Hello Friends and family,
Thank you for all of your support.
So I thought I would write one last email, just sharing what I have learned on my mission! Wow, I am writing this email from the plane so my thoughts are still scattered. How does someone put their mission into a nice bullet list or even a well-crafted paragraph?
A mission is built out of the people and the memories. It is so hard to share your mission with anyone because of how much you experience. You learn so much. It comes from the disagreements with your companions, the missed trains after running to try and catch it, and it comes from the confusing questions from your investigators you don't know how to answer. It's in the sweet sound of the birds singing on the walk to church. It's the warm meal ready when you arrive at a member's home after finding in the cold. It's the miracle when your friend accepts to be baptized. It's in the prayers for the people you work with. It's in the planning train times and orchestrating joint teachers.
Your mission begins with your willingness to follow the Lord and ends with your eternal desire to grow closer to Him. My mission will always be in the tears, the smiles, and the laughs. It's in the running to appointments, and jumping for joy, and simply listening to a friend.
You can't put your mission into one word or even one sentence, but the thought that has been running through my head for the past week, is that I now understand the importance of missionary work.
Honestly, I was scared out of my mind to serve a mission and I had no idea what it meant to be a missionary. And I honestly didn't know if people could change, if all of this even mattered. I just knew that the Lord had prompted me to prepare to serve a mission, and so I went. But I can now say without a doubt in my mind that I was supposed to come. The Lord planned it and the Lord orchestrated it. I know that people CAN change because I watched them change. I watched myself change.
A mission is hard. When they say it's blood, sweat, and tears they aren't joking. It's the blood when your feet blister and hands crack in the cold. It's the sweat from being out all day trying to find the elect in hopes that after all the slammed doors, someone will see the light of Christ in your message. It's the tears when someone doesn't want to meet anymore and it's the tears when your best friend gets into the waters of baptism.
But it's more importantly the blood of our Savior in Gethsemane who gives us the strength to keep going. It's the sweat He dripped as He carried His own cross so we don't have to. And it's the tears we shed in humble gratitude for it all!!
My faith in the Savior and my Father in Heaven has grown to be a firm, independent faith. I know more about myself. I know what I need to do to keep a strong testimony. I understand better what He wants from me, and when I get stuck, I know how to ask Him for help! I encourage you all to take a step forward, come closer to Christ and your Father in Heaven. How will you do that? I don't know. Ask the Lord. He knows you best. He will help you in your righteous desires!
I am forever grateful for the step He helped me make to come out here and for His help in coming home and for every step He helped me walk in between!
He is my Savior, He is your Savior!
His grace is sufficient!
Er lebt!
Er liebt uns alle!
Alles Liebe
Sister Cassandra Anderson
Alpenländische Mission
Sister Cassandra Anderson
Alpenländische Mission
6 Juli 2016- 16 Dezember 2017
