It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!!

: Monday, December 5, 2011 3:52 AM
Subject: It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!!

Meine Familie,

Wow...it is Monday and I woke up like three times this week thinking it was Monday. This week seemed to never end, but it was a good one!

Last Monday we went to the Christmas Market here in Cottbus. It was fun and we took lots of pictures and you will find out because I am working on getting those loaded right now and sending them to you. We are planning on going to Dresden next Monday with our District for the Christmas Market there...Everyone says it is like the best! I am excited!

On Tuesday we went to Dresden for President Interviews. I feel like that happened like a month ago, but it was this week. It was really good. President went over our goals for the Advent Season that I wrote about last week to y'all. It was really good and I had a really good interview with President. I get a package from the Activity Day girls, but I do not know who to mail a letter to because it was sent by Sister Hansen and y'all said that she moved. I would like to write a thank you letter to the girls, but I need an address to send it to. After interviews we were rushing to get to the train station to catch our train back to Cottbus. The Forst Elders were with us because they were going to be on the same train as us and it was funny because we missed our train to go to the train station and so we took a detour on a tram to get there, but we did not know if we were going to make it. Well, as we were on the tram it was really crowded and we were standing. All the others had a pole to hold on to, but where I was standing I had nothing. The tram turned and I started to fall backwards and the closest thing I could grab to try to not fall was Elder Hadfield's coat sleeve. Well, as a result, he ended up falling and we ended up pulling Sister Olsen with us and so we all fell to the side of the tram and I landed on this old man sitting there and I was so sorry. He said it was ok and Elder Hadfield and I pushed Sister Olsen off of us and we all just started laughing because it was actually funny and in like slow motion. Well, every one on the tram was looking at us weird, but once they saw us all laughing they began to smile too. It is hard to really describe this moment on paper.

Well, the rest of the week was pretty awesome and full of miracles!!! Wednesday morning we had an appointment with this one guy named Chaoke. He is from China and he lives in the student housing. . . which alot of our investigators do. It was our first appointment with him and so we brought him the Book of Mormon in Chinese. I will say that how many times I have taught Chinese investigators or Arabic investigators, I have gotten really good at reading numbers in their languages because I am having to find the scriptures that I want them to read. Any ways, it was a really good appointment and we watched the Restoration in Chinese and during the film he would lean over and ask me..."That is the boy who prayed to God, right?" or "That is the book that you gave me, right?" He was very curious and though he does not believe in God, he really commited to praying and said he wants to find out if it all is true!! We are so excited! He is really busy this week though, so we will meet with him next week!

We also met with Frau Chahin on Wednesday. This time her granddaughter stayed in the other room and so the appointment went much better. We taught the third lesson and she does want to come to our church, but her husband has the car and so it depends on him if she is able to come. It was good though and she seems to enjoy our visits. She won't pray with us because she says she only knows the Lord's prayer, but we do not see how hard it is to switch over to just saying what you are grateful for and saying what is in your heart, but we are working on it.

So what else happened this week?? Well, we visited Tom and Sissi. Tom is our ward mission leader. We ate dinner with them and it was really good. They are awesome. Tom is from Utah and Sissi is from Germany. They both met on their mission in Münich and now he is a student here in Cottbus! Before the appointment with them though, we did some doors and made three new appointments...that was awesome because that rarely ever happens!!

Then of course, December 1st came around. We are asked that every day of December up to Christmas we write down a miracle on our calender that President mailed us. Well, this was a pretty good day. We met with Sch. Reddewagen. She is an older lady, probably in her 80s. She is so funny though and for our spiritual thought with her we talked about joy and what brings us joy. I mentioned how my family and friends bring me joy and then out of nowhere she asks, "And your boyfriend, right? Don't you have a boyfriend?" She totally caught me off guard and she was just getting a kick out of it. Oh, it was funny though. We never leave her place without having to take a plate of goodies with us. She bakes alot.

Then later...we say our miracle for the day. . . we met with Frau Baruk who is the 6 year long investigator and we set a baptismal date with her. We wanted to set the date for in January and at our appointment she told us that she wants so bad to be baptized, but she wants it for Easter and so that is when her date is. The problem is that she can not come to church unless her husband drives her and she really wants to come. She asked us to pray that her husband's heart can be more open and that he will listen to her. That is the main reason she has not been able to get baptized yet. But for us it was a miracle that she set her own baptism date and when she wants to be baptized.

We went and visted Sch. Münch this week. She is actually the member we will be spending Christmas eve with. And I will go ahead and mention this now. I do not know what phone I will be using to call yet. It will either be at Sch. Münch's home on Christmas Eve or it will be at the Schult family's home on Christmas day. I will find out this week and let y'all know. I know Sister Olsen is going to be using Skype at Sister Münch's home on Christmas Eve. But any ways, our appointment was really good with Sister Münch. We ordered pizza and the problem right now is that she is having a hard time with her testimony. She was baptized about 8 years ago and she thinks that she was baptized too fast and is now struggling with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It is difficult sometimes because she has a testimony but she is just doubting it. We actually call her every night to tell her a miracle from the day and to try and help her.

