haaalllooo! - 12/9/13

Hello my wonderful family!!! How are you all doing today! Oh I miss you all so much but, am having such a wonderful time here is Germany!!!

Here is a little snipit of my week... Just one of the miracles!! 

Last week was not the best week for Sister Knecht and I so, this week we set a goal to make sure that each day of the week we were working hard and meeting our Key indicator goals that we set each day-We did not want one day with ALL ZEROS. On Wednesday we had a wonderful day planned with 3 Sonstige Lektionen and some finding time scheduled. Well, as we went through out the day, 2 of our3 appointments fell out. We went to our backup plans-Contacting W.A. Members- noone was home. We continued to find and talk to everyone we passed with no success. Towards the end of the night we headed back to the Church for our Last Lesson that we had scheduled. Sister Knecht and I said a quick prayer that this lesson would go through and that we could make sure that we did not get all zeros. After waiting for 15 minutes and trying to call our investigator we figured that he was not coming. As we were packing up talking about what we were going to do next, Moritz our Neu Bekehrt walked in. We were surprised and asked him what he was doing here. He said that he was "in the naher" and felt that he should stop by and see if we were at the church because he had to tell us that he could not come to his appointment on Saturday. BUT he could have one now if that was okay. Sister Knecht and I just smiled and told him YES! We then were able to sit down all together and have a great lesson. It was so incredible. After Moritz left I turned to Sister Knecht and said, That was an answer to our prayer. Moritz could have called us on the phone, texted us-to tell us he could not make it to his appointment, but instead he came to the church. That was a prompting and he followed it!!!

It was so incredible to see Moritz this brand new member of the church following the little promptings of the spirit. We were able to meet our goal for the day, but more important then numbers, we were able to meet with Mortiz and have a powerful, uplifting, spiritual lesson. It was incredible. 

I am so thankful for the many miracles that I see each and everyday on my mission. I love being here! 

SIster Nilson 

Oh AFriKA! - 12/2/13

Hello my dear sweet magically wonderful family!!!

 How are you all doing?? How was THANKSGIVING!!! Was it just incredible!! I am sure it was. How can it not be when we are all gathered together! What a wonderful holiday- All abou thte family and eating. What more could you want!!! so Grand! Well we had thankgiving here in Leipzig!! It was just wonderful. We ate and ate and ate. Yep. It is just what we do! so wonderful! AHHH!!

What a wonderful week I had! After a Long weekend and a harder day on Monday we went to Home Evening and our two African Investigators showed up!!! We were thrilled. AS we were talking to Gustave he looked at me and said, "Nilson you are roger look alike. " Roger is our other African friend. Him and I busted up laughing because we do not look a like at all!!! it was hiarlious. Roger is this little, skinny, fit dude and i am well... a German missionary that has put of a few pounds of german chocolate... :) tis the season! 

Please tell me that you guys remember the Disney Channel original series Sister Sister. Remember Roger, the little nieghbor boy... YEP! THis is our Roger. He is EXACLTY ALIKE!! It is hilarious. They are the funniest people. 

I asked them if they could sing and Roger said yes, I also play the piano. THRILLED i invited them to play and sing. SO they did. And it was the funniest thing I have ever heard. Roger sits down and says, "I am so good I play with my eyes closed!" Then like steve wonder Roger sits down closes his eyes and starts playing... IT WAS TERRIBLE!! He just bursted out laughing because CLEARLY he did NOT play the piano. Him and Gustave did sing one of their tribal songs though adn it was super cool, however they do not sing either... haha. 

SO that set our week off on a good start. Then on Tuesday the Christmas market opened!! The Weihnachtsmarkt (christmas markt in german) is seriously the GREATEST THING IN ALL THE WORLD!!!!! I LOVE IT! I got kniderpunch. boy was that yummy. Okay seriously though. Germans know how to do christmas!! It is so incredible!! Everywhere I walked I just thought to myself, OH My mom would LOVE this. Ah Sabrina and Emma ah KAtie AH JACOB!!! haha. JACOB!! Get ready! It seriously is the GREATEST THING IN TEH WHOLE WORLD!!!!! SOOOO FUN! 

