Bring on the Germans!

This week has been simply wonderful... even down to the 5 eating appointments we had... YEP! Count them. 5!! GERMANS!!!! But this is sooo great for us! WE started out with NONE! THE WARD ACTUALLY LIKES US!! Yesterday the Bishop came up to Sister Cluff and I and asked if we were staying another transfer! Hehe... BEST DAY! If you remember our ward was not too big of fans of missionaries... Since Sister Cluff rocks my socks and theirs the ward likes us now... we think... if anything they are interested in what two girls who can't speak German are going to be able to do. (Through the lord of course :) ). 

This week has been magical! It started off with the Familie Mansour. This is the part member family. The mom is a member and her two boys have a baptismal date... they have for like the past six months. They keep moving it back farther and farther. Well when we went over on Monday we talked to them and they said they wanted to move it back again (it is set for July 7th). We told them nope :). We asked them why they wanted to get baptized and what their concerns were. Well come to find out... they have NO concerns, but their mother does. So we talked to her and then them altogether and told them the love we have for them and their potential and they decided to stick to the DATE! And on top of that they have committed to meeting with us twice a week!! That is a big BIG deal. So we are excited.

On Wednesday we had ZONE CONFERENCE WITH PRESIDENT! IT WAS THE BESTTTTTT!!!! Ah. President Kosak is so inspired. He talked about being Good Listeners but not just good listeners, He said, we need to be Empathetic Listeners. Empathy is when you place yourself in other people’s shoes. You are able to look at something from their prospective. This is good for missionaries, so that we can help our investigators, members, and companions. But it is NOT just for missionaries. If we can learn to be Empathetic Listeners in our everyday lives, we will be able to help and understand so many people and it will bless our lives. I am so happy you had the Missionaries over. That is so incredible. I bet they were FREAKING OUT! "The stake pres..." bahaha! I know I would be!!! Keep it up. Keep doing missionary work!!! MEMBERS ARE SOOO IMPORTANT!!! and you better think of a referral to give those missionaries! 

Oh quick side notes... we went to a members house for an Eating appt. this week and I am pretty sure he was Mr. Weasley!!! He looked like him AND he was obsessed with America!! You know how Mr. Weasley is obsessed with Muggles... yep... it was Americans for him. We had Tacos for lunch! And they were sooo good! They love America. They were asking us all these questions and trying to speak in English- and they watch KID HISTORY on YouTube. Talk about the typical mormon! haha! LOVE IT. So I met Mr. Weasley! Simply Brilliant! 

My Last story I have for you today is about an investigator of ours named Herr Sultani. He is from Iran, does not like that he is muslim, and wants to be Christian more than anything. We had our second lesson with him this week, (it was my first time meeting him) and we did the First lesson. The spirit was so strong. We went through each point very slowly and at the end we extended the baptismal commitment! And when we asked him it he would get baptized (we were actually in the room with the baptism font, we pointed to it) he FLIPPED OUT! He jumped out of his seat and said YES!!! I have never seen someone so happy before in all my life. He then proceeded to tell us that he had tried so many Christian churches because he just wanted to be Christian soooo bad, and this one just felt right. I love love LOVE the Holy Ghost. So we set up the baptismal date for June 23rd! I couldn't be happier!! It was incredible to hear his testimony about how he knows that God loves him and how he is so grateful to God for giving him this gospel. He had been prepared. I know that there are so many people that the Lord is preparing to hear his gospel. There are so many people that want to know about this gospel and we need to find them. That is our job as missionaries and MEMBERS! To find those who are prepared!! Our commitment we have been giving the members is, we invited them to pray about a street that we can door. We have done that and have got a lot of referrals this week! So we will see how this week goes! 

I am so grateful for my mission and for everything that the Lord has taught me. I have learned so much about this gospel and am so thankful to be here! I know this gospel is true. I know that Jesus Christ is my savior. I know that we have a heavenly Father who loves us so much. He gave us this gospel so that we could return to him. And I have the opportunity to share it with people! WOW. I am so blessed! I love being a missionary! I know that this gospel is the ONLY WAY! And how marvelous that we have this gospel. It is simply Brilliant! I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know that through them I WILL be able to learn German, and find the people they need me to find. I am so grateful to be a missionary. Everyone choose now to be a missionary NOW, forever and Always.

