A Mission Life....

Today was crazy, I don't even know what happened, I will try and make this make sense. Ha ha.

As I mentioned last week, on Monday we had interviews and then Tuesday we went on a hike. After P-day our wonderful friend Marie came for a lesson and stayed for Institute!! It was her first time, and I think she really enjoyed it!! She has a baptismal date for August. Unfortunately she is moving outside of the mission before then. On Friday we called her new missionaries. The elders there are so funny. They are very excited to welcome her!! I hope she fits in well there.

On Wednesday we went finding for most of the day because two of our appointments rescheduled. It is mentally really hard to know 6-7 hours of finding, but we did it. We were about to take an ice cream break, and then my companion sees someone she has talked to before, so we stop her and she gets ice cream with us. We end up having a lesson about God, and she wants to meet again, so we have an appointment for this Sunday!!

Thursday everything fell out too, and it was a little awkward because we didn't know that they fell out until the middle of the day and we didn't know if we had enough time, etc., but we ended up doing some planning and then we taught Jane!!! She is super cute. We picked out songs for her baptism and taught her about enduring to the end!! She is so cute and so ready!!

Friday we visited a less-active and it was so funny because the first thing she said was "Why are you here? I am a little confused". So we explained how we were missionaries and we are trying to get to know the members and we wanted to share a spiritual thought with her. Later in the day we had a lesson with Marie (she has a baptismal date!) and we taught the guy who talked to us at the restaurant awhile back!! Both were really good!!

Saturday we did a service project for a less-active who came to church the next day!!! That was so exciting!!! We painted and cleared out her yard! We then went to the Ausstellung (street display) and the missionaries had found two potentials for us and had given away six copies of the Books of Mormon in one day!!! Crazy!!! After the Ausstellung, we had an amazing lesson and one of the elders stayed in for it! It was so cool to watch how he taught the principle of prayer. I learned so much about keeping it simple and relating it to the person! 

Sunday was crazy busy; we had two investigators at church and we have a baptism next week so we were trying to figure out the time. And Jane was sick so she wasn't there. It was crazy but really good!! Both of our investigators really enjoyed church and they both came with us to a member’s afterwards for lunch and really enjoyed it. We played games and the elders were laughing so hard at one of our investigators. He is so funny!! We ended the day though with a calm member appointment with all the missionaries from our Distrikt!! It was fun!!

Yesterday we set another baptismal date!!! The guy who is super funny came to church yesterday!! We taught him last night with Marie because they both speak French (he is still learning English and German). Another member was there and shared his conversion story. It was a really awesome night!! We asked if he would prepare to be baptized on September 9^th! Marie, our new baptismal date. Chris and we stayed for the family home evening that night! So much fun!!

Miracle of the mission: Saturday night!

We went to the park to wait for another appointment. He did show up so we finished our dinner on a bench and this guy came up and he looked at us as if he knew us and he looked a little familiar. He sat down, and Sister H. asked if we knew him. We began talking. Apparently he had heard us talking English to someone else (English is often a good conversation starter because we start by asking where they are from, etc.) and wanted to talk to us. Turns out he is a Christian but wants to be a better Christian. We explain our purpose and ask if he has time for us to teach a little something! We teach the Restoration and then I feel like Sister H. is going into explain the Book of Mormon. I feel a little hesitant but instead she says our goal is to help people be baptized by the proper authority and asks if he is willing to find out if this church is true. He says yes then she looks at me and asks how long it would take. I say 6 weeks. Then she explains that we like to set goals with people so they have something in mind, that we would want to meet with him once or twice a week and if he would prepare for September 2nd!        

WE SET A BAPTISMAL DATE IN THE FIRST CONTACT/LESSON!!! 

I hope you all are having a great week!!! Keeping studying the scriptures, keep praying. It's gonna be a great week! Here are some pictures from the hamsters we held on Sunday and Frozen auf Deutsch!

Please pray for Jane. Her baptism is this Saturday at 11!!!! 

