Sister Summer Nielsen

  Hey hey!! This week was definitely eventful. It started off with us babysitting cute little kids with bishop while the women had a relief society activity. This mainly consisted of me kicking a soccer ball around or playing catch with bishop while Sister Maughan played with the kids haha.  We both gave talks on Sunday which were absolutely horrid. I pretty much forgot all of my German. I tried not to write it out and just have prompts but it didn't go so well. I love how illiterate I sound when I have to speak German in front of ward members.  Yesterday was wild. We ran into an American and a catholic who wanted a book of Mormon. We met with one of our friends who took us to his house on the way to the park because he had a meeting. We waited on his porch till he was finished but just ended up leaving because we felt weird about it. We had a lesson with Karim which went so well and put him on baptismal date for the 26th of July!! God's really is out here preparing peopl...

  This past Saturday we had game night. We  Had some of our friends there and we just play different games. We even had our less active member Jordi there. He was baptized a year ago but is completely inactive now. He doesn't have a testimony at all anymore and we're positive he wasn't exactly ready for baptism. We invited him to game night but he was nervous because being in the church would make him emotional and remember those feelings. But we explained that that's the exact reason why you need to come. He did and had a fun time. We even said the closing prayer at the end. It was really successful and fun. We played Wizard which has now become one of my favorite card games. Karim came to church with us on Sunday! He said he liked it and thought the members were really nice. He's already in 2 Nephi and reads whenever he has spare time. He already knows the church is true but is wanting to learn as much as he can. He also has mentioned that God speaks to him when h...

  Moin from here up north!  Alright folks I hope you're buckled up because this is going to be a good email. Lots of events happened this week. It started out with lots of running to catch our trains. Also me biffing it on our morning run. It was hilarious I hope you all know.  We had a lot of successful contacting on the Bahns this week. 2 girls already had heard of the book of Mormon. One actually pulled it straight out of her bag, it was crazy. She loves Joseph Smith and will be coming to church! The other had discussions and read the book of Mormon with her cousin. Both crazy encounters! We contacted one guy, Karim, and had a lesson with him later that week. He used to be Muslim and a Jehovah's witness but none of the churches truly struck him. He prayed and asked God which way he should go and then the next day we talk to him. He's so open to the Book of Mormon and told us he wants to be baptized once he's finished with it! It was such a miracle and a Pick me up af...

  Wow sadly nothing super exciting pops out from this week. We've been grinding the member work and trying to get our ward back up and running. Honestly this has been a really hard area. I've heard from a lot of people that Köln is really hard and a character building area. I suppose God has bigger things in store for me that require a refining furnace. But it's okay, I pray that I'm humble enough to be refined.  I think one of the hardest things about this area is the ward... we visit tons of people but they all don't want to come back to church because of the ward. The ward seems very closed. This area used to have 2 wards and a branch but now they're down to one ward with 30 active members. Whenever we have people at church none of the ward members talk to them and they don't come to the activities that we plan for our friends. I get that they have normal lives and it's hard, but it's hard. I don't know what to do. Obviously I can serve the bi...

  Schönen Abend!! Highlights: played Basketball and Ball don't lie - had a ward BBQ after church and got to meet more members - had a meeting with ward leaders about what is expected in our ward missionary meeting which turned into a lecture  -had amazing Brazilian food -relearned how to set goals that lead to miracles  -celebrated memorial day with American music Right when I was starting to feel confident with my German a little girl told me that I can't speak German this week. So that was a little Punch in the gut, but I did mistake the German word for snake with pregnant so she might've been right.... hahaha 🤷‍♀️ This week flew by! Probably because I have been counting down the days until we go to Phantasialand! That's currently where we are right now. This pday has been filled with riding rides and trying to keep my hands up on every ride. During one of them I high fived a pine tree so that was fun. Other fun things that we've been able to do are set up for an...