Hamburg, Sick, and a Drit

 

Meine Familie,

Sisters Kitterman and Neukom in Langenhorn

Well, I think the subject kind of says it all for this week.  So to give kind of a brief of what has happened ... at the beginning of this transfer Sister Bush went to the hospital and got an x-ray done of her foot. I guess last summer she had surgery and a metal plate was put into her foot.  Her foot has been bothering her since she arrived in Germany in March. She was finally able to see a doctor in Kiel and it turned out she had a broken screw which was causing her pain. Ever since then we have been awaiting word from President and the mission doctors to see what needed to be done.  As a result, we found out last Monday that Sister Bush will be going home for surgery and when she is fully recovered she will return. So, we had Monday and Tuesday in Kiel and then on Wednesday I got sent to Langenhorn and she traveled to Berlin so she can fly out Thursday morning. So, I am in Langenhorn which is like the ouskirts of Hamburg. I am here in a drit with Sister Neukom, who is a golden and from Switzerland, and Sister Kitterman who is from Utah. I am with them until next Tuesday and then I will be going back to Kiel with a new companion because President said that there will be some new sisters coming in so I will be able to go back.  So, letters can still be sent and my stuff is still there except for what I needed for two weeks.



 So Langenhorn. It is a fun city and it is fun to serve with Sisters Neukom and Kitterman. We have all had a fun time. Though, I will say it is weird sometimes because I feel like I am just a tag-along because I am only here for a couple weeks. But it has been fun. The sisters have this 12 year old boy, Justin, that they have taught the lessons to and he was baptized on Sunday. His grandparents are members and his mom is not and his dad is a less active. It was a wonderful day and the spirit was felt so strong from the love and support this boy received.



So yeah, Monday and Tuesday was more of getting ready to leave Kiel and make sure that our investigators were being taken care of for a couple weeks and then Wednesday the sisters picked me up at the train station.  Later that day, we met with this guy Ray, who is actually from Texas...he has lived in Germany though forever. Sister Kitterman had promised to bring him Koolaid and he cried...he is like this 50 year old man and he cried when he saw the koolaid.  He says it is because he has not seen it in about 30 years since he has been in Germany...it reminded me...hey do you want to send me koolaid???? lol.  Thursday all of our appointments fell out so we just did finding.  It was fun though because with three of us, one of us goes off by ourself and the other two stay together and then we come back together and when it gets too dark we all stay together. Friday we had President Interviews...I have had a cold since Thursday and so I was not feeling the best, but interviews when really well and our zone leaders gave a lesson and their topic was marriage...lol.  It was scary to see how closly related marriage and a mission are. Ahh. Marriage scares me all together...YAY for missions!!!!!!!!!!. Saturday all of our appointments fell out once again, but that is ok because this one guy we talked to on the street said he would come to church and then on Sunday he showed up and made another appointment with us...that was so cool. Like I mentioned, on Sunday there was a baptism. It was awesome. And not to mention, there was also one in Leipzig!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Burcan got baptized!!!



Bürcan got baptized in Leipzig!
Irakli (he baptized Burcan), Burcan, Sister Rasmussen, and Sister Faerber



So yeah that was pretty much my week...crazy.  I have one more here in Langenhorn..not to mention I am way excited for conference. And to answer Mom....no, I did not get to see the RS broadcast. But yeah...I am ready for another awesome week of doing what I have dreamed to do my whole life....MISSIONARY WORK!!!! yay!

I love y'all and talk to you next week!!!!

love Sister Britt

p.s. Eric....you are welcome to call me Sister Britt..that is just what mom writes and so yeah...lol. thanks for the email!!!

Going west!

Meine Familie,

Ahhhh.... I am getting transferred, which we all knew would probably happen. I am actually moving to Senior Companion and will be opening up a new Sister Program in Kiel…that means that I am pretty much doing what I did with Rostock, except I do not even have an area book.  It is a whole new sister area. I am so excited and ready to start this new responsibility, not to mention that I will be going back to the Baltic Sea and to West Germany for the first time!!! So before I forget… my new address is…

Kirche Jesu Christi

Schweffel Str. 22

24118 Kiel

Deutschland

So anyways...so many cool things did happen this week and I am so excited to get to tell everyone about these many adventures.

On Monday we met this guy named Charley on the bahn. He was pretty cool. He was from LA and is sometimes in Leipzig for business. He saw us on the bahn and had a basket of apples and offered some to us, and then he said…I think y’all are so awesome. We were a little confused when he then went on about how much he loves the Mormons and he knows a lot back home in the states. It was really funny.  When we asked him why he was not mormon yet, he said that if someone were to point a gun at him and ask him what religion he is, he would say Mormon.  Then he told us that he loves us so much because we are the only religion that he has found that the people do not talk bad about other people and religions. It really hit me there and made me look at myself and really hoping that I am one of those people. Anyways, he was heading back to the states this last week so we did not get to meet with him again..but he was really cool.

Robert and Moni

So, like every Tuesday…we met with Robert and Moni. I love meeting with them and it was sad that it would be my last time. Robert is really funny because he told me I better come to Utah because he is planning on getting married in the Salt Lake Temple to the girl he is waiting for…who is serving her mission in Mexico right now. Lol. Moni is such a sweet heart. She wants more then anything for her husband, Thomas, to join the church and come with her to the temple. Both of them have such great goals. I am so grateful I got to be a part of preparing them and helping them to get closer to their goals. They are for sure my friends.

Sister Rasmussen, me and Maik

Marcel and Michael (our investigator) at ward activity

Our investigators are doing so well…we are actually going to be pushing Bürcan, Micheal, and Maik’s baptisms to September 25^th. They are all doing so awesome and are getting more and more excited for the baptism. Micheal put a countdown thing on his phone…Bürcan is telling everyone at church, and Maik…well he is just Maik. Lol. I would like to come back for their baptisms…we will see though. All of them are really sad I am leaving…but I told them that we will always be friends and I look forward to hearing about their progress in the church…I see some really awesome future leaders here. Lol.



