Candlelight Dinner

This week went by so fast, I feel like I was just typing my last group email yesterday. 

We finally had our first split of the transfer, and we will be having another three next week. It feels good to get back to doing them. I split with Sister Poulsen. I would describe her as chill. We had a really fun time together and she is currently serving in Leverkusen. So we just talked all about the people and things there. It made me miss Köln. Together we had the adventure of teaching an African about the Godhead. It is so hard when someone believes in the Trinity. It’s so frustrating. But I also had a super cool experience this week where one of our investigators who is Catholic asked us to help her explain Mosiah 15. She is still confused about how Jesus Christ is called the Father and God. But I found a really cool article in the April 2002 Ensign about why Jesus is called the Father. It was sooo cool! My whole mind was literally blown, and I learned so much!!! 

This week the Relief Society had a fancy candlelight dinner activity to thank the sisters for serving an old lady in the ward who needed lots of help, well we asked to bring some investigators and the relief society president said: Well, its mostly for the sisters as thanks and we dont know about how many places we have, and so you can invite one investigator.... but we had invited two already..... we started to freak out and I got a little bitter because my thought is that getting good ward interaction and fellowshipping for our investigators is more important, and that the investigators could take my seat instead of me eating. But sadly/luckily one of them said she couldn’t come anymore. But Roza came with her seven year old daughter Laza and she loved it so much!!! They had everything so cutely decorated and men in the ward were dressed up as Italian servers and we got fed about five or six courses. It was delicious and lots of fun. Then we watched the funeral for Thomas Monson together. It was a good night. 

The senior Couple, Elder French had his birthday on Sunday. So we made cake andp all celebrated with him that night. 

We had my last Zone Conference on Wednesday. That was fun and bittersweet. For our breakout session that we were leading, we were assigned Finding Through Members, well, a member of the mission presidency gave an hour long lesson about working with/finding through members. It was pretty stressful at first because we had to work with what we had but also try not to be repetitive or make everybody really bored. 

We taught Roza and Ibrahim the beginning of the Ten Commandments this week and we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s really cool to see their understanding slowly grow and grow. But when we went there on Tuesday, the kids were CRAZY and it was a little hectic at first trying to get the super active 4 year old to calm down. But it was such a miracle during the closing prayer when he crossed his arms and prayed with us the whole time. We have also started to sing a song every time we go to help them become familiar with the German hymns to help them sing along at church. 

Oh yeah, and last pday we traveled to Essen to try out the Five Guys Burgers and Fries that opened there!!! It tasted just like in America and we all felt so American. It was greatl. :)

I hope you all have an amazing week! 

Love,

Sister Losee 

Smell the Flowers, Blow out the Candle

Happy NEW YEAR!! I am way excited but also terrified for the things that 2018 has in store! I officially go home next month, so it was sad during MLC yesterday when we made some goals and ideas for the mission for the year, when I knew I wouldn’t be there to see them all the way through. 

This was an exciting week though! Sister Schellenberg had her birthday and we ate at a delicious Italian Restaurant! 

We celebrated New Years by going to bed at 10:30! (Although, Sister Schellenberg somehow stayed asleep as world war three began at 12)

We went to bed at 10 o clock one night instead of at 10:30, but we forgot that there was a reminder alarm that goes off at 10:25 to make sure we are in bed on time, so we get woken up at 10:25 thinking it was morning. But both being really tired and disbelieving. “It can’t be morning already!?”

We taught Jennifer and I felt like a scripture master and just kept thinking of scriptures to share. That doesn’t happen very often. Jennifer also bore her testimony about worshipping no other Gods and about how crazy this world is, and you can really only trust God and the scriptures! 

Elena invited us over for dinner and we had a really good lesson. 

Ali chose to go to a New Years party with the YSA in our ward and not his friends, because he knew his friends might not make the best choices. #proudmissionarymamamoment

Roza and Ibrahim want to be baptized next month!! I am so happy for them! We followed up about how they feel at church, and they said they both just feel full and peaceful. I love this gospel and the peace it truly brings! 