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson 
Alpenländische Mission

 

 

Das Leben der Missionare

Hallo Freunde,

This week was full of appointments and finding!! 

Baptismal Date with Jane: 

We had two wonderful lessons with her this week. She is truly amazing!! She is motivated to make friends in the ward and she is so excited for her baptism on the 29^th. Sunday was full of planning her baptismal program with members and her and the ward!! 

Dienstag: After P-day we did quite a bit of finding on a street called Königstrasse. Once you serve in Stuttgart there is no place like Königstrasse. We find so many people there, it is truly amazing! I really feel like my abilities to find have quadrupled here, I love it!!

Mittwoch: Today was quite the day-to-day. We had transfers so we said goodbye to Elder Kaufusi and Sister Howsmon. It took me like 3 days to realize Sister Howsmon wasn't here; she is so cute! We had a great lesson with Jeanne, and she shared her testimony with us, and it was so cute!! She can really feel the spirit. We also had a four-hour Bible bashing appointment.... it wasn't all bad, but it was so hard to leave; people kept coming in from nowhere, and we had to start all over. Basically, everyone, the Church is oh so true!! It is designed to help us recognize the truth from trusted people and how to interpret the Bible the way God intended!! Surprisingly, my testimony grew from it, the Church just makes sense!! 

Donnerstag: We had 2 amazing appointments: one was a first appointment and the other was a member present lesson with Jane!! We talked about the temple and marriage! It was such a great lesson!! I love talking about the temple; it is such an amazing place!! I am trunks for the temple. Ha ha!! 

Freitag: We met with another investigator who is a friend of Jane and we have a baptismal date with her!!! She is super cute and knows the Church is true!! She is literally sooo sweet!!  We also found a potential when we went out to dinner with the Stephensons. How does that work? I don't know, but the Lord works in mysterious ways!! 

Samstag: Today we tried to visit a less-active in the hospital, but we missed the bus in both directions, so we walked all the way up the hill to the hospital and then all the way down the hill to our train!! It was quite the adventure. Ha ha!!! She is literally so cute and so funny, she doesn't care what she says. She just tells you everything whether you know the vocab or not and whether you want to know or not. Ha ha. She is so funny!!!

Sonntag and Montag: We had amazing member appointments with cute adorable children and Jane came to the one on Sunday and both families were American so English!!!!!

 

Montag: We had interviews with President!! He is so sweet and we spent 15 minutes talking to him as a district of how to make our street display better. President and Sister Brown are so motivated and ready to take on the mission, I am excited!!!

Dienstag (today): Today we did a hike to these waterfalls, and it was so beautiful!! The hike was so fun. We went with the other sisters and it wasn't too difficult but reminded me of home.  

This week we are asking people if you could ask God one thing what would you ask?

One guy said, “What can I do to make the world a better place!!” I think that is the best answer!!! 

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission

 

 

Missionary Work at a Glance! -- It's Like Chocolate!

So much happened this week but also want to touch on what I have learned this past year because I hit my year mark!!! So I decided to copy my companion's hilarious weekly! 

From the words of Sister Hunter (all but one of the following things happened this week and the other own happened a few weeks ago).

“Missionary work is like a box of chocolates

You never know what you are going to get...

Sometimes you give out a Persian book of Mormon in the middle of a police-blockaded Stuttgart 21 protest.

Sometimes you share a cinnamon roll with a Jehovah's Witness named Frank.
Sometimes you can speak the mission language.
Sometimes you can't.
Sometimes you notice how out of control your missionary tan lines are.
Sometimes 5 appointments don't show up in one day.
Sometimes you find 7 new people to teach in an hour and a half.
Sometimes your new mission president breaks out into song in the middle of his conference.
Sometimes your eyes swell shut for no apparent reason.
Sometimes old German ladies feed you 6 chicken nuggets for dinner.
Sometimes people yell and swear at you.
Sometimes people we just met on the street ask you to come over to their house to teach their family and neighbors.
Sometimes you find a box of real, delicious American Jell-O in your cupboard.
Sometimes transfers come around and you don't get transferred.
Sometimes that's a major relief because you didn't want to be transferred anyway.
Sometimes you fake it until you make it (and dang, you make it well).
Sometimes you fake it, and you still don't make it. 

