Always go to a Persian's hungry

It's a new week in Leverkusen! We had transfers and Sister Clifford and I will both be staying. This is Sister Clifford's last transfer on the mission. So we set some major goals and have been trying to enjoy Germany. One of these goals is one that I've really been needing. It's speaking only German from 9 am to 9 pm. It sounds pretty easy, but it's NOT. Hahahahaha but I know that this is how I can improve my German. So far we have been going strong ALL week. I can already tell the difference. It's easier for me to speak and last night half my dream was in German!!! That literally made my whole day! My first time really dreaming in German. German has been a real struggle for me but I'm so glad for the opportunity to learn it so that I can connect with, learn from, and teach the amazing German people.

We met a really nice Russian lady this week. I tried talking to her but she ignored us. But then I asked about her dog and she stopped because of my accent. She's not interested in the gospel but we were still able to have a great conversation and she told us about a couple  cool places we can try going to for a pday. I love simply getting to know people. :)

Yesterday was a very strange, crazy, but good day. I had MANY technical iPad problems and we had no time to try and figure it out because of appointments and that happened first thing in the morning.

Then we went to a members home for lunch. And I had my first rouladen in Germany. It was a very German very homemade meal. And it was delicious. But man oh man she fed us TONS of food. I was sooooo stuffed. Then we went on my very first ever member split and Sister Clifford went with a member to Bergisch Gladbach to teach two people and I went with another member to go have a Skype appointment with a Persian couple that wants to join the church and  previously were investigators. I had never met them, but we would be bringing along a new convert in our ward who is also Persian and knows them. Well we were late and we try our skype translator and she forgot about us and it was CRAZY because we finally got on with her but we were trying to figure out stuff about the couple not being able to get married but they can't get baptized until they're married but they know the church is true and it's just a very very hard situation. Then we REALLY had to go and split back together but the couple made us tons of food. And it's extremely rude not to eat it and so long story short I almost felt like throwing up because of ANOTHER giant meal and then Sister Clifford and I didn't make it home until 11:20. But it was good and they are literally the cutest couple.

Easter was good this week! We had dinner with a family and played some darts. We also brought along an investigator who had nowhere to be and he really appreciated it.

Other funny things from this week:

I spilled chocolate milk all over myself, my desk, and the floor one morning during studies.

We contacted someone that's a member of the church. That NEVER happens here.

We contacted a girl who had been a foreign exchange student in Idaho.

We thought we were teaching Sunday School so we prepared a lesson frantically the night before, turns out we were not.....

I told a member I use to play Viola so she brought out a very very old and miniature violin wanting me to tune it..... yeah.... no....

hahahahhaaha

I hope you all have a fantastic week!!

Something to think about. I loved Easter and how we really have the time to simply think about Jesus Christ. There is this wonderful talk I encourage you all to read: And there shall be no more death (April

2016) and my short testimony. He lives!!!!!!!

Sister Losee

Utterly Exhausted

It's almost Easter!!! I'm so excited for this holiday!!! One reason I love holidays so much is because it gives us missionaries great tools to use in contacting and teaching. The new Easter initiative is really cool and i love how the holidays help people remember what is the most important thing. Christ!!

This week. As the title states. Was a week of exhaustion. I don't know why. But I have been so tired lately. Yes I know that as a missionary you are normally always tired. But I was unusually tired this week. I have proof as well. So normally I pray in the study room and sister Clifford Prays in our bedroom at night. Well Sunday night I was praying and the next thing I knew I was waking up. I had fallen asleep praying for almost two hours!!! My back and shoulders hurt so bad from sleeping like that. That was when I knew I was so tired. Because normally I can NOT sleep anywhere except in my bed. But it was really funny.

The coolest thing happened last week. A couple from America contacted the mission because the lady (Andra) had a pen pal from Germany named Moni. Andra is LDS and had been making a blog that Moni happened to stumble upon years ago. Well. Moni unexpectedly passed away in January. She was only 27 years old. So Andra wanted to come and meet Moni's parents and talk to them. But A. They needed translation. And B. Andra wanted to share the gospel and maybe try and do Moni's temple work. So we met up with them in a cute restaurant in Bergisch Gladbach. It was AWESOME!!! Andra shared her testimony of the Plan of Salvation  and everyone simply bonded over Moni and her life. The spirit that was there was so beautiful and I'm so grateful I got to be a part of it. It's also super awesome because now Moni's parents are letting us come over to meet with them again next week. I'm so excited. :)

This has been a good week. Kind of long but good. We had zone training and I had to do something in front of everyone in German. But it wasn't too bad! Oh and sister Clifford had her birthday!!! So that was an adventure. On Saturday are transfer calls. But nothing should be happening since sister Clifford goes home next transfer. I hope everyone has an awesome Easter. I love you all!!!

I would never want to be the hunchback of Notre Dame

My week since I last wrote you! So starts off with pday!!! We had a sisters pday and all the sisters in the zone came to köln and we climbed the Dom (the large cathedral)!! It was a LOT of stairs. But it was really fun! Just definitely wouldn't want to have to walk that everyday as a bell ringer in the olden days.

 (All the sisters in this picture aren't in our zone we just happened to run into some other sisters for a minute and had to take a picture)  Then we got ice cream and Mexican Döner. It was delicious!

