NEVERTHELESS!!!

Hello my sweet family who I love so much!! You guys rock my world! Thank you for the Birthday package! I love you all soo much! The notes literally made my whole LIFE!! You guys are by far the best family ever!!! 

This week was such a dream! It was marvelous!!! Agnes my cute investigator from Ghana who would never even pick up the Book of Mormon read it!!!! She had a lot of African dreams... (she rocks) and so what did we have her read... LEHI’S DREAM! She loved the story when we were telling her! It is so incredible to see the Lord opening her heart a little more each time. I adore this woman!!

H. Sultani is still doing well. Due to the New Bishop in our ward we had to move his Baptism. Our new bishop is going to be gone for the next couple of weeks and wants to be there for the Baptism. So the new date is in a Month. July 21st. When we told H. Sultani he was very disappointed. It literally broke my heart into a million pieces. We explained why and he understood. But on a happy note his son started coming to our lessons!!! And now Afshen, his son, wants to get baptized too. So we told him that they could both get baptized together on the 21st and He was very happy!!! It was marvelous!!

We had Zone Conference this week and let me tell you it was a cherry on top of my little sundae!!!!! It was brilliant! Sister Kosak talked about the difference between Disappointment and Discouragement. She told us that Discouragement is dangerous. When you become discouraged and dwell on it you begin to weaken your faith. We forget that God is in control and that this is HIS WORK. She said to be careful that we are not weakening our faith. We already have the world against us as members of this church we do not need to add ourselves! That was really good for me to hear. Not knowing the language has been eating me up inside... but guys, it does not matter. Because look at everything I have! Sister Kosak said, “The remedy for discouragement is GRATITUDE!!!! Can I get am AMEN!!!! We receive so much more than we actually give. When we focus on the blessings we have it increases our happiness, which in turn increases our level of energy, understanding, and empathy. We all need to look for the tender mercies in life. Focus on all that is good. Never look down. Constantly be looking up to the lord!!! I love the LORD!! He WORKS! in 1 nephi 18:15-16 it says, 

15 And it came to pass that we were about to be swallowed up in the depths of the sea. And after we had been driven back upon the waters for the space of four days, my brethren began to ^asee that the judgments of God were upon them, and that they must perish save that they should repent of their iniquities; wherefore, they came unto me, and loosed the bands which were upon my wrists, and behold they had swollen exceedingly; and also mine ankles were much swollen, and great was the soreness thereof.

 16 Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did ^apraise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions.

NEPHI ROCKS!! Even though nothing good had happened to him. Even though he was swollen and sore we said NEVERTHELESS, I did praise God!!! When we are struggling with something and it is getting us down immediately think of Nephi and say NEVERTHELESS I will praise God!!! 

I don’t know the Language, NEVERTHELESS I know I have the spirit of God and he will help me through all mine afflictions!!!!!

This gospel ROCKS! I am so thankful for it. Remember God WORKS! I love you all so much! Thank you for all your prayers and fasting for me. Guys... you fasted yesterday and 8 investigators showed up at CHURCH!!!!!!!!! We have had 0 for the last MONTH!!!! That is huge!!! God answers prayers!! I love you all soo much! Thank you for all your love and Support!! 

Love you,

Jos

A watermelon hanging on the vine... on the vine, on the vine, on the vine.

Hallo Familie,

How is everything going? The pictures of you guys going fishing up at Chad's sister's cabin look incredible!!! How FUN!!! That is marvelous! 

Germany is Germany. We are just moving along. One step at a time. This week has been a really great week for both Sister Cluff and I. We have had some very spiritual lessons this week. I have been focusing on the spirit helping me in lessons this week. I am having a very hard time with the language-understanding and speaking- nothing seems to be working up there in my little mind! So this week I have been working on having the Holy Ghost with me so that I can say the things that the Lord needs me to say. I have once again learned how important the Holy Ghost is. As Sister Cluff and I have focused on the Holy Ghost. We have been able to have some very incredible lessons. One lesson with our 2 investigators with Baptisimal Dates, H. Sultani and Arshia, we talked about the priesthood. We were able to make this lesson a Joint-teach, and afterwards they were both able to receive a priesthood blessing. It was so beautiful. The spirit was so strong. And the words were exactly what they both needed to hear. It was cool to see God working through the blessing. The kid giving the blessing, is about our age waiting to go on his mission, had no idea about these two men. Who they were or anything, and the blessings were beautiful and direct from god. (at least that is what Sister Cluff told me... I could not understand them...BUT I could feel the spirit! TOLLBeans!). On Saturday in our lesson with them Arshia was not sure if he still wanted to go through with his baptism because of the hard times he is having in his life right now with his family and things.