Our miracle that day was that this contact that I have never met, but Sister Olsen had met, texted us and said that he is in town for the weekend and wants to meet. He then came to church on Sunday because that was the only time we could see him. He is really busy and travels alot for work. He is going to be leaving for Australia in January for two months.

Saturday was a pretty good day as well. We met with this former investigator named Soloman. He is a student here and is from Ghana. He is super quiet and so we have to ask him really good questions to actually get him talking. He does want to find out though and we had a big discussion on how we can know if we have an answer from God. He says that he does not pray that often and so he does not know what he would feel for an answer. We had a pretty good discussion.

We than met with Chi-yu. He is the investigator from Tawian that has been investigating for about a year. He asked us alot of questions about the commandments. One question was mostly focused on tea becuase we cannot drink Black tea and he says that is a huge Tawain thing...that when you go and visit your grandparents and stuff that you dring black tea. So that is the problem at the moment. He says he is going to email Eric, but he does not know what to say to break the ice...at least that is what he said. I just said to tell him you know his sister and blah blah blah. We will see if he actually does it.

Our miracle that day was this muslim guy from Sudan that we met on the street. We were really busy that day and did not really have time to talk to people on the street or do finding, but on our way home we stopped this guy and he pretty much made the appointment with us.It was funny because he was like, "I am tired, you guys look tired and so let us meet next week again". It was a miracle. The first and last person we got a chance to speak to that day made out an appointment with us.

Sunday was then a great day. At church we had a lesson in Relief Society about overcoming doubt and stuff. I really hope Sister Münch was listening. And then in Sacrament we were sitting there and about 15 minutes after it started Soloman walked in and I signaled for him to come sit by us. That was our miracle that day because out of all people we were not expecting him to come to church. It was awesome and we are so excited to continue meeting with him.

We than had a great eating appointment with another Schröder family in our ward. Everyone is the ward is like related to each other...which how it is in most German wards and branches. But it was awesome and they are a great couple. Those Christmas pyramids with the spinny thing on top - y'all have one. But any ways, he hand makes those and they are really cool, the ones that he makes.

We than had an appointment later with Achim. That was not a good appointment at all. It ended on a bad note. He has been meeting with the sisters for about 8 or 9 months and my first appointment we had with him he said that he meets with the sisters because it is fun and he loves to just talk about random stuff with them. I told him that our purpose is to either teach him the gospel or English. He says he likes Eenglish. Well today he brought a post card that he wanted Sister Olsen to write a letter to his ex girlfriend on it and he would tell her what to write. This girl speaks lots of languages and we thought he would want us to write it in English for him, but he wanted it in German. He is perfectly able to write a letter in German himself. .. and i asked him if he was interested in learning the gospel or English because if he does not have interest in any of those things then we can not meet him every week..we could possibly visit him every two or three weeks just to see how he is doing....well, he started yelling at me and telling me that all the other sisters met with him every week and blah blah blah. And he got really mad. I was not trying to get an argument or make him mad...I was just trying to see what he wanted us to do as far as teaching him. Well, he is not interested in either one of those things and so he pretty much said bye to us. It was not a good appointment...and I do not like being yelled at, especially in German, because they sound more mad and angry. But he pulled the age card on me and said that I do not know anything and he is much older in his 50s or 60s and after he left me and Sister Olsen were like...well at least we were the ones acting our age and not like a little child. He are actually pretty happy about having this break from him.

But on a good note Chrys, this guy from Nigera showed up to the church for our appointment and he is cool. . . he has lived in German as a student for a year and does not know any german and so we are going to help teach him German. Sister Olsen told him I played soccer and so now he wants to play...I told him I will think about it...I am not a fan of playing in the freezing cold. We have not gotten snow yet and everyone says that is unusual, but I am pretty happy about it!!.

To answer some questions from Mom...the church in Cottbus is a ward and we use public transportation here...buses, trams, trains.

I was wondering if y'all ever got my package I mailed...the one I mailed either end of October or beginning of November. Also, your Christmas packages I will get at Christmas Zone Conference. President says they will hand out all of our family Christmas packages there.

Besides our appointment with Achim...this was a great week and so much happened. I love the work so much and it really is a wonderful time to teach people the gospel of Jesus Christ. I look forward to this coming week and I know that this is the true church of Christ. He lives and he is the Son of God.

I love y'all and hope y'all have a great week...

p.s. I did take money out of my account. .. dad was wanting to know.

Der Advent der Wunder!!!

Message body

Meine Familie,

So normally I write a list of what I want to talk about in my letter...but I totally spaced on that this week. So much was going on...but never the less it was a great week and we saw miracles. As far as my address goes. If you sent me a letter and wrote Zirchow, I will still get it because I have already recieved letters that have said that, but the actual name of the street is Virchow. So write me to that address...Virchow..not Zirchow. Sorry, I did the same thing with the address in Kiel.

Last Monday we were suppose to have an appointment with this guy we met on the street, but he called us and said that he was in Berlin, but would be able to meet with us next Monday...so we are hopefully going to be seeing him tonight. So instead of having him, we went over to Schwester Zander's apartment. She is one of my most favorite people here in Cottbus. She is so fun and we were all just lauging and having a good time. Yesterday was her birthday and we brought her some cookies and a card. She was like "How did you know?"...we just laughed and said, "Missionaries know everything." But I look forward to keep visiting her and getting to know her.

