I am not creative at the moment

Meine Familie,

So a big happy birthday goes out to Lindsay and Grandma Matthews!!! Hope it is a great one!!!

This week was a great week... I know I say every week but I will say that some weeks are not as good as others. We did have a great week as far as setting baptism dates up though!! That is always a plus to a week.

We started out the week playing ping pong with the Elders in our district for p-day and it was really fun. That day it also snowed and it was the first snow that I have seen in Cottbus all winter...It only stayed for like half of the day though and so we are back to having no snow, but it still is pretty cold.

On Tuesday we saw Monika. We went over to Schwester Schmidt's home for lunch and Monika came as well. It was a really good appointment. Monika is friends with a couple members in our ward and is just curious about what we believe. We started meeting with her back in November or December and she is athiest, but when we meet we give spiritual thoughts for the members but they are alway focused on things that we want Monika to hear and learn. So we are teaching Monika, without her even really knowing it, but it is really good because it turns into a discussion and the members get really involved in teaching Monika. We are taking it slow, but we have a good relationship with her.

Frau Baruk is kind of getting on my nerves though. She has been investigating this church for 6 years and has a new baptism date every year...this time it is for Easter, but I do not really know how much of a desire she really has. She keeps saying, oh well, I still need to talk to my husband about it. And well, I just keep thinking that pretty soon if she does not talk to him, I will just ask him. So it is just the same old story with her that I believe every set of missionaries for the past 6 years has had with her.

We did go to choir practice that night and I wish I knew her name exactly...but Katrin's mom comes to choir all the time. Katrin is a young mother who is married to a member in our ward and she and her mom are not members. Her mom drove us home after choir practice and just started showing interest in what we do as missionaries. . . we are going to start taking advantage of these weekly rides home from her to get to know her better and take the opportunity to teach her. She is super awesome and comes to Sacrament meeting every week now...she says she loves how the people are so friendly in our church and actually talk to you...whereas in her church you just go and leave and nobody talks to you.

We taught German class this week and AB, DJ, Chrys, and Sean all came. The class went really good and we are going to start doing a weekly German class with them. AB, DJ, and Sean are going to come all the time...although it was kind of funny when I asked what day works best for everyone...we all agreed on Wednesday and when I asked Chrys if that works for him as well, he looked at me and said, "Actually, I decided to take a break from y'all for awhile." So I guess now I really do not have to worry about Chrys because me and Sister Noyes call it the break up...haha... and that he is no longer coming. So right now the class is just AB, DJ, and Sean. It is alot of fun though to teach this German class.

We vistied Anna this week and had a good appointment with her. We taught the third lesson about baptism and so on, but she said that she does not believe there is only one way to return back to God. She does not come to our church because she cannot understand and so really, she wants to come to our church, but is willing to wait until she is back in Hungary to find out. She is really awesome though and wants to learn and find out more.

We met with Soloman this week as well. I have met with him once before, but it was back in the beginning of December. We taught him the third lesson and he says he will think about baptism. We set a time in March and he says he will pray about it. He is so cool and so golden. He has a great testimony on Jesus Christ...he just always says that he does not have faith. But he wants to learn and find out. He is really awesome.

We also met with Chiyu this week of course. He is doing really good and we were so close to getting him to commit to a baptism date. But he says he will talk about it next time with us. We played a game with the baptism interview questions and had him teach us..so we can see where he is at and what to help him with...right now he says he knows there is some kind of greater power and spirit, but he cannot say for sure right now if it is God and he also has a hard time with Joseph Smith. So now we know and we know where to put more of our focus on.

We also had a Relief Society activity and it was white elephant activity. It was a lot of fun and since I do not need anything I gave the gift I ended up with to someone else. It was some kind of book. We went and visited with Bruder Gröschke this week as well. He made us pancakes...but it is really funny because Germans make them really thin and so I told him that Americans make them thicker...he says that next time he is going to make them thicker since I am American. It was actually pretty funny converstaion while we were there.

Now Sunday was an awesome day. . . Every Sunday during Sunday School we go into a different room with the Bishop and teach Katrin (who I mentioned earlier) and her husband (a member). This time we went into the normal class with Jeff (the husband) and Katrin went into the bishops office to talk with him...I knew that the subject would be on baptism because bishop was planning on talking to her about it and sure enough after church, bishop pulled me aside and told me that Katrin has agreed to baptism, but wants to have all the lessons before she makes her final decision and so we are going to start teaching her the lessons...I am so excited!!!