Philipp



Philipp is also doing really awesome…he is reading the Book of Mormon for a second time …he is so cool and I cannot wait to hear that he made it to his baptism in November!!

Trihn and I

Saturday we had a ward activity…it was really fun and there were a lot of investigators there between us and the elders. The ward is really bringing and welcoming them in. So great. The future of Leipzig is looking so awesome. I also told Trihn that I was going to be transferred and she almost cried..it made me so sad…I have really made a family here.  



Daniel, Lali, Irakli and the whole family



Sunday was a great way to end my time in Leipzig… Lali, the mother of Irakli and Daniel was baptized!!! Such an amazing family. I was so happy to be here from when Irakli was baptized in June, to Daniel being baptized in July, and now their mother in August. What a wonderful journey. I am so happy to continue to see the progress of this family. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone at church…I will still see some people tonight at family home evening. But yeah…Leipzig will always have a deep place in my heart.

Any ways, I need to go, but I love y’all and I am actually sending a package of some stuff home today…so yeah. Keep an eye out for that. Tomorrow I will be on a five to six hour train ride..yay. Next time I write I will be in Kiel!!!!!

Love

Sister Britt

Ps… Hope everything is ok with Blake and Lindsay and the boys in New York…y’all are in my prayers.

everything begins SIMPLE

Subject: every thing begins SIMPLE

Meine Familie,

The gospel is Simple. The message we share with people is Simple. The blessings that are received from this Simplicity is Glorious.

Although, appointments fall out pretty much everyday and person after person rejects the message we share, there is no greater feeling than seeing that the children of God are discovering him for the first time and really trying to get to know him. It is the most peaceful and wonderfing feeling in the world to see the progress that the people who are prepared are coming to a knowledge of their Father in Heaven.  I leave this thought with you as I begin to talk about my week and the people we have taught, but from what I just said...there is one person who I want to share his story in a little more detail and that is Maik..but I am not yet to him...so be patient.

Schwester Shilder

First off the list is Schwester Shilder... What a sweet, sweet old lady. She is a less active, but not by choice. She is 89 years old and just cannot make it to church but, the sacrament comes to her every week. She is so sweet and we just started visiting her each week a couple weeks ago. She is just full of light and love and wants more than anything to see her Father in Heaven again. With her being 89, she has seen a lot and has so many incredible stories to tell us about World War II and the DDR time in Germany. She told us a story last time that touched my heart so much as she told us she was one of the ones that hid the Jews in her home. She is an incredible lady and told us that she hid the Jews and never got caught as she prayed every night for the protection. She is so wonderful and I would say an inspiration to me in my eyes. I love her so much....ha and she was really funny.  This week when we went to visit her she told us she is giving us each two really nice tea cups that we can have for us and our future husbands. lol. She is so funny. I am so blessed to see her every week.

Next is another less active, Ronnie. To be honest, I am not a big fan of going to visit Ronnie. lol. That is mainly because he has 7 cats and everyone knows how I feel about cats. Plus, you can not leave the apartment without being covered in fur and that is just disgusting.  This is why any animal that has fur should not be allowed in a home. Just my own thought, why can't people just keep hermit crabs as their pets. lol. It was a good lesson with him though.  He does not have a very great understanding of the gospel any more so, we are reteaching him the lessons. Let us see what this week brings. lol.

Sascha was this guy we had an appointment with this week...really weird guy and we did not set up a return appointment with him. Not to mention I left the appointment smelling like smoke because we were outside in a park and he was smoking and all the smoke was blowing in my direction. gross. Pretty much he is not interested in the gospel and learning more. So that ended quickly.

Burcan and Irakli

Bürcan...well he is just on fire and he came to church for the first time yesterday and loved it so much, though since German is not his language he did have a hard time understanding it.  But, he said that will not stop him from coming back when he knows that it is true.  He has become like buddies with Irakli...who I have talked about..he was baptized back in June. Bürcan will be baptized in two weeks and he is just so ready and he is so happy from when we first met him.  When we first started meeting with him he would always talk about how the Jehovah Witnesses are so so so wrong about everything and now we got him to stop talking about the Jehovah Witnesses and he knows everthing in our church is true. So, transfer calls are this Saturday and that means that I could possibly be transferred next Tuesday. I hope not, but if I am, I am for sure coming back for Bürcan's baptism..no doubt about that. He is a goof, and me and him can just really joke around with each other which I never thought I could do in German...lol. I am so grateful that I can speak German now. lol. So yeah...I will let y'all know next Monday if I am staying or going.

Micheal is the friend of Nadine's and he has been out of town for the last three weeks, but he comes back today.  We called him a few times since he has been gone and he is so excited for his baptism and so we actually might move his up to September 4th with Bürcan...we will see and talk to him tonight about that. So exciting...and he is so prepared..and he said that it was so easy to stop smoking and that the baptism is more than anything what he wants right now. So cool. Can not wait to see him tonight.

Philipp is doing really good. He is still slowly making progress, but is doing good. He smokes less and less every week and is slowly stopping all the way. Really cool...and he is starting to read the Book of Mormon again for a second time. What a stud.

So about midway through the week we helped this lady move with all the elders. It was fun and not to mention I got to eat hotdogs afterwards.  Yes, no matter how many times I have eaten hotdogs here in Germany, they are still and will still be my favorite food. So good. On Saturday we went to Halle to help out the Halle district elders with an Kichen nacht, which is this thing that is pretty much an open house for all the churches and people can go around to all the churches and see them. So we went to help out with that in Halle and it was really fun and we sent alot of people away with Books of Mormon in their hands. so cool.

