Pics From Germany

It's become a group effort to get pics from Germany to us here at home.  We're still in the process of recovering pics from Elder Anderson's last days at the MTC that are on a corrupted memory card. Then I had to learn how to use Dropbox to get these ones from Germany.  Kyrstin is a great tutor via texting! And yes Philip, you're right, it's amazing what you can learn from Google and "how to" videos online!

Elder Emery, Elder Anderson with Girl and Elder Hawker on their way to Germany!  

Elder McGinn and Elder Anderson get along great!

Rothenburg

The youth group they met on their first day out.

Where Hitler gave many speeches. 

Fill In The Blank

I had heard from other Missionary Moms that sometimes it can be very overwhelming those first few days, weeks and even months into the mission.  One fun idea I heard about to help keep the communication flowing was a "Fill in the Blank" letter.  We'd write our questions in more of a statement format and all he'd have to do was fill in the blank!  We decided to do it!  These are the "statements" we sent with his "answers" underlined:

I would consider being able to actually talk to some people in German and getting 30 phone numbers the second day as my greatest success on my mission so far.

The first thing I thought when I stepped onto the plane to go to Germany was, oh my gosh this is actually happening.

During the plane ride I felt tired and groggy.

My first thought when I stepped off of the plane into Germany was boom, IT IS TIME!

I sat next to Elder Bennett on the plane. It was in alphabetical order.

My favorite German food that I have eaten so far is this Frankisch roast I ate it at Bruder Steinbrechers house.

My favorite scripture this week is Ether 12:27 because it's helped out a ton with this guy that we are currently teaching!

Ether 12:27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

My companion and I work really well together because he is so fun and outgoing and he loves the Lord. This was a huge blessing whenever we run into people on the street and we both can just start talking to anyone.

The hardest thing about being on my mission is learning the language and actually talking in German to people, but it has helped me to learn penitence and become better at trusting in God.

I am really good at just walking up and talking to people it helped me a lot when ever we are on the streets and on buses or in a park. I can just go up and try to start a conversation.

I'm not so good at - nothing, I'm a champ! -  jk I keep falling asleep during study time I am becoming better by trying not to fall asleep!

The thing that makes me happiest while being in Germany is talking to people and trying to make friends and make them happy.

The first thing I thought when I met my companion was "sweet, he looks pretty cool and normal".

I am most afraid to order food at restaurants cause i keep messing up and getting the wrong food.

The funniest word I've screwed up is  -  I dunno, but on a train our first day here this lady told Elder Hawker that she thought we were good looking, he said, "thanks its our super cool haircuts huh?" Except for instead of hair cut he accidentally said C sections.

The most beautiful thing I've seen is the old city of Rothenberg.

I'm proud of myself for being Me. Good ole Elder Anderson.

God loves me as evidenced by giving me a great area and a super cool companion.

The first German Food I ate was a Dönner, and it tasted disgusting. It is so bad for you. Aghh Yucky!

My first Missionary experience was on a train to the Frankfurt offices with Elder Jensen and I felt like a pro.

The German people so far are pretty cool. Not very talkative, but if they like you, they really like you.

Each day I look forward to meeting new souls.

If you sent me a package I'd love to get skinny ties (Kowhai will know what is cool)  and money!! haha.

So far the weather in Germany is hot!! Still getting my summer tan on my face and arms!

I want everyone at home to know I love them and I love the people of Germany!!

If you'd like to send in any "statements" for Nik's furture "Fill in the Blank" letters, please feel free!  You can leave a comment, e-mail me, text me or FB message me.  We'd love to add your "statements".

Meine Zweite Woche Im Deutschland (My Second Week In Germany)‏

Dearest Loved Ones,

Where to start?! This week has been truly amazing and I am growing more and more every day. My companion and I get along so well and we love our area! I have taken a ton of pics and I made you guys some voice recordings, I am currently trying to figure out how to send all this stuff to you! haha

Oh this week, it was really a good one, we got an investigator, this guy named Herr (or Mr.) Steinbrecher and his 8 year old son named Nico! They really are such wonderful people and we have loved getting to know them! We are going to teach them again this Friday and then we are gonna challenge the kid to baptism and the dad to work towards baptism! 

Remember those 30 kids? Yeah, they dropped us. haha. We are still keeping in contact with them but they aren't interested for the most part. Oh well. We will keep working on them, there are a few that will work out I am sure of it!

Sorry this weeks letter is a little shorter, but I love you guys so much!! I will figure out how to get everything to you guys next week!! I love you!! 

