A Cold Welcome To Frogtown!

Hola hola! 

Whelp, I made it to St. Paul! It's been the craziest, most hectic week of my mission by far. My farewell party in Rochester that the ward held for me went really well. About 50-60 people came, which I think is more than who came to my actual farewell when I left for my mission hahaha. But it was really sweet of them to all come. Tuesday and Wednesday were packed with just random stuff that I needed to get done before I left. I had procrastinated packing until 10:00 Wednesday night, so I was up until 1:30 AM packing Thursday morning... I have SO MUCH STUFF. I really don't know how I've collected this junk.

Early Thursday morning all of us missionaries that were getting transferred left early to drive up to Bloomington. I was off of about 4 hours of sleep, so I was exhausted. I was in the car with Sister Knapp while she was driving, and as we were going 70 mph, all of a sudden we looked back and her bike completely FLEW OFF the car and slid to the side of the road. It was so bad! We ran down the road and got it and luckily only her fender came off. Not sure how that was the only thing. But since it was so blizzardy that morning, a semi truck drove right past me and completely blew me over so I fell hahaha. Crazy morning.

My new companion is Hermana Powell! She is from St. George, Utah and she's been out for about 8 months. She's really fun and has lots of energy, so it's gonna be real fun with her. Since we are the STL's over 2 zones, it's been really confusing trying to figure everything out. The other problem is that we actually do have a car now, but we barely have any miles to use for the month. Sooooo the mission bought us each bus passes, so we have been using the bus everyday. It's really crazy! There's some interesting people here in St. Paul, it's a whole different world than Rochester lol. I'm really trying to take it one day at a time and just stay positive through the freezing cold temperatures. Wednesday is a high of -13 but with wind chill they are expecting it to be about -45 so that will be exciting. If it gets -40 or below with wind chill we are not allowed to go outside, so no worries ;) It snowed quite a bit last night and is expecting to snow more today so President Barney just told everyone that they have to stay inside until this afternoon. 

Spanish work is also so much different than English haha. I'm literally having a culture shock, it's crazy. In my ward here, there are 500 people listed in our ward records. And only about 50 come regularly. 50! If any of you previous missionaries could give me any advice of how to work with all of these less-actives, I would greatly appreciate it. The Bishop asked me yesterday in sacrament to go up and share my testimony and introduce myself, and looking over the congregation I just felt so overwhelmed at the work that needs to be done in this area. There hasn't been a convert baptism here in over a year, and no one has been coming to church, so I'm seriously so stoked to just get in here and get some stuff done! I know it will be hard work, but I love the members here already and I just want to work my hardest and make an impact in this ward. It's gonna take time for sure, but I just pray that I can do it! 

Our apartment is way nice. Nicest one I've lived in. We have a sweet clubhouse with a really nice gym as well, so now I can burn off all these tacos that I'm eating again (woohoo!). I'll put the video in Google Photos.

Been a crazy long week, but I'm stoked for this next week. Tonight I'm taking the train (by myself!) to the University of Minnesota campus to meet up with the sisters there for an exchange tomorrow. Should be an adventure. 

Love you all! Have a safe week. Good luck with work and school.

Con amor, 

Hermana Nissinen

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 

Breaking into apartments

HOLA!

I have missed you guys this week. I hope you all had fun with birthday's and stuff.

It's been a pretty windy week over here in Rochester. Winds got up to 45 mph which made it kinda chilly. Sometimes when we knock on someone's door and they just give us a hard time about being there and then say "Stay warm," I like to say "We won't!" while walking away. Probably not the nicest thing but some people are just not very nice to us so I get a little sassy haha. 

Well, it's been a year. I can hardly believe it. It's been amazing! Now I've got this whole "6 months to sexy" thing to start working on haha.

Tim, a YSA in a different ward, is a violin performance major from BYU. I got asked a few weeks ago to prepare a musical number for my ward, so I asked him if he would do a song with me so we did that yesterday in both our wards! I'm sorry I didn't even get a video of us practicing together. But it was really beautiful. I actually really miss accompanying and performing! 

Tomorrow we have interviews. That's probably when I'm gonna find out more about if I stay another transfer here or not. Idk, it's 50/50. I could definitely stay and finish Sister Vander Werff's training, but I could definitely go since I've been here for 6 months. I would be fine either way! Bishop told me that IF I go, the ward will have a party for me next week. So sweet. He also told everyone in ward council to send President Barney an email saying that I should stay hahaha. Also, when we come back to visit, so many members have offered us places to stay at their homes so it's perfect! I love this area and ward so much. They have really come to be my family. 

