First Letter Home!

 Hello meine familie!

Aww I miss you guys! My week has been good, but they keep us plenty busy over here. I should send a picture of our schedule, it's packed. German is coming slowly but surely. I can conjugate for the most part and I can explain myself in simple phrases. We do lots of role plays in class and let me tell you, they are always so bad. I feel like I always get paired with ones who are very confident in their German. So it takes me 5 years to figure out the sentence structure while they come up with it on the spot. But it's okay, it'll come.First day:So after I got off the plane in SLC, I ran into a lot of missionaries. Which I was surprised about, I didn't think there would be any that early in the morning. There was a big group of us waiting for our shuttles. So there were about 5-6 missionaries in each. What was impressive is that the shuttles are just normal cars not busses and they fit all of our baggage in the back. When we got to the MTC we signed in and got our ID cards. I was the first of my group to arrive so I got a little tour. The MTC is a lot bigger than what it used to be and there are so many cool pictures in all of them. Whenever we got on a different floor, I had to stop and look at all the pictures. They look so life like I love. I was so excited to meet all of my district and not surprisingly but I am the shortest out of all of them. My district is amazing, we've only been together for a week and we're already so close. Whenever I'm with them I just can't stop laughing. There's this one elder and he's struggling a little bit with feeling God's love. He doesn't know how the spirit speaks to him and is beating himself up about it. I try to help as best I can, but I'm not exactly sure how to make him see that God's hand is in everything. The food is okay, it's not yours mom by any means, but it keeps me satisfied. The chocolate milk as promised is the best. Their juices are good as well but a bit watered down which I'm sad about.The devotionals have been so great! I feel uplifted every time. Yesterday we got the chance to hear from L. Todd Budge and his wife. He talked to us about repentance and love, share, and invite. I know that makes you happy, dad. It was so good. One thing that really stood out to me was when he quoted President Nelson when he said repenting is changing the way that you breathe. We learn in Mosiah 2:21 that God lends us the air that we breathe. As bishop Budge said, "we don't even own the air that we breathe." I've never thought of it like that, but it's true. God really is the only thing keeping us alive and when we repent we should change the way we see life and are thankful for all the blessings we are given. On my first night here at the MTC we also had a devotional where we learned about a few conversion stories. There was one that really touched me. It was this guy who grew up in the 60s. He lived in the times (drugs, sex, and rock and roll). One morning when he was getting over a hangover, 2 missionaries came and knocked on his door. He let them in because he's a friendly guy and they started teaching him about Joseph Smith. He never heard anything like that and was intrigued. The missionaries gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read it. They came 2 days later and he read up about Nephi. The missionaries then began teaching him about the Plan of Salvation and started answering his questions about "where he came from, why he's here, and where he's going." After they asked him to pray, he did and he said he had an Alma the Younger experience where he felt on fire and couldn't breathe. He felt like he was going to die. The missionaries explained that it was the Holy Ghost. From that moment on he was converted without even hearing about the Word of Wisdom. 3 weeks to the day they knocked on his door he was baptized. What's amazing is that the missionaries were on a 2 day fast because they were going through a drought. After they broke their fast, they prayed that they would be led to someone who was ready. They did the no look, finger point to this neighborhood on a map and this was the first door they knocked on. I found that amazing and know that faith is all we need.For workouts my district mostly plays volleyball. It's so fun and gets heated sometimes. Today we played against the other German district. I'm not sure who won, but I bet it was my team. I've gotten a lot better, I can play off the net and get lots of tips. My companion is the best, we get along so well and I swear we are just laughing all the time. I'm glad we'll both be going to Frankfurt together. We also went to the temple this morning which is always so special. My district decided to fast to love the people and as well as Cody getting better and healing quickly. I also added his name to the prayer role so lots of blessings are coming his way haha. I love the temple and am so grateful for the peace that I was able to feel there. Well that's pretty much been my week, just class, studying, and volleyball. I hope you all are doing well and glad to hear that Cody is feeling better.Ich liebe sie alles!!Love Sister Nielsen1 & 2. There was this big tree filled with lights that we had to get a picture with. It felt like Christmas.

3. The 2 German districts at the Provo temple
4. The mountains have been so pretty lately5. Sister brown and I6. Sister brown and I with our cinnamon bears7. I hope it'll load but it's a video of me and my district reciting the points of lesson 3 with actions


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy birthday dad 🥳

Image
  This week was a little bit of a Rollercoaster. I had to give my farewell talk in the branch due to the fact that we have stake conference, fast and testimony meeting, and general conference. I shared the spiritual defining moments from my mission. If you want the talk I will be happy to send it to you. It was a great opportunity for me to look back on my mission and remember the great experiences that I have had.  We had a great lesson with Ali, he is making so much progress. He knows a lot about Christianity and just soaks everything up. My German grandpa is the one that helps bring him to church and lessons and he always brings so much food for us to eat. This week he made us chocolate milk, cake, and Brötchen with cheese. He also wants Ali to be baptized as soon as possible so that I can be here. But Ali's soul means a lot more to me than being there and helping a baptismal count. I want him to wait until he feels absolutely ready and understands the huge promise he would...
Read more

Apparently I'm Ms. Darbus

Image
  There's not a whole lot to report from this last week. The past few days I was sick and not feeling very well so we tried to keep low for a while. We met with a member and he bought us ice cream. I got through about 5 bites and couldn't eat anymore. He looked at me in the nicest way possible and told me that I looked dumbfounded, bored, and sick. It was quite the roast, but he's super precious so it was okay.  Ali is progressing really well. All of the ward members love him and are always eager to help. He started smoking again recently due to all the stress that he's been dealing with. Our member who picks him up from church taught him about the word of wisdom in his limited English. He decided then that he was going to stop smoking. He prayed that night to have the strength to stop smoking. The next morning he couldn't find his pack of cigarettes. He took it as a sign that he needed to stop smoking and that god answered his prayer. He hasn't smoked since the...
Read more

Wunder Zeit

Image
  This was a quick week so I'm not sure if I'll have a lot to report, buttt! We still had so many miracles.  Ali, who we found a couple weeks ago on the street came to church for the first time this week. I was a bit nervous, because he doesn't speak German and no one in the ward speaks Persian. The ward was so good with him and just welcomed him with open arms. During elders Quorum, they translated the talk into Persian so that he could read along. The lesson ended a bit early and so they had him tell his story. Ali used Google translate and told them about his sad past leaving Iran and Ukraine. He explained how we met and knew that if he would've been on a different side of the street, that we never would've met him. He knows that God led him to us. He texted us after and told us that it was the best day of his life. He loved church and had a feeling that he already knew all of the people there. During sacrament, I passed him the gospel art book. I thought if anyo...
Read more