Welcome to the jungle

 Hola! 

I'm pretty confident that I am serving in South America. I swear that the only people we talk to speak only Spanish. We had an appointment with a family from Venezuela who's in our ward. They invited one of their friends who's from the Dominican Republic. Their German is not that good so most of the conversation was in Spanish. Schwester Fuchs was made us Venezuelan food and it was so good! After lunch we sat down and talked about the book of Mormon and the church... or at least we wanted to. Since we aren't fluent in Spanish yet. The Spanish members took over and explained a whole bunch of principles for a full hour! I was surprised with how much I could follow the conversation. The gift of tongues is real, even if it's not your mission language! It does feel like I'm back in training but in another continent. What's most important is that the friend wants to learn more! So looks like half of my language study needs to consist of Spanish. 
The rest of the week also went well. A bit stressful at times but we made it! So many wonderful things happened. One day we decided to go street contacting. Street contacting is always so intimidating because you never know what they might say to you. But we went and we talked to some great people. We even got people's numbers and invited them to church! My favorite thing to do when going street contacting is to pick a few books of Mormon in other languages and then meet people to speak that language. I love that feeling and it allows me to know that I'm following the spirit. 
The members here are fantastic. I can't say enough good things about them. We with a few of them this week and they were so good at including Yina. They would invite her over to dinner and are being so friendly. It has seriously been so nice to see. We had an amazing lesson with her this past week. We taught her the first half of the plan of salvation and she was just so grateful for the new knowledge. She explained to us how when we met her she was going to through a hard time and knew she needed to get closer to God. I also included our side and how we truly were led to talk to her. As I shared this, I started to get choked up and I know that the spirit really did lead us to her. All in all it was an emotional and very spiritual lesson. She invited her 2 oldest sons to church the next day and they really enjoyed it! They were engaged in young men's and it was so great. Her oldest son is now starting to meet with us too!
This week I've learned how the lord knows our hearts. When we try and show him effort he will take that and bless us. There have been so many times this past week where I've tried and fallen short but he blesses me all the same. With contacting this last week, we really wanted to travel to Usingen, which is pretty far away. We don't have any friends from there but we really want some! So we planned in time after an appointment but the appointment went long and we weren't able to go contacting. But on the way back we talked to a man who lives in usingen and he has interest in coming to church and learning more! It has been so great. I know that even if we show the lord that we're willing to try then he will bless us and reward us for our efforts.
Last spiritual experience:) we've been meeting recently with a Ghana preacher. We've talked about the book of Mormon and the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. He kept explaining to us yesterday why Christ didn't come and visit the America's (gospel wasn't spreading this time, the Americas didn't exist during that time, etc.). As he was saying these things. I prayed in my heart and asked if it was true. The spirit came like snow and pricked my heart. I know that Christ visited the America's and that he loves each and every one of us. I think it's so interesting how when people try and disprove the gospel and what I believe in, it only makes my testimony grow. I'm so thankful for this gospel and the chance that I have to share my testimony with others. It had truly blessed my life to be able to do this work. I love you all so much! Enjoy conference!
Love Sister Nielsen 




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