Trihn...we are really working on her.  She is having a hard time believing that the whole Book of Mormon is true. We are reteaching the lessons and it is hard for her because she has a hard time understanding German and so we are so simple with everything we say. Once again...SIMPLE. But she is so sweet and just wants to understand so bad... and more then anything she wants her son to come back to the church.  We are working on it.

So the other day on the bahn, we were going to visit another less active, Sandra, and while we were sitting on the bahn a really weird big black guy ran up to us and said, "I am through with you people" and then continued on to say some other really nonsense stuff...he was wierd.  Sister Rasmussen and I were like ..."while if we were actually normal people and we were not in this skirt or had this name tag, that guy would have never come up to us".  Ha...so true. crazy guy.

Our dinner appointment



Dessert #1



Dessert #2

Our eating appointment was with Schwester Pffeffer. She is so sweet.  She just stuffs the missionaries.  Another thing that happens when you wear the name tag, besides crazy people yelling at you, is that people think you are always hungry.  Well, I have to tell y'all, just because I wear a name tag does not mean I have a never ending stomach. lol. The food is good...I just can not eat it all.

Schwester Pfeffer who fed us the wonderful dinner.

Well...Now last night was crazy...we had an appointmetn with Bürcan, and Irakli came to be a joint teach. So we were there for like over an hour when one of the Elders investigators showed up.  I called the elders to tell them their investigator was here and they showed up and took her to a different room.  Then 20 mintues later Maik, our next appointment, showed up with Robert who is a member.  Well, Irakli and Bürcan stayed and we were like what are we going to do because we are starting the stop smoking workshop with Maik.  Then the elders left and their investigator joined our little circle.  So, here Sister Rasmussen and I were going to teach Maik, with two members there and two other investigators. It was interesting, but really cool. We taught Maik the stop smoking workshop and he gave us everything in his pocket to throw away and committed to stop. At the end we asked Maik to say the prayer and well, we were expecting him to say no since there were a lot of people around. But, to our surprise, he actually did...was this the same Maik we met 4 weeks ago? Just a little after 9, we decided to call Maik because we did not think he would make it, especially since he went straight home. We called him and he said...guess what...everything that involves smoknig is in my garbage bag and I am taking it out right now...and then he said,  I am hanging up all those stop smoking signs every where.  We were in surprise by this response and realized...he is really changing...so the simplicity of the gospel and our message begins with the story of Maik....

About four weeks ago I had a feeling that we should go down this street...There was nobody on this street and so I did not know why we should turn down there.  There was nobody to talk to and then, Maik showed up, walking down the street towards us. He looked like a pot head and somewhat of a bum, but we talked to him. He had no idea who God was and Jesus Christ and for some reason he made an appointment with us. The day of that appointment came and we thought...well, he looks like the kind that would not show up, but he did. We taught him the very basics...considering when we asked him about Adam and Eve, he thought they were the parents of God. We had to start very simple with him...I could get into more detail, but he has slowly come to a knowledge that God is actually there and he has stopped drinking, smoking now, and so on, because he understands that Jesus suffered for those terrible sins that he was doing. He still does not have a strong knowledge, but with in these four weeks he has become so much more happy.  Four weeks ago he was depressed with no joy, but drinking and partying. He saw a baptism a couple days ago..in which four weeks ago you would never hear those words out of his mouth.  Four weeks ago he read and touched the Bible for the first time.  Today, he is actually reading the Book of Mormon on his own and came to church for the first time yesterday and told our bishop that he will continue to always come.  Twp days ago, he stood up to his family that the Mormons are not a sect and that he believes them.  Four weeks ago..he would never have done that. And now he is dressed cleaner and is looking better. He is developing a testimony and his prayer is becoming more and more sincere. He is so cool and so ready. He says he wants baptism just not too fast. He will be ready though for that day!!! He has really taught me that everything begins with Simple. He is a child of God that has discovered his Father for the first time.  He stood up to his family because no one in his family goes to a church and believes in God...he defended the church. When we first met him..he told us he is a big sinner and could never change..now he is.

I know that this church is true. God knows his children and he is waiting for them. He has no greater joy than to hear that his children walk in truth. I have no greater joy then to bring his children to this truth..This mission has been my life long dream and now I am living it... how many people can say they lived there dream and it is so Simple.

I love y'all and am so grateful to be a child of God that was raised in this church. Thanks mom and dad for teaching me the foundation in which I am spreading to many people.
Love
 Sister Britt!

Crazy week ... if I may so say

Subject: Crazy week...if I may so say

Meine Familie,

SEND ME PICTURES... you know I would love to see what my little niece and my nephews look like...maybe see Neil and his graduation and what not... I would love to get some pictures. Just a suggestion.

But anyways, this was a weird week for a few different reasons. I do not think my head was screwed on completely because of some of the comments I said...they were completely out there. But hey, from one of my not really all there comments we got another baptismal date set up, only to find out four days later something really not expected, but I will get to that in a sec. So on Monday we had FHE and it was a blast.  More people showed up than ever before and so let us see what the turn out is for today. It was really good and I was exhausted by the end of the night. Monday nights are always crazy because we do not get home til a bit later and you are really worn out by the time you do.

Tuesday came along and well, it was very interesting day indeed. We had our typical weekly appointment with Robert and Moni (who are members) and this time Seglinde showed up again. Cool. This was my third time meeting with Seglinde and Sister Rasmussen's first time. We taught the third lesson and by the end, Seglinde told us that she is so Evangalish that we can not change her, but she has not been baptized in any church yet.  Well, I can be very blunt with people sometimes and so, well, I was, and I might have come off a little harsh at the beginning of speaking, but then I softened up a little at the end and made a baptism date with her, only to find out that on Sunday, Moni came up to us and said that we convinced Seglinde that she should be baptized, but she is now talking about getting baptized on that date in the Evangalish church. Our next project with that is talking to her about the proper authority. We will see what happens with that.

