Benedict of the non Cumberbatch variety.

"It's a beautiful day even though it's dark out there !"🎶

Hello family and friends! It's another rainy and chilly week in Deutschland! But it's also another wonderful week!! To start off my email this week I would like to share an experience from Monday

morning:

So we have started trying to talk to more young people. (As stated in last weeks email) and last week we talked to a man named Benedict. He was super cool but we only had about four minutes to talk to him and he wouldn't give us his phone number. But we left him with a pamphlet and our phone number. Well Monday morning we were on a Bus in jeans because we were going to go and help do some service at a ward members home. When we suddenly see Benedict! We didn't know what to do and it was awkward because we were debating if it was really him. And if it was him should we really talk to him in jeans. Well Our bus stop approached and we had to get off and I was so mad because I thought:

"man I should have just talked to him." But then he got off the same bus stop as us! Yes it was INCREDIBLY awkward and yes I'm pretty sure he didn't really want to talk to us. But he said he hadn't had time to read the pamphlet we gave him. But hopefully he will remember and actually read it again. Seeing people more than once in one week is not that common here hahahaha.

This week we also met with Ebenezer and a member of the bishopric to talk more about Priesthood! He should be having his interview this week! I'm so excited for him and the progress he is making! We also talked more about Joseph Smith and explained the doctrine and covenants. It's cool to see him accepting and learning so quickly, because Joseph Smith was something that was hard for him to come to know the truth of at first.

We were able to take Steffi to a members home for dinner and a lesson last night and it went super well! I love having members there to help bear testimony and also to let the investigators know how the spirit can feel in a home when we keep the commandments and love one another.

The lesson went super well and she is so excited to be baptized in two weeks! We also discovered that she has a terrible fear of all animals this week though. That's a pretty sad life. Hahahaha.

This week I actually tried baking something for the first time in a very long time, and it tasted good! A new convert gave us some peaches that were pretty ripe and wouldn't last long so I decided I wanted to make a cobbler or pie or some form of dessert with them. I didn't have any recipes so just improvised and it ended up tasting really good! We took it to district meeting and saved ourselves from getting fat by eating it alone.

Sunday was fast and testimony meeting. Our ward did an amazing job this week of simply bearing testimony. There were no speeches or long stories. Just testimonies. And I felt the spirit so strongly! We also had a group of Old Canadians that were on vacation and they stayed for all three hours. I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to do the translation for them and help them to hear the words of the German people. I also have a funny story along with that too. Normally we don't have anybody in relief society that needs translation. But the Canadians stayed all three hours so I did translation during the third hour as well. Hahahah well the teacher giving the lesson was talking about how we think and our attitudes and changing our thoughts to be more positive and happy. She wrote a word on the board that I didn't really know. So I just guessed and the teacher asked : "Sister Losee do you know what that means?" Me: "Not really..... hahah" so then she replied "oh it means paradigm in English" me: "I don't even know what that means in English!" #translationprobs #notsmartenoughinenglishprobs

Well I have already written a ton today. So i would just like to say:

it was a great week!!!!

Sister Losee

Pictures:

1) You know you are a missionary when you use your thirty minute lunch time to lay down. And you know you're a missionary in Germany when you are wearing a hoody in your apartment in the middle of August hahahahha

2) Steffi!

3) Coming Home to find pots of flowers left on your doorstep by a Persian member named Akbar!

You want me to talk to people my age?!?!

Happy August friends and family! In exactly two weeks I will be reaching my year mark. That's crazy!

This week was a a pretty good week. On Friday we got to go shopping for a 95 year old woman in the ward. We literally only bought milk, bread, canned vegetables, and pastries. But afterwards she gave us pudding and we were able to talk for a while. She used to be an opera singer so the three of us all sang a song together and I feel like we helped lift her spirits :)

On Sunday we had no appointments after church. So we went out to do some finding and were able to find three potentials in one park! We have already set up appointments with two of them. We then also went by on a media referral in Leverkusen and he seems awesome! Except he had only free this week when we were busy so we set up an appointment for the Elders. That's okay though. I felt like Elders probably would be better for him anyways.

I had an awkward experience on the bus this week. I was sitting on a seat that is sideways and talking to a man whose seat is in the very back of the bus so his was forward facing. Well suddenly the bus slams on the breaks and mid-conversation I FLY down my row of sideways seats and totally embarrass myself. I did end up getting the mans phone number and set up an appointment though! Totally worth it!

Um. We met with a very very short man from Afghanistan this week.

Yeah. Totally started flirting and wanting to buy us lunch. Nope.

Sorry man.

We had zone conference on Monday this week. Guess who I saw!?!?!?!?!?!

