SO STOKED!

Hey guys!

Wow, kinda crazy to think that we are all in different states/countries right now! I'm glad everyone had safe travels. I was so happy to get your little email, Elder Nissinen! I hope you are surviving your first week there :) Looks like Europe is sooo fun mom and dad! Thanks for the pics!

This week started off a little slow, but it picked up quick and this past weekend was awesome! We had some really cool things happen. 

This is Alex Schloo! She lived in the Forest Grove Stake for 4 years and knows the Sharp's, Brother Burke, and the Knapp's. It was really fun to talk about Forest Grove
and stuff with her :) SMALL WORLD.

We have a Sister's Conference this Wednesday in Bloomington, and it's basically an all day conference for all the sisters in the mission! There's gonna be speakers and crafts and fun stuff. I'm excited! Transfers are also this Wednesday for sisters. Hermana Hopkins will be leaving and my new companion will be....HERMANA HUDMAN! I can't wait! She is my mission best friend!!!! It's going to be an awesome transfer. I'm so lucky I get to stay in Rochester. This place is the best.

This is Anna! She is the lady that makes all of the food at Salvation Army where we do service.
She is really sweet and is a great cook

Last night we had the church tour for all 5 of the Rochester wards... SUCCESS. We got it put in the newspaper, handed out a ton of flyers, and told everyone about it. We had quite a few nonmembers come and it was awesome. On Saturday, I told all of the missionaries in the Rochester wards that for every flyer they handed out, I would do a pushup! Haha I can't remember how many I had to do, but it was a good motivation to get them out. Church tours are a really great opportunity to introduce people to the church.

Alexis and us at the church tour!

Renee came to church yesterday! She is so so sweet. She actually lives in the 4th ward area, so we will be passing her off to the elders this week but she is one of my best friends. Her and I have a great relationship and even though we won't be teaching her anymore, I'm definitely still gonna hang out with her. 

Sweet beautiful Renee, my amazing friend

We met a lot of people this week from South Sudan. They really are the nicest people and when we go over to their apartments, they just always offer and give us their food. They are so humble and sweet. Haha this family from Iraq invited us into their apartment on Saturday. They kept speaking to us in Arabic and we were like "Uhhhh we literally have no idea what you are saying" lol. But then the grandma brought us Arabic tea and we tried telling her we couldn't drink it and then she was so confused. So she brought us out really gross warm milk and I just felt so bad so I had to drink it but it was horrible! It's actually really really cool to meet people from all over the world though.

Sweet Alexa :) I love her so much! She is returning back to church. She also lives in a fancy apartment
 and we went outside and ate dinner.

I'm so excited for this new transfer and everything it has to bring. It's gonna be SO AWESOME😊

Hermana Elias' birthday party

Good luck this semester Jacob, Kim and B! And Elder Nissinen, buena suerte😉 Work hard this week and stretch yourself, but remember not to be too hard on yourself and get discouraged. I'm so excited to hear about su compañero y sus maestros y la comida y todo! Go treat yourself with a Bueno Bar today from the tienda :) 

Our family is seriously the best. We are so blessed. 

Love Hermana Nissinen

Apostolic Blessing & Catholic Mass

Hey y'all!

JOE! Wow, tonight you will officially be Elder Nissinen. I am so so stoked for you and proud of you. Yesterday a kid in the ward gave his farewell talk and I was thinking about how you were giving yours the same day. Warning: this will be the LONGEST week of your entire life, but just make it to Sunday! Work hard in the CCM. I absolutely love my mission and I'm so proud to have an awesome brother like you. It's your turn! Show the Lord what you can do. 

This week has been wild, to say the least. I got to go to MLC on Tuesday. President Stacy from the 70 was there, and he gave us all a blessing that came directly from Elder Renlund. We received this Apostolic Blessing, and all of us  missionaries in the room were crying. It was truly amazing. I won't share everything that he blessed us with, but certain things he said stood out to me, especially to remember how sacred this work is. I need to remember more how important my calling is as a missionary.

Sunday was a great day. Brother Foster, the best member missionary out there, brought 2 younger guys to church. We met with them and they invited us to their Catholic Mass so we went to it last night. Very interesting, but way cool! It was actually amazing to see many similarities. It was neat for them to come to our church and then us go to theirs in the same day. We also got to watch the Face2Face with Elder Cook last night. It was so good! I've been geeking out a lot lately about church history, and I've been reading and listening to the book "Saints" that they were talking about and that the church just released. Oh my goodness, READ IT. It's on Gospel Library. It's so so good! I'm learning a lot about Joseph Smith and all of the stuff that went on during that time. 10/10 recommend and I'm not even halfway through it haha. 

There's 2 senior sisters that are in Kasson who are companions. They are both widows, and they are absolutely hilarious. We got to do a blitz with them Thursday night, and just go to their area and visit with some people they are teaching. Haha one of the funniest nights on my mission. Just to see two 60 year old women knocking on doors is honestly the funniest thing. They are really bold sisters, which taught me a lot because sometimes I feel like I need to be more bold! 

