Happy Christmas Harry...Happy Christmas Ron...

Hello FAMILY!!!!!!!

How are you all doing this fine fine day!! Can you believe that I get to talk to you in 2 days!! I am dying!! SOOOOOOO happy!!!! Get ready to chat fast because we only have an hour! haha. 

So This week was very lovely. All of our investigators well friends have left for the Holiday season-well except Gustave our African Friend (We will be meeting with him everyday this week... haha)- so it has been a bit slow. People here are hustling and bustling trying to get everything ready for christmas! But ever so often we do stop someone who has a spare moment and will talk to us for a minute! We have had some great conversations this week about jesus christ and the true meaning of christmas.It has been great!!! 

Family. Christmas in Germany is so special and I am so thankful for this time that I have been given to reflect on Jesus Christ. Our Lord, Savior, and Best friend. We were talking to a old investigator the other night and she was telling us how bad her life was. We talked to her for a little while and gave powerful testimonies that it is though Christ alone that we recieve real joy in this world!! She was still a little bit mopey and finlly sister Knecht and I just got bold and said, What do you need to change in your life to have this happiness, because you say you dont have it... and really it is your fault... It was kinda harsh but this lady has been investigating the church for years and she is always compalining... BUT WE LOVE HER MORE THAN ANYTHING! and that is why we want her to be happy. She said well maybe I need to start keeping the commandments again. We told her yes, that would be a great place to start. She then went into her kitchen and brough us out her coffee and said here take it. So we did. And we dumped it out and threw it away!! bahahahA! Just kidding, but really. It was a great experience and a good learnign experience. That even when life is hard and we dont know which way to go we can STILL rely on teh savior Jesus Christ. We can still have joy and happiness when you are near to him,. When we are following the commandments and living our lives in harmony with his teachings. 

Oh my sweet family. How blessed I am to be here. To be a missionary and to be able to tell people about this good and great work we have. We have everything. We are sooo blessed. I look at some peoples lives and see how they are struggling and think to myself, HOW HOW  did I get so lucky. To be who I am today and to have the family and firends that I have. I dont know. I really dont have an answer, but I do know how thankful I am for you all. For all your love and support! I love this gospel and I LOVE my savior adn redeemer jesus christ. Always remember the true meaning-why we have the oppertunity to come together as a family-because of Jesus Christ! 

Oh family! I love you soooo much. Have a wonderful christmas eve! Sing really loud when you do the 12 dayws of chistmas together!!! and C H R I S T M A S! And I call being Mary next year in the nativity!! haha. I love you all so much!

Love you!

Gib niemals auf!! - 12/16/13

Hello my swweeeeeeeet family!! 

How are you this week?? I hope all is going well. It seems that you are very busy with christmas and travels. Wish Mac luck at his tornement!! Man you guys are going to have so much fun this CHRISTMAS!!! AH! 

WELL as for me....

I am doing good. Still just plutting along enjoying each and everyday. 

I dont think I ever told you about my one investigator Linda Braun. She is about 65 years old and is crazy wonderful!! When we first met linda we were street contacting. I stopped her and we started talking about god. SHE FREAKED OUT! She was so happy that we believed in God. She proceeded to talk to us for 35 minutes (it was FREEZING COLD AND WET...no big deal) and when I asked her at the beginning if we could come by and talk to her she said no. But after a llooooonnngggg disscussion I basically begged her for her number and address! After that she turned gave a hug to Sister Knecht thanked her for the pamphlet she had given her then with the pamphlet turned to me and started wacking me with it!-oh i think i did tell you this story...

Well, yep. THat is Linda. Since then we have met with her every week and whenever we go over there she always prepares a meal for us. I have eaten Chicken FAT pie (previously known as Chicken pot pie...but instead of actual chicken she just put in the fat from the left over pork she had...) plum wine cake (okay we had NO idea it had wine in it... then we went into her kitchen and saw that she makes her own wine), Russian soup, Bread,BREAD AND MORE BREAD. Some NASTY PUUUURE garlic salad... talk about going through a whole thing of breath mints… 

Not only does she perpare meals for us but she always does weird stuff... Like biteing my ear... sister knechts finger... telling us earings and make up are from the devil...she spanked me... lets not talk about it.She always tends to do wierd stuff to me but always just gives Sister knecht a hug.. I can not tell if that is because she just does not like me or if it is because that is how she shows her affection... BAHAHAHA! I think it is the later. 

