Salzburg = Salt Castle

The title is a lie but that is what it means.... 

Have you ever asked yourself?

How do I treat my colleagues? How do I treat those around me whether they are considered above me or below or whatever? How would the Lord react if he was standing over us right now? 

It is an interesting question to ponder. The Lord has put us here to overcome the natural man and to learn how to master ourselves. After all the greatest commandment after loving God with all of your heart, might, mind, and soul is to love your neighbor. I can think of a few characteristics of Christ that go along with this idea:  

Charity

Patience
Forgiveness
Love
Kindness 

How can I be slow to anger and quick to love my God and my fellow man?

Well a few things have come to my mind and I will share them with you, if you have thought of any others I would love to hear about them!

- Making sure you are eating right, getting enough sleep, and managing our stress. When we are well rested and not stressed, it is easier to be patient with others. 

Remember what Moroni writes to us about Charity in Moroni 7:45-48

45 And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

When we as missionaries are given our assignment we are asked to serve with all of our heart and try and become like Christ! One of the greatest attributes of Christ is that of charity, I have seen when I am more charitable in my life I am happier. Those around me are happier, and I can more easily share my message about Jesus Christ. I invite you to work on this Christlike attribute of Charity this week. Find a time this week to serve someone; maybe call a family member or friend you haven't talked to in a while or open the door for someone (for some other ideas look back to last year's Light the World Advent Calendar). I know that as we try and become like Christ, we will come closer to Him and we will become what he wants us to be!

As far as Salzburg goes, we have two wonderful people who have accepted a baptismal date. We were hacked kind of on Monday night (no worries it is all sorted out now). Our dryer tried to die, and we had interviews with President!!! Interviews are always so much fun. He explained transfers and schedules with us, which was cool, and he really emphasized how we need to master our message and know the points in the lessons along with scriptures so well that we can answer anyone's question on the street. That is my goal to know the lessons forward and backwards in English and German!!!

P-Day this week... UNTERSBERG!!! A mountain that has a gorgeous view, great for Dirndl (which I apparently have been spelling wrong my whole mission) pictures, good Frühsport, and great missionary opportunities. As we were hiking we ran into a camera crew that wanted to video us (because we were in Dirndls) and we shared with them what we are doing exactly and how the process works! Really cool experience and who knows maybe they will have interest one day... 

I hope you all have a great week!! 

If there is anything you would like to see in my weekly emails, Information about this beautiful place just let me know.

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission

 

 

Es macht immer spaß!!

Hallo lovely wonderful people,

This week we had Distrikt P-day, Zone Training, Valentine’s Day and Fasching!!! 

P-day: We went to a beautiful town up in the Alps located on a beautiful lake with churches dotting the scenery. We went with our whole Distrikt, which was Salzurg missionaries, including the amazing Elder and Sister Matthews and Neumarkt Elders. It was amazing to see the beautiful landscape here. And as per usual, the Elders and Sister Miller wore Trachten, which is the traditional wear for Austria and Southern Germany, and they looked really good! (I had bought my Drindl, but it wasn't ready yet)

Zone Training: Every month the missionaries in leadership positions meet in München and receive training from President. And then those missionaries hold a meeting for the other missionaries in their area to train, teach, and uplift. This second meeting is called Zone Training and it was really good last week!!!  They talked about what it means to listen to someone and how we need to be listening just as much as we are teaching.  I also loved how they encouraged us to be self-motivated and how they said if you are clean and worthy stay that way. If you aren’t get clean and get worthy. Our biggest judge is ourselves, and it is amazing that the Lord trusts us enough to teach us correct principles and then lets us govern ourselves. I really felt the spirit of self-discipline from the Zone Leaders, which was really amazing!

Tuesday was also Valentine’s Day!!! So Happy Valentine’s Day!! Sister Miller bought me a flower and made me a cute Valentine, the Zone Leaders all gave us Valentine's Day Tea, and the Matthews gave us a Berliner!!! So it was a great Valentine’s Day!! 

To top Monday and Tuesday off, we had Klagenfurt stay the night! That was super fun!! We just talked about everything, it was super fun!! 

Finally on Saturday we got to celebrate Fasching, which is a holiday here that is similar to Halloween in the way it is celebrated. We helped out at our PV (Primary Children ages 0-11) activity and at the one in Neumarkt! It was so much fun to help out with the games and to watch the kids all dress up and have so much fun playing games. As missionaries we kind of dressed up but the kids and parents went all out, it was really cool!! We also helped set up for Fasching on Wednesday night, which was fun!!

I got my Drindl last week and attached a picture of my Drindl and my Swatch! 

This week, I have been thinking about time management and self-reliance, I don’t know how many of you know about the Church's Self-Reliance program, but it is really cool!! I have been getting the impression that I need to read it and study it better. We are trying it out as a mission and we are going through the step as missionaries. I just want to say that our testimony of the Gospel and our testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer are precious and we should treasure that precious knowledge. When life gets hard, people doubt their faith and they doubt the existence of a God, but if we root our faith in Him and in the Book of Mormon, and we base our conversion on Jesus Christ and become self-reliant on our testimony, then we will be able to weather those storms. It is hard sometimes to know where to find answers but when we personally search the scriptures and fast and pray for an answer, we can know that the answer we get is truly an answer from God. He is there and He wants to answer your questions. Finding your own answers through patience, faith, and effort is one of the greatest blessings we have from God. That is the true spirit of the Self-Reliance—being able to weather the storms of life with God and His guidance. 

