Here Comes the Spaghetti!

Holy smokes! 

This has had to have been the craziest week of my mission! No joke! It's been so so cool though.

Well, goodbyes are never fun to say. 6 months ago when I got to Minneapolis, I really didn't think I'd get very close to members and the people I was teaching, mostly because I didn't really know how to talk to them. 6 months later, they are some of my dearest friends who I will always love and remember! 

Bye bye Ricardo! Love this guy. He is a great man.

Awwww Carmencita. So adorable.

Penafiel daughters

La familia Zempoatecatl! I will miss them!!

Sweet Satara

Elder Dyerly and I are Hermana Patti's hijos.

She was so sad to see us both go.

Landonnnnn!! My BFF!

Valerio family. Alex, the dad is a less-active member and we have been teaching his girlfriend Aide for awhile. They are the best.

Little Maria

Ayala family. I love them.

Hermana Matus in the pink with her mom to my left. They are wonderful ladies who take very good care of us.

Thursday afternoon I arrived in Rochester, which is about an hour and a half drive south from the mission home. It's BEAUTIFUL! Nothing at all like the city, but it's so so green and just gorgeous! Hermana Hopkins and I went right to work when I got there. We received a referral from a lady named Susanne who had requested a Book of Mormon online. We went over there, and let me tell ya, she is the most prepared person I have ever ever met. Long story short, she accepted a Book of Mormon, already read from it, and tonight we have another lesson with her. She is SO SOLID. Miracle lady! I can't wait to continue teaching her. 

Hermana Hopkinsssss! <3

Friday morning we had zone conference. I didn't find out until the night before that I was giving a training and a musical number! Woohoo! Already a warm welcome into the zone😉 They both went pretty well for just having a little bit of notice. I love the Sisters that are in my zone, and I'm excited to get to work with them and serve around them. We have quite a few exchanges this transfer so I'm stoked about that! 

campfire and smore's on the rooftop

Let me tell ya, it is MUCH different to work with English people than it is with Hispanics! Haha yesterday was the most productive ward council I have ever been in. I am in the Rochester 3rd ward. Mostly everyone in it are rich doctors at the Mayo clinic. Look it up. It's a big big thing here in Rochester. There are a couple Hispanics, but most of them are bilingual. There's a few that aren't, so yesterday we had to translate Sacrament meeting from English to Spanish. It's pretty difficult! I'm grateful I still get a few opportunities to speak Spanish here. I love Spanish. Also, from my subject line, I haven't had spaghetti in about 6 months. But the past 3 days here I have already had it a few times. Haha I already miss the real tacos and Mexican food😭

Our Ward Mission Leader is the best I've seen. He is amazing. All of the members in the ward are so nice, and I can't wait to meet more of them. Hermana Hopkins is AWESOME and she's a killer missionary! We've already seen great things happening and I'm excited for another week.

Haha our ward mission leader is the best.
This is him wearing his Japan stuff from his mission.

I didn't think any area could get better than North Minneapolis (which I will forever love), but man, Rochester is already great! I hope to stay here for awhile.

I love you guys so much! The church is true, no matter where it's at or what language it is in. It's the same everywhere. I've been thinking lot about Joseph Smith this week as I was teaching the Restoration. Elder Christensen said in a general conference talk in Oct 2016, "Because Joseph was a prophet, we have more than a window into heaven- the very doorway to the eternities is open to us." I love this quote and I love being able to testify of Joseph Smith frequently. It makes me feel happy that Heavenly Father answered his simple prayer that meant so much to him, so He will answer ours as well. I am so grateful to be on my mission. The months are just flying by, holy cow! I want the time to slow down.

Have a great great week! 

Love Sister Nissinen😉💓

Gross mouse at the Hermosillo's

Adios español, hola inglés

Hellooooooo!

Whelp. I am quite sad to say that I will be leaving North Minneapolis this Thursday. I've been here since day one, and I've learned A TON since I've been here! I will definitely miss the city a lot, but I am ready for a change. I will be heading down to...

The Book of Mormon is the TRUTH!

Rochester, MN! Rochester is an English area, and my zone covers part of Wisconsin so I'll get to go over there! The ward is a "magnet ward", and it's all English with a couple Spanish speakers. I will be companions with Hermana Hopkins who I've only ever heard good things about! I will also be a Sister Training Leader (STL) there, so I'm excited about that. I just hope I don't lose my Spanish! It's gonna be pretty dang different than North Minne, but I am stoked. So between now and then I've gotta pack everything up (yuck!) and say my goodbyes. I've gotten close to a lot of people here, and it will be sad to say bye. 

All of us missionaries at the Veteran's Home.
Gonna miss going there.