So yep she is quite WONDERFUL! When we first started teaching her she would not even let us read from the Book of Mormon. She would not let us even talk really. WELL i am here to tell you that this week we went in and she had read from the book of mormon (marked it and all!) she watched the restoration DVD,allowed us to talk about joseph smith, and Came to church and LOVED IT!!! Yes, she is our little miracle for the week! Never give up on anything or anyone. Remember that god is always there. He knows everything and knows who is ready and who he can help get ready. It has taken Linda a good 5 weeks, however the progress she has made has changed the way she lives her life. No, she has not been baptized yet-and she may never be-but she has felt the Love of Jesus Christ in her life and has noticed a change. ThaT is what this gospel does for people. It shows them that they are not alone. It proves to them that they have a father in heaven and that he loves them more than they could ever imagine. This church, this knowlege, WHAT WE KNOW, iss LIFECHANGING!!! And I think a lot of times we as members of the church forget that. We forget and we sometimes take for gratid this marvelous gospel. DONT DO IT! Cherish it. and LOVE LVOE LOVE it!!! 

Elder Ballard gave a talk that said if you will invite someone to a church funcation, share you testimony with someone- JUST ONE PERSON- than thousands of people will be able to feel the Love of jesus Christ before the end of teh year. I encourage you all to do this. Find someone that you can invite over, share your testimony with... anything... because then in turn the Lord promises to not only bless that one person... BUT THOUSANDS of people. Do you know how much that will help us missionaries out here? A LOT!!! 

Another Fun miracle this week came from a little prayer that I have been saying for a couple of weeks... I have been praying for the oppertunity to "use my talents" a little bit more... well on Monsday night I got a call from one of teh Elders in the Offic and he said, President Kosak wants to surprise Sister Kosak with a song and you are going to Sing it for Zone Conference on Thursday. I sent you everything. See you thursday. I was like WHAT in the WORLD!!! Really. I then heard a little voice come to my head saying, Your the one who prayed for it... haha. I laughed obviously because the Lord has the WOLRDS BEST sense of Humor and then I went and started to prepare. I was able to sing on Thursday and Sister  Kosak had a tear in her eye when I was finished... (pretty sure only one tear though...) But It was a great oppertunitty for me and it felt sooo goood to SING! AHHHH! I miss it. I miss performing sooooooo much!!! Get me on a STAGE PLEASE! haha. Just kidding I guess I can wait, but.... really though. I miss it so much. 

Last and Certainly not least. My little African friends. Gustave and Roger. Well first and foremost FAmily we are going to rwanda... haha. They want to meet you all. I told them we would come a visit them. Dont worry, it is actually one of the safest nations in Africa now. They were able to get everything worked out with the governement and now it is a wonderful place. Well my Brothers are doing well. Continueing to press forward in the gospel. They came to a baptism yesterday and said they felt something different. We expalined to them that it was the spirit and that we have the proper authority to baptize. They are finally starting to realyl get that our church really is different and that we have something that the other churches do not. Gustave called us the other day and said THEY HAVE A CHURCH IN RWANDA!! we were so surpirsed and asked him WHAT?! he said, My sisters your church is in Rwanda that means that we can have it there when we leave germany! haha. It was sooo cute!! They are doign wonderfully. 

Well. Thats all folks. I dont have much else. HoHO ZoCo this week was quite lovely. I enjoyed myself... President Kosak got a video of me doing a rap that I made up and showed it to the half of the mission... that was embarrassing... but OH well. Life goes on right. haha. 

I love being here! Christmas in Germany is somthin else. It is so magical and special. What a wonderful time to love... ah... I love you family. Have the bestest week ever and I will talk to you all next week!! I love YOU!!!! 

Love,

Me

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