So Yep. This week rocked. I love being a missionary and cannot believe that I am already down to 16 months! Yep. I have hit my two month mark! WHAT THE! Time Flies when you are serving the Lord! 

Thank you so much for all your love and support. I feel your prayers and am so thankful for you all. I love you guys sooo much you don’t even know. I have the bestest family. SHOUT OUT TO SETH!!! I am so glad you are home safe and sound! I LOVE the pictures that I GOT! You are incredible! I am so proud of you! You make me want to go out and work harder as a missionary! Thanks for being such an incredible example to me!! 

I love you all!!! Sister Nilson

Rafiki Mourns-He lives in you!

Everyone right now needs to go and listen to the song ,"Rafiki Mourns" and "He lives in you (reprise) from lion king musical. These songs are a beautiful portrayal of my week! :) Good thing that I have them on my ipod and I get to listen to them ALWAYS and basically create my own mission MUSICAL!!! BEST DAY EVER!! This week has been full of ups and downs-that all ended with HAPPINESS! Because guess what... I am a MISSIONARY! Can life be bad NO!!! It is impossible... cause whenever something maybe not so ideal happens, the LORD, ALWAYS, has a way to pick us back up! Wow. How great is He. 

This week on Tuesday we had a HUGE MIRacle. It started our week off on a HUGE HIGH!!! We were going to teach a inactive member named Alex, He is an awesome Afrcan from guana. So we went to his apartment-and we had planned to go through the first lesson, which we thought was kinda interesting... but we both felt good about it, so we just went with it.- and we had a joint teach with another Lady in our ward who came with us. So we went in and started talking to Him and giving him our lesson. Well, while we were doing that (we were teaching him in a communal kitchen...bahaha) two guys came in and began smoking. Sister cluff and I were like awesome. haha. Well yea it WAS awesome. As we told Alex the first vision and bore our testimonies of Joseph Smith and this gospel, the two men starting asking us questions. One of the Guys was asking about how we were the "True church" he said, wow. I have tried so many different churches and I dont like any of them... can I learn more. I have so many questions, do you think you could answer them? 

OKAY WHAT! Can you say perfect sinario for a missionary! We told him YES and that we would do our best with answering his questions. Each of the men took a Book of mormon and were pumped! We have another appointment with Them on Wednesday of this week. And Alex said that he was going to make African FUFU for us!! Oh yes. More African food! Bring it on!!! We are so excited for this lesson!!! So in one lesson we had a joint-teach with an inactive member and got two new investigators :) BRilliant! PERFECT! 

We also did District Finding this week in our area. Sister Cluff said she knew a good area we could go, so we all met there and broke up and started finding people. We were so pumped ready to go... However the people we talked to were not...bahaha. We had no success. People would not even take our pass-a-long cards we had. they  would see us coming and before we even said anything they were telling us to get away or that they had no time to talk. haha. It was really awesome!!!! And I am being totally serious it was awesome! Here is what I have learned with finding... When finding you just open your mouth ALWAYS. Then whatever happens happens. But you know that at least you opened your mouth. It shows the Lord that you are willing to do anything and everything to find his prepared people. And even though we did not run into any of his prepared children, we did our best. We talked to EVERYONE or at least tried to. That is one commitment that I made to myself-that I would always talk to everyone. And that is what we have been doing. So we can know that the lord is proud and that evenually we will run into that person that is preapared and ready for this brilliant gospel! 