Tuesday was a great day...except for the fact all of our appointments fell out. We had a mission conference call with President Pimentel. And as a result we are super exicted for what we will be doing this Christmas season as a mission. So it is tradition in Germany to have Advent. We are all familiar with Advent Calenders and how they are used to count down to Christmas....and wow..they sure do sell alot of Advent Calenders here. Well, every Sunday leading up to Christmas is an Advent. Germany has these Advent wreaths and in the wreath there are four read candles and a white candle in the middle. Yesterday was the 1st Advent and so they light the first candle.

1st Advent means Hope...it is the Prophets candle
as a mission we are using this candle as Faith and Finding and this week we will have a perfect appointment week, meaning we will be make out a new appointment every day
2nd Advent means Peace...it is the Bethlehem Candle
as a mission we are using this candle as Repentance and Teaching and this wek we will have a focas on Joint teaches and get as many as we can
3rd Advent means Joy...it is the Shepherds candle
as a mission we are using this candle as baptism and baptism and this week we will have a focas on inviting all of our investigators to be baptized
4th Advent means Love...it is the Angles candle
as a mission we are using this candle as Holy Ghost and Keeping and this week we will focas on getting a keeper Sucess with a member
And then the last candle is the Christ candle which is lit on Christmas day in celebration of Christ's birth

I know you can read more about this German tradition on the mission blog. We are really excited for this and the name of this mission goal for Advent is The Advent of Miracles or in German Der Advent Der Wunder. So we know that we are going to see many miracles and President as asked us to announce to are wards that we invite them to invite someone to church for every Advent sunday and our focas this month is increasing church attendence!!! I know we will see miracles this Christmas season here in Germany!!!!!!!!!!

Later on Tuesday we had Choir practice that night. The ward is doing a Christmas concert and as asked us to sing with them. But during the practice I stepped out for a moment to make some phone calls and made out a pretty awesome appointment with some one who was a previous appointment. Too bad he did not show up because we were suppose to have that appointment yesterday. We tried calling him again, but he did not answer..that is ok...Life as a missionary. . . lots of waiting.

Wednesday was a good day ...and very funny. So we had District Meeting in Görlitz that morning and then took the train back to Cottbus... we then had lunch and made cookies for members birthdays that were that week. .. we have a goal to bring something by to every member that has a birthday that week so we can get to know the ward better. Really funny though because on Wednesday our ward list said that it was Samuel Ritters birthday and so we made cookies and a card for him. The thing I do not like about the ward list here is that they do not have people divided into familes and says who belongs to who and for birthdays it does not say how old or what year they were born in. So we made this card and wrote Brother Ritter on it...thinking it was an older man. Welll, we got to there apartments and they let us in. Turned out it was little Ritters birthday...he just turned 2 years old. Every one laughed though and we thought it was funny too because we thought it was the dad.But we had fun and got cake out of it too.. . and we for sure know every member in that family!! But we are not going to make that mistake again..so now we just write Happy Birthday on the cards with no names. lol.

After that we started doing doors at the Student housing. It was fun, we made out an appointment with this guy from the Philippians and he said that he had a friend back in high school who went on a mission for our church. We met with him a couple days ago and it was funny because he told us his mother language was Tagalog and we had a Book of Mormon at our appartment that had a sticky note on it and said that. We brought him that Book of Mormon and he looked at it and said he had no idea what it said. We are going to bring him the right book next time...he even said English will work to. It was fun to talk with him though and he seems very intrested in what we believe. The only problem is that he goes to Berlin every sunday to go to Mass at the Catholic church. The other appointment we made out was with this Chinese guy, but that appointment fell out.
Doing doors there was fun...but while in the building this guy walked in and I felt prompted to talk to him and we were just about to make out an appointment when this girl from Poland comes out of her room holding our card. We put cards on the doors that did not answer and she comes out kind of mad and asks us what we are doing and why I put this card on her door...as I was trying to explain to her that we invite people to look at the website and then if they would like to meet withus they can. As this was happening the other guy disappeared and we were not able to make out an appointment with him. So that was a little disappointing, but we still had some pretty awesome miralces this week.

Thursday...was Thanksgiving....and I just would like to say that I am really grateful for everything I have. I am grateful to be part of a wonderful family who I know I can be with forever with. I am grateful for the church and that it is really the true church on earth and the more and more I teach it the more and more it makes since and there can really be no other true church on the earth like it. I am grateful for the teachings of the Bible and Book of Mormon and for the opprotunity that every one has to come until Christ and be baptized.
this day was a good day. We met with Christine. It is kind of hard with her because she really does want to be baptized, but she is letting her daughter hold her back. He little girl is about 5 years old and Christine say that she wants to wait to be baptized with her daughter. As nice as that sounds. She needs to understand that we should not wait. I also met here daughter and she does not have down syndrome, but she does have a disablity that is related in a way. But I don't seem to have the courage to tell her that her daughter really does not have to be baptized. It is a bit difficult, but hopefully she will realize soon that she needs to be baptized sooner than later.
We than visited this member, Schwester Raddewagen. She is in her 80s and is just so funny. . . and well, we never leave her home without taking home a plate of cookies or candy...my goodness. We than just spent the rest of the day talking to people on the street because all of our other appointments fell out. But we did decide to get something for Thanksgiving and so we went to the trainstation and I got some McDonalds and Sister Olsen got a Döner..It was fun!

