My Lovely Leipzig

Well Hello my sweet sweet family. How in the world are you! 

I just love you all so much and hope you have a marvelous week.

This week was just fabulsou for my sweet sister brown and I. We did a lot of finding this week and member work. Let me just tell you, the memebers here in Leipzig are so wonderful. They are such strong members of the church!! 

I cant remember if I told you all about our little Frau Hoffman. She is this little old lady that the elders met while doing doors. They talked to her about geneology and then gave her address to us. Last week we went by and she was trilled to see us. We told her about what we are doing here and said she wanted the Book of MORMON! We were thrilled. Well this week, we went by our little one legged friend, and gave her the Book of Mormon. I can not tell you how HAPPY she was. I tell you. I have never seen anyone happier to get a book. She was asking us how much she owed us, and that she would give it back she jsut really wanted to read it. We told her no, it is a gift for you. She was just so happy. She is the cutest little lady on the planet! She has 2 cats used to have 3 dogs and WOW her house has a smell I have never smelled before, but boy is she wonderful. We love our little Frau Hoffman. 

This week the Elders in the other Ward had a baptism for there investigator Silvia. They asked us "sisters" if we would do a musical number for the taufe. We told them, yes of course!!!! MY favorite. Well last week on Monday, I thought that I would take some time and warm up my voice and sing ACTUAL music (other than hymns) for the first time in a year... well to my surprise my voice was actually not dead like I thought... haha! The wonders of being a missionary... The lord helps us in EVERY aspect of our lives. Even though I could barley talk the next day because my voice was so sore, it was okay :) SO I sang Savior Redeemer of my soul and sister Brown played the violin and it was just beautiful :) So that was just fun!!

Well family, the moment you have all been waiting for... 

I AM GETTING TRANSFERED. Yep yep yep... I am leaving my precious Leipzig and heading out to Cottbus! My new comps name is Sister Knoll. She is from Austria so that is WOnderful!!!!! I am super excited. I have gone on splits with her and LOVE her to death! She is quite "german" and I am just thrilled for the oppertunity to work with her!!!! Plus I am going to Cottbus. I havbe heard it si pretty great there. Sister Kosak is from there- that is where Sister Kosak grew up and where they lived before President Kosak was called as the mission president! So that is fun. I am excited to be going on another adventure! 

Saying goodbye to the Ward yesterday was just heart WRENCHING! Let me tell you. It always seems to amaze me how much love I have for the people here. Some of them still dont even know my name (The lord was thinking when he gave us name badges) but I still love them with every ounce of my whole heart and soul. I love the people that I have been able to work with and I am so thankful for everything they have taught me. Last night I went to say goodbye to our Ward mission leader and his family. We have become very close. They still keep in contact with Gustave and we got to skype him yesterday and I said goodbye to him. It was so wonderful. The missionaries are meeting with his whole family now in Rwanda! He is so happy!! He told me lst night, "thank you nilson for following god and for finding me." I basically died and went to heaven. THAT IS WHAT MISSIONS ARE ALL ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Coming closer to god, and bring others closer to god. This is Gods work and as we listen to him, he will tell us where to go, which doors to knock on and who to talk to. We said our goodbyes and I was almost in tears. They are planning a trip with Gustave to come see us next march! Mom, get the guest rooms ready! We are going to be hosting african, germans, and whoever else want to hop on the band wagon!!!! Well we said goodbye and as I was leaving I hugged Schwester weber and then bruder weber said, ah sister nilson come here... and gave me a hug! it was cute! haha. 

I do love these members so much. they are such good people. That is another plus about a mission, you get to meet some of the most amazing people around!! 

Well... next week i will let you know how cottbus is... untill then,

Love you all

Sister nilson 

Our little week of Miracles :)

Hello FAMILY!! I love you all so so much!!!

Sister Brown and I are doing well as always. We are loving being here in Leipzig together. 

This week we had so many little success stories...

First, we have this Wonderful friend who we have helped for the last two weeks clean her apartment. SHE IS CRAZY- I attached a photo of her apartment... it is NASTY! Mom, if you ever ythink your house is dirty think again! We meet with her once a week for about an hour and a half and help her clean her apartment. She said she was in the middle of a move... but we found out that it is really just a move of stuff from on bedroom to another room. We love being with her. She is very sweet loving grandma! The other day when we went over Sister Brown and I had decieded that we were going to ask her if she would like to meet with us for actual missionary lessons. We were not sure if she knew our purpose as missionaries and thought we would tell her. We prayed that the time would present itself when we could sit down with her and talk about it, and IT DID! When we were helping her we started talking more about the chruch. We finally just asked her if everytime we came over if we could do a lesson and then clean, or clean and then a lesson and she said, "yes, I really think I would like that. You just have to make sure that you tell me to sit down and LISTEN!" She told us that she met missionaries about 3 years ago but did not let them in. Since then she has been thinking about the church. She said that she has been going back adn forth-should I find them... or not... and then BOOM! We came back. As missionaries maybe we dont always see the fruits of our labors, but as we plant the seeds then they will gorw and eventually be reaped. It is so wonderful!