Another Miracle we had this week was with a Familie that has been having the Disscussions for over a year. Die Familie Boston Mahr. They are really sweet. They are a family from Iraq and were progressing really well and then just stopped. So we are trying to see if we can light the fire again. The mom is interested and  their 7 year old daughter. The little girl is named Yalda and she is heaven sent. Whenever her mom says that she has misplaced the Book of Mormon or anything like that somehow Yalda knows. She just will run and find it and give it to her mom. She LOVES this gospel so much. Yesterday Sister Cluff was talking to the Mom and I was with Yalda flipping through our picture book we have. She was just looking at all the pictures and then she flipped to a picture of a little girl getting baptized. She stopped and looked at it for a minute. Then she asked what is this. I told that it was a picture of a little girl getting baptized and how when you are 8 you can get baptized (she is 7). She had more questions about it and I did my best to answer them (Okay it is the worst when you are talking to little kids, because they can speak better german than I can... It is a great and humbling experience BEST DAY!). She just looked at teh picture and then ran to her mom and said MOM we have to GO to CHURCH!!! Please Please Please! It was soo cute. That little girl is incredible. And will be the key to opening the hearts of this family. We have our own little angel working on the inside!! yay! 

Sister Cluff got really sick on Saturday with a stomach Flu-she was throwing up all night and we could not even go to church on sunday. So I got a lot of studying in and Had to call a lot of people and talk to the in German and tell them that we were not going to be there. The SCARIEST thing I have ever done! I just tried not to let the other person speak cause I knew if they did, I would not understand... good plan right! haha. it worked out.

So although many appointments fell out this week and finding was not ideal-the Good out weighted the bad. Isnt that how it always is in life. That even when we have hard times, maybe things are not perfect, but they always get better. The good times always come. They are always right around the corner and when we look back, we remember the good. God loved us so much. He never gives us hard times or challenges, Just blessings. He ALWAYS is blessing us. Whether we have to learn something from that blessing or can just enjoy it, they are still all Blessings. God loves us and knows us each individually so welll. He is aware of us. He knows us. And WE KNOW HIM. We can see him guide our lives to make them the best that they can be. All we got to do is follow him. Ah. Just lovely. I loved something that grandma wrote me in a letter she said, 

DOn't quIT - Dont quit and Do it. Get it done. I loved that. We can do anything with gods help.

 I love you all so much and am so thankful for all your prayers and Support. Have so much fun picking Elder Seth Webster up from the airport!!! Tell him I love him more than anything!!! Make a sign from me okay! And scream and be super excited for me!!! You guys better take lots of pictures. Like jenny and I have talked about before, the name Cousin, does not mean enough. He is not my cousin, he's my brother. so give him a big hug for me and tell him how much I love him and that I am so gratr ful for his example he has been for me. :) LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Keep livin the Dream. Play a game of Ultimate Frisbee for me! Take pictures! haha.

LOVE YOU all. I love being a missionary. It is pretty great, not goin gto lie. Everyone should be a missionary!! 

Oh and I am serisous... you need to go listen to those songs in order... they rock. Sister cluff and I even made up a nice modern dance to go along with the Rafiki Mourns song... It is beautiful. I will see if I can send it to you... although it might be too big to send... oh well. you all will just have to wait 17 months till it goes Viral on YouTube. 

BAM! 

Rock it this week. Serve someone. Live the Dream. Tell seth I love him. I love you All. You guys are Hands down the Best. Write me real letters... YES YOU!! Reading this... Write me! :) I love you all!!! You guys are teh best at writing!!! 

LOVE YOU! 

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Sister Josie Nilson...............

    

HAPPY HIMMELFAHRT!!

HAPPY HIMMELFAHRT EVERYONE!!! This week the Germans had their Holiday, HimmelFahrt. The Germans LOVE their Holidays. No one was out and about and we had to be inside by 6 o'clock that night so that we could be safe! People LOVE holidays... brilliance. 

AHHH! What a breath of fresh air it was speaking to you all last night!! Seriously guys lets just take a minute to ponder how marvelous our family is!!! Thanks guys for being there! Tell the Franks that I love them so much and miss seeing them! AND VICK!!! Thank you so much for the package in the MTC! It was all I ever wanted! Seriously you are the best ever!!! It was wonderful talking to you and I hope all the Mothers had a HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! So basically i just love you all so much!! 

Talking to you all just reminded me why I came on a mission, to help people know that they can be with their families forever!!! Really!! It is the best blessing the lord can give us. I am so thankful for all of you!!! Live the DREAM, as Chad Cram would say... and JEN :)! Oh guys, I just love you all so much and cannot tell you how thankful I am for each and every single one of you!!!