Other than that big news, not much else happened this week. I would have to say though that our investigator Bürcan is so cool.  He will be baptized in three weeks.  His only concern right now is what he needs to bring to the baptism. lol. He is so cool and golden. As far as every one of our other investigators go, which every one of them has a baptismal date, they are all out of town, Aloysius, Mohammed, Ruth, Micheal. and a few others. So that is why I can not really express the progress of all of these investigators. Sorry, hopefully they come back soon and next Monday I can talk about that. lol.

We did have Zone Conference this week and it was amazing as ever. We are going to rock it this week. I do not know if I every told y'all about ballards, but that means that during the day you talk to at least 10 people, your companion talks to 10 people, and you make out an appointment and then you get 3 ballards.  By the end of the week you have 21 ballards. Well, our mission is ending that at the end of this week and our whole mission has a goal for everyone to get 21 ballards to show that we are ready to move on from ballards. If every companionship gets 21 ballards this week that means that is 700 apointments and 700 new people ready to hear the gospel..so cool. We are going to do it!!!! yeah. So any ways, I hope I have more to say next week... I love y'all

Sister Britt

Fall out Fall out ... then comes a miracle!!!

Subject: Fall out Fall out...then comes a miracle!!!

Leipzig Rathaus (city hall)

Meine Familie,

Well this week has gone up and down with alot of things, but it ended on the coolest note ever!!!! I feel like this email may just be scattered brained because of what all happened this week...I will say our faith is being tried...after all that is the Christ like attribute that Sister Rasmussen and I decided to pray for this transfer. lol.

So at FHE last Monday a cool experience was told to me by our investigator Micheal. I believe I mentioned Michael last week or something, but he is so cool. He is a friend of Nadine who was baptized in June. Nadine brought him to us to start taking the lessons and we set a baptismal date with him our first appointment.  I cannot believe it has only been two weeks since with set that date with him. Our second appointment we had with him we told him to read Moroni 10 and then pray to ask God if the Book of Mormon is true. Well, last Sunday he did just that and told us about his experience last Monday. He said Sunday night he opened the Book of Mormon and read chapter 10 in Moroni, right after he said a prayer, and then five minutes later he said he all of a sudden had this strong warm feeling with in his self from his head to his toes.  In fact, he was so warm that he just had to take his shirt off. ... If that ain't an answer, I do not know what is. lol. We then met him on Tuesday and taught him the 3rd lesson and he told us that there is no doubt that he will get baptized because of his experience from Sunday night. He told us that everything we tell him just has to be true...so cool. Then on Thursday we thought that we would teach him the word of wisdom because we knew that he smokes. Well, yet another awesome miracle and experience. We taught him the word of wisdom and we put a little more of our focus on smoking. Well, at the end we asked him if he will keep the word of wisdom and he told us that about an hour and a half before our appoiment Nadine told him that he should stop smoking. So, he stopped at that very moment and then we had our appointment and he told us about that and he has not smoked since that day...and has not even had the desire to do so. He is so cool. He is like the guy that missionaries are praying for!!!  I cannot wait to see him baptized and not to mention how happy Nadine is to be bringing a friend into the gospel!!!

Every Tuesday we meet with Robert, and sometimes Moni is there too. So this last Tuesday we talked to them about temples and they are both planning on making a trip again this month. I love talking to the members about the temple because you just see the light and desire they have in their eyes. In the states, we do not take advantage of what we have there and how close the temples really are.  I am blessed to be able to help these people prepare to go for the first time and to send them off on their long travel to the temple.  Take advantage of what you have...It really is a blessing!!!

Things are going up and down for Alexandra. She does not see the need to be baptized because she is already close to Jesus. That ain't a good reason. If you are close to Jesus then you would want to follow his example and be baptized. I do not know where to really go with her. We are still working on it. We gave her a talk from President Uchtdorf from this last conference that says in it that "if you have been investigatating this church for a long time...just get baptized".  I really hope she reads that talk and really thinks about it. Keep her in your prayers.

So Philipp, like always, is slowly progressing. He is getting more and more of a desire to stop smoking!! which is so awesome!!! He has finished the whole Book of Mormon and will start it again. He is just so cool!!!

Doreen is still Doreen. We started to the stop smoking workshop with her, but so far it has not been successful because she has smoked at least once everyday since we have started. We call her up to see how she is doing or she calls us to tell us when she smoked. Still working on that, but not going so well right now.

Maik is totally rockin' along. I do not think or recall me talking about him. We found him a little over a week ago and when we met him on the street he had no knowledge of God or who he was or of Jesus Christ and anything religious for that matter..but just within a week of meeting with him, about three or four times this last week, he has read in the bible for the first time, said his first prayer, and is trying so hard to understand the Book of Mormon and knows that he has sinned so much and wants to be clean from that. He told us he is so scared to be baptized, but knows that is what he needs to do. He is so amazing and I love watching him gain this knowledge of his Father in heaven and he is beginning to develop faith in Jesus Christ. It is such an amazing process to watch..his future is looking so great!!

Katrin is a less active in our ward. She is the lady who owns the spider that I held. We visit her every week and every once in a blue moon her daughter Sabrina is there. We taught the third lesson to Sabrina and she told us that if she does develop a faith that this church is true..she will be baptized!! I am so grateful for that because that would mean a lot to Katrin.

