Hermana nEEssEEnen en MinnesOOOta

WOW. I'm here!! 

So holy cow, I made it to Minnesota. It's been a crazy awesome week! 
 (Lo siento for the long letter)

It was awesome being able to talk to you guys at the airport. Thank you. When I arrived  to Minnesota later that night, I was just so tired and ready to eat and meet President Barney and Sister Barney. When I was coming down the escalator, Sister Barney was right there with her arms straight out welcoming me. I hugged her, and just started to cry right there because I was so happy to finally be there and meet her. They are amazing people. I am so lucky! That night, they let me sleep in the room where they have the general authority stay when he comes to visit! It was way nice, and I had it all to myself :) 

Thursday morning I got my companion/trainer... Hermana Winterton from Las Vegas! She is so sweet oh my goodness! She is 24, and she has already graduated from BYU. I am really grateful that she is my companion. We are going to get a lot of work done here. 

So we are in the Twin Cities 1st Spanish Ward in Minneapolis! There are 7 missionaries in this ward, and we are each over different parts of the area. So Hermana Winterton and I are called the "North Minne Hermanas" and then the other missionaries cover the center and South parts of the area. And here is the thing... her and I are whitewashing! So I am brand new, and she is brand new to the area, so we both don't know exactly what we are doing, but we will get it all figured out. It's pretty exciting to just get in there and learn everything!The ward is only spanish. Some of the members know some english, but it really is mostly spanish here which is great. Her spanish is a lot better than mine but mine will just come in time. The members know I am brand new so they speak slower to me and they appreciate that I try to speak to them in spanish as much as I can.This ward is awesome at having get togethers and everything. They always have Family home Evening together at the church every Tuesday night, and right before that I got asked to teach a music class to all of them! So I start that tomorrow night. Friday nights we all go and play soccer together. It is awesome. 

Fridays are our big service day... we go to a Veteran's Home and visit and play Bingo and sing songs with the Veterans... SO FUN.

Tuesday morning we go and teach an english class. Super cool!

The weather is a bit different here than Mexico City... haha it's pretty cold, and TONS of snow! I think Saturday night we got another 8 or so inches. But nothin stops here when that happens! Everyone is out driving and doing everything else. Sunday morning before church, Hermana Winterton and I got stuck... we were stuck for a good half hour, but we were shoveling and pushing and got out in time for our meeting! 

The people here are really sweet. They all want to feed us and help us with anything, and they are awesome. My first night here, we had dinner at the Zempautecatl's house. I was a little nervous because I didn't know what to expect, but I just went for it and talked to them and taught! I was so proud of myself, and when we left, Hermana Winterton and I gave each other a huge hug. It was great. 

Saturday afternoon, we went to an apartment complex that all the missionaries call "Mexico City". It's a completely locked building; like all the doors to each hallway are locked. We don't have keys, but the Relief Society President lives there, so we asked if she would let us in so we could go finding. We called and called, but she never answered. So we said a quick prayer and asked that if this is where we are supposed to be that there would be a way to get in. We said that we would wait 3 minutes. After we prayed, we waited in the cold for exactly 3 minutes, and right then a lady came up with keys and let us in! We were so so happy! I knocked my first door, and a lady named Susanna opened.

We shared a message about families, and she invited us to come back this next week. We are crossing our fingers that it will go well! We got quite a few return appointments that day, so that was awesome.

Super blurry picture, but Hermana Winterton and I got permission to go to St. Paul last night to see a girl named Tierra get baptized who she was teaching! 

Anyways, estoy muy emocionada ser aqui en Minneapolis. Hermana Winterton and I are gonna work hard and have lots of fun.

Thanks Aunt Ninnie!!!

 

Love you guys! Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Nissinen
(Or as they say it here, nEEssEEnen) ha ha

Feliz día de San Valentín❤

Family and friends,

Happy Valentine's Day, I love you guys so much!