So, I am looking forward to another great week and well we have zone conference on Friday in Dresden and so I can see if I can get a picture by that statue you mentioned Mom. Also I was wondering if it would be possible to mail me one or two more things of deodorant...One should be fine...I have one full one, but maybe one more just in case to last me to the end.

Anyways, I hope everyone has an awesome week and I am just trying to get over a cold right now, but things are going great!

love Sister Britt

A wonderous work and a glory

Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 2:04 AM
Subject: A wonderous work and a glory

Meine Familie,

Well, no crazy stories like last week but, it was a great week and I love and love missionary work more and more everyday. I could do this for a life time!!! haha.
So this week we did teach a German class..but this time we had more students than just Chrys. It was really fun and I look forward to this class becoming more of a finding tool!!! Chiyu also came to this class. He is doing awesome and he reminds me every time he sees me that he has not yet got an email from Eric...lol...I keep telling him it is coming.

We also went and visited Bruder Gröschke this week. He is so funny. I will say that one of the most disgusting drinks I have every drunk is Karo Koffee which, I think in English, is spelled Caro Coffee. It is coffee that is ok to drink and a lot of members here in Germany drink it. Well, when someone gives you something you drink it with happiness, even if you do not like it. I do not know how many cups of caro coffee I have drunk at his house...but he always seems to refill my cup. How nice of him.

Wednesday was a really awesome day. We had an appointment with this guy named DJ. His roommates were all home and so we taught them all. It was a lot of fun and they are all going to be coming to our German class. We also went back yesterday to bring more Books of Mormon because they all wanted one. The work of the Lord is awesome!! There names are DJ, AB, and Sean.

We also have contact once again with Bezhan. He is doing awesome. Still a big communication problem...but I think his German is gettting better and not so much of his english. We were just happy to see him again because it has been over a month since we had contact.

We also saw Frau Chahin this week. We had to push her baptism date to Feb. 26th. We are really just working with her to have a desire to come to church and not her other church. She has a big desire to be baptized with the authority of God, but not to come to the church in which the authority belongs to. It is a bit fustrating at times. Later we did doors and door and door and after door of every one rejecting us...seeing someone in their boxers and interrupting someone from breaking the law of chastity (I think that explains it good enough) we finally said a prayer and made two new appointments - One with this cool guy from Yemen. He is muslim, but was interested in a Book of Mormon. We brought it to him, but unfortuantly he is super busy with exams and will be moving to Switerland for an internship in a month. We then had an appointment with a girl named Josephine who is from Africa. We were teaching her the Joseph Smith story and she was like, "I was just talking to my friend earlier today about how there are just so many churches!" She is so gold and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she will read in it...sadly she said that she will just call us when she has a question. I really pray she calls us.

Friday, I went to Dresden for a Leadership training. It was a meeting for Trainers, District Leaders and Zone Leaders. It was a lot of fun and we are going to start putting more of a push on Preach my Gospel and it is going to be awesome!! Sister Noyes went out with the other Goldens during that time and did finding. She said she had a lot of fun and was really proud of herself because she talked to some people and said that she had no idea what they were saying to her, but had fun with it anyways. I am proud of her too! Though Friday was pretty funny because we had to get up at 6 in the morning to catch our train to Dresden, about a 2 hour train ride, we got onto the bus to get to the train and our bus breaks down so, we had to run about a fourth of a mile or more to catch our train at 6:30 in the morning. Then coming back home from Dresden, our train breaks down and we had an appointment that night so once we got back to Cottbus, we had to run to our appointment...lots of running. Sister Noyes says she is so exhausted and looked at me and said, "How are you so awake and still smiling?" I just kind of laugh because deep down I am so exhausted as welll...but I just do not really show it.

On Saturday we went to see if we can get in contact with some less actives... I looked up their address and we walked to where the address said. Well, the address led us straight to a Catholic Church..interesting. I wonder if our Bishop knows that the address on the ward list is a Catholic Church. Well...I do not think we will be finding those less actives...on to the next ones.

Church was really fun and one of the members came up to me and said, "I think it is so funny watching you and your companion because when you walk really fast, she has to run". It is because Sister Noyes is really short and so when I walk fast she has to run to keep up with me and the ward members think it is funny to watch us walking with each other. lol.

Well, the last thing on the week was really cool. Sunday morning I felt the impression that I needed to put a Russian Book of Mormon in my backpack and so I did. . . well, we had an eating appointment with Sch. Lehman and at the end she asked me if we were able to get a hold of a Russian Book of Mormon because she had a friend that wanted one. I smiled and was like...well, I actually have one in my backpack and she was so excited! Yesterday was great because we gave away four Book of Mormons!! how exciting!

