coolest moments that I have had on the mission are when plans fall through and we randomly decide to pass by someone’s house. When we are doing all that we can and when we decide to ACT.. that is when The Lord directs our paths.

Until next week! LOVE you all un monton.

con mucho amor,

Hermana Nydegger

Milagros

HOLA FAMILIA!! ¿QUA TAL?  Monday...Sept 9th

Guess what!? My companion and I are seeing MIRACLES! This past week has maybe been the greatest week yet. Heavenly Father is seeing how hard we are working and we are being blessed so much with success. We are seeing SO much success... the work here in Los Cristianos is really starting to explode. The church is true the book is blue!

Also we had Zone Meeting this week in Santa Cruz... SANTA CRUZ is so cool. It is so much prettier than Los Cristianos haha!  But the meeting was awesome. Super uplifting. AND the new sisters are here! They are so great!!! ah I love all of the missionaries that I get to serve with! Hermanas and elders are so powerful.  Funny thing... no one can say my name here.. so at the meeting I had to play the piano and after one of the zone leaders.. who is a native says, "Gracias a la hermana niiiger para tocar el piano." EVERYONE starts bursting out laughing!! Not to mention we were on skype with the other missionaries on the other islands. Not like we didn´t see that one coming. AND a family here started calling me Hermana Mcdonalds because apparently Nydegger sounds like nugget... understand their logic?  Yeah, I don´t either. Haha I have good luck don´t I?

Yesterday was fun. At church I had to give my first talk in SPANISH. For like 10 minutes! Haha, yay for first timers! It went great. I talked about the importance of repentance and baptism. LILY. I talked about you in my talk! I talked about how you are preparing to baptized in a few weeks and how HAPPY I am for your decision and for your example. I actually got kinda emotional in it. I just felt a huge wave of emotion and of the spirit testifying to me that you are making the right choice in your life and that you are about to open the door to the rest of your life! It was a really tender moment. It still is as I am now thinking back to it.  It really is the door and it is the first step. Baptism is one of my favorite things to bear my testimony about. And how IMPORTANT it is. I am so proud of you Lil.  I wish with all of my heart that I could be there with you for this big day.

So speaking of baptism.... guess what...

Starting with ALEX! Alex the Colombiano. Alex is a miracle! He is guy that we found street contacting one day. We were waiting to catch the gua gua (bus) and saw him just standing there. We actually almost didn´t talk to him! We were like an inch from just catching our bus... but last minute we decided.. no LETS TALK TO HIM. So we went up and contacted him. He is from Colombia and is here working! He has seen our church before in Colombia and wanted to meet with us another day! This was all a super fast convo... he had to catch his bus in like 1 minute! But yeah super quick so we asked him for his number and he gave it to us and ran off on his way! Anyways so we have been trying for a long time to get ahold of him and finally on Monday we got a hold of him and set up an appointment to meet with him. Anyways so we met with him and long story short he is GOLDEN. Absolutely golden. It give me chills just thinking about him. He is here in Tenerife working. He has 2 kids and they are in Colombia living there with his wife. He is moving back in November. He really wants to make some big changes in his life and really wants something to keep his family solid. We told him about our church and really just talked a lot about this life. It was a really random lesson... but ohhh my, the spirit was SO STRONG. It was so strong. So when the spirit was at its peak we said, "Alex. Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God?" And guess what he said.. cuando. haha “WHEN!”  We were so shocked! He is scheduled to baptized on October 12. We are super excited. He wants to be baptized and then take the gospel back to Colombia to his family. And to think... we almost didn´t talk to him! He. is. a. miracle.

Second. MATEO! Mateo is also from Colombia. He is so cute and is only 9 years old! There is something really special about him. We recently found his mom who was a menos active (less active)... reactivated her and guess what... he will be baptized on September 28th! He can´t wait and neither can we. Mateo and his mom Jacky are so strong. They are so great and are so happy about this change they are making in their lives.

Third. Carolina. Also Colombiana! (I LOVE COLOMBIANS.) One of the chicas from the noche de hogar. We finally got a lesson with just her and her mom (a lady that we recently re-activated). She is SO cute! She is 19 and just moved here to live with her mom that she has been separated from for her entire life. Ahhh I love her! There is something special toooo... Hahaha there is something special about everyone. Anyways we had a SUPER spirit bomb lesson with her also. She is also scheduled to be baptized on September 28th. She is incredible. AND they are making Colombian food for us this Thursday! Yes, we can´t wait.

RAFAEL. Another guy that we almost didn´t talk to! GOLDEN. We haven´t put him on a fecha yet but we are going to tomorrow night.

LUIS AND JESSICA FAMILY- aka my best friends. ahhh they are SO GREAT! Such a miracle. ahh! So we actually found them through our English class flyers and THEY CALLED US. Luis and Jessica are from Venezuela. They have a daughter and a son. (YAY for families... ahh!) They have been coming to English class. They are so FUN and happy and great people. Super social. After the first English class with them, we gave them a tour of the church. They LOVED everything that they saw! They loved the classes for the kids and they loved everything. Seriously, they. are. a. miracle. Haha when we showed them the baptismal font and told them how we baptize they practically tried to climb into the font. They are so funny and just happy. We invite them to everything! Sometimes we wonder if we are being too much or something to them. On Tuesday they came to the baptism of Jayniz and her mom (see the pictures) and they LOVED it. They seriously are perfect. They are REAL too. We had a lesson with them on Saturday night. Our first sit down one! And it was incredible. We felt that with them it would be best to just sit down with them and read 2nd Nephi 31 with them. All about baptism. It was so powerful. I had a really cool experience. As we taught them about baptism, the spirit was so strong. Again Lily, I felt like I should bear my testimony about you and about my family. They were so receptive. It also was like a heaven sent moment. At that moment... I could SEE them in white. I could see them perfectly in white. We invited them to be baptized. And guess what... right after Luis said ‘yes’, the phone rang. He left the room for a couple minutes and then came back with the biggest smile on his face and shouted "I GOT A JOB!" Talk about a miracle and blessing straight from God. Right after he accepted the invitation he got a job. How cool is that?? It was a defining point for me as a missionary. Baptism is so important. It changes lives. And it is just the first step to eternal life with our families. What a cool promise we have. I have such a strong testimony about this. I saw this family in white that night. and I know that they will be baptized one day together. ALSO, after the amazing lesson with Jessica and Luis, we left and I looked up into the sky and saw my first shooting star!  I think it’s a sign! J