Whelp. To not beat around the bush, it has been one infierno of a week. Ha ha. I think it's just that I am so excited and anxious to go to Minnesota that I'm just itchin to get outta here! I know I will miss this place though. I was thinking the other day how far along I have come in SO many ways in literally just over a month. There is no other place that could have given me this opportunity. It's remarkable! From my Spanish, to my testimony, to my love for the scriptures, and to my love for everyone I serve with and teach, this past month has seriously changed me. And the coolest part is that I still have 17 months... who knows where I'll be then! 

Hermana Despain and the rest of our district are doing great. We are all so close and get along so well! We have a ton of fun together. I will miss them. 

I still haven't met anyone else going to Minnesota... I am literally the LAST person to leave by 2 days for some weird reason, so I get to hang out with Latinos which I am so excited for. They are my favorite people! 

Last night we had a devotional about hardwork from Presidente Eves and his wife. He's an ex-military guy, and his lessons are always so powerful! He actually reminds me a lot of you, Dad. Haha. But there was a quote that he said that I really liked, and is one that I want to remind myself of often. ~"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always got."~ Everyday is an opportunity to be better and to work harder. Love ittttttttt.

I hope you all have a fun Valentine's Day full of love and chocolate and flowers! Since I don't really get to celebrate that holiday today, I am reminded of God's love for us...

John 15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love❤ So sweet!

Have a great week, thank you for your emails. NEXT WEEK I'LL BE IN MINNESOTA SAY WHAAAAAT?! Que loco! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Nissinen

The Best Invite ❤

Hola!

So excited to hear from you guys today and to be able to email. It's been a muy bueno week! I enjoyed being able to go to the temple again today. It was my last time being able to go here.

I have exactly 2 weeks left! CANNOT WAIT. My entire district and everyone else that flew here the same day I did leaves on February 19th, but I don't leave until the 21st, so I think they will put me in a Latino district and give me a Latina companion for the last 2 days which would be awesome! 

Since this is week 5 for us, the expectation is solo español for the entire week. On Monday, my district did an "English fast", so we went the entire day without ANY English! 24 hours of straight spanish. It was hard, and we were all kind of quiet, but it was actually so cool and we had a lot of fun doing it! 

We do this thing every Saturday called TRC. It's when volunteers of any age and religious background (member, less-active, and nonmember) come in to have the missionaries teach them. We don't get to meet them before, it's just all right on the spot. Hermana Despain and I taught this sweet lady named Delfina who's 55 years old and who has only been a member for 1 year. Her husband and her kids aren't members. It was fun! After her, this younger guy came in. He is 22 years old, and he isn't a member. His name is Eduardo, and he has 2 Mormon friends that told him to come that day! It was SO cool. We finally got to teach a real investigator! We taught him about prayer and how to pray, and he even did it at the end for us (with help). After that, it made me so excited to be a missionary and to get out and teach. It was really great. It definitely made the entire week for Hermana Despain and I.

Being the Hermana Training Leader is so fun! I got to meet with all of the girls this week and have the opportunity to know more about them. Some of them come from pretty difficult backgrounds, and it makes me so grateful for my family and friends and all the support I have at home. ~muchas gracias for all the letters and emails, it means so much~
 
Hermana Despain and I had the opportunity to teach Relief Society this past Sunday! (they sure love to keep us super duper busy here). We were asked to teach about how to endure to the end... but we thought that that sounded a little lame. So, we did some homework, and found a talk by Elder M. Russell Ballard called "Return and Receive." I highly recommend 10/10 listening to it or reading it! I have read it multiple times the past few days, and it's great. 
I found a scripture about it in Alma 5:33 that says "Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you." He has sent all of us the BEST invitation we could ever receive! Whenever I read that, I think to myself, "Why the heck wouldn't I want to accept that?!" 

I am grateful to be here. I love serving others and learning more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not gonna lie, it's hard. But I know that if it was easy, it really wouldn't be worth it. Kinda crazy, but I literally have bruises on my knees from praying all the time! (There isn't any carpet anywhere here so it just happens haha). I have really realized that none of what I am doing or what I have accomplished here the past few weeks would be possible without Jesus Christ. 
 I have so many new friends from all over the place here! My district has already planned to have a party all together after we all get home from our missions. I love them all so much!

Love you all so much! Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Nissinen