This week we have interviews and then next week we have transfers! Holy cow! These 6 weeks have gone by so quick. I'm pretty sure I'll stay haha. 

Haha HUGE rainstorm Tuesday afternoon!!! Biggest one I have ever seen. I got super soaked just running in from the car.

Again, I'm so proud of you Joe! You are going to be an amazing missionary. The CCM can be really hard, but just go into it and have fun and be prepared to sit a lot and study a lot. And please please try the food :) Travel safe, and I can't wait to hear from you. It's pretty cool; we both get to serve on the Lord's team at the same time. You're awesome Joe. Can't wait to hear about all of your experiences. 

I love you all so much. Mom and Dad, have a ton of fun on your Europe trip and don't think about us kids! I better see pictures! 

This is the Restored church of Jesus Christ. I know it without a doubt. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Nissinen

Cops & Robbers? Or Missionaries?

Que pasa!

It's been another good week here. Rochester is beginning to turn into fall very quickly! We have had lots of rain and thunder storms this week and the weather is definitely cooling down. I love it :)

Before I forget, my Bishop's niece is going to the Yakima, Washington mission spanish speaking leaving December 5th! Watch out for Anna Lamb in a few months, Joe! Her dad is a football coach for BYU.

It's been crazy! Tuesday night we drove with the Elders to La Crosse, WI. We were supposed to meet up with the senior couple there Wednesday morning after District Council, but because of storm damage and everything they weren't able to make it. Sister Hopkins and I didn't have our car or anything, so we didn't really know what to do all day by ourselves. We decided to just go tracting and get some other work done and stuff! It ended up being a good day. We were sad we couldn't meet with the senior couple but everything worked out fine.

We also had exchanges with the Rochester 5th sisters on Thursday. Sister White came to this area and we had a great time together :) She is so sweet! 

Well... A lady called the cops on us last night...

I had my first encounter with the police on my mission! At 8:30 PM, we knocked on a potential's door. The dog was barking like crazy, so we just decided to knock twice and leave. We got back in our car and finished sending out a couple texts, when 4 police cars drove right in front of the house and got their dogs out and started walking around her whole house. We sat in our car and were like "Uhhhh they may have just called on us hahaha." So we hesitated to go out, but finally we decided to just go out and talk to them. Officer Daley brought us to the sidewalk and got our ID's and ministerial certificates and talked to us. The lady had just moved there that day so she was just scared. We felt so bad! The officer was really nice though, thank goodness. I don't think that 2 youngish girls walking up in skirts and dresses is that intimidating lol. Maybe we won't knock on her door at night😉

This past week I had to give 3 trainings in 3 different district councils! It was a lot of fun and was really good for me to be able to study different topics. I love teaching and learning new things.

We're working with some really awesome people right now, all between the ages of 21 and 27. They are all just looking for something more in their life and are wanting to make changes. It's been way awesome! Kind of interesting to work with people that are close to our age haha.

Tonight we will be driving up to Bloomington and staying with the Barney's for MLC tomorrow! I'm stoked. It's going to be a great week :)

We played ultimate frisbee. It was so so fun!

Love you all! Have a great last week at home Joe. I am so thoroughly exctied for him and the adventure he has. Missions are the best. I love mine so much and I am so grateful to be a missionary! Everyday I get to testify of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. It's changed my life. I am just so grateful to be here.  Please send me your talk! There's a kid in our ward that's giving his farewell talk this Sunday as well and his mom asked me to play a musical number for him so I'll be doing that. You guys are the best!

Love Hermana Nissinen

"If you win I'll come to your church"

Hey guys!

Thanks for all your encouragement this past week. I really appreciate it. I'm slightly jealous that Jacob and Kim are in Cancun this week! That'd be so fun! 

It's been crazy busy over here! We had an awesome week and met some pretty interesting people. Haha I'm excited to tell you about them.

On Tuesday night we drove to Winona which is about an hour away, for a 24 hour exchange with the sisters there. It's a super cute college town. I was with Sister Xiong who is a Hmong sister! We were out tracting and contacting, and came across a couple college kids and started talking to them. Some of their friends walked out of the house with a cooler full of Coors Light, a table, and red Solo cups. Haha they were gonna play beer pong! They asked if we wanted to join, and we were like oh no, we're good haha. One of the guys was like, "If you win, I will come to your church or wherever." It was a tempting offer, but I wasn't gonna risk it! So that was kinda funny. 