Katrin, Sabrina, and me

Well, to get to the part on why this week has been up and down.  Besides the people I have talked about in my email today, we had so many appointments fall out and we were thinking that our faith was really getting tried. So Sunday, the last day of the week came, besides our eating appointment with Sch. Bressel, our other appointments fell out. We had one more appointment at the church scheduled at 7 with this guy whose name is Bürcan. He actually found me and Sister McCall a few weeks ago. He came up to us and started asking us about our church. I was very surprised he talked to us because he told us that the Jehovah Witnesseses tried teaching him and meeting with him, but he immediately turned them down. He then asked Sister McCall and I if that was a good thing. Well, we told him that we thought it was since those people are not exactly our "friends". lol. So anyways, our last set up appointments with him had fallen out and then last week I thought we should call him again and so I set up this other appointment. We were at the church waiting thinking that all of our other appointments have fallen out, so what makes this one different... then he showed up. We taught him the first lesson and when I was explaining to him about the Apostosy and how there were a lot of churches on the earth...then a boy, Joseph had a question of which one was true...Bürcan was just getting so excited because he had the same question at the end.  I started to invite him to be baptized and before I could finish my sentence, he asked me. lol We set up a date and he said he has been waiting for this truth for so long. But, there is one problem he told us..."my whole entire family is muslim and they have already all turned their backs on me." We told him that God will be there for him and help him and his family. But he is so golden, and after a tough week of appointments falling out, it did have many miracles within it and ended with the best!!!!!!

Thanks y'all...mom and dad for the package...I always love getting my favorite candy, swedish fish, and I was bouncing off the wall when I saw that box of macaroni and cheese. I am so excited to taste that awesome taste again. I love it so much and it has been too long since I have had that. I will say I am jealous that y'all went to Sea World. I have not been there since I was like 8. And, to Eric, I am reading the Old Testiment too!!! It is so cool and I am working on finishing it!!! so cool!! Any ways, I love y'all so much and thank y'all for the prayers!!!

Love,
Sister Britt Anderson!

God ... He sends the ones that are prepared

Meine Familie,

How great is the work!!!! I am dead serious. This transfer is starting out on the best foot ever. So to ever begin writing this week out…I really do not know where to start…so many miracles and so many amazing people who have really been prepared by our Lord to hear our message. It makes me that more grateful for the message we have more and more every day.

I guess I will start from the beginning and work from there…but I am sorry if I seem sometimes a bit scatter brained … just because I have so much wonderful amazing things going on in my head right now. Oh my.

Tuesday was my last day with Sister McCall and then, Wednesday morning I would have to take her to the train station. I was so sad to say goodbye to her…because we have seriously become best friends. I love her so much and am so grateful for her.

Sister Rasmussen, McCall, and me

Sister Rasmussen and me

So on Tuesday we were actually in a three…because Sister Rasmussen, my new companion, came to us…She is cool. She is from Sandy, Utah and is so much fun. We have already started this transfer off amazing. Let us beginning the amaziness!!!!  

So Tuesday was a great day filled with amazing appointments and what better way for Sister McCall to end her mission!!

So Nadine was the girl that was baptized in June and she is just a rockin’ new member. So she read all of Doctrine and Covenants in one week and now she is inviting a friend to meet with us missionaries!! She is so cool. So on Tuesday night we had an appointment with Nadine and she brought her friend, Michael. This was of course our first appointment with him and we taught him the plan of salvation because Nadine really wanted us too and at the end we invited him to be baptized on September 4^th!!! He said he will and so now we are just teaching him. And our last appointment with him was on Saturday and he is just so awesome and Nadine is so happy to see a good friend of hers coming along with the gospel. He was not able to come to church on Sunday, but Nadine came and told me…he is sorry he cannot come today…but he is reading in the Book of Mormon. She is so excited and she said they are both already talking about his baptism!!! So cool! If only all members would be like Nadine and have complete faith that their friends would be interested…after all that is how Nadine was also found. What a wonderful ending for Sister McCall considering that she was the one to start teaching Nadine and now this…so cool. 



 So on Wednesday…I hit my 9 month mark…that was so weird…and now I am less that half way there and I am sorry to say to y’all, but I do not want to come home at all..lol. I want to be a missionary like this forever. Lol. After all, how many people get to say that they get to live their dream. I have dreamed of this since I was a little girl and I have counted down for this and now I am living this dream of mine…I do not want this to end at all. Lame sauce.

Saying goodbye at the train station

So we took Sister McCall to the train station on this morning and said our goodbyes. And then it was just me and Sister Rasmussen and a beginning of an amazing transfer. We went over to visit Aloysius and our appointment was amazing as always…and he came to church this week and loved it a lot. He is so awesome.

We then Mohammed that day as well. He is doing awesome and he loves being with us a lot. He told me and Sister McCall a long time ago that it is a big problem that we are going back to America and that in two years he will come to America also and see us. He is just so cool!!!

Thursday we met with Philip and he is doing really well…he did not show up to church on Sunday though, so I am disappointed in that with him. But he has finished reading the whole Book of Mormon so that is sick!!!!! Oh yeah.

  So anyways, Thursday night was a really cool night and such a blessing as well. We went over to visit Trinh. She is the little Vietnamese lady. I love her so much. We went and saw her and we were visiting her for awhile and then Sister Rasmussen looked at the clock and was like…we should go. I did not feel like we should leave yet...so I kept on talking to Trinh. Then about 10 minutes later, Tuan, the son of Trinh, walked in the door. It was a miracle. I will not get into the whole story about Tuan because some is personal stuff, but he is almost 30 I believe, and Trinh has no way to contact him and she only sees him when he shows up at home. Anyways…he was taught by missionaries when he was 14 years old and actually joined the church…Trinh wants him so bad to come back, but he has lost his faith and no longer believes in God. Anyways, when he walked he went to his bedroom and that was the first time I had ever seen him. I looked at Sister Rasmussen and said, well, he probably won’t come out. I will tell you his story later. But next thing we knew he came out of his room and sat on the coach and we talked about everything with him...life and getting to know him and laughing and having fun and then religious things and so on. It was so cool...we did not leave their place until after 9…but it was totally worth it to see the eyes light up in Trinh’s face. Tuan would not say a prayer with us, so he went into his bedroom…but I will not forget Trinh giving me a big hug and telling me thank you….and I know that maybe one day Tuan will come back to the gospel and the church…he does not want it now, but we have to start somewhere...we were supposed to still be there when he showed up.

