Dear Loved Ones :)
Oh man, this week has been a good one.
There have been so many growing experiences this last little while. Things are
not all that easy, in fact, sometimes I feel like this is the hardest thing I have done in my life thus far. (some of you reading this will now be able to
say "told ya so" haha) But life is not supposed to be easy. Its like, one of my favorite quotes goes, "THE HARDEST STEEL IS MADE IN THE HOTTEST
FLAME!" I am out here to serve the people of Deutschland, spread some of
that good ole´ Wahrheit, to love everyone and to grow into a better person.
I love it out here and I love the trials I have encountered thus far,
they are definitely helping me to change into a far better person. While there
are some trials, I don't want you guys to worry at all! Life seriously is
so amazing and I am having a fantastic time!
So, amazing things that have happened
this week. Hmmm, well I will start with one thing that for some weird reason
really changed my mindset. We were on our way back from our investigator named
Monica's house. We were on the bus just chatting when our bus pulls up to a
stop. We looked out the window and there was a lady in a wheelchair that had
fallen of the curb and fell on her face, she had beer bottles and from where we
were it looked like she had thrown up a ton. There were a couple of people
helping her so we thought nothing of it, until our bus driver completely
stopped and ran off the bus. We got a better look and realized that the puddle
of what we thought was throw up was actually blood. So we ran off the bus to
see if we could help. When she fell off the curb, she smashed a beer bottle and
it just destroyed her face. I now know that I couldn't be an ER doctor because I was trying not to throw up. She had glass in her eye and she literally skinned
half of her face. Her head was soaked in blood. We asked if we could help and an
ambulance pulled up and took her away. No idea who she is and what happened to
her. But I hope that she is OK. Sorry for the gore filled story, but I just
thought I would share it because that one moment really changed something inside
of me. After that I just felt sick and sad. We didn't really talk at all the
rest of the bus ride home. Right after that i just prayed, I can honestly say
that I have never prayed for someone as hard in my entire life, as I prayed for
that lady right there. I felt so humbled that I couldn't really do anything for
her other than pray. In simple terms, it just broke my heart and really humbled
me in the weirdest way. It made me think about how fragile life is and how
important it is to just love people. When all is said and done, one of the only
things we will have left is love. Love everyone. Its Important. After that, and
after that prayer I just felt this sort of fire burning inside of me, just
wanting to let everyone know how much I love them. God works in mysterious ways.
It was not a pretty thing to see, but it truly changed my heart. I am not
out here for me, I'm not out here to get the most Potential Investigators in the
mission. I am out here to get closer to my heavenly father and savior Jesus
Christ. I'm not really sure how I connected all that stuff in my head just from
that one incident. But those are the thoughts and such that I had following
that incident. Strangely humbling.
Another funny story this week happened
at the bus stop. So we sat down and had about a 10 min wait. We had some
cookies and so I was offering cookies to everyone. No body wanted cookies from
the random American kid. It was pretty funny. So everyone eventually got on
their buses except for us and this girl. I offer her cookies. No response. Then
this older guy comes up, same thing no response. I just start blurting out
random things in German trying to start a conversation. I'm just like " hi,
my name is Nikora, I come from America" still nothing. Then, since it was
hot, I decided to talk about the weather. I say "Ich bin heiß." Boom,
that got their attention. they look at me all disgusted, and I am just confused
and my comp is just laughing his head off! So they get on their bus and my comp
tells me that saying I am hot in German or ich bin heiß is basically saying I am super aroused. Haha so that was pretty funny. When out here I guess you have
to say "Es ist bei mir hieß" which means it is hot to me. Tip 1. don't
say that you are hot. hahaha
So yeah, this week has really been so
great. I am so lucky to have the companion that have. Elder McGinn is such an
awesome trainer and companion. The work is moving forward. The ward situation
is going great right now. We got to watch the world leadership meeting. That
really really helped out our cause. The ward really kicked in after that. It
was awesome and super powerful. I love our ward and that, I think, has been the
biggest help for me. They have grown up in a different culture we look at
things differently, we can either bump heads or we can love each other and go
about doing the lords work to the best of our ability! While I have been out
here I have gained a new respect for missionaries and the ward mission leader.
I hope you guys really reach out to the missionaries and the WML. In fact I challenge you to reach out to them. You have no idea how much they would love
and appreciate that. Also, don't ever be scared to share the gospel. One thing I learned from that Leadership thing was that if you share the good word out of
love it can and never will hurt you!
On the note of member missionary work,
we got these numbers from the Mission HQ. These numbers are for our mission:
-if you contact 1000 people on the
street 1 will get baptized
-a referral from a member than number
goes up to 300 out of 1000
-a friend of a member and the member
is present during lessons the number goes up to 600 out of 1000
-and if this friend is taught in the
home of a member the number rises to 800 baptisms out of 1000 people.
So just from those numbers you see how
important it is to make sure you are just super tight with the ward. That is
our biggest focus right now. We are just setting up tons of member appointments
to get to know them and gain their trust and hopefully get them to help us out
and hop on this giant wave of mission work!
Did I mention our phone situation? Broke our phone, sent it into Frankfurt. Still no phone! Not gonna lie, I am
feeling a little handicapped with no phone. We start talking to someone and get
their number and then its like, "oh let me text you and set up an appointment
with the phone I don't have". Pray that we will get our phone in the mail soon! Haha, Really everything is great out here though. I am happy. Erlangen is
suuuuppper cool and the people are amazing.
I love you guys the church is true.
LOVE ELDER NIKORA PHILIP ANDERSON
Gott bei mit euch bis auf
wiedersehen !
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