The one and only Sister Weeks!!!!! I hadn't seen her since Frankfurt!  Our district also had the joy of doing a musical number. We ended up singing I'll go where you want me to go. It actually went pretty well.  Sister Nowak was also invited to zone conference so we got to ride with her and she sang with us! It was a good day that ended up with a cool lesson with our investigator Daniel.

At zone conference we talked a lot about contacting young single adults. I don't know why. But Ysa give me fear. Hahahahahaha. But I have tried to be better and contact them  more. It's actually pretty awesome. They are more open and willing to talk! Haven't gotten any potentials yet. But have had several cool conversations.

Well. I hope you all have an amazing week! This week I have been reading in 3rd Nephi and I know that Jesus Christ loves us all sooooooo much.

Love you all!!!

Sister Losee

The Lovely Land of Leverkusen

Two of probably the most amazing things happened this week. 

1: Ebenezer entered the waters of baptism!!!! 

And 2: Melanie finally came to church!!!!!!!

So to start off Ebenezer! Ebenezer was baptized this Saturday and I'm so happy because he was so happy! Baptisms are stressful times as missionaries and so we told Ebenezer to come about 45 minutes early to the church. That way he could try on some clothes and we could make sure nothing bad would happen to keep him from coming in time. Well, we showed up a little over two hours early so that we could  fill the font and do some other  preparation stuff. We are in the middle of our preparations, when lo and behold, Ebenezer walks in! He ended up coming almost two hours early! He almost beat us missionaries to the church! We then had quite a few members show up to show support. The spirit was so strong during the baptism,  I asked him how he felt after the baptism and he said: " I am happy. So so happy."  and then after the actual baptism the one and only Schwester Nowak was so kind and organized some cake and other snacks for afterwards. I know that it really helped Ebenezer to feel welcomed and loved.

Then we had church on Sunday. Our investigator Melanie who we have been working with for months finally had Sunday off of work and when we invited her to come to church she said yes!! She said she liked it and what makes it even better is that she and our other Investigator Steffi who also came to church for the first time became friends!!! It was awesome! It was also very strange having more girls our age there. Normally I feel surrounded by older people or males. It was really nice to have some younger woman our age there.

Um. Last week for pday we had a BBQ and it ended up being really fun.  We mostly just ate food and talked out in this cute grilling place in the woods.

We have a new investigator named Kingsley who when were teaching him mentioned that he has had a hard time remembering God recently, and so that's why he decided to meet with us. I pulled out some of our pass along cards (because they have pictures of Christ on them) to give to him to put around his apartment to remind him to pray. Well before I could explain why I was giving them to him he said : "oh yes. I will give these to my friends!"

Hahaha so perfect! He already is wanting to share what he's learning!

He also demanded to know how old Moroni was when he died. So if anyone knows. Please let me know :)

This week we also had our first interviews with President Boyer. He mostly just wanted to get to know us. He also is really stressing the importance of finding and that we should always be finding. Which I think is really good and will be good for our mission. He is really nice though and I think he will be good for the Frankfurt Germany mission.

I hope everyone has a good week!!!

Oh and update! We have new rules and you are all allowed to send me mail (letters and packages) directly to my address in Germany instead of the mission office! I probably will only be in Leverkusen for about another month. But here is my address:

Kirche Jesu Christi

Sister Bonnie Losee

Bergische Landstraße 67

51375 Leverkusen

Germany

Love you all! Here is a cool quote I read this week:

"The Lord, Jesus Christ, is our perfect example of patience. Though absolutely unyielding in adherence to the truth, he exemplified patience repeatedly during his mortal ministry. He was patient with his disciples, including the Twelve, despite their lack of faith and their slowness to recognize and understand his divine mission. He was patient with the multitudes as they pressed about him, with the woman taken in sin, with those who sought his healing power, and with little children. Finally, he remained patient through the sufferings of his mock trials and his crucifixion."

Jesus Christ truly is our perfect example for everything! I encourage you all to find an attribute this week you would like to learn and study it through stories about Jesus Christ. I know that we can learn so much through his perfect and loving example.

Sister Losee

Pizza Spaghetti Sandwich

Hallo und Guten Morgen!

This week was another crazy weather week in Germany. Yesterday morning was soooooo hot and the sun was very very bright. Well at around 2:30 out of the blue it suddenly turns super dark and starts pouring rain.  Where did the clouds even come from?! I don't even know.

Things from this week:

We were teaching our Bulgarian investigator and she has tons of questions about the plan of salvation and sometimes it's a little hard with the language barrier. But it's so cool to see how we are relying on the Book of Mormon and it's answering all of her questions!