This week has been really crazy!! Our focus this week was on finding and reactivating the less active members in our ward. There are a lot so we decided to start visiting them. We visited 4 inactive people this week and get this... THEY ALL WERE AT CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!!!! AAYTAYYAYAYAY!! Can you say a Miracle from the LORD! I was thrilled. It was so marvelous!! One of the Lady's that came was named Sofia. We dropped off cookies and a note to Sofia and briefly stopped by. It was marvelous to see her there. She has been sick lately and so she has been using that to not go to church, BUT yesterday even though she was sick she came!!! I sat by her and was singing by her. She leaned over to me every song and told me that "I had a beautiful voice." haha. Then in sunday school she proceeded to ask me Why in the world I am not a "Rock Star" in America! bahaha. She kept saying, why havent you tried to become a Rock star, you need to go try NOW! haha. I had to tell her that maybe I would try when I was done serving the Lord! bahaha, She told me that I better TRY! haha. It was the best moment for sure! I adore this woman. Her and I just hit it off. I love love LOVE her! 

Another tender mercy from the lord this week was that we got appointments with two new people this week!!! WE FOUND TWO PEOPLE! They are both African... ahhh. Love. They both have a very strong love for the Lord and so we are going to meet with them and share God's message with them. One of them is named Sona. We found her visting another investigator Frau Witt. She is this crazy old woman that stands up in her window and tells everyone she sees to come into her house and visit her. It is the best for us! She Never remembers any of our visits which is sad, but every time we talk about the book of Mormon she LOVES it!! The past two times we have gone over to her house there have been people there, and this is how we met Sona. She was locked out of her house and Frau Witt, being the best missionary ever, invited her in. Well we stopped by and BOOYA! We got an appointment with her and she is super interested!! SO happy. She is the sweetest lady in all the world. 

We have prayed and fasted multiple times last week so that everything can go well with them and that we will be able to get progressing investigators. When I got here there were two progressing investigators with baptisimal dates... but because of things with the mother we have not been able to meet with them. I have not even met both of them. So that is hard, but we know that if we keep working and Kill them with KINDNESS! They will soften their heart towards us. 

If there is anything that I have learned it is that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. We have had multiple appointments fall out, and we go and are walking away and meet someone on the street that talks to us for a while- and even though we do not get an appointment with them they leave with a good taste in their mouth. Knowing that "Mormons" are good people and kind people. Seed planting. Never underestimate a seed planter. Someone has to do it or there would be no harvest! I know that "the field is White already to harvest!" and that we will find the people who are ready to hear the gospel!!!! 

I love my mission with all my heart and have already learned so much!! This is truly God's work. Everyone should go on a mission!!! YAYAYAYYAY missions! haha. 

Love, Josie

I am here!

That moment when you wake up and think I want to be in a beautiful country that is green and lushious and then you remember OH WAIT... I AM! Is the best feeling ever!! 

I AM IN GERMANY!!!! Yes. This is the craziest things of all times. Lets all GASP!! GGGGAAAASSSSPPPP! Ah. thank you for doing that with me. This is a big deal people. I Am in Germany on my mission!!! Can I get an AMEN!  

Okay enough excitement!. 

My last couple days in the MTC were kinda sad saying goodbye to our branch presidency. I was able to work very closely with their wives, that were basically my second moms so it was very sad to say bye to them! They are the best and I was so thankful for their incredible example to me and for everything they did for me. 

               *side note. The "z" key and the "y" key are switched on German Keyboards so if I have a lot of mistakes involving those two letters you will know why! (And just to let you know it look me about 5 minutes to write that sentence because there was a million "Y's" AHHH! I love this.)

Okay back to business. Then saying goodbye to my District and my Zone which was the Best!!!! was hard. Plus our teachers in the MTC were by far the best. So yep. A lot of goodbyes. But I am so thankful for the time I had in the MTC. It was an incredible experience for me. I learned so much and was touched by the spirit in so many ways- from people sharing experiences or insights, inspired teachers and leaders, and so many other ways. All I know is that I am so thankful for everyone who made that experience as brilliant as it was. Ah. I love the MTC. Thank you. Thank you for everyone who sent packages and letters. They were increible. Thank you!! I love you ALL!!! Thanks! 