The next little success we had was with our english class this week. We had prepared a spiritual thought from the book of mormon and as we opened to the page number, one of our students (who was a previous investigator) said wait! she then pulled out her Book of Mormon and turned to the page with us! It was so fun to see that she had brought her Book of Mormon. We then had a great class full of laughter and FUN!

We did the funnest activity at english class. I brought my ukelele with me and then while we were there (we were talking about rhyming words) we asked them for lines and then made up songs. Then I would play a tune and we would sing it! It was so fun! Well, we had started writing a song that went a little something like this...

I really really like food.

It puts me in a good mood

Then we asked the next girl her name is Mai Hai, she is about 25 and is from Vietnam, to give us another sentance...

Well she said.... "I like cooking in the Nude..." Sister Brown and i just LOST IT! Sister brown was writing everything up on the board and said, "okay, well Mai hai that is nice..." BAHAHAHHA! We were dying. But once it was written up on the Board Mai Hia started laughing so hard!!!!! and said no sister i mean this word, She wrote the word NOODLES up on the board to replace it. He accent is so strong that when she said noodles it DID NOT SOUND like that!!!!! we had a good laugh about it. We literally were laughing for the rest of the night. 

The next little miracle was with a Lady names Frau Hoffman. The elders found her and told ehr a little bit about Genelology. She was interested and told them to come back. Well they gave her to us since they have to have another male to go into her apartment, so Sister Brown and I went and talked to her this week. The cool thing was when we started talking to her-she really was not too interested in Geneology- but when we mentioned the Book of Mormon she flipped! She was like- I HAVE TO HAVE THIS BOOK!!! She was so excited and is so ready for the gospel! She only has one leg and was telling us that she had to go get the other one checked by the doctor and they might have to cut it off too... she was like if that happens I am just going to leave this world... then she looked at us adn said, but first I need to learn more about this book!! haha. 

She is the cutest little old cat lady. Germans and their animals. 

I know that heavenly father is really here with us missionaries. He helps us everyday. This is his work and I am so gratful for that. I have been thinking a lot about the language lately and wondering why it has been so hard for me. I have been thinking that God has needed me to learn to trust in him and his timing. To learn patience-with myself, others, and most of all God and him timing. It is not our timing that matters, it is his. 

Thank you president for everything! 

Sister NIlson 

The Pictures are of the house... and then the other day we walked into our apartment for lunch adn sister borwn and I jumped as we walked into my room because we toally thought someone was in my bed! haha So i had to take a picture :)

Make sure you put NOT NATIVE SPEAKER on your resume!

Hello Family!

This week was really grand. I dont really have a lot of time and really not a whole lot to tell. We did a lot of finding this week... Still looking for those prepared people. Dont worry we will find them real soon... Man, germans they are good at hide and seek. Seriously. 

Next To make a long story short sister brown and I spent all week delivering invatations to a baptism on saturday. WE invited about 50 people... well on Friday night we found out it was not going to happen anymore. The girl had to be rushed to the hospital for something. So it got postponed... So sister Brown and I are just sitting there like.. oh man... what do we do now. We called as many people as we had numbers for and then just ended up going to the church anyways to see if anyone would some. No one came. alles klar. 

We had interviews with president kosak this week. That is always wonderful. He is such a great mission president. He is very inspired. 

A member in our ward did a career workshop on SAturday and asked sister brown and I to come so we did. We were there and you have to do these roll plays where you get up an introduce yourself like you are in an interview... Well my german is not very good as it is... but I got up and just kinda said some things... haha in terrible german, and then sat down. Then they evaluated me. The one man from our ward was like, well you should tell people before you start speaking that german is not your native language... BAHAHA! yep family. The german is still a BEAST!!! Who knew that evern after a year i would still be speaking like a little 2 year old... actually i Still think they have better german than me... 

He also told sister brown that her voice was too Mousie... he was like Sister nilson sings. She can teach you how to have a more stable voice. bahaha. We had a good laugh about our time at our little german career workshop. 

Well, Fam. I just want to let you know that all is well. I am still loving it here. Transfer calls are in two weeks and sister brown and I are both PRAYING that we stay here together for one more. Feel free to hop on the band wagon and pray for us too... 

I love you all and hope that everything is going well!

LOVE YOU 

Sister Nilson 

Hello Family- 10 March 2014

We had a week of wunders!! On Thursday we were able to make contact with a lot of people that we lost contact with!!! 