I hope you all have an amazing week! Just remember how much Joy the gospel brings, and the blessings that you can receive when you obey the commandments. 

Sister Losee

So many potatoes

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

What a great week. So many miracles and so many kind members, and just lots of fun and excitement with the holidays. But way tooo much.... food!!! 

So many member appointments, so many potatoes, so much turkey, so much Rotkohl, so much yogurt and fruit. Just so much food. 

Christmas Eve was crazy! We had our service at 3:30 and had so many investigators there! And so many families had inactive children there and it was just sooo much work and so hectic, being a missionary at church is stressful, but when you have tons of investigators, and then there are not enough seats, and you are trying to greet everybody and then you are just tired. Then that evening we visited with a cute older couple and their sons came. 

Christmas Day was spent primarily just at one members home. She is from America, so I got a little taste of America, but her husband is from Germany, so don’t worry. Still lots of Germany. 

I got to Skype my family! Not too long now before we see each other in real life. 

On the 26th (second Christmas in Germany) We visited two families and had a blast at both of them. 

Last Friday we visited a Mother and her three daughters. Miracles. They are Persian and so we couldn’t teach too well. But they came to Church on Sunday and we will have translation tomorrow. But they made us dinner and were just so kind and had lots of questions. 

We taught Roza and Ibrahim again this week and they came to church. They want to be baptized!! We also all celebrated Sister Schellenbergs birthday together. (A little early because they will be gone on the actual birthday)

On Tuesday night we received an online referral and went by on it Wednesday. It’s a super cool German lady who agreed to take the lessons with us and learn more about our beliefs. It’s always fun to teach an actual German in Germany. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Sister Losee

IT‘S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!!!! So as a present to my Mom, I will write a long email. Please. You were warned.

Here are the adventures/craziness from this week!

1. WhatsApp. Okay so WhatsApp is a messaging and calling app that everybody uses in Europe because it is free when on WiFi. Well, with the advancements of Smartphones we also got this App, which has been super good to get in contact with people that don’t have phone credit. But...... it has also been really bad problem.... hahahahaha. Every day we get at least one creepy message from a strange man. The first one we got simply said hi, and then sent a picture of my name tag from when he had talked to me on the bus, another said he wanted a partner and then send an emoji of a person dancing, another said he loved us. And we just have to ignore lots of people hahaha. 
2. We had the last split of the transfer, and the second to last day of the transfer. Hahahah it was a little rough squeezing nine splits in five weeks. But we did it! This last split was really fun. Sister Lopez is from Mexico and seriously one of the most humble and loving Sisters I served with. She literally just wants to serve other people. We taught one of our investigators together who had disappeared for a couple of months but finally returned!
3. Our investigator who disappeared, she had been on vacation in her home country of Bulgaria,and the reason she extended her trip so long, was because she got baptized.... BUT NOT IN OUR CHURCH! I had never had that situation before.....
4. We taught our cute new family investigators twice this week, and the father (Ibrahim) came to church with two of the children. They loved it! Apparently they told Ibrahim they wanted to go to church every day hahaha. But basically I love this family with my whole heart. Their children are just adorable and so loving, the one son is in a wheelchair because of something wrong with his legs, but he is just so happy! When we went there last night, they buzzed us into the apartment building, and you just hear the four year old yell “LUCY!!” (Aka Losee) Then the other boy runs and hugs Sister Schellenberg, and then after the appointment, as we are walking away, we get a text message from them saying that if we need help they want to be the first ones to help. Also. Can we just also remember when last week he said he didn’t know if he thought Joseph Smith was a prophet and needed some time, but this week, after reading in the Book of Mormon says: “I believe. It makes sense. God always calls prophets. Why would he have them back then, but not today.” Basically this family is such a happy miracle. 
5. Our Family home evening game night this week. Oh boy. So much craziness and laughter and weirdness. So this week we actually had people show up. Ali and then our other investigator Aksel, but.... Aksel also brought his strange friend Nikko.... Ali was a rockstar and bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and helped to answer Aksel and Nikkos questions. Nikko though didn’t believe anything about the Book of Mormon because he read only the title page and half of the title page and said it only talks about America and that since it wasn’t from Greece (his home land) he couldn’t believe in it. Then we moved on to playing games. We tried to teach them the game signs. It proved to be waaay to complicated for Nikko hahahahha. I also think it was a struggle because we are trying to explain a semi complicated game in a language, which nobody in the room speaks natively. Then at the end of the game night, the Elders and Ali missed the bus that would get the Elders home on time, so, they took their only option. Riding in Aksels car with Nikko. Elder Folau described it like this: An Arab, a Bulgarian, a Greek, and two Americans get in a car.....hahahahah Ali described it: It was like a Horror film. 
6. Last point. Pday last week!! We had the joy of adventuring the Christmas Markets in Köln with Sister Nowak. It was so fun just to spend several hours walking around just the three of us. Sister Nowak bought us waffles in the shape of the Cathedral in Köln and we drank delicious punch and ate unhealthy candies. It was way fun. 