I love you all; I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, Redeemer and Brother. He loves us and wants us to return to live with our Father and He wants us to be happy. He knows what we are going through, He knows how we feel, and He knows us!! How wonderful is that!

 

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission

 

Es ist eine schöne Stadt

Hallo meine schöne Freunde!

Our Taufen Termin:

We had an amazing appointment with our investigator who has a baptismal date! We were able to bring our GML with us and it helped us to better explain our point. We talked about the importance of Prayer, Scripture study and Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, and how we need to have these three things to be able to keep the Holy Ghost in our lives!!

Junge Damen: 

We were invited to the Young Women this week and we were designing wedding dresses.... I think this is a sign for Sister Miller. She doesn't want to believe me, but she goes home in a couple of weeks.... (It's going to happen) 

Picture of my dress included it's not see through it just appears that way.

Finding!

This week we have planned a lot of finding!!! We don't have a ton of investigators at the moment, so what do you do? You go find new people. There is a phrase that says "Nothing Happens in Missionary Work until You Find Someone to Teach." I am a firm believer in this. I have come to love finding! It's amazing the feeling you get when get to stop someone on the street and for a few minutes they think about something more. They wonder if there is a purpose. They reflect on their creator. That is the wonderful part of being a missionary, it's beautiful really! Finding is definitely hard and sad when people slam doors in your face or when they yell at you, or the worst is when they won't even let you talk to them at all, but it's all worth it in the end. The Lord knows where His elect are. He is preparing people and it's our job to look for them. 

FHA:

Every week we have FHE (Family Home Evening) at a member’s house on Sunday night and we play games, eat food, and share a spiritual thought. It's super fun, and I am getting to learn new vocabulary, and getting to know the members better. The mom is super sweet too; she is organizing a member appointment schedule for us so we can get to know more members faster! It's super sweet!!!  This week we got to play with their hamsters!!! Picture included!!

I want you all to know, how much I appreciate the thoughts and prayers that you are sending my way. I feel so much love from all of you and I am very grateful!! 

The Lord knows each and every one of us. We are HIS children, and He loves us and wants us to return to live with Him forever!!! What a beautiful message!! I know what we lived with our Father in Heaven before this life, and this life is our chance to learn about Him and to believe in Him. And when we believe in Him, He can take away our pains and our sorrows and give us the greatest gift we could ever receive—eternal life with our family!!!!

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission

 

7 Monate und ich wohne in Salzburg

Hoi,

So this week I got 2 Taufe termins!!! (Baptismal dates) one in Zürich before I left and the other in Salzburg at the end of the week!!! It is amazing to see people really want to come closer to the Savior and really want to know what He wants for them. The Lord is preparing people to hear His message! 

I left Sister Heller this week; she is super cute. I'll miss her and her creative finding ideas! We had a great two months together, taking over Zürich (Zürich where leaders are born). Then she helped carry my billion bags to Hauptbahnhof to catch my train to Salzburg. (Yeah I still have a little under a year left, not sure how this whole packing 2 suitcases under 30 pounds is going to work...) 

I am really going to miss Zürich and especially the Schwamendingen ward and Sister Heller. Alle sind so lieb!! 

TRANSFERS: So I am now in the wonderful, beautiful, traditional land of Salzburg where the grass is greener and the music in my head is Mozart. This is also the land of the Sound of Music, which apparently I will see quite a bit of while I am here (the land where it was filmed). 

My new companion: Sister Miller. She is a beautiful redhead, who hails from Portland, Oregon where, using her words "it's weird." She is not so happily celebrating her 17^th month (kind of) this month. So I get to send her home at the end of our 6 weeks together. She loves science, art, and volleyball! 

We had the chance to go to a wedding as well (well the reception) and that was really fun. We helped set up and then were able to go for about an hour before we had to return home (the receptions here go for hours and hours and hours) the food was really good.

Today: 

We visited the Mozart Wohnunghaus (basically the house where he lived not the house where he was born, so much cooler), I took the tour in German (hey Sprachstudium) and it was really interesting! Even though he is famous for the piano, they really focused on the violin which I thought was cool! 

Also bought a Dirndl today!!! Because when in Salzburg.... It looks super cute and traditional. Sorry no pics yet. It is being sized so in a week or two I'll have super utensils pictures. 

One quick spiritual thought: The Lord puts people in our lives and gives us experiences so that we can learn and grow, it is our responsibility to learn from them and share our experiences (when appropriate). The Lord has invested a lot in each and every one of us. We are His Children and He loves us. I know that because I have felt His love.

Have a great week!!!

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission

Pictures:

Love lock bridge- yes, lovers buy a lock and attach it to the bridge forever as a symbol!
The beautiful mountains here remind me of Utah, I love it!
One of the members has a snake and I got to hold it!!! 
Sister Miller and a Buddhist flower from a wedding (not really a Buddhist flower but doesn't it look like it?)