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
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