Travel. The airplane flight was grand. I slept as much as possible and then wrote in my journal. It was lovely. When we got there we got our luggage and walked out and met Pres. and Sister Kosak. They are the nicest people in all the world. Really. Incredible. I feel so blessed to have such an incredible Mission President!! BEST DAY! 

Next Item of business... My Trainer. Can I just say that I am so blessed. I am so thankful for the Lord. He knows me. I sure do love him. My trainers name is Sister Cluff and I am in the city... DRUMROLL PLEASE... 

                                        LAGENHORN-It is in HAMBURG! 

Sister Cluff has been a missionary for a VERY long time. She was been out... wait for it... 6 weeks!!!! bahahahaha! Yep. haha. Their were so many girls that came in with our group that some of the brand new sisters had to train and I am so gratful for that because Sister Cluff is the best! She really is incredible and hilarious. WE laugh a lot. Haha. hahahhaha! Its great-But dont worry. We have been working SOO HARD! Her German is super great and she is so helpful. She does language study with me everyday and is constantly asking if I need anything or if I am doing okay. She is really ready to work and has a love for missionary work. I think that we are going to have a lot of success because we both have a lot of enthusiasm!! I LOVE HER! She is incredible. Yesterday was he first time at church without a "helpful" compaion. haha. Yep. Church was crazy. I understood NOTHING. bahaha. What a joy it was. I Just sat there with a smile on my face. :) ah. That is true happiness right there. That is all I can say. Because even though I understood nothing you still see the excitement and the spirit in each member of the church. It was lovely. In ward council, the Bishop asked me to give the closing prayer!!! I was terrified, but I did it and guess what... I Did not die or anything. I LIVED! Yep. that in and of itself was a Miracle. Then we had 2 newly baptized members there- Abel, who speaks french and english, Another Lady who speaks spanish, and then an investigator Daniel who speaks german. Lets just say our class for new members/ investigators was insane. It was in 4 different languages and we were all trying to translate-bahaha. I bet the lord was watching it and was like this rocks. Look at my children trying to help out oneanother. I was pulling out my french numbers I knew and spanish! Ah yea. Sister Cluff and I were rocking it! bahaha. It was awesome. Oh In sacrament meeting I had to introduce myself. Yea. they asked me to do that right before sacrament started. I was like. Sweet heavlenly father... bring it on. I got up there and told them that this was my first week in germany and about ten mouths dropped to the ground. And then I was like yea I know so " ES TUT MIR LEID!!" ( and yes. i said it in a great little voice. I will have to show zyou sometime...) it is the BEST! and then proceeded to give my testimony. And Again! I lived through it!!! YAY! The only problem I encountered was not being able to understand the members. They all came up to me thanking me for my testimony and asking me a million questions and I just smiled. haha. I had no idea what to say. Just smile and wave boys, just smile and wave. ah. There is so much truth to that statement. Sister Cluff said she was impressed with how I handled it all. And she said that the Bishop was really inpressed with me- in his testimony he talked about my prayer that I gave in ward council. How I said, "help us not only feel the holy ghost but to follow the holy ghost." And then he proceeded to talk about how we need to follow the holy ghost. (what the bishop didn't know is that I forgot what a word was and the only word I could remember was Folgen=to follow...So it all worked out I guess!!) haha. Heavenly Father knows whats UP! Sister Cluff said it was really imporant that the bishop " liked" me... I guess they have had major problems with the ward- they are not big fans of missionary work... WELL ALL I CAN TELL YOU IS THAT WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE THAT!!! hehe. Cause preach my gospel says the ward is imporant. Everyone needs to be a member missionary! Do it. 

