Frogtown!

Hey everyone!

It's a bittersweet time for me. President Barney told me last week in my interview that I will be getting transferred to Frogtown, St. Paul this Thursday. I am excited, but also pretty sad as Rochester has become my family! I really love this place so much and especially the ward members. Tonight, the Bishop's family is hosting a party for me at their house for everyone to come over and say goodbye. They even put it in the bulletin and announced it in Sacrament. So sweet!! I've grown really close to many families and people in this area just over 6 months. It's hard to say goodbye, but I'm looking forward to all the friends I will meet in St. Paul!

The Ferrara's took us to Olive Garden the day before I left! He is in the mission presidency and they recently just got
home from their mission in Italy

The Hardman family. Brother Hardman is our ward
mission leader in Rochester. Super cute family.

Mrs. Monica Geang, really funny lady from South Sudan

Super bad picture, but this is Deng.
Less-active kid we worked with.

I looooove the Prices! They are AMAZING at family history. They know their stuff. And she is a really great cook so I always looked forward to dinner at their house. They even called us sometimes in the morning and invited us over for breakfast.

Sweet Haley Taggart :) A laurel in my ward.

The Vincent's are this really cool couple up in Pine Island. They are so complimentary and want to take me kayaking when I come back! I love them a lot. They also just got married like 2 years ago so that's cool. Sister Vincent is a science teacher at a private Catholic high school and Brother Vincent works at IBM.

Little Monson couldn't stop crying as well. I love it!

These kids started CRYING when they had to say goodbye to me! So dang cute. Clayton, the 10 year old, even said between his tears, "maybe we can even write each other when you leave" hahaha awwwww.

The Rowse family (minus Brother Rowse). She served her mission in Mongolia, and her husband is a surgeon at Mayo. They have 3 really cute, very well behaved boys.

The Petersen family! Crazy fun family that moved into the ward a few months ago and fed us pretty much weekly. They have 6 kids, with another on the way! AHHH!

The Fletcher's :) My all time favorite family in Rochester. Bishop is amazing, Ella, Clara, Eliza, and Calvin are great kids, and Sister Fletcher is so loving and generous. They hosted about 60 people last night to say goodbye to me. Definitely a family that I will always love and stay in touch with. Their niece is the one in Joe's mission right now... JOE GO HIT UP HERMANA LAMB SO WE CAN BE RELATED TO THE FLETCHER'S

I'm gonna miss the Wheeler family. They are so funny and quirky. Brother Wheeler was a really big help to me during my past few months here since my companions have been English. He knows spanish, so he would help us with the spanish speaking people.

Pretty awkward picture, but this is Brother Foster (far right), Vivek, and Bishop Fletcher (far left). All 3 of these guys are really high up at the Mayo Clinic. Vivek and Brother Foster are cancer researchers, and Bishop is a radiologist. If I ever need a job, I know who to talk to!

I LOVE THE BLY'S! They are the most amazing couple I have ever met. I love them so much! This is who you guys send my letters and packages to. Sister Bly is an early morning seminary teacher and the Sunday School teacher, and Brother Bly is a dentist and also plays the banjo in a bluegrass band. They said if I ever go to BYU they have a son to set me up with hahaha. They have definitely become some close friends of mine.

The Widman's are an amazing family. Sister Widman reminds me so much of you, mom. I told her that last night when I said goodbye and she said, "Wow, I take that as the biggest compliment." Haha Brother and Sister Widman are so cool.

I will be going up to a Spanish ward there. My companion will be Hermana Powell who is super awesome! She's been out for about 7 months now. It will be fun to be her companion. I will continue to stay as the Sister Training Leader, but I will actually be over 2 zones now! The St. Paul West Zone and the Minneapolis Zone. I'll have 6 sets of sisters to be over and do exchanges with. I've never had that many, so it will be interesting! It helps me remember that I have to set a good example and be exactly obedient.

It has been very very cold here this past week. Saturday night we were doing some stop bys and I was outside for like a minute and my nose hairs froze. It hurt. It finally snowed again too so that was fun! Our weather app on our phone isn't working for some reason so I never actually know how cold it is, but it's definitely in the negatives for sure.

Yesterday after church, we had a great lesson with Vivek. I have been wanting to set a date for him to get baptized for weeks now, and we finally did yesterday!! His date is for February 16th. I am sooo happy. He's a great guy with so much potential. 

I hope you all are doing Come, Follow Me. It's awesome! This week I learned about how I can worship my Savior. What can I do to show my love for Him? I thought about it, and I wrote in my study journal this phrase. "Because I love the Lord..." and then filled in the blank with a few different things. What do you do because you love the Lord? Just something to think about :)

Man I'm gonna miss this place so so much and all of my friends here. 

Love you guys,

Have a wonderful week and stay warm for me! Last night walking into the apartment, I wanted to cozy up by our warm fire place so bad haha! Please say hi to Mama and Papa for me too. 

Love Hermana Nissinen