Friday I would say was for sure a miracle day. Our appointment that morning with Frau Baruk fell out and so we went to go talk to people in the park because it was a nice day. As we were walking in the park there was one guy walking in our direction and than another guy right behind him. I looked at Sister Olsen and said...you talk to this guy and I will go talk to the other guy. Normally in these situations one of us gets rejected or both of us get rejected, but this time we both were having long conversations. Sister Olsen said that she ended up teaching this guy the 2nd lesson and I ended up teaching the other guy the 1st lesson. It was really cool and as a result we made out an appointment with the guy I was talking to, but the other guy did not know when he would have time. But we thought that was for sure a miracle. The rest of the day went good. We had an appointment with Bezhan and it is difficult some times because he speaks Arabic and very little English and German. But we read in the Book of Mormon and I know how to read numbers in Arabic and so I am able to find the chapters and verses that we want him to read.

Than onto Saturday....We met with this previous investigator named Talent. He is from Zwimbawa and is really cool. We had a really good appointment and is really intrested in us meeting more!! I can not wait to continue meeting with him. We also met with Chiyu and I gave him Eric's email address. He is the one from Taiwan. I hope he emails you, Eric, because that would be cool.

On Sunday we had church and it was really cool because towards the end of Sacrament this guy walks in and I sat with him and translated the talk into english for him. After Sacrament I was talking to him and he said that he was from Nigeria and that this was his first time coming to our church. I asked him how he found out about our church and he told us that he was hanging out at his friends apartment and he saw are card on the floor with our church address and our number on it. He than decided to come. And we found out also that he is friends with a couple of our investigators, Evidence and Talent, but where he found our card was not with those friends it was some where else. I than told him about the Book of Mormon and he is intrested in getting one and so this week we are going to bring him one. I am so excited and he was for sure a miracle.
We than had an eating appointment with the Schröder family and it was fun. We had a traditional german meal....meat, red cabbage, potatoes and gravy. Very delicious and than they gave me and Sister Olsen each a bag of Christmas candy and chocolate...oh dear....here comes the chocolate.
Later we had an appointment with this guy Achim. There is really no reason for us meeting with him because he just likes to sit and chat and so we will see what happens, but we are hoping he develops more of a desire to learn from us. We than had an appointment with Evidence and he is from Nigeria and way cool. I got to know him some and I am excited to keep teaching him.

So yeah, what a week, but it was a good one. Sister Olsen's family lives in Kansas City at the moment....she has moved around alot though because her dad was a doctor in the airforce. And we are really excited because we are going to go explore the Christmas market today because we have been walking past it all week and seeing the lights..I took some pictures already of some of the lights, but we are happy that we can go explore it more today!!! Um. . . Tomorrow is President Interviews and so I should get the package thing from the acheivment girls tomorrow...normally if things are sent to the mission office I get them at Interviews or Zone Conference.

I do not know if I mentioned it, but for christmas packages I will be sending them after Christmas, because post will go faster than. Also Have fun in Arruba Hansen family!!! Goodluck with everything!!

Love y'all
Sister britt

Cottbus!!!

Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 3:32 AM
Subject: Cottbus!!!
 
Meine Familie,

Well...it is a new city and a new start and it is fantastic!!!! To be honest I was ready to leave Kiel. The people there are amazing and I love them and will keep in touch with them, but I did have a hard time there as well. It is really nice to get a fresh new start in a new place.

My last day in Kiel was a lot of fun though. We went bowling with the Elders and then later I got to teach my last English Class. It was sad to say goodbye, but at the end of the class everyone was handing me their email addresses and wanting to keep in contact with me. I will miss them. We then had FHE and I got to say goodbye to some of the young single adults here.

Well, Tuesday morning came and the Elders picked us up to help me get my luggage to the train station and I was able to say goodbye to Elder and Sister Marks, who have really been like my mission parents here. I love them!!! and watch out mom and dad...they made me write down my home address and phone number so they can contact you and maybe visit y'all after the mission. lol. Then I got on the train and was ready for my long journey to Cottbus. I had to switch trains in Hamburg to take a train to Berlin. There was an Elder who was getting transferred to Berlin who was on the same train. So luckily for me, there were about 6 Elders waiting in Berlin for this Elder and so I had plenty of help with my luggage to get me to the next train, which was nice because the train station in Berlin is huge and I do not know if I would have found where I was supposed to go without them. I then waited there for my last train to Cottbus. After a long travel I made it to Cottbus and Sister Allan and Sister Olsen were there waiting for me. Sister Allan was ending her mission and traveling to Berlin on Wednesday so we all spent Tuesday together. We went over to Schwester Lehman's home. She is the Relief Society president in the ward and is so nice. She fed us pancakes and we visited for a while. She is way cool. She joined the church about 8 years ago and is so excited because her daughter joined the church 3 years ago and married in the temple and just recently had a baby. Schwester Lehman is so excited because she is telling every one that her grandson was born in the church and will be raised in the church. We then went and visited Tom and Sissi. They are really young...in their 20s and Tom is our ward mission leader and from Utah. He and Sissi met on their missions in Switzerland and she is from Germany. They got married and now he is studying at the university here.

