Sister Madrid....Hermana Nydegger....Called To Serve: The Rain In Spain

HOW ARE YOU ALL?? I am SO jealous that you all went to New Port with out me this year!! Actually was it weird without Anna, Nik, and me?? I wonder how banana grams was treated without Anna and me... we practically own that game. I GOT THE PACKAGE! Wow, that was so nice of everyone! I love it sooo much. Me and EVERY OTHER MISSIONARY really appreciated all of the treats. Dad, I loved the shirt! I wore it the day I got it and felt like I was right there with all of you! Thank you so much. That was so nice!!!! My district leader is from New Port and we were talking about seaside dounuts and tk burger and were practically crying over it. But it is okay because we are in SPAIN! Loving and trying to soak in every minute of it! I am in love with this place.

I had the COOLEST experience at the Park this Saturday. First off, I was companions with Sister Nikogosyan (one of the Russian sisters!!) and I had the BEST time with her. She is so cool! She is probably one of the coolest girls that I have ever met. Everyone here is so cool! I was so excited to serve with her!!! Anyways, it was my favorite park day so far. We placed two copies of the Book of Mormon and I finanlly got my first REFFEREAL!! Oh my it just made me so happy! Something that I learned is that there are people out there who are really prepared to hear this message of the gospel. This day I also happened to talk to people from literally all around the world. A cute lady from brazil, another one from Germany, lots from Spain obviously, and a couple from Hong Kong! It was so cool! To literally be spreading this gospel alllll around the world is an amazing thing. This missionary work is so so so so important! Any ways we were walking and decided to go over to this lady and help her with her little TWINS. Ah i miss twins so much so I was like YES LETS GO! Haha anyways so go over to talk to her. She was literally the nicest sweetest lady that I have ever met. She reminded me of the sweet servant in "The Help." She was from Brazil! It was so cool. Like most people here, she came to Madrid to try to find a job. So we start talking to her and find out that she is Catholic. She was telling us about her life and we were telling her about ours. She couldn´t believe that we practically give up our lives to come here only emailing family once a week. So we start talking to her and she had never heard of our Church before! So we start telling her about the Book of Mormon. We are talking about it and the spirit was SO strong. I showed her Moroni´s promise. I shared my experience and testified to her of its TRUTHFULNESS and how my life has been changed because of it and how hers can too! It was awesome. Sister Nikogosyan is amazing and could somehow just pick of a little of Spanish and know English and Russian. Someone how cute Marlene was able to understand us. We told her about eternal families and kept telling her about the Book of Mormon and suddenly she interupts me and is like "Where can I buy this Book!?" And I am just like "ES UN REGALO POR USTED. Haha and she was like nooo who do I pay! And I am just like its free! It is for you. This Book is for everyone in the world. Eveyone needs it because everyone is a child of God! We are here to share this message with you and help you find even more joy that you ever knew in your life.¨" It was so cool. Her face just was BEAMING. She kept getting like closer and closer to me as I was talking. I don´t know if she could understand me but she understood the spirit and that is all that mattered. I showed her the chapter where Christ visited the Americas. I told her about the promise again and promised her that if she read it with the a sincere heart, real intent, and having faith in Christ that she will know for herself that it is true. I asked her to read it and she grabbed it right out of my hands and was like YES WHAT´S YOUR NUMBER! And I was like uh what is your´s?? We will send to your house missionaries that can speak Spanish better than us haha and she was so excited. Whenever we get a referal we rate it at the top from 1 to 5. She was definitely a 5. So cool. I am so excited for her!! It was so powerful. I love being a missionary. The verse in Alma 36 I think that talks about how he couldn´t bear to not share the gospel with someone.... that is how I feel! And let me tell you, it is the coolest feeling in. the. world.

Something that I love most about being a missionary is just being able to do weird things and be BOLD! Haha some of the things that I do here are things that I wouldn´t do back at home! This precious 18 months is really a period of no regrets. Haha for example, a lot of the time on the bus or train we will start singing hymns! People will look at us like we are weirdos but i LOVE it. Music is so powerful! Missionaries are bold people. I love it.

Yesterday we played fútbol with a ton of kids and other members here in Spain! It was so fun. The kids are all so cute! Its fun to play soccer with them! And the coolest thing happened when we were playing. It has been SO hot here and all of a sudden it just started RAINING! While we were playing! On a hot humid day it rained and there was steam everywhere. It was like running around in a dream. Rain in Spain. It was awesome. It was so happy. We were just playing and laughing in the rain! I love this Earth. It was one of those beautiful moments that I will have engraved into my heart forever. It reminded me Katie in Peru playing with the kids in the rain! How did I get this lucky..

We had our first fast sunday here. It was actually one of my first full 24 hour one. It was cool. It was neat as a missionary. We started it right after lunch on Saturday. It was weird because it wasn´t like we could take a nap or do anything different to pass time! I thought that it was going to be tough but it was really good. I really enjoyed the 24 hour fast. Something about hunger and thirst really brings you closer to the spirit. We had an amazing testimony meeting today. The spirit was so strong. I love missionaries they are all so cool.

What I feel like I have been learning the most and in depth is about out Savior. Quick side note in the park I just remembers someone asked me and my companion what it means to be a mormon. The question hit my really hard.. people always ask us what it means to be a missionary, but not too often to we get asked what it means to be a mormon. My companion paused for a second, and then said I means trying to be more like Christ every day. that hit me hard. It truly opened my eyes with those few words. I love what I am learning here. Í miss home but I don´t want to come back! I am l o v i n g it here. I love my Savior. I know Him so well. I know he loves me individually and that he saw MY face on the cross. There is so much to still be learned about this gospel and it is absolutley incredible and mind blowing. I am a representative of Jesus Christ! I may not fully underatnd what that means now, but I plan to by the end of this mission. I love being apart of a work so much bigger than me.

Remember Christ in every step you take! Always turn outward.

H. Nydegger

PS the pictures... I think that I am going to send my flash drive home to you all every couple of months or so.. and then a couple with each email! Sometimes they load.. and sometimes they don´t. But I hope you get SOME. i love you all!