Hard, but worth it

meine familie,

 

People always tell you that a mission is super hard. . but you do not truly understand how hard it is until you go on one. I know that what I am doing is blessing lives. . There are some days that I feel like not going out and talking to people but I suck it up and do it anyways because this not about me. . it is about them and they are children of God. After I get out there and start talking to people I start feeling so better about it all. Why? Because I start seeing how the gospel is blessing lives.

 

We get rejected person after person. . . I have learned alot of bad words in German from people on the street that curse at us . We walked past this big group of moms in the park and we overheard them saying. . oh there goes those people . . . they go door to door. . they're a sect.  But then I look at the great people we come into contact with. We are teaching this family from . . . well, I actuallly cannot spell it at the moment, but they are gypsies. They are so cool and are so willing to do things. They  a five year old daugher and a four year old son. We are trying to work it out for somebody in the ward to pick them up for church because they cannot afford to travel every week to church.

 

We have also met some really cool people on the street that we have made appointments with. They are so cool and I cannot wait until our appointments with them. Well, it is two weeks until transfer calls. . . so I may still be here in two weeks or I could be going somewhere else. I have come to love Rostock and the people here. My german is getting much better and I feel more and more confident talking to people on the street in their language.

 

There really is not much to say about this week because not much really happened, but I just want to say that I love this gospel and I have seen it blessing the lives of others. The mission is super hard and some days you feel like giving up, but I know in the end it is worth it and we all need to know that.

 

I apologize this is so short, but reallly nothing happened this week reallly at all. So I thought I would just let you know one  more thing about "evil street". . . We went back and got yelled at by two ladies and then we went to a different street to do doors and got yelled at again by this lady who was going to call the police. . . It is like we are not meant to go do doors or something.. but we are finding people and that is the great thing. .

 

Random fact about Germany this week . . .little boys wear tights with nothing over them and then a shirt. 

 

love always

 

Sister Anderson

2 Nephi 29:7

"Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon teh isles of sea; and that I rule in the heavens about and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?"

Meine Familie,

Well, I kind of do not really know what to say about this week. This week has been super tough. . . We had 12 appointments fall out and we really did not make out any appointments except for a couple days. So this has been a really tough week. Though I am still working really hard and finding joy in the work of sharing the gospel even though not eveyone would like to listen to us.

I will talk about some things like Mom asked about -- Marie is the daughter of a less active in the ward that we are teaching. We did not meet with her this week, but we are trying to get Marie interested in the gospel through games. She is 10 or 11, and is at that age where it is like not cool to act like your interested in something, so sometimes it's really hard to get her super excited about it. It is super hard too because there are no girls her age or close to her age in our ward. . . in fact, I think it is just boys in Primary and there are no young women or young men. But, we are working with three 11 year old girls, one is Marie, another is a daughter of an investigator and the other is Judith's little sister. So we are trying to get them all three involved in the church. . .we invited all three of them to a Primary activity this week. So hopefully they all come.

Herr Lytle is still coming to church every once in awhile and last Sunday he gave me a box of chocolate. . . It was awkward and we really do not do anything with him because he is not interested in the church at all.

Sister Christenson and I are getting along much better as I strive to understand her and serve her. We still have our tough times together, but things are much better than they were at the beginning. She still drives me crazy on some things though. .lol.

 Sisters at Zone Conference

So on Tuesday we had our Zone Conference and went to Berlin with that. . Such a crazy day. . . We had to get up at five and meet the Elders at the train station and our train left at 6:45. .. Well there was a strike going on and so our train got postponed for another hour. Then another hour and then another. . finally at like nine, our train left and so we missed half of y´zone conference, but we got there for the end of lunch and the second half. It was really good though from the part that I have seen.

 Sister Christenson and me on the way home from zone conference

Judith is doing awesome. . . she is traveling to the temple for the second time this week and then in a few weeks heading to Berlin to get her patriarchal blessing. . This makes me so grateful for where I live that I do not have to travel so far to get to a temple or travel 3 hours to get a patriarchal blessing. . The saints are so great here in Germany.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday about the Holy Ghost. . It went really well and eveyone told me they understood me!! lol. Also during the talk though. . I leaned over to Bruder Eckloff the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency to tell me how to pronounce some words. . .it was funny, but it went really well.

 Doing doors on 'evil street'

So we have been doing doors on this street that we call evil street.  I have talked about this street before, but we went back yesterday and we have only four more doors left. . but we got yelled at super bad yesterday by like three different people. We are determined to finish this street. . but after all that has happened there we are like afraid of it.

Well hopefully this will be a much better week. Mom asked what I would like in a package. .. I am not sure, but swedish fish is always good and graham crackers and pecans would be good so I can make pralines. . . put the recipe with it as well. But I do not know what I really would like. . .

Anyways. . . I love ya`ll!!!

Sister Anderson

Don't Give Up ... It's just the way of the world!

Liebe Meine Familie,

so much has gone on this week and this has been a fun fun week and a little bit disappointing.

