Hello my sweet family!!! WOW! Can I just say that I am on a missionary HIGH right now!!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I remember reading Katie's emails that said that and I was always like, yea yea yea... okay Katie calm DOWN! BUT NO!!!! WE CAN’T!!!!! THIS IS THE BEST CALLING IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay. Whoa!... just had to get that out of my system. So Sister Brown and I changed our p-day last week so that we could go to the temple with a member on Friday. WOW. Family. Can I just tell you how marvelous it was? IT WAS MARVELOUS!!!! WOW… But such a story. Buckle up... okay! So Sister Brown and I still had a lot of stuff to do so we had to get up 30 minutes early to get everything done. We were running all around doing study, grocery shopping at a market, sending packages, buying Sister brown new boots, you know the works... and still made it to the members house by 2:10. 10 minutes early... thank you very much. We were just sitting and talking waiting for her husband to get home from work so we could go. Well he ended up getting home late and so we got a really late start. We were all super nervous and they kept saying... well I hope we can make it... I was thinking to myself... HOPE???? HOPE???? NO WE HAVE TO MAKE THIS!!! This is our one chance. This was the four-o’clock session and the next one started at 7. So this was our only chance. I was praying so hard we would make it and after getting stuck behind 2 huge slow trucks, red lights, and other snowy obstacles we pulled into the Temple parking lot at 3:58pm. We sprinted into the temple and low and BEHOLD our dear sweet Couple missionaries that we were meeting there had STOPPED the session and told the temple people that we were coming and they HAD to wait for us!!! They are the BEST! So guess what! We got to do the 4:00 session. I have never changed so fast in my LIFE!! It was so beautiful. I could have stayed there for the rest of my days. AH. The temple has a special peace about it that I don’t think you can find anywhere else. I feel so blessed that I was able to go to the temple.
WAIT DON’T STOP READING BECAUSE THIS EMAIL IS ABOUT TO GET SOOOOO GOOD!!!
So... you all know my sweet little African brothers Gustave and Roger. Gustave sent us a text on Saturday cancelling our appointment and said, "Sisters I have something to tell you." Well we were excited maybe he wanted to be baptized or something and then told us, something happened on Saturday with Rogers family and he had to go to Belgium and then is heading down to Rwanda from there and we did not even get to say goodbye. My heart broke into about 5000000000000000 pieces. But I understood because family always comes first. But we still have Gustave till February 17th right?? WRONG!!!! As I was sitting by him at the end of church yesterday he said, "Nilson, I am leaving on Sunday." (Meaning next Sunday.) I was like WHAT!?!?!??!?!?! And then the next words... and I got my answer... I want to be baptized before I go.
Now I know you are all thinking, WHAT!!! How can that be bad?? That is wonderful!! BUT! We still had lessons that we needed to teach him, our Ward mission leader does not like doing fast things, and our bishop had gotten mad at the last missionaries here for doing a quick baptism. As i was trying to work everything out in my head I was thinking while listening to the talks... well the whole sacrament has been on Tithing and Fast offerings... check that off the list of to do's, we had brought up the law of chastity once or twice in lessons...hmmm that will do... He knows where the church stands...We had never talked about the Word of Wisdom, so that still needed to be done... then to add onto it he leans over again and says oh yea, Nilson, I am leaving tomorrow and wont be back till Friday. Then I leave back to Rwanda on Sunday. BOOOOOMMMMM!! My brain shattered. I was thinking about all the logistics about what the ward members would say!! AHH!
AS sacrament meeting finished I was talking to him about it and he said Nilson. Please I need to get baptized. (Then there is that thought in the back of your mind that says well is he just wanting to get baptized now because he is leaving)... Lets just say I was a little overwhelmed. I looked at him and said, Gustave, I don’t know. Then someone pulled him away to talk to him and I was left standing alone. (Don’t worry, Sister Brown was still in sight and sound she was just talking to a LESS Active that HAS BEEN COMING BACK TO CHURCH!!! BOOYAHHHHH!!). Then all the sudden someone YANKS me around and it is our Ward mission Leader. He says Sister NIlson, Gustave told my wife he wants to be baptized. How many more lessons does he need? I just looked at him and said, the word of wisdom. He said okay. You take Gustave down to the classroom and teach him the Word of Wisdom, I will go find your district leader and we will do the baptismal interview in the Third hour. I WAS IN SHOCK! Was this really A GERMAN pushing a BAPTISM!!!! He just looked at me and said GO!!! NOW!!! haha. So I grabbed Gustave grabbed Sister Brown and tried to explain what was going on. She was a little confused but by the time we were down stairs she understood what was going on. THE LORD WORKS LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, just wait it gets better....
