Stuttgart for life—just the way I like it! ❤

Hallo Freunde,

This is kind of a long email, the first half is what we did each day and the second part is what I learned. 

Yes we got transfer calls and I will be spending the next 5 weeks here in Stuttgart. It has been a huge blessing to serve here for soo long and to get to know the people here. There have been ups and downs, and I am looking forward to the next few weeks here!!! 

Okay so last week we went on a hike. I hope you all got my email. It was a little weird with the Wi-Fi after we got back, but last week we got to go to Institute because we had two people there. It was great because we were on Tausch (exchange) so we were able to really focus on both people! 

On Wednesday we left early to go to an appointment with a member and her non-member friend! It was amazing. We shared a video of Christ and His life and talked about everything He did, then how He died, and unfortunately the precious truths He taught were lost. But that we have a beautiful Restoration that brought the fullness of the truth back! We were able to give her a Book of Mormon in her mother language as well!!! We then tausched back, went and got food, and then joined Sarah (a member) at this really yummy Italian restaurant. I even had left overs!! So good!!

On Thursday we were able to have our studies in the morning again. And our plan was to go finding for a bit on the way to a member, then pray with them for our finding efforts, find some more afterwards, and then head to our appointment. Well that all took way longer than we thought, so we talked to some people on the way to the member, found a service opportunity (more to come next week about it), and then visited with the member for a while. We then realized we were late for our appointment! Good thing the member we had the appointment with is very understanding. 

Friday!!! We went to Munich for Zone Conference, which means getting up at 5:30, but that is okay! We rode the bus there and the European Area President came as a member of the Seventy to speak to us! It was so fun. His name is Elder Johnson and he is really funny and is great with the scriptures!! I learned a lot from the conference, definitely the boost that I needed!! I also got to see some friends one more time before I leave!! We went finding afterwards, and people weren't too interested but we met this really nice couple who just got engaged!!!

Saturday. We got a "German" lesson from one if our friends, and it was actually pretty helpful. Then we taught her the Plan of Salvation! Trading teaching for teaching. Then we did a little dooring before our appointment with Sydney! This nice lady let us show her the Christmas video!! I love sharing that video!! With Sydney we ate pizza and cheesecake and talked about life, so fun! 

Sunday. We had the Primary program!!! So fun!! It's my favorite Sacrament meeting of the whole year!! 

Wir haben einen Termin bis Weihnachten! (We have an appointment until Christmas). In Sunday School and in Relief Society the two lessons were on how the members can find a friend by Christmas and bring them to Christ because Elder Ballard invited every member in our stake to take this challenge!! On Sunday we also ate with a member who kindly afterwards let us borrow two towels for the baptism we were going to! International Sisters had a baptism!! It was really a beautiful baptism, a recent convert from the same country baptized him! 

What I learned! 

“The comfort Zone is a beautiful place, but nothing grows there.” In the Garden of Eden, Eve knew that they weren't progressing. She understood that they were in their comfort zone, and that to fulfill their purpose they had to step out of their comfort zone. To be able to progress spiritually we need to have trials and hardships, but the beautiful thing is that the joy afterwards is so much greater! Remember the example of Paul. He taught the people in Athens, and they didn't listen and it must have been really hard for him. But then he moved on to Corinth and he was really successful and was able to build up the church there. Was he a different missionary in Athens than in Corinth? No but people have agency. After every Athens there is a Corinth! 

My invitation to you is to step out of your comfort zone and invite someone to Christ before Christmas!

Pictures:

Tausch picture with International Sisters
The Baptism for International Sisters
(We toured IKEA today, and I saw this sign) My comp and the most true sign I have seen all day :)

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson
Alpenländische Mission