Then wednesday we continued to have fun. We had a appointment with My Twin "Roger" and Gustave. Yes, roger calls me his twin now. I have always wanted a twin and the fact that he is African just make it that much better!!! haha. THey are doing so well. They LOVE jesus christ so much and seriously have so much love for the Lord. At the end before we were leaving Roger asked, What can we do to help you. WHat do you want us to pray for. And then they proceeded to write down three things from both SIster Knecht and I and said okay we will pray for you two. We are there Sisters :) 

Man. If everyone could just have the Love of God like the People in Africa. I mean seriously. They have such an incredible spirit about them. They just love god. Sometimes it is hard because they are not always open to change, But they have such a love for god that I have never seen. It is incredible. It makes me want to be better. 

Then!!!! On friday we played soccer with them. Oh my gosh!!! You would not believe the FOOTWORK!!! Gustave is the Coach for the Soccer Team in Rwanda- He is here studying Sports medicine in Germany. HE is INSANLY GOOD!! and So is roger. It was so fun watching them play. I just ran around like a chicken with my head cutt off cause clearly I DONT NOT PLAY soccer... haha however, mom you would be pleased to hear that I did not just sit in the middle of the field and cry, I actually ran around and tried!!! I am going to be good by the end of my mission... hopefully. 

OH!!!! WOW! Miracles Miracles!!!! 

Leipzig is wonderful! It really is. I am falling in love with it. The people here are amazing and I love being surrounded by other missionaries. It is so fun seeing eachother while finding or talking to people and hearing them say, you guys have already talked to me today!! Leave me alone!! That is my favorite thing because it shows that we as missionaries are doing our JOb! YEA MAN!!! I love it!! 

God is always there my fellow family. He is there. He knows when we are having a bad day and what we can do to be happy again. 

I love you all!!

Till next week,

Sister Nilson

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! 11/18/13

Hello Family!! How are you all doing? I hope all is well and that you all have a wonderful time this week! THANKGIVING IS HERE!! My favorite holiday. Not going to lie I am sad that I am missing it, but I think Sister Knecht and I will do something magically fun here! Ofcourse we are going to celebrate America! It is so wonderful how could we not. 

This week we had an appointment with 2 new investigators from Africa! Okay. Let me just say I love Africans. They are the most humble, teachable, incredibly spiritual people in the whole world!!! They are by far my favorite!!! I love them!!  It was amazing. They came for a church tour and as they were leaving we gave them both a Book of Mormon. We explained a little bit about it and were very interested. They then sat down and stayed for another 30 minutes as we went through the whole first lesson. It was so cool because it was in english!! yea man. Actually it was kinda weird and I could not remember some words in english... but it was amazing and one of the most spiritual experiences i think I have had on my mission. One of the guys was talking about Jospeh smith adn he asked me how he can really know. We told him he had to pray about it. Then he said so humbly but I do. I pray everyday and sometimes I just dont understand why god makes things happen. And then he proceeded to tell a story about how he wanted something so bad and he had prayed for it for years, but when he had the oppertunity it did not feel right. He asked why does that happen. How can we know that it is really God and just not our minds. Well as you all know... this story might sound fimillar, because it is basically the story of the last 2 years of my life!! haha. I got to bear my testimony on the Power of God and Trusting God and always relying on him. As I was talking I realized how much I had learned from my past experiences and how much closer I am to god because of them. Fam. I know that we go through trials, challenges, problems, and so manyhardship, because god needs us to become the people he made us to be. He needs us to become perfect. ANd the only way we can do that is by taking this test. The test of life. But here is the thing, god is there. He is our life line. We are never ever alone. Wow. That is so cool. Just think about that. God loves us all so much and sees our potential. He sees us as the Gods and Goddnesses we can all become!!! I love this gospel!! And I got to tell them that. I get to tell people that every single day! Wow. Cant life get better... I dont think so!!!!  Well after our lesson they then committed to come to church and they were there on Sunday!! They went to the investigator class and after church I talked to the member who taught and she said that they really seemed very interested and asked very good questions. She said that they were a delight to have in the class! That was wonderful to hear! Knowing that she supports these 2 new investigators. It was wonderful. 

We will continue meeting with them and hope that we can help them come closer to Christ. 