Well. I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas time and really remembers the reason to the season. This week we were last minute asked to give the lesson in Relief Society. It was the perfect lesson. The atonement of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ really is our Savior and Redeemer and true joy and peace can only be found through him. I love you all!

Sister Losee

How much can I pay to get extra sleep? #2

Hello family and friends! This will be a shorter email because I don’t have a lot of time. But it was a really good week. 

Highlights:

Ward Christmas party: a new family we started teaching brought their whole family it was the best! We also sang Rudolph the red nosed reindeer as missionaries and made a fool of ourselves by bellowing ho ho ho a little too manly and loud. 

IT SNOWED!! And a lot!!! On Monday there was so much snow and problems that the buses didn’t come to where we live, and we had to walk for 50 minutes through snow to get to a station for a Straßenbahn. We then had a split and barely made it to our appointment because of traffic and everything. 

Zone Conference. We had an awesome zone conference and the spirit there is just always my favorite part. Sister Schellenberg and I gave a lecture thing about addiction recovery and repentance. It was so cool to see how in each break out session we talked about such different stories and ideas. 

On Sunday I had what I think was a migraine in the middle of the night, and my sweet companion let me wake her up at 3 in the morning because when you are in so much pain you just need somebody. So church was a little rough that morning, but we made it!!! 

I successfully solved my first Rubik’s cube all by myself!! 

Pday last week was good too! We visited a Christmas market in Essen and then just came home and laid down while listening to Christmas music because we were both just so tired. 

We also had two more fun splits. I was with Sister Randall and Sister Baker. We were able to find tons of potentials and getting to know sisters is just seriously the best. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and eat lots of Christmas chocolate!! 

Sister Losee

 

How much can I pay to get extra sleep?

Happy December!!! I can’t believe how fast this month has gone by already!!! The next thing I know it will be Christmas! Okay. So crazy week this week. Here are some of the stuff:

Pday last week: We went to Dortmund and saw the Christmas Market there. It was really pretty, there was a GIANT tree, and most exciting, I bought a Russian Doll from a very nice Russian man! Then we went to a soccer stadium for the team in Dortmund. BVB. The tour was so cool, my favorite part was walking out of the tunnel while the music was playing. So great. Definitely made me feel like a soccer fan. Then we met up with the Düsseldorf Zone Leaders, the Dortmund Zone Leaders, and the APs and we emailed in a van on our four hour drive to Frankfurt for MLC Friday morning. 

MLC:We talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and about obedience. Exact Obedience really does bring miracles! 

SPLITS!: I got to split with two missionaries one after another who are going home in two weeks. It’s always so cool to ask the missionaries something they have learned from their missions and to see how each individual personal grows differently. 

On my split with Sister Johnson, we got taken out to lunch at a Chinese Buffet with some members..... so..... much..... food...... Then we used a creepy bathroom in a Döner Laden because I just had to go that bad. Hahahaha. We also just had some fun Contacting and having awkward conversations on trains haha. 

With Sister Moeller, we taught a TON of AWESOME lessons! We also got to participate in ward council, its so cool to see how really ready and willing our ward is to help and support us.