This past week was really good. Not a lot of crazy stuff happened, but we did meet some cool (and creepy) people. I've decided to not wear makeup on days that I'm just going tracting. When Hispanic men see 2 white, young girls talk to them in Spanish, they really aren't interested in the message of the Restoration. Which stinks a lot. But it's okay! 

We had exchanges and I went with Sister Maloney
who just came out on her mission!

Hermana Meredith goes home this week!
We had a party for her last night.

     
 I'm gonna miss the Sari's.
They are really sweet people.

I'm so excited for this change in my mission! I've learned and grown so much here that I'm ready to take it to Rochester. Change is hard, but it will be good :) 

I was so happy to see this downtown you
don't even know!
MARY TYLER MOORE!!!
I got to see her house too!

Love you guys so much!

Love Hermana Nissinen

THE BEST WEEK EVER!

This week was seriously so awesome!!!

So, Ricardo got baptized yesterday after church. One of the happiest moments of my life! Haha he was so ready. We visited with him every single day this past week. There were days that he even came to the church to visit US so we could teach him! He has not found a place to live yet, but we are helping him look for a one. Honestly, things were going just too darn well that I was like "c'mon, something has gotta slip up or something" but nope! Everything went really really well. We had been praying that he wouldn't be in the hospital and that he would feel alright. Prayers were surely answered. It was such a good moment to see him be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. It really is the most rewarding thing as a missionary to see someone enter the waters of baptism. It was beautiful :)
Also, he LOVED his tie! He went out on Saturday and bought a white shirt and he wore it all on Sunday. Thank you so so much! 

Haha Ricardo gets to church 2 hours early and
 so he was just sitting in the hallway.
He's wearing the tie you bought him!!

I mean, that's pretty much the biggest highlight of the week. We got to go to the temple on Saturday, and all 12 of the hermanas in the mission were able to go! So that was fun. We also went to a quinceañera which was bigger than any wedding I've been to. So nuts, but real fun.

Hermana Hudman and I at the quinceañera!!

 

I'm sorry this week's letter is short. It's been a really awesome week though! I can see my Spanish improving and I'm getting more and more comfortable speaking it. (Even though the video I sent might not show it😂). I really enjoy speaking it actually.

I also started the no snacking/no treats/not eating after dinner this week! And exercised every single day, so that was good! 

So we were all at dollar tree and I saw the meat there so I decided to buy the elders each some meat
and cooked it up ad gave it to them😂😂 sooooo gross hahaha

Love you guys so much! Jacob, great job on your test. Kim, keep it up with your art! B and Joe, nice work on all the work. Ha. 

My family is the best😊

Love Hermana Nissinen

Hola! 

This past week has been a lot better than last, gracias a Dios! 

I first wanna say FELICIDADES to Okie! I'm soooo excited for you to leave for your mission. Best experience ever! ❤ You're gonna kill it.

This week I decided to forget about myself and go to work. I think that last week I was focusing more on myself, which may have been the reason why it was a harder week, so I tried to be better about not doing that this week! We made meaningful, effective plans each morning and followed through with them. It was great. I was reminded many times of the scripture in 2nd Timothy 1:7 "Let us set aside our fears and live instead with joy, humility, hope, and a bold confidence that the Lord is with us." I love this, and it's been a great reminder to me that I don't need to be afraid, but to know that He is always there for me. 

We had interviews with President on Thursday. Transfers are in a few weeks... will I stay a 5th transfer in North Minne? Or will I go? Hmmm...😋 We will see! 

Ricardo is getting baptized on Sunday! I am so so excited! We have visited him many times this past week. Thursday night we had a lesson with him, but when we went over he wasn't there (which isn't normal for him). We called him, and he was on the bus coming home. So we waited on his porch for him for about 15 minutes. He comes walking up to his porch with his cute little umbrella cause it was raining, and he was dragging his oxygen tank. It was one of the cutest things I had ever seen hahahaha. He told us that he was out looking for a different place to live because his family doesn't support him going to our church so he doesn't want to live with them anymore. It makes me sad. (BTW this guy is in his late 60's). He is so ready for his baptism. Yesterday in Gospel Principles he was sharing the things that we are supposed to do on Sundays and he said "pasar tiempo con mis nietas" (spend time with my granddaughters) which is what he calls Hna Nelson and I! So cute. He doesn't have any ties at all, so mom if it's not too much of a hassle, could you maybe send me a blue tie for him that he can wear for his baptism? 

Our lesson with Ricardo in the chapel last night

This is Ricardo walking to church 2 and a half hours before it starts!!!!

