"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

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