I will say that life as a trainer is exhausting, but it is a lot of fun. We have this booklet that is called "The first 12 weeks" and it is an outline of what we want to focus on each week that she is a Golden. So, every week we have different things that I teach her during study time and then she does it that week. It is kind of nice to have some kind of outline. The goal is to turn the goldens into master teachers and be able to train by their 3rd transfer. Ahh..scary.

Umm...to mom, I do not know about apartment. Sister Risenmay told me that she was going to be taking care of that stuff her first two weeks that she got back. I do not know. I will see her in a couple weeks and I could ask her about it. Maybe I can get her mom's email address and you can get in contact with her.
And as far as extending goes...I have thought about it and I would really love to, I just do not know how it will work with regeristering for classes because we figured I would be back in time for that and so I did not leave the information with y'all. Plus, I do not even remember how many credits I already have and so I have no idea when I would be able to regester. So I would love to extend, I just do not know how it will work out. That is why I have not said anything about it. And I could be a missionary for another year...and I would too..if I was able to.haha.

I was not planning on going back and working at Six Flags...and I would like to be an EFY counselor. I know that Scott Cobabe did it once and at the moment I cannot think of any one else. Thank you for the scarf and head thing...I like them. That is cool that you made them, I had no idea!

I think the boots I bought are actually pretty good...they were on sale and that is why I got them and they will still work in Rexburg. I am taking good care of them.

Any ways, we have a great week planned and I am excited for more miracles and more adventures!!! I love y'all and hope y'all have a fantastic week!!!

Sister Britt

Note: I'm a little (or a lot) behind

This is a note from Brittany's mom - I'm very behind on posting and putting pictures up.  I've put all the letters on now, but need to work on the pictures.  As I get pictures added to Picasa, I will update each post with related pictures.  They will also be available on the link for pictures.  They are not there yet ... be patient.  Hopefully soon!

I think God has a sense of humor

Sent: Monday, January 9, 2012 3:46 AM
Subject: I think God has a sense of humor!

Meine Familie,

Wowsers....have not used that word in a long time, but hey, that is the word that comes to mind when I look back on this week. I am glad to hear that everybody had an awesome Christmas and New Years...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NEIL!! wow, you are 19 years old!!! That is so crazy...in a little selfish way I am glad you cannot go on a mission because that means that it would be another 2 years before I get to be with you again. . . but we all know that you already served your mission before you came here to the earth!!!

Anyways, I was debating if I wanted to tell y'all a story from this week...and well, I figured I would because that is highlight news of the week. I have had alot of crazy stories on my mission and things that I never thought would happen... some I have written home and well, some that y'all will just have to wait until I get home. But I think it is all good if I were to tell you this story and to let you know...that everything is just dandy and taken care of.

 

The story began last Sunday. I think I have written home about Chrys. He is an African that we teach German. He comes to the church every once in awhile and we teach him. Well, he invited us over to his place last Sunday for the New Year, but he would not tell us why...only that it was a surprise. Well, I got a really bad feeling about that and so I called him up on that day and told him that we could not make it. Well, I then later felt bad and told him that we would be able to drop by Monday night for a little while to see how he is doing and maybe try teaching him something from the Book of Mormon. Well, we went and he made us some yummy African food. We had a good visit and then he told us that he was sad that we were not able to make it to his place yesterday because he had a party with dancing and music and so on. Then he said that he wished that his best friend was there and indicated that I was his best friend...now, first of all, I have no idea how I became this guy's best friend because I only teach him German at the church like once a week. Well, it then became kind of weird and we ate and then said we had to leave. As we were leaving he handed Sister Noyes and I each a little bag of Haribo candy and underneath my bag was a note of some sort..oh no. I we went home so we could finish weekly planning and well, I read the note...the only thing was, it was more than just a little note..it was like a little stapled together flip book and well...I think that this has become one of my funniest stories of the mission and well, when I get home you will just have to see the flip book yourself. In this little book though he asked me if I would like to be in a relationship with him...and then he said that if I were to say no, to just give him an answer because he is mature enough to hear it. . . well, the Elders in our district helped me with some advice on what to do because Chrys was going to be coming to the church on Wednesday so we could teach him German. We for sure wanted someone else to be in the building on Wednesday and so the Forst Elders were going to come with us. I called President on Tuesday and told him about the situation and he gave me some advice on what to say and we talked about it would be a good idea to build up the German class so it is not just us teaching Chrys and to try and get more students. Well, Wednesday came and the Elders showed up...we all went to the church together and Sister Noyes and I went into the class room with Chrys and the Elders just hung out in another room. Well, one of my most awkward moments on the mission was about to come to pass and I told Chrys that I am going to have to say no and that the reason is that I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ and that means that when I decided to come on a mission I made the choice not to think about a relationship and not to be in one and not to get into one...also that my time here as a missionary is very special for me and I am here to help and serve people and to teach them and so forth. I cannot remember everything I said, but then Chrys said, "but your mission is almost over..what about after?" At that point I kind of had to lie...I told him that somebody was waiting for me. Which is not completely a lie because someone somewhere is, right? ha. . . So at this point Chrys's eyes started to water up a bit and we ended up having a good talk about how God has a plan for everybody and sometimes things do not work out the way we hope, but that does not mean that the plan God has for us will not get better and better. After German class I did call President and tell him that everything was taken care of and that there was no longer a problem. Presdient was excited and said, "yay, no emergency transfers" That makes me happy to because I do not feel it is my time to leave Cottbus...especially since I am only in my second week of training...Things are so awesome and the problem is taken care of. I never thought in a million years that I would break an African man's heart on my mission...but hey I think it makes a pretty funny story for my mission...I just kind of laugh about it and well, I hope you are also able to see that it is actually a funny story and well, everything is ok and dandy and well, I was debating if I should even tell it. Ha... it is a lot funnier than it may seem. . . and I am really relieved that the situation turned out good in the end.