This is not the end of the miracles that have happened this week…There are two more people who I so want to mention…Ruth Stein and Maik…now lets begin with Ruth….

Ruth Stein

So on Friday night we had some time before our last appointment… so we went out for a little while to go talk to people on the street. We decided to walk through this park…we had not had any luck yet and we needed to turn back around so we could get back to the institute center on time for our appointment with Mohammed. We decided to walk just a little bit further when we saw this lady walking through the park…we stopped and talked to her, but she was trying to keep going and not really wanting to make out an appointment with us because she will be going out of town for a long time. She said that she will be leaving on Sunday evening and so we were like…well can you meet us at 8:30 in the evening tomorrow at our institute center…she agreed…we turned back around and walked fast to our appointment that we had. Saturday all of our appointments were just falling out and it was rainy and cold…We showed up at the institute center at like 8:30 to see if our last appointment with the lady we met on the street, Ruth Stein, would show up…for our last appointment…10 minutes went by and we were about to just go home…when she showed up. It was so cool. She came in and we talked for a little while and then we started teaching her…everything was just making since to her. She for sure was prepared for our message…and she said that we were meant to stop her…she told us she decided to take a different way home that day we stopped her and so she took a walk through the park just thinking about life and stuff...so cool. We started telling her about the apostasy and she totally accepted it and then when we started telling the story about Joseph Smith …she was like “well, he must have had a vision or something, right?” We talked about baptism and that we have the choice to be baptized and so then she said, “oh, so my baptism does not count because I was just a baby and did not have the choice…” she was like answering all of her own questions…She also told us she has gone to so many other churches and she has never felt the spirit as strong as she has felt it with us. We set a date with her and she told us she can not wait to get her husband, who died three years ago,  baptized in the next life. Lol. She is so cool and so ready. I love her so much….she came to church on Sunday and is just so excited about everything… I just had to take a picture with her.

Maik, his story is not as cool, but we also met him on the street and he came to our appointment on Sunday night…he has no knowledge of God or anything and does not really know why we are here…We taught him and last night was the very first time he has ever read out of the bible. We told him that God loves him and would want him to be baptized…He said well, when I find out he is there…I will be baptized…so we set a date with him…and he said he will try praying for the very first time…He is so cool.

So as you can see…so many amazing things have happened this week and I am excited for many more miracles…I love it so much. I am living my dream!!!!! 

Sister Rasmussen and me
Hansel and Gretel statue

Love y’al

lSister Anderson

Und so weiter ...

Meine Familie,

 

und weiter und weiter. . . well This has been a great week, just like every other week. We have some of the most coolest investigators ever and the work is jmoving more and more forward then ever. … I love it!

 

So I am not getting transferred, and yes, I did already know that because President pretty much said it when I had my interview with him. … and it was figured also because Sister McCall is going home. … She leaves on Wednesday and her parents are picking her up on Thursday…I will miss her so so much.

 

We still meet with Alexandra…she just needs to get baptized, but she finally comes to church now which is so good!!!

 

Trihn is still my little favourite Vietnamese member… and well, she feeds us some really good Asian food …I feel like it was probably the typical stuff that Eric ate on his mission all the time. Lol. Really, really good though.

 

Aloysius and his son

Aloysius is so cool and will be so ready for his baptism…he just needs to come to church. He said he would  yesterday, but then he did not show up. But our appointments with him are always extremely good and he really does have a strong testimony of it all.

 

Mohammed will totally be ready for when he gets baptized. He is just moving along so great and he came to church for the first time yesterday and loved it so much.  He told me, “This is a big family” and I was like “yeah, it is your family, Mohammed.” And then he just got a huge grin on his face. He is so amazing and as not smoked for almost a month now!!! Way to go Mohammed!!!

 

Doreen, for some reason still wants to meet with us and she wants us to start the stop smoking workshop for her. So that is what we will do, but she is really bi polar about a lot of things..so we will see what continues to happen with her.

 

So, there is this guy that always hangs out the window every time we go over to visit Doreen, and this time we decided to ask him if he wanted a book.  Well, we decided that he is extremely crazy.  We will continue saying hello to him, but nothing more. He is crazy that I cannot describe in words. Lol  Oh the people you met on you mission…lol

 

Philipp is just rockin’ as well…he says a prayer every time we are with him now which is awesome.  He has come to church three weeks in a row!! Oh yeah! So awesome.

 

We also have some cool people that have come to church…There is this one girl who was in America for an student exchange and she stayed with a Mormon family in Idaho and now wants to be baptized, but has to wait until she is 18, but she comes to church every Sunday.  Then, another young girl showed up to church yesterday and apparently she just got back from an exchange thing in America and she stayed with a Mormon family and decided to come to church. So cool…makes me think that the Dey family are so cool for doing exchange programme with kids. It really does have an effect on them.

 

So, to end this email..a really cool spiritual experience.  We had just got out of our appointment with Philipp and it was already like 8:30 and so we needed to start making our way home, but we still had not made out an appointment with anybody that day.  Then this guy walks up to me and is looking at my name tag. He asked what church I am from and I began to tell him…he was then like, well, I will see on Sunday.  I am coming to your church.  So, we gave him our card and then he gave us all of his information…so cool. Then he told us that the Jehovah Witnesses tried talking to him and he told them no and he asked us if that was a good thing and we were like…well, we think so. We thought it was so cool that he decided  to talk to us. I hope to really meet with him more in the future.

 

I know this church is the true church. It blesses and changes lives. I have seen it with mine own eyes. I love it so much and the joy it brings people everyday!!

 

Love y’all

Sister Britt Anderson

Almost halfway there ...

Meine Familie,

Well this ist the last week with Sister McCall…so we will make it a good one.  She heads off to Berlin next Wednesday, the 27th…my 9 month mark. It is really saying goodbye to a best friend! But anyways….now on to what happened this past week.