Sorry, so much has happened this week...to answer some of Mom's questions....I am in the Dresden Zone, which means I get to go back to the Temple and I will get to go back to Leipzig for Christmas Zone Conference because Dresden Zone and Leipzig Zone come together for that. It is a smaller city...It covers more area than Rostock but has less people. I love it though and cannot wait for more adventures here. We have a lot of awesome investigators and an awesome ward. Although they have not had a baptism for 4 years, the ward is so excited about missionary work. We are praying for a miracle this Christmas and it will be a white one for sure....(baptism white)!!

We visited this member, Bruder Gröschke, one day this week...he is an older man, probably in his 70s or 80s, but he is so funny. Sister Olsen has only been in Germany for like a month and a half and so she is getting to experience a whole lot of new things. Well, Bruder Gröschke made us some cheese wurst and we ate sliced bread with it. Well, he pulled out of his refrigerator some liver wurst and he squeezed a whole bunch on Sister Olsen's plate for her to spread on her bread and then he just set it next to me to help myself to what I would like. It was really funny because I am not a big fan of liver wurst but I've learned that I still should take some, but spread it on very thin so I can rarely taste it and have it with some cheese spread as well..This was Sister Olsen's first time eating liver wurst and she had a ton on her plate and so she had it spread thick on her bread. Poor girl...her face looked like she just wanted to die. But she lived through it!!!!

We also met with an eternal investigator that night, Berzahn. He does not really speak any German or English and so we speak very simple and he brings his computer to help with translation. We taught him the third lesson and he seemed to understand it for the most part and we asked him about baptism...he never said no, but his biggest problem is the fact that we call God...Heavenly Father. He says that fathers are not perfect, but God is. So he has a hard time seeing God as his father. So that is what his biggest concern is at the moment.

We have met alot of cool people on the street too. Sister Olsen is only in her 2nd transfer and so she is still a golden and so President had said that I am going to finish training her. . . which is different for me because now I am the companion that understands all the German and can do most of the speaking. But she is rockin'! We stopped this one guy on the street named Hagan. It was funny because I told him we were talking to people about Jesus Christ and he replied with the typical German answer, that he was atheist. . . but I asked him if he would at least pray to God and ask him if he was there. He agreed...so I went into shock and then I asked if he wanted to meet with us and once again he agreed and suggested to meet us at our church. So now we are supposed to have an appointment with him tonight and I really pray that he does show up. He seems so cool!!! So that was a little miracle in the day.

Other people that we have met this week was Christine...who I guess has been investigating the church for a long time. She is a mother of a daughter with disabilities...not sure what it is, but it is some sort of mental retardation. We had a reallly good appointment and well, I was trying to get to know her and see what her testimony on the church was. I asked her to be baptized and she said that she would want to wait until her daughter can be baptized as well. He daughter is 5 years old. . . They came to church yesterday and I loved it. I met her daughter for the first time and her daughter was sitting next to me and holding my hand and stuff....reminded me of spending time with Neil. The primary program was yesterday and the last song that was sung was a baptism song and it talked about Jesus Christ getting baptized and then the chorus was "Come into the water, Come and be baptized, Come and follow Jesus Christ into a better life, Come and take the first step, leave the world behind in the water." During this song and the words that were said during the primary program you could tell that Christine was about to cry. She knows this church is true and she knows she needs to be baptized. We just need her to realize that waiting three years to be baptized with her daughter is not the best answer.

Anyways, we also met with this really weird family this week. The Chahin family. They are an older couple and their 16 year old grand daughter was there which took away alot of spirit. The granddaughter is atheist, but the grandparents know this church is true and we would have been able to set a baptism date with the Grandma, but when we asked the Grandma, the granddaughter said, "my grandmother is evangalist and she will stay that way." It was a bit fustrating and we are hoping that if the granddaughter is there next time to at least have her soften her heart a little. The granddaughter just does not know that we have actually been meeting with her Grandparents for over two months and they are actually very interested in our message.

Wow, alot really did happen this week and I want to talk about it all...it just takes to long...but I will try my best. We ran into this really cool guy on the street one night this week. His name was John K. He had a suit case and I felt prompted to speak to him, but when I was about to say something he stopped us and asked us for directions. It was all in English and this guy was really cool. He then asked us about our name tags and said that he has seen guys around where he lives with the same tags. He is from New Zealand and is traveling around Germany for a month on business. He said that he had a Book of Mormon at home and we gave him our card and said that if he needs anything he is welcome to call us and also to look on the internet site to find the missionaries by where he is from. He seemed very interested and happy to do that. I really pray that he does continue his curiosity in the church. We taught him a quick 1st lesson on the street and he asked us why the Mormons had to leave New York and how they settled in Utah...so we gave him a little bit of church history too. It was really cool and awesome!!

