Tauf Goals and Member Work!

This last week I said good bye to the legendary Sister Hunter and I temporarily was companions with Jane! We took a companion picture (attached). Her fingers are making her name tag.  She is so cute! Then I welcomed Sister Woolsey!! 

Sister Woolsey comes from Southern California. She is a convert of 3 years. Her favorite color is sunset orange and she has a love for the Gospel and for sharing it like no other! I am really excited for this next transfer. We have set some amazing goals for the transfer: Some about language (we are trying for 9am-9pm German!), some about working with members, and we even set a baptismal goal!! We are ready and working hard to find those who are ready to accept the Gospel!! 

 

This week we had an amazing lesson with K. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he came to FHE last night! Everyone was really welcoming, and he seems to understand what we are teaching. Last night we even found a video (President Monson's talk on Charity) translated into Urdu. It was really powerful, and one of the members came in a bore his testimony!! K. is amazing!!

 

Besides our amazing lesson with K., we have great plans to work with members and less-actives; we have already planned 2 appointments this week!! It is going to be good. So in short this week was full of really good planning and finding! 

 

I hope you all are doing well!! 

 

Pictures:

Jane and I

Sister Hunter and I on the car ride to the train station

Two pictures of Sister Woolsey and I (they are kind of makeshift pictures because we didn't have any haha)

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson 
Alpenländische Mission

 

 

 

 

Making Things New and Mixing It Up, Part II

Okay world of friends, here you go....

I am staying here in the wonderful land of Stuttgart, and my amazing companion is going to Switzerland to finish up training!!! She will be amazing!!

Doing Vorbei's with the Junge Damen (going by on people with the young women- this is often how I speak in Denglisch)

We started a new project this week where we take the young women and we go by on people who are less active. We are hoping it will build our trust with the young women and their families, allow them to trust us with referrals, boost their desire to serve missions, and help the less active young women that we go by on to have a desire to come back to church. Sadly this time both people did not live at the address we had for them, so it was a bust, but the young women seemed to have fun anyway. It was fun even in the rain (one of the young women's mom drove us!)  It was really fun and we are excited to do it again hopefully this week!! 

A Class A Ausstellung -  now we can compete with UNICEF 

Remember from last week how our street display was really bad, and everyone was laughing at us, so the elders packed it up? Well we planned to make changes and changes we made!! No more temple of Book of Mormons and a dusty stained table clothe. NO! We ordered a whole new banner and we simplified our table down to one question! Who are the Mormons? We had 100X more energy. We all stayed at the table and people actually approached us with questions!! It looks so good!! Our goal was to look as professional as UNICEF!! And I think we schaft (accomplished) it!! Our table is sleek and organized and we even had candy! Look at the picture below! 

We were also able to meet with quite a few members and share the Gospel with them and look for people that we can visit. It has been a great week!! 

Today is President Monson's birthday!! Go do something for someone else today and I would love to hear about what you did! 

Viel Gluck zur Sister H. in der Schweiz.

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson 
Alpenländische Mission

Making Things New and Mixing It Up!!

Hallo Friends!!!!

First things first. Transfers are coming up!  Transfers calls are on Saturday, and transfers are a day early, so next week...

MONDAY IS P-DAY and TUESDAY WILL BE TRANSFERS! Just for next week. 

Member appointments: We had quite a few member appointments this past week!! We learned of a new "spiritual thought" where we go through getting to know the members and then we ask them for people they can serve, and we see if there is someone we can help. It works really well, and we have really gotten to know the members so much better through it. We are trying a new idea this week of bringing the young women with us to go by on less-actives. We are really excited about it.

 

"Die Ausstellung": We tried doing the street display this week but it looks so sad that by the time we got back from lunch the elders had it packed up. We ran back to the center and had an emergency meeting on how to fix it. People were laughing at us because it looked so unprofessional--not the best reputation so... We have a whole plan; we ordered a banner (which took us 3 days to figure out a color--don't let 6 young adults try and pick a color that is super important )

 

Volleyball: We went and played volleyball today!! It was super fun! We all travelled to this volleyball pit on the other side of the zone and we played beach volleyball! The other district joined too and we had a barbeque and a water balloon fight! 

 

Service: So along with member work and finding on the street, we have been focusing on service. We did service for quite a few people, one in a homeless shelter, and we taught German to a refugee family! 

 

"Maxim got an answer to his prayer"! We have this amazing investigator (he is like our only consistent one ) and we had an amazing lesson on the Restoration! He asks such amazing questions and he is really thinking about all aspects!! He has been praying and he got an answer! He knows God answers our questions!! I am so excited to meet again this week! 

Jeanne made us lunch and cut Sister Hunter's hair!!! 

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson 
Alpenländische Mission

 

 

Living the dream! ☄☁️

WOW! I love being a missionary!! It is amazing!! This week we saw two people enter the covenant of baptism!!! It was so cool to watch these two wonderful people follow their faith and make the steps to return to God! 

 

We spent quite a bit of time this week "dropping" people who didn't have a ton of interest, so that we can work with people who have interest, are willing to change their lives, and come closer to Christ. 

 

On Thursday we did a service project, painting a less-active member's house, and wow, her food was so good. She made us lunch afterwards and do Ukrainians know how to cook chicken or what? Ha ha. We of course got paint all over our closes, but we got to wear shorts! Bonus!! 