Life is good here! I am SO excited for this upcoming transfer and for the miracles that Sister Phillips and I get to be apart of! I have high hopes. I am learning so much and every day is another challenge and another journey. I am loving life as a missionary. Please pray for all of the people that I talk to everyday! Prayers are what can change hearts. There truly is no more important work and there truly is nothing better or more satisfying than knowing that you are being an instrument in the hands of the Lord. I love being a full time representative of Christ.

Thank you all for all of the emails and letters and PRAYERS!  Wow I feel such a gratitude for those who are cheering me on. It’s so humbling.

FIND JOY IN THE JOURNEY ALWAYS.

Hermana N

Sleep Deprived

Monday...Sept 2nd

I am so sleep deprived.  Both my companion and me.  It is not even funny!  But, we are so happy.  It is so weird!   I don´t understand how someone who is so tired as I am could possibly be as happy as I am.  I guess it is just the grind of the mission.  It is amazing the things that we are able to do all day everyday.  I love being on a mission.  It is so cool being able to talk to literally EVERYONE.  Its fun!  It is fun being able to do weird and bold things that a normal person would never do haha.  Really its fun being a missionary!  It's super awkward too.  There is not a single day where something awkward doesn´t happen.  I am learning to just embrace it.  Someone told me before my mission that the second I put my papers in I would just be signing up for 18 months of awkwardness. And I am here today to testify to all that may be reading that it is LA VERDAD.  Super awkward but I love it.  

I don´t even know where to start!  So many things happened.  I will start with the HIGH!  So anyone that has ever served a mission knows how ANTICIPATING transfer calls are.   This transfer we have 44 missionaries that the mission president has to put somewhere... haha so really all of the possibilities were endless.  So Saturday night at 8:30 we get the big call.. and guess what..... drum roll please... THEY ARE BRINGING MORE SISTERS TO TENERIFE!!!  Ahhhhh I am so EXCITED!  Although it was cool to say that my companion and I were the only sisters on the Island.  SO YAY!  They are flying in today.  Sadly they are more up north and not in our area.. but boy I can´t wait!  We will see them on Friday at the Zone meeting.   We are so excited to have people to hang out with on P-days and just sisters to relate to. Lucky for them they will be whitewashing just like we did.  Starting from scratch!  I can´t wait. Oh and two another set of Elders are coming into Los Cristianos.. the work is growing!  

So this week we had no sleep.  Literally no sleep.  That is because of this Catholic holiday that I don´t even really understand..  So apparently many many years ago this virgin doll washed up from the ocean... hence, the people here now worship it. Anyways... because of that this whole week has been this huge party.  This huge fair with huge concerts and roller-coasters and people and food.  And guess where this is all taking place?? Haha, well you guess it.. right outside of our piso!  So all night there is music BLASTING and we can't sleep.  I don´t understand this culture!  But I guess a good thing about it is that there are ton of people out that we try to contact!

Funny story... one night after personal prayers..guess what happened?  So my prayer was a super motivating one and super pumped up one!  Haha I was like okay Heavenly Father I am ready.. I am going to do it!  And literally like right when I said that.. the concert right outside of our piso starts playing Eye of the Tiger.  Co-incedence? NO! HAHA Heavenly Father has a sense of humor and I love it.  I laughed so hard.

The hardest thing lately has been getting people to COME TO CHURCH.  Wow it is so hard!  Yesterday was super sad... there was no one there!  A lot of the members don´t understand the importance of coming to church every week.. some do and they are strong and good examples... but yesterday was so shocking.  Not that many people came!  There were only about 25 people there.. not including the missionaries.  Hopefully it is just because of this holiday this week.. but wow!  It is sad.  It also is super hard to get investigators to come.  The ones that do though are so cool!  We just need to keep teaching them over and over the importance of coming to church every week.  They just don´t really understand. We had 3 less active members who haven´t even looked at the church in over 20 years to come though!! That was cool.

We have been finding TONS of good people here and have been working really hard.  It is hard to meet with them because they are always busy or something.. or they always cancel at the last minute.  But this past transfer we have been sifting out the good and bad ones.. and now we have high hopes for this next transfer!  

Line of the week:

(While knocking a building to find a menos activo)

Us:  Hey! Does a man named Andre still live here?

22 year old boy: He does but I think that he is a criminal..

Us:  Oh really? haha funny joke..

22 year old boy:  No really... like the police came to get him this morning...

Us: great.

I hope that you all have the best week!  The language for me is coming... slowly.  But my companion has told me that I am progressing super fast compared to her when she first started! So that is good!  It is hard to see the progress in myself... but I think that I am getting better.  I feel a lot more comfortable than the first weeks here so that is good. 

Love, Hermana Nydegger

Ps, NO ONE can say my name here. Its funny.

Pictures... 

P-day!  We went to go see the Dragon Tree.  Apparently it is the oldest tree in the world!  

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