Tchüß Österreich Hallo Stuttgart...Schon Wieder

    So in our mission we have this phrase called the Stuttgart curse, meaning that if you serve in the Stuttgart zone once, then you are bound to return at some point! Well because   I was born there (my first area), my trainer said someday I would return...  Sister Whiting, you were right, but I am so excited to see how it has changed and to go somewhere somewhat familiar!! 

German class:

    We have started teaching some people German. Last month on Monday we met with three people whom we had found through finding that need to learn German! It was a challenge the first day, but we met one of them again yesterday and he told us, "It is easy to talk to you in German, but I can't talk to other people." So we had him talk to us and practice and then we turned him into a little "missionary" and went finding. We stopped people on the street and just asked if he could practice his German with them. It was so cute, he was really nervous but he was able to talk to two people before we had to go!! 

* It is people like our German friend that make the little things so much fun and makes it sad that it is those people we will not see again in this life after we leave the area. But we can hope that we made a difference

Innsbruck:

    We had Tausch or exchange with the sisters in Innsbruck, and it was so much fun! Unfortunately we got tied up... before we were supposed to go to Innsbruck so we had to catch the later train but it worked and it was so much fun!! We went finding and did a survey that they had created and then got ice cream as a break. I got to see the beautiful Innsbruck and go to Institute (a program to learn more from the scriptures for young adults, college age) and meet the members! 

Wels:

    We also had a Tausch or exchange with the sisters in Wels, and I got to exchange with the golden!! It was so much fun!! We did a little finding on the bus and some finding on the street to catch our train! We went home and made tacos!! It was fun!!  She is super cute and loves the gospel so much. Her sweet golden spirit is really inspiring! I am grateful I could work with her!! 

 Vorbei:

    On Friday we went by on every less-active member in a part of Salzburg called Hallein!!! We went with the Senior Couple and it was so much fun!! We were supposed to have an appointment with one of them, but he didn't answer his door so... It was good to work through the ward list and to make it a little easier for the next round of missionaries! 

 Transfer Calls: 

    In case you hadn't figured it out by the title because it is in German, I am going to Stuttgart, Germany and will be finishing up my companion’s training, I am super excited!!! 

 Appointments: 

     We had a ton of really great appointments this week, one with our investigator and her daughter. We just had a relaxed dinner and shared a thought on church! 
     We also had an appointment with a less-active and ended up playing with her children for a couple of hours. She was there and watching, so it was okay :) It was really fun and made me excited to play with children after my mission.
     An American member invited us over for Family Home Evening last night and it was so much fun to talk in English and to have a relaxing, fun night!! They are so sweet!! 

 Trusting the Lord:

    This week we had testimonies in our district meeting from those who are leaving, and I really liked what one of the zone leaders said. He talked about trusting in the Lord and truly relying on Him, when we mess up. He told us don't panic when you feel like your faith is weakening or you made a mistake or you are feeling down. Just trust in the Lord, then go to the Lord with a plan of trying to get back where you want to be! Always remember where you want to be going. If you need to, write it down! That was answer to my prayers. I feel often we panic when we feel we are backtracking, and then fear takes charge and that is the opposite of productive. Trust in the Lord. Lean on Him. Learn of Him and set goals to answer plans with Him! 

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission 

 

Pictures:

Our water bottles
Our district minus the senior couple
Us
A cool building in Bad Reichenhall 
A famous golden roof in Innsbruck

 

 

Epic Pictures and Cute People

Gute Morgen von Österreich!

So this is the last week of the transfer Who knows where I will be going next or if I will stay :) We will see on Saturday!! 

We were pretty busy this week with appointments and Tausch (exchange). I got to go to Linz and work with a Sister from my MTC group!! It was fun to talk and catch up on what has happened since we both left München nine months ago!!! That is crazy! Tausching is so much fun!! 

We got to do a "walking" appointment with a less active where we took her for a walk and then sat in the park and read in the Book of Mormon! It was a good opportunity to get her out of her house and some fresh air! She is so sweet and knows all the right answers. Ha ha. Her faith is really so strong!!

 

We also met with another member who can't go to church but is so strong. She asked us,

if next time we could call the Church distribution for her (because we speak English) and order some things for her! 

We had a Buch Mormon lesson with our investigator! We just read where she left off and it was great to be relaxed and just answer questions for her! 

There was a stake Schwester Tag (Sister Day) where they had workshops and food. We weren't able to go all day but we went for a couple of hours, and it was really fun! The workshop we went to was on self-confidence. Because it was in German I took a bunch of pictures and will translate it later for language study. Ha ha!! 