A member in our ward has been in the hospital for about six weeks now.

So I cut out a whole bunch of paper hearts and we had the ward all sign hearts for him. It was so fun to see him light up at getting notes from the ward! He was so happy that the ward hadn't forgotten about him. Being in a hospital that long would be so hard!

I was talking to a man on the bus and was talking about the Book of Mormon. I asked him if he wanted one in his mother language. He said.  "Ich brauche eine" but I heard "ich brauche keine" good thing I got that mess cleared up! There's a huge difference between needing one and needing none hahahahahha!

We fasted with Ebenezer on Saturday so he could get work off on Sunday so he could get baptized and be able to go to church this weekend. It worked!! But even better his boss gave him the whole weekend off instead of just Sunday! We are so excited for him! We taught a really awesome lesson this last week about the priesthood and serving in the church. That baptism really is only the first step! He is making such amazing progress!

Oh and we broke our fast by making pizza spaghetti sandwiches.........

Oh and I went on a split with Sister Farner and we wore matching shirts on accident.....

The church is true and reading the Book of Mormon truly helps us feel the spirit!

Sister Losee

The drought before the storm

Well. Unlike the last couple weeks. This email won't be too long. Not too much time.

Any who. Transfers happened. And everything stayed pretty much the same. Just one new elder in our district. That's right. I'm going five in Leverkusen. Going to finish up Sister Hannigs training  and see what awesome things I can do in my last transfer here!

Today for pday we did 3D black light miniature golf. It was pretty fun! We also climbed the Dom (Cathedral) because Sister Hannig hadn't been up it yet. It was pretty fun I feel like the second time around went by much faster than the first.

Sunday we had a ton of finding time. And I totally didn't bring a water bottle, and Sunday ended up being SUPER hot. So what do I do? I have us go by on a whole bunch of unknown people on the ward list and contact as we go. All in hopes of finding an estranged member and get some water (and bringing someone back into the fold of God of course).

Eventually we ended up by one of our potentials and we stopped by to set up an appointment with her. Jennifer, she is a kind soul, we set up an appointment with her and then she lovingly gave me water! It may have been carbonated water but I've never drunken carbonated water more happily in my whole life.

(It then rained a TON a couple of days later and we get SOAKED! )

We had an awesome appointment with Ebenezer this week teaching tithing! We also have had the cool opportunity of using the Bible more. Ebenezer really responds to the Bible and I have learned to appreciate the strength found when having the Book of Mormon and Bible support each other! He is progressing really well and will hopefully be having a baptism in the future! He has passed his interview and we are excited for what lies ahead!!

Oh I also had a first on my mission! We were walking to an appointment in Leverkusen and a car honked at us. Turns out it was a member!!! I have never had that happen before!!

Today we also ran across some byu students by the Cathedral who were on a school trip.

All in all a good week! Hope everyone is doing well!!! Also shout out to Kaeley Clements for having a birthday tomorrow!!!!

Sister Losee

It's raining blessings. Hallelujah!

Happy 4th of July week everybody!! I feel like so much has happened this week so I will try not to write too much. What I feel like was an overall feeling this week  was simply the Love of God. I truly feel like he has been raining down blessings upon us. I feel like the Lord has really been working on me and it's just amazing to see the difference it makes when we are grateful for him and really try to notice the blessings.

To start off I can mention pday last week! We went to the monkey park again! One may or may not have pooped a little on me. But it was totally worth it! We all had so much fun and it isn't very often that we have so many sisters together in one place at one time! Then after pday ended we didn't have any lessons planned, so we did some finding and then randomly decided to stop by and give our new investigator and his family a Book of Mormon (because the first time we met with him we didn't know we were meeting with him and didn't have an English Book of Mormon with us). They ended up inviting us right in and said. Okay.  Let us read. So we taught the first lesson and realized it was 8:45 and we needed to get home. We ended up getting home after 10.  Definitely not visiting that family after 8 o'clock again.

This week we also had the very strange experience of meeting a Nigerian Prince. Or so he claims. But according to one of our Nigerian members, you can be royalty in Nigeria when you are really rich. But he talked to us and was really nice. He says he knows medicine, but African medicine, and he wrote a book that he thinks is better than modern science. But sadly no one will publish it. Oh well. But I had a strange bug bite so I asked him about it and he told me what bug he thought it was and then to simply lick it a lot hahahahahha. Don't worry. We got pictures!