Vivek is still progressing! He goes to the single adult scripture study class every week now too. Haha he like really wants to get married in the temple to a nice lady, like really bad. It's so funny. We have to set a date with him THIS WEEK.

I had exchanges this week with the other sisters in my zone. I never thought that serving a mission would mean that I would literally have to counsel other sisters, but holy cow! It's taught me a lot about how to listen and follow the spirit when helping and teaching. I feel like this might be what it's like to be a parent. Haha I'm like the mom of the sisters who need help! But I love them and I have learned a lot.

Sister Vander Werff is progressing very well. We made it a goal that whenever we say a negative comment about anything, we have to do 10 pushups right then. She's also really easy to tease, so I looooove teasing her (in a nice way I promise haha). But I love her to death, she is teaching me so much. We pretty much can't really relate on anything, so it makes it very interesting at times! 

That's pretty much all the highlights from this week. I have now mastered my handstands (see video in Google Photos). The next step is to walk on my hands. The Elders had an extra pull up bar in their apartment so we took that and now I'm working on my pull ups. They are very hard. Haha I figure that in my free time at night when I'm bored outta my mind, I will just try to learn new things. 

President Barney has said that no one can use Messenger or Google Hangouts anymore to talk to family or friends on P-Day, so now we are just back to the regular old email. Sorry.

Love you all so much! Good luck this week with everything going on. You guys are the best.

Xoxo Hermana Nissinen

One more story because it just happened last night. So our shower is sooo plugged. We are getting it fixed today, no worries. But the water from Sister Vander Werff's shower Sunday morning was still there Sunday night, and I didn't NOT want to shower standing in all of her bath water. The 4th ward elder's apartment is vacant as of right now, and the zone leader's have their spare keys. SO, I asked them if I could get them. They told me that the balcony of the 4th ward elder's apartment is unlocked so I can just jump up and go in. We went over there and I climbed up, but as I was helping Sister Vander Werff, this lady YELLED at us from the balcony right above us and said she is gonna call the police. I was like "Okay mam, we are just visiting our friends here and they told us to go up to their balcony to meet them." But then she kept yelling. Sister Vander Werff FREAKED OUT and ran away, so I jumped off and went to go find her but she had the phone and it was dark so we were separated for like 5 minutes which was the scariest thing ever. Anyways, I knew their door was for sure unlocked but I didn't even have the chance to try to open it and I didn't want to risk it so we just decided to finally go get the spare keys hahaha. So there's a crazy story for you! :)

46 degrees = SUMMER

Hey guys!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dad and Kim! I hope your days are wonderful and fun.

Wow, can you believe that a year ago Wednesday I left on my mission?? Holy smokes, I can't! I clearly remember my very first day, and it just doesn't make sense how that was a year ago. Honestly, I wish I was an Elder and was only halfway. I know 2 years may seem like a long ways away for you Joe, but it really does go by so quick. I am so excited for these next 6 months! I never thought I would make it to a year. Sitting in the CCM, or arriving in MN and having no idea what was going on, I looked at the older missionaries and thought "Wow, they are amazing and so tough to be out that long." Haha I still have no idea what I am doing, but I am loving it and learning a lot. 

So it's been a crazy week. Monday was a blast. Best P-day I've ever had. Nerf war, Chick Fil-A, white elephant gift exchange, and bowling. The rule was that we had to be in our beds at 10:30 PM, so Sister Vander Werff and I rolled up to our apartment at 10:25 PM and just ran into bed haha. Good times. 

Tuesday I had MLC all day. We drove up to Bloomington that morning and Sister Vander Werff went with other sisters while I sat in the conference! It was good though and I learned a lot. I came out of it really excited about missionary work and was excited to tell the other sisters in my zone about it. I feel like I am kinda like Dad in some ways. I'm very numbers driven, which I understand that numbers don't mean anything, but when we have to report our numbers of our zone and compare them with the other zones, it makes me want to work harder and exceed my goals. One of my least favorite things is when missionaries don't work hard and find maybe 2 or 3 new people in a month and say "It's just our area. There's no one here." UGH. Not true. God will help us find people or get people to church.

Sister Vander Werff is so funny oh my goodness. I really want you all to meet her someday. There's never a dull moment😂 At times it's been hard and I've really had my patience tested, but I just laugh it off and smile and it's a great time. She has been down with a cold the past few days, so I got some extra time to send out tons of texts and contact people that haven't been contacted in forever. It was good.