It really has been a weird, crazy week. I was sick on Monday and Tuesday with a little fever and so the rest of the week I was just in the recovery from being sick, but I stuck it out and still worked hard…. And well, these are the results of this week…

On Tuesday we had an appointment with Robert and Moni, who are both members, and Moni brought a friend, Sieglinda, with her for us to teach. It was really funny though because towards the end we invited Sieglinda to be baptized. While we were inviting her, Moni and Robert’s faces were priceless as it was a look of “What the heck are you doing” lol. Although, Sieglinda denied our invitation, she is at least still wanting to meet with us to learn more…all we've got to say is “well, we tried.”

Phillip is just moving along so great.  He slowly progresses, but at least he progresses. He will totally be ready for his baptism in November. To describe him…well, he is gothic and he has really long hair…always is wearing black and does wear eye makeup.  But some really cool things have been happening…He showed up to church last Sunday and was not wearing any eye makeup and then, he came yet again to church with no make up on and during the week when we meet up with him, he does not wear it anymore…he is slowly changing his image and he is just so cool.

Aloysius is doing great and is yet again back in the picture. We set a baptismal date with him for September 4^th.  He is just so amazing and says the most powerful prayers I have ever heard. He is just great and I just love him and that he is so GOLDEN. He told us that he was talking to a friend who saw that he had the Book of Mormon and his friend started bashing it and Aloysius totally stood up for it and yeah…He is just rockin.’  




Katrin's spider

 

We went to visit Katrin who is a less active. We visit her every week and this time I was brave enough to hold her spider. All missionaries that go over there at least hold her spider once, but I have been a chicken for almost 12 weeks. Finally, I was ready. Katrin was so thrilled. Lol. It was really funny.

We have a new investigator, Jeanette. She is just way solid and so awesome. She loves the Book of Mormon already and we will be meeting with her again tomorrow and hoping to set a baptism date with her.

We are actually going to stop meeting with Doreen. She is just really bi-polar and church yesterday was kind of embarrassing. We will meet with her one last time on Thursday and then give her a break for a while.

Sister McCall, Harriet, and me

Oh and Harriet. She is actually the Elders investigator…but at church she only hangs out with the sisters. She has been in Germany for two weeks and is from Ghana. She will be here for two months and I just love her.  

So yeah…that is pretty much my week and I am looking forward and not forward for my last week of the transfer. Lol. But at least I know I will still be in Leipzig.  

Any ways…I love y’all and yeah.

Sister Anderson

Here are some "just for fun pictures":

Waiting on the elders to show up ...

A little door ... I wonder who lives here?

NOOOOOOOOO!!!  It can't be the end!

Girls just gotta have fun!

It's so great to be a missionary ... livin' my dream!!!

Meine Familie,

Sister Martinez and I

What a week and a busy week at that…so much has gone on and I do not know where to start…then well, maybe the beginning. On Tuesday we did our once a transfer exchange….It is only a day and so we did ours on Tuesday…Sister McCall went to Dresden for the day and I stayed in Leipzig and Sister Martinez came here. It was pretty fun and not to mention a very interesting day indeed. We took a train to Dresden and then Sister Martinez came back on the train with me. On the way back a lady came on the train and asked us if we had a Saxon ticket.  She was a young mother and was holding a baby. We told her we did and she asked us if she could pay us five euros to ride with us on our ticket because a Saxon ticket can hold up to 5 passengers. We told her yes and so as we continued on our train ride her stop was coming up and she needed to adjust some things before she got off the train.  All of a sudden she just set the baby on my lap. Now, we know as missionaries, we can not hold children. I was in shock…I did not know what to do with a child on my lap.  Luckily, the baby was not on my lap for long…but it was so weird to have a baby on my lap. Lol.  That was just one thing that happened that day. Later on that day, I almost got hugged by a guy…I will not mention any names but it was a young single adult and I went to go shake his hand goodbye after institute and he almost hugged me, but I was quick to back away… It was really awkward. I have discovered that you get into some really weird situations sometimes or a lot of time. Lol.

So on Wednesday we had Mission Tour and Elder Causse came…he is in the Quorum of the Seventies. It was so good and a great time having him speak to us. He talked to us a lot about our Purpose and asked us if we had any reason why we have not asked an investigator to be baptized...nobody could come up with any reason. He talked about so many other things, but he pretty much challenged us to go to our appointments that night and invite our investigators to baptism. So later that night we had an appointment with Mohammed. It was so awesome and we talked about baptism and how we should follow the example of Jesus Christ.  Mohammed really wanted to follow Jesus Christ and we asked him to be baptized…And well, he said YES! Very enthusiastic! So we have a date for him on September 4^th.

Doreen was doing so good, but she just kind of went down again. We had a really good appointment with her on Thursday and she was really excited to come to church again on Sunday.  We called her on Friday to tell her that Mike could pick her up and she told us that she has been reading in the Book of Mormon and does not like the violence that is happening and so she told us she will not come to church… If this keeps up we may stop meeting with her, we will just see how our appointment goes this week.

4th of July spread!

Real BBQ sauce!



Everyone enjoying the food!




Aren't we a patriotic bunch?




Christal and her sparkler



Brother and Sister Beirich (our hosts)

On Thursday night we went over to a members house with the Senior couple and the Elders and Crystal came with us too!!! It was so fun having these Germans put on a 4^th of July celebration for us.  They really did their research and made sure it was an American celebration…They got some root beer extract from the states and made us root beer and they got corn on the cob and so many other just plain American things you would have normally in America, not Germany.  It was so fun and we ended the night with them setting off some little fireworks for us and singing American patriotic hymns.  It was a fun fun time.  Just one little detail…I do not remember how American potato salad tasted, but I do remember I did not like potato salad, but considering how much they feed it to us here…I really have come to love potato salad a lot. Lol







Alexandra is doing so awesome…she finally came to our church on Sunday. She knows it is all true and she is slowly, finally coming together now, and hopefully we will for sure be seeing a firm baptism for her in the future. She is finally coming together.