This week we had an amazing Sunday! A man we contacted on the street showed up to church! It had been two weeks since we'd seen him, so we almost didn't recognize him.... oops.... but he also came with his friend! We have an appointment tomorrow with them! It was really funny. When we contacted him and asked him if he wanted to meet with us to talk more about Jesus Christ he just asked when and where church was. Then when we called him later in the week he just said hurriedly on the phone "9:30 on Sunday right?" Then hung up when we said yes.  Then we were pulled out of class by a member because a random lady walked into the church. Turns out she had crashed her bike outside the church and just thought. Hey. A church! Why not go inside! So we talked to her for a while, gave her a Book of Mormon, and set up an appointment for Saturday.

Sunday just kept giving and giving though! We were on a Bahn and we were talking to a very strange Italian man, when suddenly, I overhear some people talking about the Bible in English!  So we got off at the same stop as them and talked about salvation and Jesus Christ. We then got both of their numbers! I love chasing people down.

On Monday we then met our new Mission President! President Boyer and his family are really awesome. They are so ready and excited to work and be here. Sister Boyer served a mission and you can tell that she really does love missionary work. I am excited to work with them for the next 7 months or so.

This week we also stopped by on a Bulgarian speaking potential we had doored into a couple weeks ago. We just were going to drop of a Bulgarian Book of Mormon and set up an appointment. But she invited us straight in, sat us down, gave us Pepsi, and immediately told us her whole life story. She didn't even ask us our names! I guess we do have name tags. But still. Missions are crazy!

Then of course we had the FOURTH OF JULY! We may not have been in America but we had a great day nonetheless! We got pretty close to "fireworks" when sister Hannig set off the fire alarm making herself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. We also had the even cooler opportunity of teaching the 18 year old referral I referenced last week! She agreed to be baptized! She is so cool and has been reading in the Book of Mormon and recognizes the spirit as she does! Then we ended off our day by having spaghetti and spaghetti Eis! It was a day for celebration!

Sorry this was so long! I hope you are all happy and healthy!

Love,

Sister Losee

When did we become secret agents??

Happy Thursday everybody!!! Do you know what that means? That's right!

It's my pday! Glorious pday. Today we will be going back to the monkey park again, but this time with all of the sisters in our zone. I am super excited!

This week. It was a good week. It started off with me realizing on Friday that I was literally the only missionary in Köln that had been here for more than three in a half weeks. I've been here for 5 months!  That's crazy. I basically know this ward like the back of my hand now.

Speaking of the ward. Our ward mission leader and us missionaries wanted the ward to focus on service this week. So we had a service day on Saturday and tons of ward members showed up and we spent two in a half hours cutting hedges and raking up leaves and cleaning garden beds. It was a lot of work but we did it! Then we all grilled and ate together. It was really cool to see the members all working together and interacting in a form outside of church. I do have to say though, getting directions on how to do gardening stuff in German is no piece of cake. Confusion was definitely involved hahahaha.

This week we also had the funny experience of becoming "secret agents" or so if felt like. We were on our way to meet with Ebenezer in Bergisch Gladbach when we get a strange phone call from someone telling us to get on a certain bus and then get off at a specific spot. Normally people don't follow vague phone call directions. But of course we did. Turns out it was a friend of Ebenezer and we ended up teaching him the first lesson and it was really cool to teach him and Ebenezer together.

This week we also had another successful street display in Aachen! We only ended up having four missionaries there, but I am so proud of Sister Hannig. I am very good at forcing her to do stuff and I forced her to do the street display solo. She ended up giving away some copies of the Book of Mormon and finding a really cool potential investigator. :) it was cool to see her excitement and courage grow.

We also had a very awkward very strange first appointment with a man named Souleymann Lee. Boy oh boy was that rough. He doesn't really speak German or English and his main language is a very tiny tiny African language from Guinea that no one speaks and there is no Book of Mormon in it. He also had a friend with him and apparently they communicate in broken Arabic together. HOW DOES HIS LIFE WORK!! I'm so confused. And then turns out he is a refugee and is being sent to Italy next month. I can't imagine how hard that would be.

We also got to go and help paint a members home this week!! I got pegged the job of using the paintbrush to get there corners and tops of the walls that the rolled didn't reach. The only problem is that they had no step ladder..... only a chair.... so I had to do the whole thing on tippy toes with my arm completely stretched out. I may or may not have been sore afterwards hahaha.

Finally we had a cool experience of being able to teach an 18 year old who referred herself on Mormon.org. It's crazy how many people really do find the church in random ways and reach out to the missionaries!  It's also crazy how often we go to random meeting places to meet a stranger we've never met before. This is usually the thing they tell you to never do!!! But that's missionary work for you. Well. This is a long email. Till next week!! Everyone have a great week!

Sister Losee

PS. Living the blonde life.