PS send me anything! Just don't send any medicine, meat or cheese. If packages have that in there, they said it will be confiscated! 

You are all awesome and You are in my prayers!!

Gott bei mit euch bis aus wiedersehen!

God be with you till we meet again!

 Love, 

Elder Anderson  

Week 1 in Germany

Week 1!

Oh man this week has been crazy fun. Germany is so sweet. My companion is so sick, his name is Elder McGinn! 

So just to quickly take you through my week I'll go day by day!!

Day 1:  We arrive in Frankfurt and get our bags, we walk out and boom, a little German guy with a super thick accent runs up and hugs me, and says, "Ahhhh Elder Anderson, I am soo excited to finally meet you!" President Schwartz is such a cool guy. You can tell that he just loves you to death! So we catch a train back to the church HQ in Frankfurt, on the way there Elder Jensen and I placed 5 pamphlets and cards on the train! My German was struggling, but its getting better and better. We get to church HQ and they are like, "Ok you guys pair up and we are taking you to teach your first lesson". Heck ya. So Hawker and I pair up and go with Elder Lindsey. We go to Frau Spittlers house, she is like 100 years old. Long story short , she starts having spasms and freaking out and talking in Spanish and she is convulsing and screaming and me and Hawker almost had a lady die on us. 1st lesson ever in Germany and we are just sitting there like what the heck is going on. Pretty crazy!! So we go back eat food and go to bed early, I say my prayers and get up and tell Elder Allen, "I am going down to Nürnberg, don't know why, I just feel like it".

Day 2 : The day we find out where we are going. We go down to the meeting room, and they call you and your comp to stand up and then tell you the area, I was first, "Elder Anderson, you are with Elder McGinn you are going down to Erlangen the Nürnberg zone!" Aghhh crazy... revelation.. the church is true. So we find out we are opening an area, its just me and my comp and he just finished getting trained the day before he met me! So crazy. Ahhh so yeah good time. The rest of the day was just us trying to figure out trains to get back to Erlangen. We get there, we go to our apartment. We literally have the nicest place in the entire mission, I'll send pics next week, the computers in this cafe stink. But yeah our apartment is brand new and everything is brand new and we are the first ones in this apartment cause we are opening up! So sick, and then this guy from our ward Bruder Männchen calls us up and he is like you are new, let us fill up your pantry and fridge with food. Score! So that was way nice!! Then we had a lesson set up for us with our DL so he could introduce us to some people. We meet with this lady and the DL. He challenges her to be baptized in a month. Good first lesson in my first area.

Day 3: Wow. So we wake up study etc. Then we decide lets go to the park and just throw around an American football and see if anyone is interested. we get there and run into 30 kids who are part of this service organization and they are all 13- 21 years old and they just love us. They let me practice my German and everything. We throw down the 1st lesson and they think it sounds interesting they invite us to play volleyball with them the next day  haha. Done deals. We get some of their numbers and say goodbye. We go back to get ready and we eat with a member family named the Müddrows. Yum. Go to sleep.

Day 4: Meet up with the kids,  and they bring us bikes and they are like, "come on we will take you on a tour", they  take us on an hour bike ride through Erlangen. We love it, it's so pretty. We get to this building and they are like, "make us American food", its their church building haha. We go in and the shelves are stacked. We make them hamburgers and I went around and got all of their phone numbers. They are all coming to our class to learn "English" on Wednesday! And we got a bunch of the ym and yw to say they will come with us! And then on Saturday we are having a sport day and all off them are coming and they asked if they could bring their friends. Boom. Of course you can bring your friends. And then starting on the 30th we have started setting up some appointments to meet them at their houses. So great. Haha so we have 30 potential investigators and its our 2nd day in Erlangen. The church is true. How else would President be inspired to send me and Mcginn down here. Its our 2nd day in Erlangen and the people are just pouring in. I love my comp, he is just like me. We love making new friends! I still can't get over the fact that we are having so many blessings right from the beginning. 

Day 4: First day in church. It was good, they asked me to give a talk in sacrament, that was interesting in my broken German. But its all good! haha I loved it we stayed after and talked to the YM and YW. Gotta get real tight with them, they are crucial to these 30 kids that we met. After that we went home and planned for what seemed like years. Haha all is good, we listened to some music, talked and then went to bed.

Day 5: I woke up showered and then got dressed and studied now we are in this dingy Internet cafe emailing you all. 

I love you alll !!

Gott bei mit euch bis aus wiedersehn ! 

Elder Nikora Philip Anderson