Another really cool miracle from this week was when we ran into Krishna on the street. We met this guy on Wednesday night and we were not having any luck with finding people who wanted to listen to us and so we were making our way home and Krishna was the last person we talked to and he set up an appointment with us and so forth. We met him on Friday night and he was really cool. He is from India and is not religious at all and his family is Hindu. He was interested in the Book of Mormon and said he will read it. We were not able to set up a return appointment because he did not know when he could met again, but we have his phone number and he has ours, so we will see what happens.

Wow...a few more things to say, Frau Baruk is this eternal intestigator for like 6 years and apparently has a baptism date every year. She knows the church is true and she loves it so much. And so we set another baptism date with her for January 18th and she said she will pray about it. Sister Olsen and I are making it a goal to make this the final date!!!! It was a really short appointment, but we are going to see her again this Thursday.

We also met with Schwester Münch this week. We actually call her ever night because she is a member who is struggling with her testimony and so we call her every night to tell her what miracle we have seen that day and we sing her a song. We went and visited her this week. She was asking me why I came on a mission and how I came to know that this church is true...It was a great chance for me to refocus my mind on thinking how I have truly been converted to the church. Any though, I have been a member my whole life...I told her I did have to pray to know for myself and the more I learned the more I knew. I bore my testimony that I know it is true and I cannot even come close to denying it. The spirit was really strong and last night when we talked to her on the phone she told us that she saw her mom that day and that her mom is atheist and she was never able to be open about what she believes and she bore her testimony to her mom that she knows that God is there. That made us so happy to hear and I am so grateful that she really has more of testimony than she thinks.

Ok almost done....we also met with this investigator Chi-yu who is also like this eternal investigator...He is from Taiwan and has been here for 3 years studying. He reads in the Book of Mormon and says that he really is searching for the truth and I asked him that if he found out that this church was true if he would be baptized. He then talked about how his family would not be too happy about that and that there are some Taiwan traditions that are against christianity. He also thinks too logically about things...he is studying philosphy and everything. I told him that Eric served his mission in Taiwan and so he really is interested in talking to Eric. I told him I will give him Eric's email address, if that is ok with you Eric? I am not sure what his email address is though. But he does seem interested in talking to you.

Last of all...Sunday was a really good day. The ward is so great. After church we had a Gemeinde Essen...can not remember what you call it in english, but it is when after church every one brings food and you eat as a ward. It was Schwester Kallie's 90th birthday and so we celebrated for that. After church an appointment fell out and so we went home and did some area book stuff and then went out to find people. We talked to so many people and finally made an appointment with this guy named Lorence. He pretty much set up the appointment for us...he was like "ok, I will meet you on Friday at your church and here is my phone number." So that was pretty cool. We then later made our way home and did some weekly planning. It was a great week and I look forward to this coming week.

Any though, I will not get a Thanksgiving this year because I am here in Germany...I just want to say that I am thankful for my family and the many examples I have had in my life. I am so grateful to be the fourth out of my siblilings to serve a mission for the Lord. I am grateful for the church and the little miracles I get to see every day. I know this to be the true church of God!!!

I love y'all and wish y'all a happy holiday and also Happy anniversary to Mom and Dad...wow..33 years!

love, Sister Britt

Going east!!!

Meine Familie,

Ahhh....Transfer calls were on Saturday and I am getting transferred back to the EAST!!!! I am so excited to go back to the east...the west is nice, but the east feels more at home! I will be serving in Cottbus. It is right next to Berlin and I am excited because I will once again get to go back to the temple once a transfer!! It will be a different experence though because my whole mission up to this point I have always shared the city with a senior couple and Elders and this time it will be just me and my companion. But I am way excited!! I will be leaving tomorrow...for a long train ride there. My new companion is Sister Olson and she is going into her 2nd transfer, so still a Golden. I am excited to serve with her....

my new address:

Sister Brittany Anderson
Kirche Jesu Christi
Zirchow str. 39
03044 Cottbus
Germany

Umm... before I talk about the week: Happy Birthday to Grandma Anderson!!!!!

This week was a good week...Mom asked me what "Naja" means because I use that alot...I guess you can translate it into "Oh, well" I really do not know how to translate it though...But that is pretty close. And also, we do move the clocks here back an hour, mom asked that as well.

We met with Gustave this week and it was really awesome!! We went over there at about 10 in the morning and talked to him alot about the Book of Mormon and the Bible and that they both compliment one another and then we talked about baptism. . . in the middle of the appointment he asked us if he is allowed to get baptized twice because he was baptized in the Catholic church when he was twelve. At this point we knew we would be setting a date with him and he will be baptized on January 8th. I am so excited!!!! Though I probably will not be there, I am glad I can have a part in these people lives!!