Then I ended pday by starting my split with the wonderful sister Van Vleet!! There are always so many miracles and successful contacting stories on splits!! Although literally half our split was spent running for bahns and buses because of buses being late or just running out of time. We may or may not have gotten home late because of that. But we also may or may not have had a cool conversation with someone because of it. My favorite highlight from the split: we were on our train coming home and we sat by this man. He was carrying a sport bag so I asked him what he played. He said ice hockey! We ended up talking about that and then he mentioned how he was engaged and going to be married soon! I meant to say something along the lines of oh that's wonderful!!! But I accidentally shortened the word and said oh that's a wonder! Which in german means a miracle. Ha.... ha.... ha.... he gave me a very put off look and said what? But luckily I was able to save myself with the fact that I'm learning German. Just really hoping he wasn't too offended.

We had another super lucky experience this week! We were traveling on a Bus home from buying tickets because of some ticket problems we were having one morning and we get a call from one of our investigators. He is usually pretty busy and can't meet a ton. Turns out he had some time but he was in Bergisch Gladbach and we definitely weren't.. BUT as luck would have it! The bus we were on just happened to go right there!!! So we were able to go and meet him and make sure he was coming to general conference. Hahahahahaha but we show up, and he's African and has dreads. Well. HE CUT HIS HAIR!! We couldn't recognize him at first without the dreads! Not to mention that he was wearing a beanie cap with a sequine star on it........ It was hilarious :)

Then we had conference!!! Conference was awesome!!! We had an investigator stay at the church for two sessions and a member made all the missionaries, new converts, and our investigators lunch! It was so fun and it was so cool to see someone who enjoyed the words of the prophets! We also had another investigator who is soooo cool! We show up at her house and she says. Yeah I watched ALL of conference!! She loved it and

Well. Last Miracle story. We were having a hard day of no one wanting to talk to us, it made it harder because we were trying really hard to contact while traveling and on transportation. We had had no luck. But suddenly our phone rings and a potential we had contacted weeks ago called us!! I know Heavenly Father blesses us for our efforts and hard work!

I hope you all have an amazing week and enjoy spring!!

Sister Losee

The week of the Bees

This was a hectic week and a very tired week. I thought I didn't like daylight savings before, well I take it back, hahahaha so much harder on a mission. I really could have used that hour of sleep.

Hahahahahaha but it was a good week. I'll start off With a funny

moment: Bees

Now that the weather is warming up, the bugs are resurfacing. Now. I don't like bugs. Especially bees. For some reason the bees are finding me. It's slightly terrifying. We were on a bus Tuesday morning and there was a bee trapped in there. It started flying around my head and naturally I semi freaked out. I went into a fetal position and just desperately tried to ignore it and not move so it would leave me alone. Sadly half the bus noticed and laughed at me. But hey. It's okay. Part of our job is to make people happy. I was just spreading some joy on a Tuesday morning. I also got CHASED by a bee right before an appointment with our investigator Martin later that same day. Yes.

Martin laughed at me as well, I need to work on this..... hahahahahaha

Other adventures of the week. Well two weeks ago we doored into a lady and she said we could come back the next week on Friday..... but in the morning at 9:30..... she lives in Köln..... and that's when we are supposed to be studying....... So Friday morning rolls around and we do it. We leave our apartment super early and journey to Köln. We walk from the train station to her front door. We say a prayer and klingle her name. And. No answer. Nobody was home. She may not have been home.

And we may not have gotten a new investigator. But I know God has been blessing us in our efforts because of it and that we showed Heavenly Father we were willing to do his work. Even if it meant getting almost no studies in and being slightly disappointed that the lady with the cool dolls in her apartment wasn't home. Example A of the blessings:

we had a man walk up to us and contact US yesterday. We have an appointment set up for Monday with him! God really does give us blessings for working hard.

We had a really cool miracle story this week as well. We hadn't been able to meet with one of our investigators with a baptismal date in several weeks and he said he didn't have time and has just been hard to contact. Well we were on our way one night to teach a really cool investigator named Melanie, but we were running WAY behind and we missed our bus by about five minutes and the back up plan got us there WAY late. We started to follow this plan anyways. But Melanie texts us and says. I'm sorry something came up with my friend and I can't meet with you.  We still had to go to the town that she lives in so we continued with our plan.  But then thought. Hey let's take a different way. So we get off the bahn early and Lo and behold our other investigator was on the train Gleis. Waiting for the same bahn as us!!

So we got on with him and end up getting to teach a lesson. Heavenly Father really does work in mysterious ways.

The other big adventure from this week was Sunday. Sunday is ALWAYS stressful and hectic as a missionary. Between member missionary work, investigators, recent converts, and working with ward leaders. It's exhausting. This week we also had the opportunity to teach relief society and help out in Sunday school. But it was really cool! We took our sixteen year old investigator into relief society with us (because there is basically no youth here) and we used an object lessons that required two volunteers. When we asked for volunteers she was the first one to raise her hand and volunteer!! It was really cool to see.

The ward loves her already and she is so happy to be at church. Our only concern is that her mom isn't too exited with the idea of our church right now. So prayers for her mom would be much appreciated.

Other highlights: Russian dinner appointment(you have no control on how much you eat. It's a lot)/homemade Persian food that tastes just like cafe rio/ possibly being spit on while teaching a lesson..../ talking to an old lady soccer fan on a train whose german is so thick and so slurry you can't understand one lick/ fashion show by a two year old/ and unexpected service for an adorable old lady :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

Sister Losee