A couple weeks ago we met this man on the Bahn. His name was Kevin. He was big and African. He said that he would like to meet with us. We exchanged numbers and set up an appointment. Well he ended up not coming and we lost contact. Well this week HE CALLED US! So we made out another appointment and he actually came!! On saturday, we had our lesson and he asked us what makes our church different. We were able to talk about the restoration and tell him that we know that this gospel can change his life. It was really a great lesson. We are going to continue to meet with him.

This week we had a tragedy in our gemiende, Bruder Olaf Bauerfeind died.OUr ward here in Leipzig is basically ALL bauerfeinds. They are all related to one another so it really took a toll on the ward. At church on Sunday, many were in tears. I found myself crying right along with them as the sacrament was being passed. I thought to myself, "Sister Nilson, what is the matter with you! You did not even really know this man. I said hello to him every week at church and had one appointment with him." But really I did not know him too well. As i was thinking about why it had hurt me so much, and then I realized it was because of the LOVE that I had for this gemeinde. I LOVE THE LEIPZIG 2 gemeinde. They are incredible people and I have been able to build such an incredible relationship with many of them.Missions are so incredible. You meet the most wonderful people. I am telling you. The members in Germany are so strong. They have to be. This world is just crazy and the members here are a light in a dark tunnel.

Because he was a Bauerfeind it really effected our whole ward. It was amazing to see that as church went on and people talked about how this is not the end, and that there is life after this-the sadness's turned into hope and happiness. This gospel is so wonderful. It really is the perfect plan made for us by our father in heaven.

This life is not the end. God has a perfect plan for us and that as we live righteously on the earth then we can be with all the people we love after this. 

I love being a missionary and thank the lord everyday for this opportunity!!! 

Love you all!

Sister Nilson 

We are here to have JOY!

WHY hello my SWWWWEEEEETTTTT family! Here is Sister Nilson! I just called to say I love you! I just called so say how much i care.... 

Okay. Now that I have my little song out of my heart I can continue on with the AMAZING WEEK Sister Brown and I had. 

First I must once again say that Sister Brown and I are LOVING BEING TOGETHER! She is the star on top of my christmas tree. Literally. So wonderful. This week we had the FUNNIEST moments together. Here is a quick little story:

The other night the Elders came to get the 2 extra mattresses that we have in our apartment. They were having some other Elders come and stay with them and they needed somewhere to sleep. After agreeing to meet them with the Mattresses Sister Brown turns to me and says Sister Nilson... what is your opinion of sliding down stairs on Mattresses? Natürlich it is a MUST!  So what did we proceed to do... Slide down 6 flights of stairs on our mattresses.It was hilarious!!! AS we got to the end the Elders were all outside Banging on the door. They had thought that we were just "too weak" to carry them down ourselves. They were like sisters we could have helped you... OH PLEASE!!! First we are strong Sisters and second, WHAT FUN IS THAT! WE didi not share with them what actually occurred. We did not think it appropriate... haha. 

If there is anything I MUST SAY it is that we are here on this earth TO HAVE JOY people! JOY! Each and everyday should be filled with something that makes us happy. That was gods intention. 

On Wednesday Sister Brown and I taught our English class. Our cute little Investigator-Lobsang- came and LOVED it!!! We had so much fun! We were talking about Food and gave them there vocab sheet of terms. THEN (because we are the coolest teachers ever!) we had SNACK TIME! Sister Brown has spent a lot of time p-day running all around to try and find marshmallow and we did! So WE MADE SMORES in English class. We told them it was a typical american dessert! I felt like I was on Sand Lot as I explained how to make it... "you take the mallow and put it on the gram"

It was lovely. 

We got to skype with Gustave again this week through the members. He says that he is doing so good and meets with the missionaries there multiple times a week. WANT TO KNOW WHAT ELSE!!! He told us that his cousin who has been coming to church with him every week is going to be getting Baptised!!!! She started meeting with the missionaries and is going to be baptized! WOw. Gustave already has a baptism and he has been a member for like a MONTH!!!! He ROCKS! 

Yes, So this email was not tooo high on the spiritual side of things so I will share really quick something that I learned this week. We are reading Preach my Gospel as a mission right now and I am reading in Chapter 6 about Christ like Characteristics. As I sat down to begin my personal study I was reflecting over the week or the past couple days. I was thinking about how we had put in SO MUCH FINDING TIME this week and have found no new investigators. I was kinda bothered by it. I was thinking we are being soooooo OBEDIENT (the whole mattress thing was total okay :) pretty sure it says nothing about that in the white handbuch!) and trying our best. Talking with seriously EVERYONE- why and we not seeing any success. I then prayed and asked god to help me understand why we had not gotten any new investigators. I then started reading and I read about being Patient... haha. The Lord knew exactly what I needed. It said, Know that the Lord is preparing people for you to teach but you must BE PATIENT- everything happens in the LORDS TIMING!!! God knows who is ready. He knows who needs another week, month, maybe year... but he is preparing the hearts of the people. And us as missionaries just have to work everyday and do our best so that on the day they are prepared the Lord can send them to us and KNOW that without a doubt we will find them!!! 