Marian is still on date for December 11th. It is very difficult with her though because in our last appointment we came to the conclusion that she has seriously been brainwashed and so we just do not know how to help her. She has a desire to be baptized again but does not understand that it needs to be with the priesthood authority. It is difficult to get through to her to make her understand that what is said in the Book of Mormon is truth and that is all that we share and talk about is this truth. She is a wonderful person and I really do hope she can make it to baptism, it is just difficult to really teach her the doctrine.

Douglas is going out of town this week for a little while to visit a friend who is sick, so we went by his shop and brought him a Book of Mormon to give to his friend and he is going to do it. I am so excited that we are getting our investigators to share the gospel as well!!! It is so exciting!

Our appointment with Schwester Räwel this week was very interesting. She is a less active because of health promblems and she is a heavier woman and has really bad hip problems. So, when she goes to the bathroom she has to leave the door open and when she does this Sister Dorsey and I just sit in the living room and wait for her to come bacl. Well, she has to wear diapers and I guess she needed help with that and so she makes her way to the living room and walks in with her pants down and asked Sister Dorsey to help her put the diaper through her legs. . . one of the most disgusting and awkward experiences on my mission and I am at least grateful that Sister Dorsey did it because I do not know if I could have. But other than that, we had a great appointment and we read the talk called "Forget me not" by President Uchtdorf. As we know that during the talk it talks about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and so right in the middle of Sister Dorsey and I reading the talk to her, she pulls out chocolate and was like, "Who wants some chocolate?" It was pretty funny at the moment. Oh, I will miss my weekly visits to Schwester Räwel.

This week was a busy week because three of the seven days we had to travel back and forth from Kiel to Hamburg because this weekend was a special weekend for the Neumünster stake and the Hamburg stake. Neumünster stake celebrated their 30th year and Hamburg their 50th year. It was wonderful and so as a celebration the two stakes came together and put on a musical and Sister Dorsey and I were involved with it. Sister Dorsey played the violin for some parts and then we played missionaries in the musical for a couple of little parts. It was really fun and a special event to be a part of for these two stakes. We had to go to Hamburg for the dress rehearsal on Thursday and then the musical on Friday. It was so good and the musical consisted on a few stories from some members in the stake. What a wonderful experience.
Before we went to Hamburg on Friday we had a couple of appointments..one with Dorothea and she is just two chapters away from reading through the Book of Mormon for the first time. She is so excited about it and so she is not reading the chapters until we come and visit because she wants us to finish it with her! She is really funny and so cute. I am going to miss her...it was hard to say goodbye to her yesterday.

We then met with Hou and well....it was a little hard at the beginning of the appointment because he told us that he would not be bapitized, but he wants to learn more about the life of Christ and who he was and he is reading in the Book of Mormon every day now. I have faith that as the missionaries continue to meet with him and has he reads more in the Book of Mormon that he will be baptized...he just needs some more time!

Then of course, Saturday was a normal day in Kiel. We had transfer calls in the morning and I found out that I am going to Cottbus, and Sister Peltier, my MTC companion, is coming here to Kiel! That is cool! We then had an awesome appointment with these new people, the Yilmaz family! They are from Turkey and are muslim...but from the look of it..they are not as strong in their faith as most muslims that I have met. They have a 9 year old boy and a 3 year old boy and the whole family sat in for the appointment and it was so cool!!! I hope they continue meeting with the missionaries!!

We then met with Jörn and made cookies with him and watched the restoration film. He is being very difficult because we want to give him to the Elders, but he won't let us bring the Elders over to meet him. So if we are able to find him a ride to church he can meet the Elders there and then hopefully let them then come over...but we will see what happens.

On Sunday we went back to Hamburg for Stake Conference. It was really good. The focus was on Temples and the blessings from it.

It is so cold here right now...I am just so not ready for the winter to come...

That was pretty much the week..sorry I have a headache at the moment..so I am just trying to sort out my thoughts in my head of what happened this week. But next time I write I will be in Cottbus!!! yay!

Love Sister Britt

p.s... I was wanting to ask about Student housing because y'all are probably going to need to get that set up for me soon...i think in like January or something. And then I would like to be an EFY counselor next summer for the sessions in San Antonio if it is possible or even someone to help out with Girls camp or Youth conference.

Busy, busy week

Meine Familie,

Ahh....This is the last week of the transfer and we have transfer calls on Saturday. I really have no idea what is going to happen. Normally I have a pretty good feeling if I am going to stay or go..but this time I honestly do not know. We will see... And to answer some questions... I did get a new wallet...just the cheapest one I saw. And as far as anything else goes...I love chocolate oranges. But I really do not know what else I would want. I will be happy with anything you send!

This week was busy...but great. . . from playing in leaves to setting a baptism date to zone conference to crazy Muslims to so much more!

To begin will probably be with
Monday: We had a pretty good Halloween p-day. We went to the Aquarium and then took pictures in the fall colored leaves for our Halloween pics. It was fun and then we of course had English class. This really weird guy named Peter showed up. Every time I asked him something in Englsih he would say, "I forgot that word." And then we did an activity that if we were all trapped on an deserted island what two things would we want with us and why. Well, Malte (he is an investigator of the Elders) told us that he would want Sister Anderson and Dorsey there with him to teach him English. He is funny.