This week while finding we decided to try something new-we focused on prayer. Everything we talked to people about was prayer. Well we had stopped a lot of people and we had some wonderful discussions, but no return appointments. It was not until we hit a corner and were decided what to do and a lady came by. We stopped her and the first words out of our mouths were, "Have you ever prayed before" She stopped and said yes, but I have no time. We asked her if there would be a time we could come and talk to her more about prayer and she said yes sure. We said wait.. YES! Oh wow. Okay. Dienstag 16 uhr. She said that is great! So we will go and talk with her this week. We were so excited! It was an incredible Miracle!!! Truly was wonderful!!! 

Man. This is gods work. And GOD WORK! always remember that. He is there. And man that rocks. 

I love you guys. HAve a happy thanksgiving!! 

Eat some of vickis banna creme pie for me and some of grandmas fruit salad!!! LOVE YA! 

What a week! - 11/11/13

FAMILY!!!! 

Hello everyone!! I love you all so much! Sorry this week is a little short as well... but hey! It is such a fun story!!! 

This week our investigator Moritz got confirmed! He is now a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! We are so proud of him and so happy for him. He has really changed over the last 4 weeks and it has been incredible to see. The gosepl truly is a gospel of action. And as we act and choose to follow Jesus Christ we will find the utmost happiness. What a wonderful thing this gospel truly is. 

After Moritz got confirmed yesterday, we had a member lesson with him as well. We talked about the restoration and how it has inpacted our lives. It was very good, and the member family was perfect! After Sister Knecht and I had plan to go dooring at a student Wohnheim with another member in our ward. Well Moritz asked if he could come with us and so ofcourse we said, "YES!" We went there said a prayer to begin and then were off. We went from door to door trying to find the people who were prepared by god. After a while of not having a lot of success we were a little down and Moritz said, "Sisters We have to have FAITH!" We looked at him like, WHAT!!! haha. and then I thought it would be a great time to stop and say another prayer, to have gods help to direct us-where we should go, who we should talk to. As I prayed my one thought was GOd please let us show moritz how amazing being amissionary is!!  And litterally a couple doors later we found 2 new investigators!!!! And then 2 more new investigators!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!  We were so excited and so was Moritz our brand new member of the church!!! He was talking to us on the way home and said, "I wonder where they are going to send me on my mission!" WHAT!!! He is so excited and loves this church sooo much! he is incredible!!!! 

This Gospel is amazing and brings so much happiness. We have the ability to invite people to share in this happiness. And like alma 37 says, This gospel is easy, the road to the Lord is easy and is already PREPARED! We just need to find it and stick to it!

I love being a missionary and am so thankful for this opportunity! 

I love you all. Good luck sabrina with your show this week!!! Know how much I love you all!!!! 

Sister Nilson

Oh what a night!

Hello Family!!

Okay. Today my email is going to be super short sorry I dont have a lot of time. But first I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KIMBERLYNN!!!! HEY GIRL!!! What! So fun- okay and.... mom and dad. You guys win best comstum EVER!!! okay. WOW!! So incredible. really... Those pictures should and need to go VIRAL!

haha

Okay this week was really incredible. We were able to work with our investogator in preperation for his Baptism that happed on SUNDAY!!!!! We were freaking out! It was incredible!! really. He is 18 years old and has changed his life for the gospel of jesus christ. Seriously. It is the coolest thing in the whole entire world. And guess what!!! Sister knecht and I got to sing for his baptism. We sang accepella which i was a little nervous about... but!! WE NAILED IT! SUPPPP! I was really happy. and so many people came up to us and told us how great we sounded. It was really sweet. BUT!  the baptism was so sweet. It was so fun. the bishop baptized him so that was even a PLUS!!! WONDERFUL!!! And he was talking about serving a mission too! He was like yea, maybe i can do that after my mission!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!! So fun!! It was incredible. I tell you. This gospel is sooo true.

And Then we had a huge mission conference and it was awesome. It was really good and I learned a lot.

Sorry this is so short. I will write more next week. Bascially just know I am good happy and well.. I love you all!!!

Sister Nilson

Leipzig! What an experience!

FAMILY! 

