Frohe Weihnachten

 Hey all! Sorry I missed last week, but hopefully I can catch you up on everything that has happened. So just a faur warning, this one might be long. 

Christmas was a true blessing. The German's celebrate 3 days of Christmas and the 24th is their big celebration. A big group of missionaries decided that we wanted to go into the city and carol. I loved being able to see people light up and smile as we started singing. Music has a powerful effect on people and it meant everything to see the effect first hand. 
We had dinner with a couple from Spain and had a whole bunch of interesting foods haha. They even served us a whole lamb's leg! They invited a friend who lives by herself and it was fun being able to get to know her and her all of her flying adventures when she was younger. She's seen and experienced a ton! We ended the night singing Christmas carols and watching her become more comfortable with us. The special thing was when she left, she stood on the doorstep and waved goodbye.
Christmas day started off a bit stressful and I wasn't in the Christmas spirit at all, but then so many miracles happened. We had 5 "investigators" come to church! One is a boy from Ukraine named Evgeniy, bur it all alone in Germany. He doesn't understand German very well, but Google translate came in handy as I explained the book of Mormon to him after the meeting. The next one was a neighbor of one of the senior missionaries. She wants to join the choir that will be performing for easter, but until the practices start we are trying to go by and visit her;). 
The next one is an older man who self referred himself to the temple. We tried to visit him in the past, but something always came up. We invited him to church and he came! He was emotional the whole time as we sang about the Savior. A member in the ward, who was having us and the other missionaries over, felt like he should invite him over to dinner. I'm so glad he did, because it provided this man (Bernd) the opportunity to feel the spirit and the love of the Savior. He lives alone and I could tell how much it meant to him to be surrounded by new friends on Christmas. 
We also had lunch with a woman from Slovania that works at the temple. Her husband passed away a few years ago and invited us over because she didn't want to eat Christmas dinner by herself. I really enjoyed spending the time with her and filling the whole in her heart. 
I have been really trying to focus on Christ this season and to remember the true meaning of Christmas. Before my mission, I always thought that Christmas was the time where we only celebrated the birth of Christ. But as I've studied, I've began to realize that we don't celebrate how he came but why he came. He came to bring hope and comfort to others. He is evidence of how much God loves us. Because he came, the hole in each of our hearts can be filled. 
A member from köln sent me a text and wished me that i would have a special reason the glow this christmas. I goind that reason, this Christmas was really special because I was able to spend it how the Savior would've. Not with gifts, but with helping others and comforting the lonely. I have felt him by my side this Christmas and it was truly a reason to glow. 
But with every high there's a low. We've had a lot of lows this week. We went street contacting with Asier this past week to show him how it is and prepare him for his mission. No one wanted to talk to us and it was pretty degrading. I was so motivated to talk to people and give it my best, but nothing came from my efforts. Instead of getting discouraged, I remembered what another missionary told me a couple months ago. "If nothing comes from the prompting, it doesn't mean that it wasn't right. You did your best and allowed them to use their agency. God is testing you to see if you'll respond to the little promptings so that when the big, important promptings come he will trust you to act on them." We was definitely trying and testing us. More heartbreak came that night as one of our promising potentials (the miracle family we found in usingen) asked us to delete her number because her husband didn't want her to meet with us. I was crushed and so sad because we finally found someone in usingen who wanted to talk with us. I've noticed that there are a lot of hard times on the mission, but we have to decide how to react to them. A member was able to help me put it into perspective. She said that life is like a heart monitor. It goes up and it goes down, but that's what makes it life. If we only had ups we would flat line, but we need the lows to keep us balanced. So whenever we're going through a rough time, just remember that it's all a part of the plan. I'm grateful for what I've learned on my mission and for having it help me keep a positive outlook when I'm running through sand.
Love you all and hope you had a merry Christmas!
Love Sister Nielsen 
- District pday at the Marburg schloss 
- slovanian Christmas dinner 
- cute weston 😛
- Christmas sunset
- my favorite people ♡


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