Una semana de muchos cambios

Hi guys!

Changes are hard in the mission. Unfortunately they happen all too often, but I know they are a good thing. This week I had to say goodbye to Sister Paris and Sister Kohler. They were both awesome companions who I learned so much from. I will miss them both a lot.

Tuesday afternoon I got a call from the AP's asking if I would train another brand new missionary! So I went to the trainer's meeting on Thursday morning and picked up my new companion, Sister Vander Werrf. She is an English sister who just came out of the MTC! She is from Salt Lake City and is a very sweet sister. I was a little bummed to not train a Spanish sister, but since I am in Rochester I kinda can't train Spanish because we don't speak much Spanish. Sweet Sister Vander Werrf has been very tired the past few days; haha reminds me of when I first came out, but we have been working very hard! It's really fun and hard to train because I feel that I am responsible for how she needs to be so I have to set the best example I can. I am helping her memorize all of the things that need to be memorized as a missionary (our purpose, D&C 4, The First Vision, How to Begin Teaching points) and I am trying to make it fun. It has been a hard week with all of the adjustments though. I am also the only Sister Training Leader in the zone now as well, so it's more responsibility. I'm trying to figure out how to balance everything. 

There is a spanish family, the Mata's, who I have been trying to get in contact with for the past 4 and a half months. They have been impossible and I have never been able to get inside their house, but every single time I go over there I invite them to come to church. Their answer is the same every time. "Yeah, we might be able to come this week." Well, 10 minutes after sacrament started yesterday, THEY WALKED IN! Oh man, I was so happy. It made my day. Perseverance is so key! I thought I was being very annoying by inviting them for months and months, but they finally caved in and came to church. It was a real tender mercy. 

This week for #lightyourcommunity, we got to help an old lady in our ward decorate her house for Christmas. She is really sick and mostly just lays in bed all day, so we brought up the decorations from her basement, turned up the Christmas music, and just decorated! It was so fun and such a treat for us to be able to do that. Don't forget to do something to #lightyourfamily this week! 

As part of our zone focus this month, we are all studying John together. I have been loving reading in the New Testament. Also, I finally finished reading the Book of Mormon in spanish this week! It's taken me a few months to get through. If you have any tips of how I can study spanish by myself, please let me know. I study for an hour everyday but I am getting bored haha.

B, happy birthday! Skip class and go to Targee and ski all day :) There is a big wedding reception for a girl in our ward on Friday night, so I get to go celebrate my birthday with them! Should be fun!

I love you all a lot. WE GET TO TALK IN 8 DAYS WOOHOO! I CAN'T WAIT! I will keep you updated on what time I can do it, but it's our P-day and so we will probably be at the church most of the day so I can do it there.

Love Hermana Nissinen

Posada!

Hello!!! 

How is everyone?! It's been a really fantastic week. I can't wait to tell you all about it! 

We left Monday night for Minneapolis for Mission Leadership Conference on Tuesday. It was a good conference, I enjoyed the trainings. One of the trainings was how the leaders need to give correction to other missionaries in their zones. That's something that I really don't like about being an STL. I HATE giving correction to the sisters in my zone. I feel like they won't like me, but I've learned that when I just do it out of love and respect, they will appreciate it. I want the sisters to be great because I do love them, so I have to correct them sometimes. It's definitely a growing experience. 

The trio has been going great. We will be driving back up to the cities tonight to drop off Sister Paris at the mission home. It has been very sad to see her finish her mission actually. She is an amazing missionary, and a huge example to me. She doesn't want to go home, and seeing the relationships she has had with so many people on her mission makes me want to be a better missionary. I have loved being able to hear her testimony of her mission and what it means to her. Last night at dinner ("the last supper"), we decided to go around with the family and share our testimonies. All 3 of us got emotional talking about our missions and Jesus Christ. It's so cool - Sister Paris is finishing, I just hit my 11 months yesterday, and Sister Kohler has been out for a month. I just want to share my testimony with you all that I love my mission so so much. I don't want to go home at all, haha! (Sorry mom and dad). But it's just been so cool to reflect on that this past week. 