The mosquitos are getting so bad and all of us sisters are getting them all over our legs and bodies, so Sister Barney is going to ask Salt Lake if we can start wearing pants!!! Woohoo! I really hope we can! I counted my bug bites this morning. I have 14 bites in total!

 

Sweet Carmencita :) She started balling when we came over!

Anyways, this week was really awesome. President told me in interviews that missions can be physically exhausting, but also spiritually exhausting. He told me to focus on the basic truths of the gospel by continuing to really study the Book of Mormon everyday and to remind myself that I am a child of God. Sometimes I think we forget the basic simple truths. 

The Penafiel Family. So so cute! We talked about
the creation and colored little pictures.

Sister Hansen and I on transfers last week!

Thank you guys for the emails and everything! I love you guys so much! I am really so grateful for my mission and everything that I've learned so far. Is it easy? Nah, but I'm so grateful for all of the experiences I'm having😊

Soooo funny story. This is Hna Nelson's hammock. We decided to hang it up for comp inventory and comp study. I got in, then came out. She got in, and then told me to get in. I started rolling in and it just completely fell hahaha it was soooo funny

Have a fantastic week! 

Hermana Nissinen 

Minnesota = MILLIONS OF MOSQUITOS

What's up fam!! 

How's it goin? 

Well, the sun has been out, the mosquitos have been out (a lot), and many Book of Mormons have been passed out.

As a zone this week, we had a goal to pass out 100 copies of the Book of Mormon, which would be 10 per companionship. Each copy was marked with a verse about the Atonement. We went to work last Monday after P-Day, and offered one to every person that we met. Even if they were not very interested, we sill offered them one (planting seeds!)! Hermana Nelson and I ended up passing out 15, and then we completely ran out lol. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing when missionaries run out of Book of Mormons haha. 

Saturday, one of our ward missionaries and his family all got sealed in the temple! We weren't able to go, but we did go to the reception afterward. Almost all of the other Hermanas were there and it was really fun to see them (including Hna Winterton!!) The boda was great. Hispanic weddings are just so funny. Always a good time.

Felicidades to the Martinez family for getting sealed!

We found this GOLDMINE of a trailer park the other day! It's a bit away, but there's so many Hispanics there and it's awesome. Trailer park tracting😊

As we were leaving an apartment complex on Saturday, I was about to get in the car when a guy came up to us and said hola. We talked to him for a couple minutes, gave him a Book of Mormon, and invited him to church! Sunday morning I texted him and asked if he is coming, and he said yes! He came and stayed the whole 3 hours and really enjoyed it. It was just cool that we met him so quickly and then he came to church. Go David! We hope he's actually interested in the gospel! 

Sweet little Landon bought me this stuffed animal at the store. He went up to his mom and asked her to buy this for his favorite hermana!! Hermana Cinnamon!❤

Good ol Al at the veterans home.
He grabbed my hand and kissed it! Ahhh!

Last night me, Hermana Meredith and Hermana Powell did a musical number at President's Fireside! We played How Great Thou Art; me on the piano and both of them on the violin! It was so fun! I'll try to get a video of it. 

For the first time on my mission I finally asked to take some food home because I literally could not eat all of it! We went to this family's house for lunch and she gave us a GINORMOUS plate of food! My plate alone could easily feed 3 hungry men. Like no joke, it was so much. So I just had to ask to take it home, and I don't think she was offended! Woohoo! 

I'm going to be honest, this week has been kinda hard. We worked hard and met some cool people, but idk, I feel like I've kinda been in a rut this week! Because I've been in this area for quite a few months, I feel like I should know everyone and everything by now which I definitely don't. I am excited for this new week though and to get a lot of stuff done. It's gonna be a good one, I know it 😊 

So there's a story to this one. A few night ago I went to make a bowl of cereal, and tons of ants started crawling all out of the box. All of our boxes of cereal were infested with ants. We threw everything away. So gross!!!!!

Thank you all for your support and everything! Glad you all had a good week. Hope you feel better Joe! 

Love you,

Love Hermana Nissinen

6 meses.... say whaaaaaat????

Buenos días familia y amigos, 

How's your past couple of days been? Haha mine has been pretty good! 

First, I'm super duper grateful I got to see the Nelson's!! We went out to Culver's. It was so fun to meet up with them and chat. I really appreciate them coming and taking us out to lunch! 