So Mom asked a little bit about the branch here in Rostock and there is only one branch in Rostock and we do not split up the city with the Elders . . we can go any where we would like and it is so fun!!

We have about 6 or so young single adults and maybe some more but they are not active and it is a lot of fun working with them. 

The weather here is really cold, but there is no snow and hopefully spring comes soon. And we have been having longer days because it has been getting lighter earlier and darker later.

We went to Warnemude on Monday for pday and it was so so so much fun. .. It was the beach and this little tourist dorf  ( a dorf is a small town).

Well, thanks to Kimberly for sending four letters at the same time. . .lol. for a second I thought you were the only sibling who did not love me and then I got a month worth of letters from ya ..lol.

Kimberly asked about the food here and the cultural with it. . . People always serve us Frucht tea or pffermint tea when we come over...or alot of people serve us orange juice... I have never drinking so much orange juice in my life... And I hate oranges. I drink it really slow so they do not give me any more. Anyways People always also think that they have to have goodies when we come over.

They feed us a lot of food. . . and usually we do not dish up our own servings... Br. Scmidt though stuffed us last week and I do not even like potatoe salad and majority of the plate was that. lol. But I eat the food with out complate. ALso He made a mexicanisch salad... It is really funny that when some one serves us something and says I hope it is not too hot because of the peppers and stuff in it... and it is not hot at all. They do not eat hot food like texans and mexicans do with all the spices and stuff. . .  They do eat alot of brot and and lots of pigs here. I some how think that after I get home fromt he mission that hotdogs will no longer be my favorite food because you eat way to much of it here.

So as far as people. . we had another appointment with Herr Gruber and he tschued us. Which means he has no more interessting in meeting with us. . .It was really sad because then the rest of the day all of our appointments fell out and and we were not having any luck whatso ever.

We are however meeting with this new lady, Ljudmila, who was a previous investigator and she is from Sibera. She is super cool and she has a strong desire to join the church if she sees that the members truly live and believe in this faith. .

Judith, she is the one who got baptized in december and is 23. She went to the Temple for the first time last week and is getting ready to get her patriartical blessing. . . she is also really excited because she found a name through family history that she can take to the temple next time she is able to go!!!

The language is very difficult, but I am really starting to understand the people more an more everyday... Though speaking is still very hard for me I can at least piece together on what is being talked about which I so love.

Next sunday I have to give a talk in sacrament about the Holy Ghost .... I am really nervous about that. . 

Anyways I just wanted to express my gratitutude to Grandma Matthews. . .I got a call from President on Sunday telling me about what is going on and I just wanted to say that I love you and that the Lord will guide and bless you. .. Many prayers are being said for you and I love how strong you are. Stay strong and just remember to smile!!!!

Also yay for Uncle Don!!! that is so exciting about your new call as a mission president in florida!!! best of luck and can not wait to see how your experince is. . .

I love you all and viel Gluck mit diese nachste Woche.

Sister Anderson

Valentinstag !!!!! spread the love!!

meine familie,

 

2 Nephi 22:2 says, "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, he also has become my salvation."

 

This is so so so so true and I am so grateful to spread the Gospel to people so they can have that same salvation.

 

Well, first off I wanted to ask mom if she can, in her weekly mailed letters, maybe stick a recipe in there (do one a week) and then I can start getting easy things to make. lol. 

 

Also, tell Frau Hanes I have not heard from Bettina in forever. I wrote her before I left on my mission, but never heard back from her. And I do not know how the German really sounds in Berlin, but right now all German pretty much sounds the same to me.  But, I do know there is hulk german which is the normal one and then there is platt german which is used more in the southern parts.

 

Zone conference is next Tuesday, so if anyone has sent letters or things to the office address then I will get them next week.  We normally just get that mail once a transfer because that is the only time we really see President and the assitants. So yeah.

 

I very much wish I could go to the temple, but that is way too far away. It is in Frieberg and actually Sister Peltier, my mtc companion, is serving in Frieberg and so she probably has got to go. I do know that if you are in the area of the mission you can go once a transfer on a p day. So yeah.

 

Thanks to the Whitings for the Valentine card.  It made me happy, and also thanks to Blake and Lindsay and the boys for the hearts, and then Eric and Kiersten for the short email!!! I love you all!!

 

Ha, I thought it was super funny about Neil and that girl who was going to kiss him, lol. My little brother cannot start that. . .way to go!! lol.

 

So not much to say from this week. . . I thought I might say a little about the culture of germany. . at least the part of it I know.. Rostock. I have come to a realization that I do not like dogs at all. . . Everyone seriously has dogs here and I have come to the point where I try to see if the dog matches the outside appreance of people. . as you know in 101 Dalmations. . the dogs match their owners. . . and it is true here as well. As you may remeber Rainbow Row in South Carolina.., every road here is a rainbow road pretty much and there are pigions everywhere. . .Germany is what people in America would probably call ghetto because of all the spraypaint and stuff on all the buildings and kind of run down looking. But it is super pretty here. People are super friendly until the word God is mentioned. I do not know what all to tell you, but ask me some specific questions about Germany and the culture and I might be able to tell ya'll a bit better. lol

 

So we invited Herr Gruber to be baptized this last appointment. . the topic of him already being baptized came up, so he did not commit to any date, but now he really knows our purpose of meeting with him and we are still meeting with him. He just needs a little more time, and we are trying so hard to get him to come to church. . he just never seems like he has time.