When we got into the classroom the sweet teacher who has a really great relationship with Gustave said, okay are you ready for the lesson. I tried to explain to her what we were doing and she said, well what lesson do you need because today I felt prompted to prepare a lesson on the Word of WISDOM!!!! WE WERE LIKE WHAT!!!! We all just sat there for a minute in Silence knowing the Lord was behind this all!!! I felt so humbled sitting there. The Lord just softly spoke to me, my sweet Sister Nilson, this is my work and I will do thing in my timing. Thanks for your concern, but please... I just felt God hand moving this forward. We then proceed to teach Gustave about the Word of Wisdom. There were four members in the room, Sister Brown and I, and Gustave. We all took turns baring our testimonies on the importance of the Word of Wisdom. He had a few questions about coffee and tea, but we cleared them up and he said he had no problem with it. Then the most incredible thing happened. I asked Gustave, Why did you all the sudden change your mind and want to be baptized? And he looked at me and said because, Nilson, I got my answer. He then told us that for months he had been praying to see if the church was true. I remember telling you in past emails that he KNEW it was true but needed a "sign" or needed "something more than a feeling"-As we tried and tried to tell him he had already gotten his answer, he just kept saying, no, no, no. I need time. Just give me time. So we did. (Okay back to his side) He told us that he had been praying and praying. Then as he was getting ready to do this tests he said, Lord if I get higher than a 90% on my tests then I will know that this is your church and that I need to be baptized. Well on Saturday night he got a call from the professor and he told him that he had gotten a 95!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By this time the 4 Germans (2 of them spoke English and the other 2 cant really speak at all) were BAWLING!!!!! I was about to loose it and he just said Thank you. Thank you so much for finding me and for helping me find this true path to God. It was the best moment of my whole life. Family I cannot even explain it to you. You have never felt something so special. After that meeting he had his baptismal interview and I was talking to the Ward mission leader who was there but could not understand English (but who had also been crying) and he said, Sister Nilson, would you explain to me what just happened!! haha. I then go to relive the whole thing again. Translated what happened and then he had to excuse himself to get his composure back. THEN!!! The Bishop came out and was so happy!!!!!!!!! He told us congratulations and talked to Gustave for a while. That was the biggest miracle of it all. That our church leaders were all on board and pushing to make it happen:)
FAMILY! This church is the true church! I have no doubt about that. This is GODS WORK and he will move things along in HIS timing. I know that the church in Rwanda is going to be thrilled to have an incredible member to add to there little branch. He is amazing. I have learned more from him. Gustave has brought us Joy when we had some pretty sad days. He is so wonderful and I feel so grateful that I was able to be apart of it all. Finding Gustave Started with a prayer... and it has progressed through prayer.... and now the next phase into his new life is baptism and receiving of the Holy Ghost.
I know that prayer works and that the Lord knows how to work with his children. He knows how they receive their answers and what their needs are. He knows us personally and if we will look to him and follow him than we need not fear. He is there. He is watching over us and is always there guiding us to where we need to be... We just need to take his hand and follow.
I am so grateful for the experience of a mission. I never ever ever thought it would be so hard and rewarding all at the same time. I am so thankful for this opportunity!! Let’s thank the Lord one more time.... I love being here. I love being a missionary. The Lord is with us.
I love you family. Sorry this was SUUPPER long. Hope you all read till the end and that it made a little bit of sense... I have never typed so fast in all my DAYS! SUCCESS!!!
Love you
God Works :)
Sister Josie Nilson
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