Faith= Action Faith is acting on the hope that something is true. When you act, then your faith comes and you can know that it is true! How amazing is that? We can build our faith by small acts! It's not complicated, but it is necessary! Keep doing the small things: reading, praying, serving others, participating in church, and you will be amazed at how fast your faith grows! 

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission

Pictures:

there is a path on the way home from town that is a dirt path and it looked so pretty, so we decided to take some epic pictures and then we saw a gnome on the way to our train...

 

 

When Harold blocks the WiFi

Title: We had WiFi problems this week...  with four missionaries Skyping at the same time...

Hello Friends!!

So much happened this week so hold on!

Last Interviews with President: 

It was way fun to talk to President face to face, he seems very relaxed. It is amazing to how much faith and trust he has in the Lord! We are currently facing visa problems with Austria, but he trusts the Lord will work it out according to His will! He gave some really good advice about making finding creative and about just speaking the language! I felt so good after the interview, President really is so amazing. It will be sad to see him leave in July! 

Tausch (Exchange): 

We got to do an exchange, and a sister from Klagenfurt came up and spent all of Friday with me! We had an amazing lesson with a person we met on the street a few days previous! He wants to have a stronger belief and trust in Jesus Christ! It was really cool!! It was a party to hang out with Sister Harrick; she is super cute, and so much fun!! We also ran into two sweet tourists who recognized us and stopped and talked with us. They even offered to buy us dinner if we didn't have an appointment. It was so nice of them! We run into a bunch of Mormon tourists here and it is so fun to see where they are from and talk for a few minutes! 

Mothers Day:

We had a billion and one visitors at church and we used every single working translating box! Sister McClellan and I started translating  (mostly Sister McClellan), but then we had to help get people more translators and fix the ones that weren't working so the Elders took over. It was crazy. Many people don't know that we have translation, so one couple came over and they looked American, but I wasn't quite sure, so I went over and asked if they wanted the English class translation, and they said yes. It is so important to be able to understand the church service!! We then got to plan Zone Training with the Elders! And the best part of the whole day was Skyping with my family!!! It was really refreshing!! Just what I needed!! 

Zone Training:

We had the last Zone Training (in the future zone trainings will be different). It was so much fun to plan it with the Zone Leaders and to have the chance see it come together into a really good presentation! Elder S. spoke about faith and repentance in Jesus Christ. Then Sister M. and I spoke about  humility and what it is and what it is not. Then we did a discussion on Scripture Study and Adjusting our Teaching!! It went really well, our zone was amazing at contributing and participating!! 

Eagles Nest/Königsee:

For P-Day today we did a trip to the Eagles Nest with the senior couple! It is where Hitler kept his mistress and was a secondary command post for the Nazi party. He only went a few times up there but it was really interesting to see it and it go through the museum and bunker at the bottom. You can see so much from the top, including the German Alps, Königssee (Kings Lake) and the beautiful German towns! It was a beautiful hike. I highly recommend it!! We also went down to just see Königssee. At some point we want to go out on the boat, but today we got some really pretty pictures! It is a beautiful turquoise lake, it is so clear! 

Pictures of beautiful Austria and Germany attached:

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson 
Alpenländische Mission

It's gonna be okay 🎶

No matter what they say, it's gonna be okay 

This week was so much fun, a little all over the place but fun!!

A Little Help Along the Way

This week we had an appointment with one of our investigators who is going through some hard things, trying to find faith in God and the courage to keep going even when answers seem to never come! I hope that if you are also going through a similar thing, you take heart and remember that the Lord works on His time table. Mosiah 24:9-16!!! 

A Trip Back in Time

On Thursday we visited a member who is elderly, which prevents her from going to church. But she is so cute and loves company. She was telling us of all of these stories from World War II because she grew up during it!! She told us of how the police would come and check every night and they had to line up to get salted fish. She told us a funny story of how she and some friends thought a green beans truck had Jews  in it so they stopped it and broke in--to let the Jews free, except there were none, just green beans. So they ate the green beans instead because they were hungry! She also told us how her husband died in the war, and she was left to raise eight children. And she didn't know anything except she had a book!  It was way cute!! 

Reuniting in München 

We and the Elders went to a meeting in München, and it is really amazing to be able to hear from President and to be able to see friends you haven't seen in awhile! (Sister Rasmussen is so cute. ) We stayed in a hostel and the food was so good!! There were three other people from my MTC group there! That was super fun!!! I felt like I learned so much, I am excited to take it back and apply it!! 