I love being a missionary. I am so thankful for this oppertunity that I have to be here in Germany and be with the members and people here. Even though I STILL can not speak german... haha I know that God has put me here for a reason and that the people here will teach me so much!  I love love love love love love love x10000000000 these GERMAN people. My sweet city of Leipzig. It is the best ever!! 

Much love!!! Happy Birthday to Vicki and Emma! MAYA TOO!!!!! Man. This is crazy!!! WEll i love you all!!!  Have a great week! 

LOVE YOU!

Sister Nilson 

Hello family! 24 Feb, 2014

Hello family!

OKAY WHAT THE WHAT. Dad. Are you a secret prophesier or something crazy!!! I cannot believe that Jacob is being trained by Nick Emery. Isn’t God so great? I tell you guys. God just wants us to be happy here and so what does he do... He makes all our wildest DREAMS come TRUE!!!!!!! AH! That is just too great!!! I am still freaking out.

Okay a little spotlight time: SISTER BROWN. My sweet companion. First off she is from Lehi, Utah. She did track and cross-country in high school and is going to SUU when she gets home. She is literally the BEST PERSON IN THE WHOLE WORLD. I love here more than anything. WE basically die of laughter EVERY SINGLE DAY and WORK HARD! It is the perfect balance. Really. It has been incredible. And we are staying together for another Transfer!!! I think I could stay here in Leipzig with Sister Brown for the rest of my mission...(haha. She is probably like GET ME OUT OF HERE!!) I am pretty crazy... but you all already know that :) 

Okay. It is just Birthday Topia at the Nilson home. Dad. I hope you had a good one. James. Before that... How is that crazy kid doing. He should write me. Sabrina. Sweet 16!! Go girl. Drivin and datin! All the dreams beginning! haha And EMI!!! My sweet baby sister who is not even a baby anymore. I told someone here you were 8 the other day... WOW I am looooooooosen it! haha the big 13! That is incredible. 

Kates. You are just Golden. I cannot believe that Jacob and I are here in Germany-4 hours away from one another- and you are all back home. 

Dad, got released. Wow. That is crazy. But I know that President Taylor, Davis, and Bentley are going to be just amazing. That is incredible. What inspired leaders we have in the church.

This week WAS wonderful! We had a lesson with our investigators Lobsang-he is from India and has NO religious background- He has no idea about God or Jesus Christ. It is all very basic with him.  We talked about Jesus Christ this week and who he is. We went through his life with the picture book and told about all the stories and miracles Jesus Christ did. It was so powerful going through the life of Jesus Christ. I love what Lobsang said, he said, He was such an incredible example on a historical level as well as a religious level. And it is so true. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to the earth and helped people. He did everything out of love. He loved us so he came and served others and then in the end died for us.  At the end of the lesson we asked him what he thought about Jesus Christ and he said, "Wow, Jesus Christ has such a big heart." It was so pure and childlike. It was incredible to see how humble and submissive Lobsang was. He just soaked everything in and was so willing and open to what we were saying. It was incredible. He then said the closing prayer!! It was so cute. He was like, "dear loving father Jesus lord..." he said every name possible in the beginning. AH! It was so precious. He said the most sincere prayer and then closed it in the name of Jesus Christ Amen. It was such a wonderful example to me of just being completely humble and willingness to see if God really was there. 

I know that God is there. He really does love each and every single person in this world. I love being here. I am so happy. The happiest little person here in Germany. I love being here. I love being a missionary. 

I hope you all have a great week! Always remember how much God truly knows and cares about each of us! Love you all!!

Josie

A Referral...

Hello Family!!!!!!!!!!! How are you all doing this week. I hope you had a wonderful Valentines DAY! This week has been great for Sister Brown and I!

A little while ago the Elders gave Sister Brown and I a referral for a family. We went by again and again, but were never able to get a hold of them. We kept trying and then last week on Sunday we finally were able to make contact and set up an appointment for Monday. When we went on Monday for our first meeting we walked into a Whole FAMILY sitting, waiting for us to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were so incredible! This family is from India and they are excited to learn more. We set up another appointment on Wednesday and after spending an Hour looking for the Church, they finally found it. When we met out to meet them the WHOLE FAMILY was again there. They had all come to see the church. We were able to give them a church tour and make another appointment. They do not know much about Jesus Christ so that is what we will be focusing on this week. They are so nice and are ready to hear about the gospel. It is wonderful how the lord sends us to prepared people. 

The crazy thing about this story is that the family from the referral moved away and this family bought there apartment!!! The lord works my friends. I love you all

Sorry it was so short this week... more next week.