 We were able to pull out pictures of our families and tell him a little bit about our lives and how we struggle, but because of the gospel we can get through anything. And I was able to speak a little bit about you GUYS!!! Only the loves of my life!! In broken german that I am sure made no sense... I was able to tell them about you. I showed them pictures and talked about you. Ah man. It was lovely talking about you guys and told Arshia that our lives are far from perfect,  but because of this gospel we can get through anything and everything. It was a huge blessing for me that I was able to talk a little bit about you guys and testify of this beautiful gospel. I know that the language will come, slowly but surely... it will come!!

We got a new Bishop this Sunday. Bishop Fachs! He is going to be amazing and is such an incredibly humble man. He reminds me a lot of you Father! We had an eating appoinment with his family last week and seriously the way he was eating reminded me so much of you! It rocked! haha. I know that it will be great for us. He is really excited about missionary work and is willing to help us with anything. 

I love my area and the investigators we have.

I love this gospel so much and am so grateful for this opportunity I have to share it!! 

In my personal study this week I read Lehi's dream. Two things that stuck out to me were these...

1st-the people that left the Iron Rod to go to the great and spacious building were "Completely Lost" They did not even make it to the building!!!!!! WHAT! Well that was not worth it... Sometimes we loose focus on what is really important, our end goal- To be with Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and our families forever. When we loose that focus we loose ourselves. We need to remember to ALWAYS stay focused on the lord. And if we do stray, because we all do, we need to make sure that we can find our way back. Support each other. Have people that you know you can turn to. They are so important. Then we can be like the other people that "held fast to the iron rod until they came forth and FELL DOWN and partook of the fruit." The pathway is not easy, and when we are finished we are going to fall down because we are so weary, but it is WORTH IT. and we know we will GET THERE. We will not loose our way and be lost forever. We will get there. And God will help us every step of the way.

I love this gospel. I know that it is true! I love being a missionary.

Love you all

Josie 

Lets play a game...What kind of meat did Josie eat?

This week has been well... I just dont know what to say. Good. Grand. Brilliant. MArvelous! This week we had almost every appointment fall out, but we were able to do a lot of street contacting and Door to Door. It was great. We talked to a lot of people and did our best to push the work forward!!! YAY! The gospel ROCKS! On Thursday we did District Finding-We went to the Elders in our District's area- and did street contacting. They gave us the University! It was really cool but kinda intimidating talking to kids your own age. However we gave our two Books of Mormon! One lady we gave it to started to cry. We told her she was a daughter of God and that he loved her and she started to cry!! It was beautiful! and although she did not want to make out an appoinment with us I know that she felt the spirit and will someday read the Book of Mormon we gave her! It ROCKED!!! 

On Saturday we had a full day and NONE of our appoinments fell out! It was such a blessing!!! We met with H. Sultani and Arshia! We talked about the commandments and told them they needed to be following these if they wanted to get baptized. H. Sultani was like, "DUH! These commandments will keep me close to God! Why wouldn't I keep them!" I LOVE THIS MAN!!! HE is sooo prepared!!! Arshia had problems with the Word of Wisdom, so we will keep working with him on that. But it was a great lesson. I love hearing their testimonies of this gospel!!! It is by far the best thing ever!!!! 

Now I know you are all probably wondering about the Subject of this email...well...

We had a BIG miracle this week with our investigator Agnes. She is from Africa and has had a hard time excepting the Book of Mormon. Sister Cluff and I fasted this week and felt it was time to bring it up again! So we did just that. We had a whole lesson on the Book of Mormon planned and readz to go! What it is and where it came from... and all that jazz!! Sister Cluff said right before we went into the lesson, "If agnes will read the book of mormon I will eat ANYTHING she gives me!:" However when we told her what we wanted to talk about She was not too thrilled and we were a little hesitant, but we did it anyways!!! haha. The whole time we were praying and praying that the Lord would soften her heart! and at the end we asked it she would read the Book of Mormon. This was after going back and forth-her telling me that I was a prophet and that we are all prophets... yea...she has not had the full first lesson yet... one thing at a time. And she said she would TRY! SHE SAID SHE WOULD TRY! Now, I know that you all might be thinking that is not a Yes, why is that exciting? BECAUSE!!! Before we went in their she would not even let us speak of the Book of Mormon. She would not even allow it in her house and NOW LOOK AT US! She said she would try! We were thrilled! We bore our testimonies of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the spirit was so strong!! I know that the Lord opened her heart just enough so that she would accept to read the Book of Mormon. And then as we were leaving she said, OH I MADE FOOD FOR YOU! Sister Cluff and I looked at one another and Busted up laughing. It was like Heavenly Father was like, I followed my part of the bargian now you follow yours... bahaha! Heavenly Father has a sense of Humor I don't care what anyone says. Ah. What a jem! So we are not quite sure what we ate. We were thinking it was tongue or something not Normal!!! and the best part was, IT HAD HAIR ALLLLLL OVER IT! it was AWESOME! So we chocked down a couple bites and then she said we could take some home with us too. What a jem she is! WE love her. 