Also. This week I experienced one of the most interesting things ever!! So story time: We were planning on going to our investigators church service at 3:00 because she was dedicating her children and really wanted us to come. We asked for permission to go and the answer was yes. Then after our Church service a member invited us over for lunch and we felt like we should say yes. It would make us an hour late to Jennifers service, but we thought that would be okay. So we show up at 4:00 at the address she gave us, no one was there, but then we see an African family. Apparently they were looking for Jennifer too! Turns out Jennifer had given us all the wrong address, so we rode over with this other family to the right church, and turns out the service wasn’t actually until 5:00. So that was awesome. Man. First of all, the usher who took us to our seats, was a woman I had contacted before, and she remembered me!! Then, we were the only white people in the room. The service was fun and involved electric guitars and dancing. But it just made me so grateful for our gospel and for the truth and spirit that we have in our meetings. But it really was great fun, we were able to talk to some of her friends about the Mormons, and Jennifer was SO happy that we had come. (Hallelujah ! Hallelujah! Amen! Amen! Praise Jesus! Hallelujah! Amen. Amen. Hallelujah!) 

Also, Saturday, we had a street display in Krefeld, it was freezing cold and dark, and nobody was being nice at all. But we endured and stayed till the end. Nothing feels better than knowing you completed something that was hard. So included is a street display picture. 

Anyways. Continue to light the world and share the joy of service and Christ this holiday season!!! 

Love,

Sister Losee 

Ps. Craziness! Smart phones are entering the mission! No more having to be a WiFi hobo when trying to look up train times! 

---

It’s really cold again!

Winter is coming! Nooooooooooo

Hi family and friends! Last week was great :) we had lots of cool miracles and really fun splits. 

Last week for pday we adventures the Duisburg Christmas market and ate delicious foods and got our names written on rice for free! We also watched Johnny Lingo and laid on the ground of the church for awhile. You just get so tired sometimes hahahah. 

Then we had two splits. First I was with Sister Estes. She’s great. So hilarious and has no fear while talking to people. We also had one of the coolest contacts of my life. We talked to two men from India who I think were Muslim. We started to talk to them about Jesus Christ and the spirit was just there. And so strong too! The one man then said “I think that it’s so cool what you are all doing. And I feel like there’s something special when I talk to you. I just feel this warm peace or something. You know. Just something you can’t quite explain.” That the first time I have had someone on the street recognize and say out loud that he was feeling the spirit. We then explained how he could have that with him always and we exchanged contact information. We should hopefully be able to meet with him soon! 

I also got to split with Sister Fried. This was our second split together and we had a lot of fun teaching and contacting together. We taught Jennifer and Chao and they are both just great. We started to teach Chao about the life of Christ using the pictures in the gospel arts book. It is so fun texting someone about his life and really letting them know what Jesus Christ did for them. We also began to teach Jennifer about the Plan of Salvation and I have just such a love and appreciation for God’s plan and I especially love to testify about it on the streets contacting. 

Oh and let us not forget Saturday night! We took Ali with us to a members home for dinner and a lesson. We decided to really focus on Jesus Christ and really didn’t out where his testimony is. We read a scripture about Jesus Christ being the ultimate sacrifice, then we watched the Bible Video of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. We asked him what he had learned about Jesus Christ from the video and then asked him how he has noticed that he has grown closer to Christ. He then bore just the most beautiful testimony of how he has grown closer to Christ and how he has the desire to learn more, to change, to simply be better. It was a huge proud mama moment! 

I also talked to a man on Sunday night after tons of rejection, and he was willing to meet! He is from China and doesn’t really know much about God. We had our first lesson on Wednesday and he just had soo many questions and he is just sooo excited to learn! I love teaching so much! 

This week we also have started a ysa family home evening night because we want to get more involved with the young single adults and make more activities and events that we can bring investigators to. Ali and one other person were the only ones that showed up. but we are hoping as time goes on more people will be willing to come. Hahaha 

Well. I think that is most of my week. I can’t remember anything else too specific right now. But have a great week and don’t forget to watch the Light the World video and do the advent calendar to serve others and light the world in 25 ways over 25 days!!! 

Sister Losee