God is real

 Just wanted to hop on here and say that God is real. Last week when we were on our way to the Christmas markets I looked down while we were on a little Bahn. I noticed my tag that I hang on the outside of my jacket was gone. I was pretty distressed, I thought It might've fell off somewhere along the way. When we were heading back to our train I tried to look around and see if I dropped it anywhere. To no avail. I still had hope that some nice person in our apartment complex might've found it and put in on our door step..  nope. Well maybe it never left the house... nope. I was pretty upset that I had lost something so precious to me. I couldn't even imagine someone finding it in the train station and disrespecting it. Well when I went to grab my journal from my bag, my tag was sitting perfectly on all of my stuff. I couldn't believe it, I had only opened my bag once the whole day. And I was grabbing my wallet from out of it multiple times... I shouldn't felt it. I knew that it couldn't be explained and it was a miracle. God knew how much my tag meant to me and he kept it safe for me :)

This week we really wanted to focus on the rising generation and strengthen our relationship with the young women. We met with one of them and got to know her pretty well. We love her family. Her dad always helps us with lessons and we really appreciate him. We went back on Tuesday to help the mom with kids. They're fostering this 1 year old girl and she's very busy. So we kept her entertained while the mother could help her son with his homework. It was nice to help them and get to know them even more. We got to go to church for the first time in person this week. There were only about 5 other people there and the rest were on zoom. But it was so great to hear everyone's testimonies and receive the sacrament. The sacrament prayers are so special in German I loved that I was able to understand to most of the words that were said.
We had 2 lessons this week. 1 of them was with this young guy named falko, he's really nice and has a lot of questions. It's not the easiest to teach him because there's a lot of audio problems. But thankfully brother hadzik (the one mentioned above) can understand and answer a lot of his questions. The other one was with a man named Kamaran. He speaks Arabic and only a little bit of German. It was hard to get to know him since he didn't understand most of what he asked him. But he reads in the book of Mormon which is great. We just hope we can find a way to communicate better with him.
On Monday, the 6th,  there is a German holiday. It's called St. Niklas Day. So all the kids leave there shoes out and St. Niklas will fill them with candy. We got some from the Hadzik family so we decided to St. Niklas our neighbors. They have a young boy and we have a pretty good relationship with them. They were really thankful to us for it. It was sweet all the joy a little gesture can bring. 
We were able to do service for a young family that the old elders had contact with. They were super nice. The husband is from New Zealand so he speaks very good English and the wife is German but speaks a good amount of English. They're little girl was gorgeous. But I'm excited to help them and also be able to practice German. 
This week I've been really trying to face of my fear of speaking. I got an opportunity to teach a Thema over service in district council. Then we did split contacting on the bus. My first attempt talking to someone by myself was a flop, the girl wouldn't look at me as I tried to talk to her. But I got another attempt with a girl on the way back. She was super nice and very willing to let me ramble of questions to her. I'm still not confident to speak up but I feel like these little experiences were able to lessen my fear and let me realize that I'm capable.
Today for pday we went to Regensburg, which is a town an hour away, with a member named Lara. She's super cool and is great friends with all the missionaries. But she wanted to show us Walhalla, which is a Greek looking building. We walked up with long road in the snow but it was worth it. The building was super cool. Otd like a Greek looking building that was built in 1842. It's to honor people who speak German and made a difference. Also I had my first Döner! Which for those of you that don't know, it sliced lamb in like a pita kind of bread with cucumbers, lettuce, and tomatoes, and has a sauce to top it off. It was really good and I 10/10 recommend.
Thanks for reading! I love you all and please reach out to me if you have any questions about Germany!!
Sister Nielsen:)
1. Us with Lara 
2. DÖNER!!
3. A pretty sunset after our service 
4. My district
5. I love the colorful houses here 
6-7. Walhalla!









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