Ok, well...other things that happened this week. We went and visited Bruder Gröschke, He is so funny and we played Rummikub with him. He was not winning and so we had to play until he won. It was really funny. But it was great. One of the biggest joys I have on my mission is building relationships with the members and sharing thoughts and experiences with them and encouraging them to do missionary work. I love the work so much. We visted with Sch. Raddewagen this week and also Sch. Schmidt. These members are great lights to the gospel. I encourage all members to show your friends your own excitment for the gospel and invite them to church and to a game night where the missionaries are there. . . last week we randomly dropped by a members house and she had friends there and invited us in to join them and play games. It was a great way to get to know her friends in a chill, fun environment.

We met with Chaoke this week....that was cool. I have only met with him once before and he is from China...well, he had a friend over and so we taught both of them. They are both so curious about finding out what the truth is and about prayer. I look forward to continue seeing them progress.

We also met with Talent...it has been along time and so I was glad to see him again. At the beginning it was funny because he apologized for what happened earlier this week. You see our African investigators all know each other and so Talent knew about what happened with Chrys. Talent was like...he should not have done that anyways...I quickly changed the topic though and we had a good discussion about the Proclamation to the Family. He is so golden and he is progressing so fast!!!

We went to Tom and Sissi's this week too. Tom is our ward mission leader. They have been in America these last few weeks. Tom is actually from America and Sissi is German and they both met on their missions in Switzerland. They made us homemade corn dogs. I loved it...I have not had one of those for over a year!! They were great.

We also got a new investigator named Chitta this week. He is from India and well, he is going back to India for 3 weeks and so it is a bummer we will not see him for a while. But we had a great appointment with him last night and he really wants to read the Book of Mormon!!!

This week...was full of craziness....we did doors and those are always fun...I am trying to get Sister Noyes more so excited about talking to people...she is very scared to speak to people. And well...we had a lot of rain this week. I got really cheap 10 euro boots to last me the rest of the winter because my other boots have holes in them and broke, so my feet were wet and frozen in those boots.

But the work is so great and I really do love every minute of being a missionary. I know that this is the True Church of Christ. There is so much power in the message we share and our belief. I know miracles happen every day... I know that when we yield to the prompting of the spirit he will guide us to where we need to be and also protect us from situations. The spirit testifies of truth and I know that to be true. I am just here as a servant of God and wanting to help his children come closer to him.

I hope everyone has a great week and that Blake and Garrett have fun in Texas... I mailed packages last Monday...so let me know when they come....and did y'all get my message about Sister Risenmay?

I love y'all!!!
Sister Anderson

Happy New Year!

Sent: Monday, January 2, 2012 3:12 AM
Subject: Happy New Year

Meine Familie,

Wowsers...where to even start. I know I seem to say that every week, but it seems like each week just keeps speeding up and I have to reflect back on the many things that happened. I feel like I have not even been here in Cottbus for the whole week...which part of that is very true.