 

Friday we had a lesson with our newest member, Jane!!!! We met with her and her new home teacher, who is our same age and is also a recent convert. We were planning on teaching the Restoration, but we got distracted thanks to the home teacher, ha ha. He told us all about the world politics and Germany and America. We were laughing so hard, we may not have taught much officially but we built relationships and they both shared their conversion stories!! 

 

In the afternoon on Friday, we said goodbye to one of our investigators who is moving.

It was so sad but we will keep in contact! We talked about the importance of baptism and encouraged her to keep moving despite the change in missionaries! 

 

Later in the evening on Friday we had a member appointment with an American family!!! They have the two cutest kids. We had so much fun and English is always fun too . We talked about being missionaries and being a good example to their friends!! They were literally so cute!! 

 

Saturday was the day we went to two baptisms!!! We went to a baptism for the International Sisters and that was so sweet. And then we were able to get a ride to go to Debbie's baptism. I don't know if I have talked much about her. She was investigating the Church when I was in Ulm!! She was unfortunately not well enough to meet with us when I was there, and so Sister Whiting and I sent her a spiritual thought every day, or at least we tried. I didn't know at the time, really who she was or anything, but we just tried to reach out and cheer her up a little each day. It was over 7 months later that she reached out to me via email. I had no idea how to contact her up to that point, but we have emailed back and forth every week since then! I am so proud of her, and the faith that she has to keep going despite the hardships, the setbacks, and fears! Last Saturday it was truly an honor to watch her be baptized and come up out of the water clean!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to go see that!! 

 

We also had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators on Saturday night! He seems so ready; he asks such good questions, trying to understand everything we are explaining. He is reading and praying, looking for an answer!! 

 

Sunday morning another investigator texted us back and said yes, I will meet you to go to church. We had texted a few of our investigators who we are trying to get to church, saying we could meet them in town before and go to church together. Wow!! It was really cool, I hope he enjoyed it. He was only able to stay for the first hour, but many people came over to talk to him and asked him who he was etc. It was great!! 

  

Sunday afternoon we had a lesson with a member and it was so much fun to get to know them. The father served in the Zürich mission just a few years before my dad!! The Elders did a really good spiritual thought about our goals and fun things and asked about who we could help and who they can reach out to! Encouraging them to do missionary work! 

 

Sunday evening and Monday was spent finding! Something we really need to do because we are running out of people to teach! It is amazing to see different people's responses! Lately we have been asking the question, "If you could ask God one question what would it be?" The great thing is it doesn't matter what the question is, the truth is that we CAN ask Him and we WILL get an answer because He loves us. He cares about us, just like a father on earth! 

 

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson 
Alpenländische Mission

 

Pictures:

Debbie's baptism

Beautiful Jane (Jeanne)

Beautiful German houses

Sister H. and I when we miss our stop and have to wait 20 minutes for the next bus

A random lady we stopped on the street and wanted to take a picture with us 

 

 

"Ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." -3 Nephi 12:48

From my scripture study this week, personal thoughts and a scripture study guide thanks to my dad, I learned that Perfect means keeping covenants and using the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean that we can't make mistakes. 

 

This week was my first baptism of the mission! Jane was baptized this week!!! She made her first covenant with God; she is becoming perfect like the Father. 

She was so cute in white. She is so ready!! 

 

This week I learned so much as we had tausch (exchange) and zone training and Jane's baptism and confirmation!!! 

 

Wednesday we had zone training! Two missionaries from my group (we were in the MTC together) spoke about faith and baptism. They were both really good! Shout out to Sister Rasmussen and Elder Joyce! We talked about being well rounded as a missionary, how we need to be doing everything! We set a zone baptismal date of 8 this quarter, which ends Sept. 30th; and 10 for the next quarter, which is from October 1st through December 31st. They really focused on working together to get our goal and working towards future transfers, future missionaries!!

 

We also had tausch and I went to Ludwigsburg! I learned about trying to be exactly obedience, but understanding when things don't go perfectly. She taught me ways to organize our week so that we have more time in a day and don't skip our studies or eating or planning!! 

 

Then JA‌NE GOT DUNKED!!! It was so cute, the whole service went swimmingly . Elder Kaufusi came back from Munich because she asked him to baptize her! We had an amazing talk on baptism from a member in our ward and while Jane was getting ready, the ward wrote little notes for her. We are going to put them into a scrapbook for her!! We had a wonderful Gemeinde Essen (ward lunch) afterwards and it was so sweet. The next day, she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost!! Jane is so ready. She knows that Jesus is our Savior, that we can find answers through prayer and comfort through His Atonement. She is on her way! She is amazing! JANE IS A MORMON!!! 

Today we went to see a castle!! Pictures attached! 

 

One of the major things I learned from all of the events this week is the true definition of perfect. I never thought I was perfect but I was trying to be, by giving the most lessons without mistakes and awkwardness, finding a ton of potentials, know how to work with members--all by myself, because that is what I thought perfect meant. I knew it wasn't possible without Christ, but somehow that is what I was trying to do. We need to have our own personal time in the scriptures (from zone training). We need the Holy Ghost to guide us in our study (Distrikt meeting). We need to let other people inspire us but not compare ourselves to them (working with zone leaders). And we need to humble ourselves enough to hear the whisper of the Spirit and to ask for help (getting a blessing). He loves us and He is there to guide us and bring us home. 

 

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." - Matthew 5:48

Alles Liebe
Sister Anderson 
Alpenländische Mission

 

 

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