Picture attached

Our Adventures with the Young at Heart

On Saturday we had an appointment with another one of our investigators, and it was so cute! She was telling us about her family, and at one point she called her granddaughter, and we talked to her.  That was really fun (the granddaughter is a member and is leaving for her mission soon too). She gave us cake and laughed at us as we couldn't decide on tea or hot chocolate! She fixed my hair and brushed my companion's Ha ha! I couldn't stop laughing! She also showed us family picture books and explained her family to us! She is super cute!! We did get to share about the restoration a little, and she had some questions about life and the Plan of Salvation, so we left her a Book of Mormon (she didn't know where her other copy was ). And we hope to explain more next time!!

Moldy bread and Nutella 

**So many of you may know, getting VISA's in foreign countries is not easy. For an American it is practically impossible, so we are only allowed to go for 90 days at a time, but now Austria has created some kind of law that is creating a similar ruling: if the law is not changed, missionaries who do not already have a visa will only be able to stay for 90 days. So as a mission we were fasting to help the Church attorneys and those involved to be able to get this rendered as quickly as possible.** So we were fasting on Sunday for that and we decided to also do some studies after church, and then the Matthews called and invited us over for dinner because we didn't have any with us. When we called to say we were on our way, Elder Matthews said they ate all of our food and they only had moldy bread, so Sister M. asked if he could warm it up and put Nutella on it for us . We had fish and it was really good!!

Finding the Four Leaf Clover

President Kohler sends out these amazing emails every week about something totally normal and ordinary, but he thinks so deeply about it and finds the coolest connection to the gospel. For example this past week he connected cobblestones to keeping the commandments. Yesterday, on the way home from finding, we realized right by Bahnhof is a clover patch, and we looked and FOUND 4 FOUR-LEAF CLOVERS! We realized it was like Missionary work. Our job is to search and find those ready for the Gospel. Every four-leaf clover looks a little different. One had a piece torn and another was bent, but they all are special because they are four-leaf clovers. The elect are the same way; they may not look like they would accept the gospel but they are ready to change their lives! 

We need to be looking for those who we may not recognize! Find those four-leaf clovers!!!

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission

Pictures: 

A baby pineapple

The beautiful area while visiting a friend

MTC reunion

Our young at heart friend trying to block the picture

Dooring
First in the 4-leaf clovers  

300 Days a Missionary

 

That's right, it has been 300 days since I was set apart and left on a plane! Crazy!! 

Stories from this past week... hmmm.... well it snowed, ha ha. Yay, and we were up in the mountains that day on the outskirts of our area visiting a less active member and doing some dooring. It was a fun adventure 

We almost had a Persian Skype lesson, but you will have to wait until next week for that story! #gospelaroundtheworld

We had a few lessons with some less-actives and a few with our investigators and a member lesson! It was a good week, just the weather was all over the place, which is hard to deal with when you are out in it all day. But hey that's missionary work.  One of our less-actives is so cute. We visited her this week, and she said that she had read 5 pages every day since our last appointment. Oh Mensch, she is so cool!!! One of our investigators told us she believes the Church is true!!! Hopefully a baptismal date will soon follow! Our other investigator is doing better as well. She is trying so hard to know.  It is admirable!!! We also visited a JAE (YSA, so someone our age), and it was so much fun to talk about books and movies. She has seen a difference between German and English! #denglischforlife

So today for our P-day we went on a boat ride up the Salzach to a castle called Hellbrunn and on the boat ride up we were surrounded by middle school French students. I asked where they were from, but they didn't understand except "France?"   We took a tour around Hellbrunn! It was so much fun!! They have trick fountains as you take a tour around the grounds and you get all wet, ha ha. So much fun!!! The guy was speaking five different languages!! Then we saw the beautiful gardens and inside the beautiful Hellbrunn castle!! The pictures show better!! 

Miracles still happen today!! We had 5 MIRACLES just today! We made our train when time said that it probably wasn't likely. Then even though we took a different train than we wanted, we still made it to the boat place on time. Then the lady was given permission to let us go on the boat even though they were booked. The rain stayed away all day and we found an Arabic Book of Mormon at the church because we forgot one!!! The Lord still blesses us! 

I know that this gospel is true and that the Lord really is preparing His children, our friends and family to hear it. If we pray for the opportunity to serve and help others, we will be given that opportunity! Stay strong everyone! See you on the flip side!

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission

Pictures:

1) a panorama of the gardens

2) Hellbrunn itself
3) some of the fountains
4) me next to the first fountain
5) a room inside Hellbrunn
6) our London double decker bus that took us back to Salzburg!