On Monday we spent the day with Schwester Leuchner for the 2nd day of Christmas. It ws fun and we ate once again super yummy food and just visited forever with her and her Granddaughter and Grandson. It was super fun and guess what she gave us for Christmas...Tights!!! hahah...I think it is funny that alot of members have given us tights or nylons for Christmas..well...it will help me get through one more winter here. Although...so far this winter has not been bad...not like last year. We do not have snow yet here in Cottbus...it has been rainy and some days are very, very cold and some days are alright.
That evening we went to the church and met with Chiyu. He is doing good...continued reading in the Book of Mormon with him and he is almost done with the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi. I think he is happy to get done with those chapters because they are difficult to understand.

Tuesday was a bit crazy...we did a lot of cleaning and Sister Olsen finished up her packing. We went and visited Chrys and taught him some German and then came back and just relaxed for a moment and did last minute things and then got on the train to go to Eisenhüttenstadt. Sister Olsen was very sad to be leaving Cottbus, her first city, but I told her it only gets better from here on out. I would for sure say that my time here as a missionary..there are, for sure, hard days and difficult things to do, but I know that this is the Lord's and I am always ready and willing to go to where he needs me to be.

 

We arrived and Sister Neukomm and Lanctot were there to wait for us and we went to their apartment. I slept at their apartment that evening and then the next day we went to Berlin for District meeting. All of us went to the Tiergarten sisters' apartment for lunch and just some chillin out time before we went more into the city of Berlin where we all met the Goldens and took them out to do some street contacting for the first time. The Golden who came with me was Sister Noyes. Little did we know that the next day I would be taking her back to Cottbus with me. It was fun and I would be honest to say I was overwhelmed at the amount of people in Berlin that you could talk to. I would say that it was too many people and I could not serve in a huge city like that...wow! But it was fun...later that night Sister Risenmay, Stewart, and me went and met President at the hotel and took the Sisters who did not get the chance earlier to do street contacting. We then headed back to the Tiergarten apartment and 5 of us trainers were going to be sleeping there that night. It was fun.

Well, the next day was Thursday and we all headed over to one of the church buildings in Berlin and we had a little training meeting. The training program is different and they just changed it. At first I was a little overwhelmed with it, but I think I am starting to get the hang of it. After our little training meeting, the Goldens came and we had a little Golden Conference and they announced who would be with who. So I am serving with Sister Noyes. She is from a military family and so she has moved around alot. She is from Arizona as of right now though. I would say that I am starting to figure out this training thing. In some ways I still feel like I am golden and that it was just yesterday that I arrived in Germany, but I am getting it figured out. After Golden Conference we went to the train station and headed back to Cottbus. I am happy to be back. We went home and I let her unpack a little bit and then we went and visited Schwester Lehman. It was a surprise and her friend, Annett was there with her family (they are not members) and so we stayed awhile and played some games and got to know Schwester Lehman's friends a little better. It was really fun. We then talked to people on the way home and made an appointment with this guy from India. He is cool. Sister Noyes is scared to talk to people right now...but I will get her started with that.

On Friday we went to Görlitz for district meeting and then, when we came back, we went and visited Frau Baruk and then taught Chrys German later that night. On Saturday we met with Talent. It has been forever since we have met with some of these people because of the Christmas break and so I am happy to start meeting with some of them more regularly now. Talent is doing awesome and he is so Gold. We are going to get him on a bapismal date soon. YAY! That evening we went over to the Weilert family's home for a New Years Eve get together..some other ward members came. It was fun. No different traditions than in America. They sit and visit, eat food, set off fireworks, play games - just like here. It was fun, they drove us home at 9:30 and then we were so tired so we went straight to bed. ...yes I slept through the new year and it was wonderful!!!

But Happy New Year to everyone...so much is going to be going on..Not ready for this...But I wish a happy late Birthday to Blake, and then a happy early Birthday to Mom!!!! and also I am actually mailing those packages today...and I am not mailing the book one yet and so Mom and Dad you should only expect one in the mail.

Also, I talked with Sister Risenmay and it turns out that she extended and so she is flying home the same time I am flying home and so we are going to be arriving in the San Antonio airport the same time...so we figured we would probably be released at the same time and we would not mind a nice Texas BBQ either..lol. You should somehow get in contact with her family. lol. But any ways....I am also saying this because she is going to be going up to BYU Idaho and so I can room with her...that means do not do anything with housing yet. Because I will be getting that with her and her sister and some of her cousins will be rooming with us too. But yeah...Just letting you know!!

Anyways, I love y'all and hope you have a fantastic week and Happy New Year!!!

love Sister Britt