Thursday night, Sister Hopkins and I were out finding and knocked on this lady's door. Another lady came up behind her and we invited them to church and to our church tour. They were like "is your church non denominational?" We didn't really know what that meant so we asked her. She was like "Can anyone come to your church?" We expressed that yeah, all are welcome. She was like "good cause we go together." I guess I'm pretty naive, cause I also didn't really catch on to what she was saying, until they said that they are married and each others wives. Not gonna lie, they actually seemed really interested which is the interesting part haha. We haven't said the word "Mormon" to them yet, so that might be the deal breaker. Lol we have a lesson with them this week. Pray for us!!! Could be a fun one!!! 

For our service every week, Sister Hopkins and I go to Salvation Army and we help serve lunch to homeless people! I look out and see the people that come through; older people, handicapped, people of all races, ages, young families, everyone. It is very eye-opening, and while I was standing there watching them eat, tears literally started coming down my face! It just made me think of how lucky I am to have my family and the gospel. Often times I don't feel like I appreciate it enough.

We volunteered at a race Saturday morning! We just did it for the free t-shirt lol. (just kidding).

This week is going to be so busy! On Tuesday night we are driving to La Crosse, Wisconsin and staying with a senior couple there, the Dahlbergs, and going to blitz their area with them! So basically we are just going to go out with them for the day and see what they do. Should be fun. Thursday we will be back in Rochester and do an exchange with the sisters here. As an STL, basically we just make a bunch of accounting calls, have exchanges, and do trainings. It's always exciting!

I was asked to play a musical number at church yesterday. I just played Called to Serve. I love that song, but I'm kinda tired of performing it. The problem is is that I don't have time to practice other cool songs! It was awesome though because a guy in the ward is leaving for his mission this week and I got to play right after his talk. It fit very well with the theme of missionary work today. Our ward is so on top of things it's unreal! 

September 8th is Bishop's birthday, so Sister Hopkins and I had the idea a few weeks ago that we would take a Book of Mormon and have as many of the ward members possible mark their favorite verse and write their name by it. It's been going awesome!! We are so excited to give it to him.

I love you all so much! Thank you for everything you do for me.

Have a great week!

Love Hermana Nissinen

Hey guys!

Thanks for the emails this week. I really appreciate it. I'm glad everything is going well at home. That's awesome about the temple on Saturday Joe! Way to go! Now, go AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN before September 11th. Seriously go all the time. I promise you won't regret it.

It's been real great here up in Rochester. Sun is still hot, and mosquitos are still out. I have a couple big ones on my legs! They're the worst! 

Rochester is beautiful!

I know I said this last week, but English work is just so different than Spanish. It has been a hard adjustment for me this past week, and i've kinda been struggling with that. The people that we find/teach are typically very wealthy and set in their ways. They really don't want anything to do with us or our message. They are also very honest and straightforward (which is nice, but can be hard sometimes!). This week we didn't meet very many of our goals, which was tough for me. I really really like to work my tail off to meet my goals. It's a lot harder here! I know numbers don't mean everything, but when I set goals I just like to get em completed ya know? Haha all that aside though, I know that I need to be here and that it's going to be great. 

Susanne=gonezo. Fell of the face of the earth and texted saying she can't meet with us anymore. Probably got into some anti-mormon stuff. Sad. Hopefully one day. I've been praying a lot this week for Heavenly Father to help me forget negative experiences like this one on my mission to not discourage me. 

Members really like to take us out to dinner/just to get food. We had Wendy's, Dairy Queen, Flapdoodles (fun ice cream place), Fazoli's (Italian place), Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, and Noodles and Company just this week. Hahahaha it was pretty crazy. But real nice at the same time! Let's just say we are very spoiled here ;) 

We are teaching 2 guys, both in their 20's. Ones name is Jason and the other one is Casey. They are really cool, and are both just looking for the missing puzzle piece in their life right now. Casey came to church yesterday and we had a sweet lesson with him after about baptism. I extended the commitment to be baptized, and he said he will pray about it so we will follow up tonight on what's up. So that was great. Also, Preach My Gospel had an update a few weeks ago, and did away with "District Meeting" (now called "District Council") and the term "investigator" (now called "person we are teaching"). Sounds like President Nelson is changin quite a few words now haha. 

For mutual this past week, we had a super cool activity (mom you should do it with our youth!) Our ward mission leader (by far the best) asked 11 return missionaries in our ward to set up a table at mutual and bring things from their mission and prepare like a 5 minute presentation. The youth got into small groups and spent 5 minutes at each station learning about each mission. It was great for the youth to see and learn, but also really good for the adults as well to talk about their missions and what-not. Hermana Hopkins and I also had a table, so that was fun! 

Normally on my mission I haven't ever really been too nervous or scared to go talk to people and just contact. It's not been too hard for me. This week, Satan was workin hard! For some reason, walking up to a fancy house or just talking to someone got me like real nervous! I really have no idea why! I've been praying a lot to have courage and to not be nervous or scared. Haha I hope I can get over that here real soon! 

Adjusting has been kinda hard but I love the ward and all the people. It's gonna be great. 

Jacob and Kim, I hope you drive back safely to Utah! I love you guys! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Nissinen

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