So, lots of fun things happened this week. We did an exchange with the Bloomington Sister AP's, had fun with that, and then came back to Rochester Wednesday night. On Friday, the Ferrera's took us 3 out to lunch at Chester's which is a very nice place. That night, Alexa had us 3 and the zone leader's over for tacos! It was so fun to have all of us together.

Saturday night was the Posada. Posada means "inn" in Spanish. It's the annual ward christmas party. It's HUGE. (Like I said, the 3rd ward is basically the wedding planning ward). Hundreds of people, hundreds of tamales, lots of dancing and music, and so much fun. About 25 nonmembers came as well. It was so crazy! It was great to go around and just speak Spanish all night too. I haven't spoken Spanish all week, so I soaked it up on Saturday night and finally was able to talk to everyone! Felt so good to speak it again haha.

Sunday was a great day. We had 3 people to church!! Woohoo!! That night we went to the Methodist Mayo Hospital with the other Rochester missionaries and went caroling around to the patient's rooms. It was really sweet to come together to sing Christmas songs. 

We have a busy day today so I may not have much time to talk. I love you all so so much! Thanks for the emails, kind words, letters, and packages. I'm so blessed! Being a missionary is the BEST. Time is going by way too darn quick.

I will have 1 hour to video chat on Christmas day. I would love to coordinate a time all together with little Joe! 

Don't forget to #lightyourcommunity this week! 

Love Hermana Nissinen

Hallelujah, Thank Thee Jesus!"

Happy December!

I can't believe it is already the month of December! December started off Saturday with a big snow storm that continued into Sunday. We have quite a bit of snow now. I absolutely love it! Still learning how to drive in it, but there are snow plows EVERYWHERE so all the main roads are totally fine. It's just the side roads that are a bit slippery.

It's been an exciting past few days since I last got to email! 

There are 3 other sisters in our zone who were in a trio. They were having some difficulties, so we had to do an emergency exchange with them a few nights ago, and President decided it would be better if one of the sisters came with Sister Paris and I for the next 2 weeks of the transfer. So I'm in a trio now! Our new companion's name is Sister Kohler. She is from Montana and also has had a very humbling, hard background. Left home and church at the age of 16, but then found her way back. She is a really sweet sister and has only been on her mission for 3 weeks. It's a very interesting dynamic now with 3 of us. 1 is going home next week, I've still got some time, and 1 is brand new. It's been good though. We had interviews with President Barney on Friday and the first thing he said to me was "So, you have been in this area for quite some time now" and I was just so nervous. But then he asked, "Do you think you can do one more transfer here?" And I just shot up and said "YES! PLEASE!" He told me he is keeping me here another transfer. Woohoo!! That means it'll be 6 months! I am so very happy :)

This weekend was the "Wonder of the Nativity" event. I have never seen a church event as amazing as this one, holy cow. Thousands of people came. It was actually a huge fire hazard Friday night because of all the people. Wonderful choirs and bands came and performed Christmas songs and shows, lots of treats, amazing decorations, and beautiful nativities. It was truly a magical event to ring in the Christmas spirirt! I wish you all could have seen it. I wanted to take pictures, but there were so many people that you wouldn't have been able to see anything. 

This past weekend was pretty stormy, so they canceled church yesterday! We didn't know what to do, so we decided to go to the all black Baptist church in Rochester! It was so cool guys! The people were so friendly and welcoming. Everyone came up to us and gave us hugs. They also gave us lots of food. They were so nice. 

I hit my time record for the amount of people who dropped us. Last week we met some people, last Saturday we had return appointments with them, and 3 of them dropped us within a 20 time span. Woohoo!! Haha guess they weren't the elect.

This Saturday night we have the posada, which is a Mexican Christmas party. We helped a lady in our ward out this week by making 800 tamales for it! It was awesome! I can't wait. It's gonna be a real pachanga.

I want to say THANK YOU so much to everyone who contributed to my Christmas package. WOW! I feel so loved! It was so fun to open it and see all the hilarious ornaments. I have the best family in the world. Thank you so much for everything. You are so kind and generous❤

Keep lighting the world everyone! I love you all a lot.

God bless,

Hermana Nissinen