 

So because of transfers and Elder Ryser left we have gotten a new elder- district leader here in Rostock. His name is Elder Cox and he is from Las Vegas and will be going home in August.

 

Along with this week of we also got tshued. . which means goodbyed. Frau Ewert has no desire to change or to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. . our last appointment she was going to give the book back, but we told her to keep it as a gift. . . It was sad to have to say goodbye, but she is just not ready to make commitments, and until she prays we can not do anything. So she told us goodbye.

 

We are also meeting this guy, Karl, who also will not pray, but we are still meeting with him and he has potential to change.

 

I really want to see Herr Gruber get baptized and the coolest part is.. in Rostock they get baptized in the sea!!! I so want to see a baptism in the sea. So keep him in your prayers and he is getting there!!!

 

Well I love y'all and today for Valentines we are going to Warnemuda with the elders and senior sisters. . . I will tell you about it next time, !!!!!!!

 

love y'all and spread the love!!!

Be Diligent Unto the End

Date: Monday, February 7, 2011, 3:52 AM

meine familie,

 

"Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be dilligent unto the end."

 

So, this week I studied the Christlike attribute, dilligence, and worked on it. . . my biggest question was when is this language going to come? Well, my answer came in the scriptures, of course. . . when I read the above scripture I thought this was a perfect answer. . . I know the Lord will bless me as I continue to be dilligent. . even though some days I feel like this language will never come, I know by putting my trust in the Lord he will give the words I need at the moment they need to be said.

 

Anyways, this week has been an interesting one and I thought very interesting since the attribute I was working on was dilligence. . this week so many obstacles came that it was hard to be dilligent. . but I still put forth my effort. First off. . . I do not remember if I have ever told ya´ll about evil street. . . This is a street that some members about five weeks ago prayed about so we can go do doors. Well, we immediately started doing doors there and every time we go we get yelled at and the last time we went this lady told us she will call the police if we stay. . . We are determined to finish this street and we think these obstacles are there because maybe somebody is there waiting to hear our message. . . it is hard to say, but we are keeping our heads up and it is taking us forever to finish this street because of all the anger people have against us there.

But one night we decided to go back to the street. . . a couple blocks away I told Sister Christenson we need to say a prayer before we enter the street. We did so, and then just moments later, before we got to the street. . we came across this man, who seriously looked like Luigi...or how ever you spell it from Mario. Anyways. . .He was super excited and told us to come into the bakery with him and talk. . . So, for about an hour or so we sat in a bakery with him and just introduced the Book of Mormon to him. He told us that he met people like us before, but they could not answer his questions. . We did the best we could and we have another appointment with him on Thursday. We never did make it to the street to do doors because of the time, but from saying a prayer and then meeting him along the way, it was a miracle.

 

We also made an appointment with this previous investigator and met him on Friday. . He is super friendly, but he is a conspiracy theorist. He told us that Rostock is about Atlantis and that we are part of that great Empire. Every time we asked him what he thought about God or the Book of Mormon or Jesus, he changed the subject and would talk about some other weird thing. . . He is for sure interesting. lol.

 

We met with another previous investigator who is from Afghanistan and came to church yesterday. . we are meeting with him a couple more times this coming week. And possibly going to invite him to be baptized.

 

Herr Gruber is doing great. . .we met with him for the third time on Saturday and he is a little more accepting of the apostacy, though he does not understand why God would leave his children without the gospel for 1800 years. His biggest question though right now is if Joseph Smith is a prophet. . . he said he will pray about that. . but next time we meet with him we are going to invite him to be baptized and talk about prayer, because yesterday we asked him to pray and he prays to Christ and just says Amen at the end. . .So we are going to talk about that. . . I sure pray he accepts the baptism invitation. . he is my very first investigator!!!! We are still working on getting him to church though.

 

So we had dinner at the Eckloffs on Saturday and they made tacos which made me excited. . Germany does not have Mexican food at all. I think it is funny though, because people always want to make American food for us. lol.

 

Saturday night I had my very first transfer call conference, but the conference call was not working. . . So they called everyone individually and so we had to stay up super late to wait for our call. . We did not go to bed until midnight. . . we are both staying in Rostock. exciting.

 

This week I have had an awful cold and so that has been super hard and it has been rainy and cold. . . I bought a new umbrella because the one I had the wind completely destroyed it. my goodness.

 

Well,  I have been getting your letters every week in the mail and I did get Eric's and Blake's. . . if you have been sending letters to the office address then I will not get them until Febuary 22. just so you know.

 

Thanks for everyone's love and support. . . Keep praying, reading your scriptures, etc!!!

 

I love ya´´ll

 

Sister Britt Anderson