This past week during personal study I have been studying different motivational missionary talks. I'm sure some of you have read them before, but my favorite one was the Ricciardi Letter. Joe, GO FIND THIS LETTER ONLINE. It's super good, and it has made me do some things differently in my missionary work, especially with training. I highly encourage you to read this. I've been focusing this week (and will continue to focus) on making the most of every hour that I have. While planning, I ask myself, "what is the BEST thing I could do in this hour? how will this help my investigators or help me fulfill my purpose?" Thinking this way has made me be a lot more productive. While it may to hard to go and knock doors until 9 to 9:30 at night, I know that Heavenly Father will bless me for my efforts, and I will be a much happier missionary! 

Ughhhh we have met so many interesting people this past week. There have been times on my mission where I just want to be able to share exactly what I believe when people say many unkind things about the church or Mormons, but I know that we aren't really supposed to because it just causes contention. It can be very frustrating!! This kind of thing happened Saturday night. I was just sitting there, listening to these men tell us very unkind things about the Mormon faith. I knew that if I brought anything up and tried to defend, it wouldn't have gone anywhere. So I sat, smiled, thanked them for sharing, and then went to the car and just screamed! Haha but I know Heavenly Father gives us little opportunities like that to test our faith. I could have left feeling mad, angry and hurt, but instead I left and just knocked some more doors. Definitely a testimony building experience. 

I made red white and blue layered rice crispy treats for the 4th of July BBQ! They turned out great!

Yogurt Lab is sooo good :)

This week we had zone conference! It's fun to see and meet other missionaries. Our mission has set a goal for each companionship to teach 15 lessons a week, and to work on teaching members the lessons. We have set up a ton of appointments this week, so I really hope they all go through. That's the toughest part. We set up appointments, confirm, and they aren't there. I guess it's just the way missionary work goes haha.

 

We have been praying and working with many less-actives. You're right B, they are seriously gold mines. Yesterday at church, 2 families that haven't come in FOREVER came!!! MILAGRO😊
 

Victor y Christina Sari. Favorite people! I love them! And their baby Jacob is ADORABLE. I just want to hold him so so bad. I will take a picture of him this week. We go over to their house every Sunday night for Noche De Hogar.

So it freaks me out to say it, buuuuuut 6 months ago today I left home. I didn't want to know exactly what day I go home, but an Elder told me the other day... July 10th, 2019. Seriously CANNOT believe it. I wanna make this the best year ever, and I wanna work harder than I ever have before😊

I'm so grateful for these past 6 months. There were times (especially in the CCM), where I really didn't know if I would ever make it this far, but I know with Heavenly Father's help I have been able to. Haha it's so weird - sometimes in the car I just look around and I'm like "holy cow, I'm really in Minnesota!" Or I look down and see my nametag and realize that I am a missionary. Idk, it's just weird haha but I love it.

I love you guys so much! Have a fabulous week.

Xoxo Hermana Nissinen

Hola! 

Happy 4th of July! I'm sad we can't blow up any cool fireworks today, but we have fun day planned! This morning we had a couple hours of proselyting time, and then from 1-9 we have the rest of P-Day! A bunch of us missionaries are going to a park and we are gonna play softball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, spikeball, and basketball. President and Sister Barney are bringing hot dogs and so we'll have a BBQ and a campfire and s'mores! I'm stoked! 

Wow! Been a crazy week! Hermana Nelson and I became companions last Thursday. She is seriously the sweetest! She lived in Hillsboro for a couple of years, near the Streets of Tanasbourne, and she was in the Rock Creek Ward! Her and her family moved to La Grande while she was going to high school. Super cool! It's pretty weird how 2/4 of my companions have been from home. She is super down to earth and very easy to get along with. I've learned a lot this past week, and I want to give her lots of opportunities to speak cause that's what will help the most! I'm so excited for this transfer!

My new companion Hermana Nelson!

Ricardo was in the hospital last week, so we went with the Elders to go visit him and they gave him a blessing. We had a lesson with him on Saturday afternoon, and we asked him to be baptized! He said yes! We have to teach him a lot, and we have to go really slow so he understands, but he is doing really well. He loves coming to church and he said he feels something different there. He is back in the hospital now. Please keep him in your prayers! He's the best.

Vincenta is just really sweet. She LOVES to
 crochet so we go over and she teaches us how.
She is just a sweet old grandma.

Penafiel's... they are SO CUTE. We talked about families and drew pictures of our families. They are less-active, and haven't been to church since I've been here but they finally came on Sunday!! And they have been having us over a couple times this week. They are so sweet.

Guess what I tried this week! The Matus' fed us pig feet on Saturday. Mmmm. Haha honestly, the taste wasn't that bad. I kinda liked it. It was just the texture of it that wasn't my favorite. Super slimy and fatty. 

I'm sorry I don't have a ton to report on this week. Thanks for your emails!! Have a great week and enjoy your 4th!!

Love you all,

Love Hermana Nissinen