In the 4th ward here in Rochester, one of the elders went home this week and the other one got sent up to the cities, so there are currently no missionaries there. President Barney has asked that Sister Vander Werff and I take over their area the next 3 weeks.... ahhhhh! I'm trying to not freak out about everything haha. To say the least, it's been a bit overwhelming, but hey, whatever! Maybe their ward will feed us on the days we don't get fed haha :) 

We are really trying to focus on following the spirit when we go tracking. Often times I just want to go to a place where I haven't been before, but when we follow the spirit, sometimes we are sent to a place where I have already knocked. Sometimes we find someone new, and sometimes we don't. It's really cool. We have found some awesome, hopefully pretty interested people this week. 

On Saturday, a young 8 year old girl got baptized. We decided to invite everyone we were teaching to the baptism. 4 people came! It was so cool! It started at 1 PM, and no one that we had invited had shown up yet, but each of them trickled in in time for her to get dunked so they could see. Some Elder told me a statistic that if a nonmember comes to a baptism, there's an 80% chance of them getting baptized! I'm not sure if that's accurate, but it would be pretty dang awesome.

It's been VERY warm here lately. Members were telling us that a year ago at this time it was about 40-50 degrees colder than it is right now. I guess I shouldn't complain :) 

I am grateful we had the opportunity to fast yesterday. It was a very meaningful fast for me, and I just know that even through hard times in our family, we will be blessed. I'm not going to lie, lately I have struggled with worrying about things at home, but fasting yesterday helped me feel peace and comfort. I hope you have all felt that as well.

Have a great week! Enjoy going back to school ;) Safe travels.

Xoxo Hermana Nissinen

I love Pants!

Happy new year! 

Where did 2018 go?!?! Oh my goodness! I can't believe it is already 2019. This past week I have been reflecting on 2018. It was definitely the hardest, but most fulfilling and rewarding year I have had. There were many times where I didn't know what I was doing or who I was or even what I knew, but I am grateful for the experiences I have had, the friendships made, and my testimony of the gospel. 
I have also been racking my brain trying to think of goals for 2019. This is going to be a pretty crazy year for me and I don't even know what to plan for! 

It was so good to see you guys and talk to you last week. I'm sorry I didn't have much time to talk with Joe. But I'm glad to hear things are going well. I always keep you all in my prayers :)

This past week has been kinda different. Wednesday we drove up to Bloomington for New Missionary Training, and then stayed there until the next evening because we did an exchange with the Sister AP's. The weather was getting pretty bad as well and we were getting quite a bit of snow, so we decided to stay a few more hours that evening until it cleared up a bit to go home. 

Saturday morning, Renee went to the temple for the first time! She brought her own names and did baptisms. I got the opportunity to go with her. It was awesome! She baptized for her grandma and great grandma. Renee is literally the coolest. Dad, on the way home from St. Paul with her, I actually read her your conversion story. Her family is all against the church and her decisions as well so she is really struggling with that. I think she finds comfort in knowing she is not the only one.

Sister Vander Werff is always very sleepy, so when we get home at around 9 or 9:30 at night, she just goes right to sleep! I have nothing to do besides write in my journal, so I decided to practice doing handstands. I am very bad at them haha. It will take some work. 

Friday night we had a man named Vivek who we met tracting a few weeks ago and who we have been teaching come to the church for a tour! It was so great! I've really learned how important church tours are. Joe, if you can get your people to come to the church some evening and walk them around and show them everything, it's a really cool way to teach a lesson. We taught Vivek the Gospel of Jesus Christ by showing him the paintings and the baptismal font. He even came to church on Sunday as well! 

Today we have a night zone P-day, so all of us are getting together and we are going to have a Nerf gun war, play some sports, and probably go bowling. Should be a good time!

I have really had to lean towards the Book of Mormon this week on many occasions. When I am feeling lonely or unmotivated, I know I can turn to the scriptures to help me. I am focusing on studying 'joy' right now, and it's been so cool to see how the people in the scriptures felt joy and what they did. In 2nd Nephi 11, Nephi says many times "my soul delighteth...". He goes on to say that his soul delighted in His words, in proving unto the people the coming of Christ, and in the covenants of the Lord. I know that when I have these feelings of loneliness or unmotivation, I can find joy in focusing on my Savior, like Nephi. (You can obviously tell I am trying to liken the scriptures to myself lol).

I'm excited for this new Come, Follow Me program. Please make the time to do it every week! 

I love you guys. Thanks for your prayers, support, and love. It's gettin pretty chilly out here now! 

Happy New Year, 

Love Hermana Nissinen

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