I love being apart of this work! It is so incredible! I love working side by side with the Lord. He is incredible and I love him so much! I love this gospel!

Shout out to JAKE!-Congrats on MEREB!! my main man!!! I love you sooooo much! You are going to have so much fun!!!

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your e-mails they are grand!!! Have the greatest week in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD! I know I will! :) 

 

Much love!

Sister Nilson 

The Man Who Invitied the Multitudes!

Hello FAMILIE!!!!! 

First off-JAMES!!!!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!!!! Seriously started to tear up!!! You Rock my Socks!!!!! Everyone! Congrats on Graduating!!! You rock my socks! Jake, Maya, Natalie, and James! I am so proud! Way to go! 

Okay!!! This week rocked!!! I loved it so much!!! This week has been so wonderful for Sister Cluff and I. Our investigator H. Sultani is making so much progress and keeping his commitments! On Tuesday, when we met with him he told us that he was going to bring a friend that he wanted to hear the lessons that we taught. We told him-okay bring whoever you want! Thinking that he actually would not do it.... BOY WERE WE WRONG!!! Our lesson on Saturday he brought a friend. H. Sultani's friend, Arshia, came with him to our lesson on Saturday. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and they both loved it-particuallarly Arshia. We told him that he would be able to live with his family forever and he looked at me and said, "Wait, i can live with my family after I die?" I looked at him and with Boldness was able to bare my testimony and tell him, yes! We know that we can live with our families forever! He was so excited. He opened up to us and said that he had done some things he was not proud of and is trying to make things right. We taught him about the atonement and told him through Jesus Christ we can be cleansed of all our sins! It was such a beautiful lesson and at the end we challenged him to be baptized! AND... HE SAID YES!!!!!!! So we have two baptisimal dates set! June 23rd is the big day! Pray that they all will keep progressing and that they can make that date!!! We are so excited for him. Both him and H. Sultani are so prepared for this gospel. They are so incredible and I feel so blessed that the Lord is letting me be apart of their conversion process. It is a beautiful thing to see. There is nothing better in all the world. I love this gospel so much!! Then on Sunday, H. Sultani brought another friend that he introduced us to! He was like, "I want to know about this Church. Can I come to H. Sultanis lesson on Tuesday?" We were like... HECK YES!!!! So that is going to be an incredible lesson! It is amazing how the lord is hasting his work. Sister Cluff and I have done nothing!!! It has been H. Sultani and the Lord working through him. He is the best missionary EVER!!!  

It has been interesting to see how this week was so incredible and although we had multiple appt. fall out and different things happen to us the Lord always ends with a high note! Opposition in all things. It is so beautiful how God gives us so many blessing and then just asked us to follow him. 

As appointments fell out this week and different things happened we just kept moving forward. In Mosiah 3 it says that the Natural man is an enemy to God... and we need to become as a child...meek,submissive,lowly of heart, and to be willing to submit to anything that the Lord sees fit to inflict upon us. (I was just doing that from memory... so... if it is wrong I apologize) WE have to be Willing to submit to ANYTHING the Lord throws at us. Whether it be a hard or challenging or happy. We have to know that the Lord is on our side. He wants us to succeed and to become the best we will be. He only Blesses US!!!!!! Ah. This gospel rocks. Can I get an AMEN!! 

I love this work. The people here in Germany are so prepared for the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!! We have so many people who talk to us and will except pass-a-long cards. It rocks!!! 

I love this gospel with all my heart and am so thankful for this opportunity!!! Share the Gospel EVERYWHERE!!! You all rock. 

I love you all! The Garden party looked sooo beautiful!!! We will have to do another one when I get back okay!!! Start preparing one NOW!!!! haha. It will be the best Garden Party EVER!!!! haha.

I love you all sooo much! You are the best ever!!! You are the best family! MMMUUUAAAHHH!

Love you! The Church is True!!

Everyone go on missions!!!

Love,

Sister Nilson 

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