My first lesson was...wait for it... IN ENGLISH!!! Haha. Best day right. It was with this lady named Agnes. The Sister have visited her twice before and Sister Cluff prepared me for the worst. She said she was really crazy and she did not know what was going to happen. In my mind I was like, "BEST DAY! A Crazy African lady! Does the Lord know me or WHAT!!!" I was so excited to meet her! WE go up to the door and there she was. She is the cutest lady. I met her and we immediatley hit it off. She is the best and she was not crazy at all! Sister Cluff apologized for us just stopping by and she was like, STOP APOLOGIZING!  You have a message to share and I am so grateful you came by. We were pumped. So we sit down (she lives in an apartment with a lot of other women and has a room that is hers) so we were sitting on her bed and she was cooking something in a rice cooker by her bed... AHHHHH AFRICAN FOOD. Sister Cluff and I knew what was going to happen from there, of course she told us we would now be eating with her. Haha. Sweet. She made us a HUGE plate of rice and then put this veggie concauction on it. She gave us one plate to share cause she only had one other plate. We were so gratful for that! We got the plate of heaping rice and she just stared at us... so we got a big spoonful and shoveled it in. My first thought was, Hey this is not so bad. Then it hit me. My eyes started tearing up,my nose started running. Yes, I had just put MOLTEN LAVA in my mouth!!!!!! I thought, "How do you people eat things this hot! EVEN THE WATER IS hot!!" haha. (Shawn spencer. I basically was shawn and Sister Cluff took the role as Gus). It was unbelieveable. I was certain that i would never taste anything ever again. And I had not even had German Chocolate yet!!! I was devasted. haha. But really. This rice was the Hottest stuff I had EVER eaten. I was literally crying. No big deal. We were baring our testimonies so maybe she thought I was just emotional or something! 

Agnes is awesome. She has the Strongest testimony oh Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She loves them so much and says she wants to be a missionary like we are! The only problem with our sweet Agnes is that she will not read anything besides the Bible. The sisters have talked to her about the Book of Mormon before and she refuses to read it. She loves her family and so Sister Cluff and I are going to try and approch teaching from that angle. BUT I LOVE AGNES and I met her one time. I love her. She would really be a powerhouse missionary, so we NEED her here in Germany. 

We are teaching a newly baptized member named Abel and he is from Africa as well. And when we were teaching him I had a thought to maybe do a joint teach with Abel and Agnes. So we are going to plan something and see if his insight can help her!!! As missionaries we have to be able to take constructive critisisum and ANY input anyone has for us!! 

So Abel is a JEM!!! He only speaks french and English so again... we Taught him in english which was a blessing... seeing as my german is not up to par. (However we are not dwelling that, and we have to speak German from 9 am-9pm those are mission rules so it is crazy and I have already seen inprovement. Thank teh Lord one more time!! I love my heavenly father) 

Back to Abel. So he was Baptized by some Elders and then about two weeks after his Baptism he had to go to Italy because of Visa problems or something. He had been in Italy for 4 months and never went to church and has slipped back into so old habbits. NO! This will not do. This was such a great lesson for me to see the imporance of checking up on Newly baptized members. Abel is awesome. We had the most incredible lesson with him. I asked him about any concerns or problems he was having and he told us that it is very hard to live this lifestyle and that people always made fun of him for it. He is probably in his upper 20's and says that he does not have friends that respect his beliefs so it is really hard. He said that he was going through some really hard trails in his life right now and thought god had abandoned him. And was wondering why god made us go through hard times even when we were being righteous. Such good questions. Sister Cluff shared a beautiful personal story with him, and I was able to share my favorite scripture in Alma 36:3- TRUST IN THE LORD and he will help you in everything. When he erad that he started tearing up. We talked to him and by the end of the lesson he was doing so much better. I love him. He is incredible. 

Well I am out of time my sweet family but I love you all sop much! Zou guys are teh light of my life! Keep me updated on everything. 

I love being a missionary. It is such an incredible oppertunity to be able to serve the lord. I love everything about it. I love my father in heaven and my brother jesus christ. This is the true church and i love it- Love you all!! 

WRITE ME LETTERSS! hehe. Really though... you should write me :)! Love you. you should have my apartment address. love love love

Sister Nilson 

SHE HAS ARRIVED!!

Sister Nilson has safely arrived in Germany! Here is is with her trainer, Sister Cluff (WHO IS TRAINING AFTER ONE TRANSFER!!!) and Her mission President and wife.