Oh, I love you Family!

Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Hello Family!

I just love you. I love you so much. I love hearing all about your lives. It is so wonderful! It fills me with joy. Mom thanks for getting me the "little" boys email addresses and for getting Ruth´s address. And I will try to write to Bishop Allred as soon as possible. I have one more thing to ask. Could you see how much money is in my account again? I have had to take some money out recently and I don´t know the exchange rate these days. I just want to make sure I am not going over.

Anyway. I can´t even say how much I love hearing from you. Your lives fascinate me. And it is just so fun to hear. Thanks for updating me so faithfully. And wow, I got 3 emails from mom to make up for last week. :) Thanks mom. I really do appreciate that email you sent to me that I just barely missed. IT was really fun to read about today. Wow, I just can´t get over how wonderful you all are! You all work so hard, staying involved in so many things, helping each other, and I just think it is so great! Ritchie I am so glad that you you are learning Spanish so well and have a count down for your mission. Missions are really so incredible! I just can´t believe I am here. I am here in Germany serving the Lord our God, and learning so much about the gospel and loving it! I know that when we do what the Lord wants we will find happiness we didn´t know existed. The only way we can find it is by doing what the Lord says. He blesses us, yep, he sure does. And Chris I think that is cool that you are so excited to serve your mission. I know you will get called exactly to where the Lord wants you to be, where he can bless you the most, and where he knows you can bless the people the most. He is just so good to us. I am glad that Candace had such a great impression of Arizona and that they have a place there. Yea! That is so cool Crozier likes soccer, and that Jason is doing basketball camp! Um, as for moving, I would say whatever is best for the family. And let me know if you do. :)

Well life here in Germany has changed. Changed meaning the weather. Yes, the weather here has changed. :) If I ever wondered what humidity was in the United States of America, I have most certainly found out what it is here in Western Germany. I hope I get used to it, well I will just have to. :) The air has a lot of water in it.

Other news, well this week is transfer week. We usually get calls on Saturday telling us where we will go and who we´ll be serving with so that on Sunday we can say to the ward members and everyone that we are leaving and everything. Well we got a call on saturday night saying the transfer calls would come on Sunday night (transfers are on Wednesday). That was ok because we were both pretty sure we would stay in Düsseldorf. Sunday night our Mission President called us and asked my companion if she would train. That was a shock to both of us because she is still pretty new on her mission but she accepted. Than he told me that I needed to pack because I would be leaving, but he didn´t know where yet. So yesterday I packed my bags and called everyone and said my final good byes how I might never see them again, but I would write. We dropped off a few notes and did some vorbei´s to some of our investigators that I wouldn´t see again. Then this morning we talked to our President again and he said, "Actually sister Niebergall you will need to pack your bags because you will be leaving to another area, and Sister Fitzgerald will stay." We were both shocked again. I had packed all my stuff and she hadn´t even thought about it. Anyway, then he called again and said that she might be staying. but he will call us tomorrow with the final plans. :) So I am staying packed just in case, and Sister Niebergall will pack in case she leaves tomorrow morning. But I just thought it was so funny that I had just called everyone and wrote all those letters about how much they had meant to me and how I would miss them and never see them again. And now, I am staying for at least another month and a half. I am a little embarrassed, not really because I meant what I said, but at the same time it is still a little awkward and funny. Anyway it´s been an up and down few days. So next week I will let you know where I am. He was pretty sure though that I would stay here.

Now some neat things. We have some new investigators!!! some with potential!!! One is from China, and one is from Nigerial. Sean I wanted to ask you how you usually taught people without a Christian background. Did you use the Finding Happiness DVD? She is awesome. Her name is Flora. She is so cute and I told her the Chinese phrases I knew and she said I had good Chinese. I am grateful for nice people. :) Peter is from Nigeria and he is really cool too. I love teaching!! It just gets better and better.

Also I love the scriptures! I am into Alma now and it is so amazing. I was wondering too if Tara could send me her song. Is that possible for me to get a copy of it? As I read chapter 5 I just kept singing the song in my head and decided I really wanted it. So one of the things I have really learned on my mission is the importance of obedience, and also how powerful agency is. I did not realize how much of a choice it was to choose eternal life. God invites us to have eternal life he extends his arm of mercy, but we have to choose(!!!!!!!!) to take his hand, by reaching for his hand. If we do not choose (!!!!!) eternal life, the devil will pull us down no matter what else we have chosen. If we do not choose to follow God, the devil will wrap his chain around us and pull us down. He did not believe in agency. God loves us so much that he will never force us to do anything. He won´t, we must choose to do it ourselves. Then he will help us. Read the first few chapters of Alma. chapter 2 and 5 and 4 really stuck out to me this week. They are such good chapters. Wow, there is so much to be gained from scripture study!

Well I better go. I love you all. Let me know if you have any questions about anything. I will do my best to respond and answer.

Love,
Sister Fitzgerald