But despite it all, you still have a box of chocolates, and personally I've never had chocolate I didn't like. So what I'm really trying to say is that I'm enjoying the unpredictable deliciousness of missionary work.”

What does a missionary even do? They learn a lot about everything! They learn how to be themselves and to not care what others think but at the same time how to care and be loving and charitable towards others. A few things I have learned from companions, exchanges, members, other missionaries...

1) Who cares? It doesn't matter. Some details just don't matter enough to worry about.   As I have left my companion who said this so often, this phrase has often come into my mind, “Will someone actually care? No? Then no worries!”

2) Be patient, loving, charitable! Sometimes towards others and sometimes with myself, and sometimes with time, but the principle is always the same.

3) Lets do this baby!! That's missionary work!! Just do it!! I have seen this attitude in my companions, and although it comes through in different words, sometimes you just have to do it and the joy comes through seeing the Lord work through you!

4) Fear God, Love God, He is our Creator! The creator of the universe has created US!! He is our literal father! He loves us so much!! Faith in the Gospel can bring peace to our lives! Faith is action, hope, assurance, and evidence. Hebrews 11 and Ether 12

5) The Reality of the Infinite Atonement! The Atonement can help us forgive, heal, be forgiven, comfort, endure, and extend beyond our capabilities... The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the way we can become like our Father in Heaven!

I agree with my comp. that missionary work is like chocolate; it's all different but it's all good!! I am loving watching the Lord help me and be right there by my side, especially when I don't know if I could do it on my own!! There was an instance this week when I felt the whole world was against us and as I prayed for the strength to push through, you can feel the Savior through the Holy Ghost walking beside you!! It is an amazing experience! Faith is an action!  

Sorry I don't have very many pictures this week because technology is slow. 

Celebratory milkshake!! Chocolate and pistachio: a match made in heaven! 

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission

 

Special Welcome to President and Sister Brown, Fresh from the Land of the Free! USA USA. I Am Proud to Be an American, Where at Least I Know I'm Free! USA

To all of my American Friends HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!! God bless America!!! USA

This week was a little interesting; one of our investigators was "cheating" on us, but with other missionaries. Ha ha!! We have no idea how it happened, but do you remember the miracle story from 2 weeks ago? Well that same investigator couldn't come to his appointment so he rescheduled for Tuesday, but then we called him to confirm the day of, and he rescheduled for Saturday. We were planning on meeting him at the Church at 4. Just before 4, the International Sisters say they have an appointment out on Königstrasse (King street) so they leave. Our guy doesn't show up. We call him, and he answers and guess who he is with?? The International Sisters. The poor guy is probably as confused as we are. We finally figured it out and we have another appointment for next Saturday!!  He is awesome, we are so excited!

Our Baptismal Date with Jane! We had an amazing lesson about tithing and fasting and then that evening a member invited us and her over for dinner!! It was so good for her to get to know other members better!!

We have a member who is home bound and therefore a less active, and we visit her every week to share a spiritual thought with her and this week she felt so good. We stayed twice as long as normal because she was so talkative! It was great to see her in a little less pain!!

We had Tausch!! Which means we did exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders and I stayed in Stuttgart. I learned a lot about being bold and detailed when explaining the Restoration!! It was a super fun Tausch. We got smoothies to celebrate our year marks together!! Wahoo!! 

Something that my Tausch companion and Sister H. mentioned this week was that when I mention the Gospel, I often talk about the peace that it brings to me. It is so true!! The one of the biggest blessings of the Gospel for me is the peace that it brings me!! That has been one of the best things of my mission, seeing people find peace in the Gospel!! I love that!! Through Jesus Christ we can find infinite peace!! What an amazing blessing that God has given us!!

Hope you all have a great week!!

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson

Alpenländische Mission