Tuesday: Was a pretty good day. We met with Dorothea and she is so excited to almost be done reading through the whole Book of Mormon. We are so proud of her...we are hoping that she has finally called the Patriarch so she can get her blessing!
We then went to visit Marian. We taught her chasity...at first we were kind of worried about this because she always talks about all these boyfriends that she has, but it went much better than planned and she apparently has no problem with it. That was good. We are still trying to convince her that Jehovah is not God's name. The Jehovah Witnesses have like literally brained washed her and we are trying to fix the mess which they made. But we have complete faith that Marian will make it to baptism on the 11th of December.

Wednesday: What a day... We first had Hou. He is so awesome. This was our third time meeting with Hou because we met him a couple weeks ago and then he came to church last Sunday and we had an appointment with him on Wednesday. He is on the right track and really wants to find out. He is from China and has no real belief on God or Jesus Christ. But that did not stop us with setting a baptism date with him for December 18th. He wants to find out and this is his goal!
We then met with the Schhurrenburg family. They are some new investigators, but told us to call them after Christmas because this is a busy time for them. They are really nice though, but very strong in their own religions. We then had English class and it went really good..nobody new came.

Thursday: We had to get up earlier so we could catch a train to Hamburg. We had Zone Conference and we had to be there by 9:30. Well, Zone Conference was great. Something that stood out to me that was said by Sister Pimentel, "Faith preceeds the miracle...DREAM BIG & PRAY & WORK." She told us there is nothing wrong with dreaming as long as you are doing the work and are on your knees. I have never had a problem with dreaming...I mean well, look where I am now! So I know by working hard and doing my best...great things will come. Sister Dorsey and I had to give a workshop on obedience...it was fun and our theme was cooking up some obedience and so I got to wear my Texas apron!! I was so happy! Well, after a long day we headed back to Kiel and got back around 10:30 at night. TIRED!

Friday: Was a great day. We went over to the Begemans for lunch. I love this couple. They are wheelchair bound and it makes it really difficult for them to come to church or to do other things. So what is really cool is that they have the dream of traveling the world...but because of their handicapped situation it limits them. So, they collect postcards from around the world that people send to them and they put it in a scrapbook and research where the card is from and put the information in the book too. They have post cards from all over...They don't have one from Texas yet though...I will have to get that one taken care of...but they find joy every time they recieve a new card. Such a neat couple.
We then went by this Muslim couple because they wanted the Book of Mormon in German...we went by a couple weeks ago but the man was not home and so we left an Arabic one with the wife...well, this time they both were home. Muslims are sometimes very difficult and hard to talk to. He kept sounding like he just wanted to argue with us and we were not going to do that. He told us that God literally wrote the Bible and we were like yeah, through Prophets...that was a start of something. Then he kept telling us the Book of Mormon can in no way be written by Prophets and blah blah...well at the end we invited them to just read the book and then after words pray. Well, the wife was like...we can not do that and was very angry and then what surprised us was the husband all of a sudden softened his heart and looked at his wife and said, "We will never know unless we read the book first." It surprised us... maybe they will have a change of heart and be more open to the gospel. We told them we will come back in a couple weeks and see how they are doing and if they have questions.
We then saw Marian once again and it went well...she is sick at the moment and so she could not come to church. We then had an appointment with this guy named Tung and is a student at the university. It was so cool....we went to his dorm and sat there...his other friend was there and we showed them the restoration film. During the film two other guys came into the room and sat on the floor while the movie was playing. At the end the spirit was so strong and Tung said that he wants to find out and cannot wait to start reading in the Book of Mormon. It was awesome and kind of weird at the same time sitting in a college dorm on the bed in a room full of college guys....but when it comes to teaching the gospel you get pulled into some wierd situations...naja. It was great...
Lastly...we met with Jörn and as much as I love teaching him because it reminds me of Neil some...we are going to have to give him to the Elders because he likes us too much. We are going to make cookies with him on Friday and then the following week the elders will come with us so we can switch him over to them.

Saturday: We went by Douglas...the guy from Ghana and reviewed the plan of salvation with him. He is so great and he is going out of town for two weeks and going to visit his friend in Canada who is really sick. We are going to bring Douglas a Book of Mormon to take to his friend because we told him that will give his friend spiritual strength.

Sunday: We had church and a member brought a friend with him. I sat by them during the meetings and the friend seemed to really enjoy it. I gave her my card before she left and we hope she gets more interest to actually meet with us. She loved the fact that every one gets a chance to speak at our church.

But yeah...alot happened this week and this was the best way I could think of to organize some of my thoughts on what happened..so I just went day by day. This week is going to be super busy because we are having to go down to Hamburg like three times this week...but it will be good. I will try to see when I can call those numbers...but I can not promise that it will be this week. I will try to get it done as soon as I can.

I need to go now but I love y'all! And just so you know, as far as me mailing christmas packages or what not, that probably will not happen until after Christmas. We will see....so don't feel bad if you do not have a present to open from me on Christmas. I know I have Blake's family for Christmas...it probably won't be until after. And then anyone else. . . Anyways... is anyone spending Christmas with Mom and Dad this year?

Have a great week....Love, Sister Britt