Oh my gosh! First and foremost I have to tell you all that we have a baptism this upcoming sunday!!!!!!! I am so pumped!! It is a baptism for this wonderful young man. He is 18 years old. The Sisters here found street contacting and he was interested in learning more. When I got here he was really hung up on finishing the book of mormon before he was baptized. Sister Knecht and I have worked really hard with him-having constant contact (yep CRAZY stockers... no worries), getting JOint teaches, and making sure he is praying and reading! And gues what!!! we had this incredible lesson with him and asked him to baptized on November 2nd and he said YES!!!! He was so excited!!!! He is 18 years old and is completly changing his life for the gospel of Jesus Christ. This young man is so incredible!!! ANd when we told the Bishop and the ward they got sooo excited because numer 1-he is german (many immigrants get baptized in germany...) and 2- they all started planning the rest of his life! "oh he is going to go on a mission and get married and lalalala! They are so excited and support him! Which is fabulos!!! I am so excited!!!

So we are having fun here just living the dream. You know. Always having fun. I just love being out here

This week during personal study I was reading in Alma. WOW. Alma was written for us missionaries! It is so inspiring! While I was reading about the story of Alma and Amuleck I felt so much passion for missionary work. And my mind was BLOWN when I read in Alma 10:5- Amuleck is talking to the people and he tells them that he did not know much of the lords ways and then he stops and corrects himself- and he says, "No I did know the Lord I was just not willing to listen." and then he goes on and tells his whole converstion story and testifies of what he knows. That God is real and that Alma is a prophet that was sent to them by god. 

I love the Character of Amuleck. He is so humble and knows that he is nothing without the Lord. He says that he does not know much, but he knows enough. He knows that God is real and that he liveth. He is so strong and it is through his humble words that change the hearts of the people. 

I love this story and I think it really hit me because I have been having a hard time latley- I am not the perfect missionary and dont know all the scripture refferences I would like- but from this scripture I learned that I know enough. And we all do. Every member of the church knows enough. AS we practice our faith and trust in the lord and Testify that he lives- That is enough.

 I love being a missionary. I love being able to read in the scriptures everyday and then go out and share with others what I have learned. I know this church is true and I love seeing it changes others! 

Sister Nilson

Leipzig... Where the Fun never endssssss

HEEEEELLLLLLOOOOO my dearest familie!!! 

I love you all soooo much. I just have to say that! How is everyone doing? GOOD! GREAT!!!! 

Well on tuesday I had to say goodbye to my Beloved Langenhorn and get on a train BY MYSELF for 5 hours! Wow. It was pure bliss... Lets be honest!! All by myself just writing in my journal, talking to people, and reading the scriptures. I love it. It was the craziest feeling. I wanted to cry because I was leaving my home away from home, but at the same time I couldnt because I just felt sooooo much peace. I have never felt so much peace in my whole life. I just talked to God the whole train ride and I know that I am supposed to be in Leipzig. Zes, It may take so getting used to but I know that I am supposed to be here. 

SOOOOOOOI am here in Leipzig and let me tell you! IT IS CRAZY! The city life is very different and as we are walking around talking to people we see other Elders!!! There are four sets of missionaries in Leipzig and 2 wards!! that is crazy!!! WHAT THE WHAT!!!! WE have to fight over people to talk to. The other day we had a race to one man... They were approaching him from the front so they won... BUT we found another person very quickly right after because in the city there ARE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE!!! Seriously. This place is huge. And I like it. It is pretty Wonderful. It is different but still good. 

My Companions name is Sister Knecht. She is basically the coolest thing since sliced bread. WE get along great. Pretty sure she thinks I am the craziest person in the whole wide world!!!! Which I am!! I just have so much happiness and I have to just LET IT OUT! 

I have to tell you that I have never been happier!! I am just loving being a missionary dispite where I am. I love just having my nametag on and being able to talk to people about what makes me the happiest!!! 

Oh before I forget here is my new address 

Bitte Send Mail!! danke DAnke! haha. 

But really family. Thischurch is true and I LOVE being here. It is truly amazing!!!! I will tell you more about investigators and stuff next week because I dotn have much time now and to be honest I dont really know then all that well. BUT we do have two investigators that hopefully will be getting baptized this transfer! So continue to pray!!! 

Oh the language is not as bad as I thought. I can understand the same. So that is good. Hopefully someday I will be fluent!!! 

Love you allllllllll SOOOO much! 

I love love love love love this gospel. Read your scriptures and PRAY!!!

Love you. 

Sister Nilson