 

Trin

Trin, I have talked about her before…she is just this light and this wonderful member…So many stories about her, but no idea where to start because they are just all so funny. I just love her so much.

 

Jamal

So Jamal …we have gotten in contact with him again….he is Mohammed’s friend. We mostly just visited with him this week, because he is going out of town for the next three weeks. They are both from Sudan and they told us that apparently Sudan just became two countries. Crazy.

Enjoying my ice cream!

And of course, on Saturday we went and got some ice cream to celebrate Grandpa Matthews' birthday!! It was good. So yeah.  Life is just great and I can not wait for the adventures of this week. The church is so true and I love it so much…I can not believe that in a couple weeks I will be half way done with my mission…and, I do not know anything about a pregnancy picture…that just sounds really dumb Kimberly. Lol. (A note of explanation - In Kimberly's mission the sisters take a picture to note their halfway point which is 9 months - the length of a pregnancy - thus calling it a "pregnancy picture".)  So yeah. hey…all of my three older siblings have all moved and well…I need the new addresses for y’all. (Another note - Only Kimberly has moved to another apartment.  The others are not moving.) 

As far as a package goes…I will still be in Leipzig next transfer because Sister McCall is going home and so I will not be transferred at all.. So send it. And from what I told y’all last time… I was just listing things Germany does not have. Lol. I look forward to whatever you send me though!!!

I love y’all

Sister Anderson

Happy Fourth of July

Subject: Happy Fourth of July

Meine Familie,

Rainy and cold week...this for sure does not feel like how July is suppose to feel. So Happy Fourth of July…like I mentioned it is rainy and cold. A whole bunch of us missionaries were going to go to the Zoo to celebrate this day, but with the weather…it looks like that will not be happening. It is ok though....this coming Thursday a family invited all of the Elders and us to their home to celebrate fourth of July and have a BBQ. That will be fun.

So this week… what can I say about it. We set a baptism date with Philip…it is not until November, but we and him decided that it is best to have this time because there are still some things he needs to take care of before he can be baptized, but we have full faith that he will be able to reach this goal of being baptized on his birthday in November. So cool.

Aloysius is still amazing.  We are praying to set a firm baptism date with him some time this week or next. We also have this other investigator, Ray. When I first got here to Leipzig, Ray had a baptism date, but the second day I was here he texted us and told us that he does not want to meet any more… that was the beginning of May and so I had never met him at that point. A couple weeks ago Sister McCall felt like she should call him and so she did. He was actually very happy for her call and we set up another appointment with him. So on Tuesday we went over there and he still has a strong belief in all that we teach. He has not met with the Sisters since March, but told us that he has tried keeping all the commandments he has been taught and is still working on giving up coffee. He still has a strong desire and so we will continue meeting with him and we want to set up another baptism date with him this week, So keep them in your prayers…they are so amazing.

Doreen is an interesting girl..she is a little crazy…I won’t get into her past history though. Lol. But she is in a wheelchair and so somebody went and picked her up yesterday to bring her to the baptism. She came and enjoyed it very much. We will see what happens with her, but she is slowly moving along.

Nadine is still so amazing and such a strong new member. She brings us such joy.  She just turned 20 and told us in our last appointment that she is planning on going on a mission too….we love her so much!!!!

So Alexandra is just so blind to all of the answers she has been receiving…I am actually getting really annoyed with her. She knows this church is true and she knows it all to be true, and she has told us the experiences she has had with prayer and how strong the spirit has felt.  We made her pray with us and she did and after a long while of silence she told us that Jesus came to her and told her to trust him and yeah. She is getting all these confirmations about our church and about baptism, but she is just staying blind to them and is not taking them as her answer. Sorry I am a little annoyed with her right now, but yeah. That is what is going on with Alexandra. 



So a big plus of the week was going to the Temple on Friday. It was wonderful and I absolutely am grateful I get to serve in the zone that gets to go to the Temple once a transfer. I love it!!!

Irakli and Daniel

We also had a baptism on Sunday…It is really cool, because Irakli was baptized 4 weeks ago and he got to baptize his little brother, who is 12,  yesterday and in a couple weeks their mom will be baptized. Such a cool and amazing family.

Me and Mohammed

Mohammed is such an awesome investigator…he is so diligent in coming to our appointments.  There is a big language barrier for us, but we just sit there and let him read pamphlets and the Book of Mormon for an hour and tell him a little bit of other stuff…he is really not like other Muslims that I have met and I think he really believes in Jesus Christ as his Saviour and not just a prophet. He is so cool and so funny.  He always ask us what things mean in English from Arabic and we have to keep reminding him we do not know Arabic. but he is so cool and fun!!!

Also, a side note…we stopped this older man on the street and we were talking to people about God and he was like, I am a Jehovah Witness and if you join my church I get 50 euros. We were like ummm…no thanks and by the way we are part of the Church of Jesus Christ that he established today and was restored through a prophet in our days and he then just walked away.  It was funny and that is so dumb that they get paid for bringing people into their church.

So anyways, I decided to tell y’all some things that I miss that you cannot get in Germany….So if y’all ever want to send anything that is awesome…Cheese-its, Reese’s, graham crackers, Swedish Fish, Junior mints, Fruit snacks, mac and cheese. So yeah, that is just a few of the things…lol.

I love y’all and I am excited for the work to keep moving forward!!!

Love Sister Anderson

Elders and Sister Larkin with
their gummi bear tower.



Yummy!!!





Everyone's towers (or blobs)



Ours had a firm foundation! 

Another note:  In district meeting this week we had a gummi bear and icing activity.  With our companion, we had to build a gummi bear tower with gummi bears and icing.  The point was the icing represented "finding" and the gummi bears represented "teaching".  It was really funny and fun!