Last Week as a Golden

Dearest Loved Ones,

Wow, ok, it's here, my last week as a Golden! Coming this Saturday we will have a conference call and we will find out where our journey is going to continue! Since I am a Golden and Elder Mcginn is a trainer, one of us will definitely be transferred out! So this week is going to be a really exciting week. I feel like I will probably stay and Elder McGinn will bounce, since it will be my first transfer as a normal Elder! It will be crazy to see who I am put with. I hope its an Elder from my MTC group, I love those guys! Aghhh, I wish you guys could feel the excitement of this week. All people talk about the last week of transfers are transfer calls! Everyone is making predictions and guesses as to where everyone will end up. Conference calls are pretty cool, we call into this conference call and all 250 missionaries are on there and they share some spiritual thoughts and then they go through every area telling people they will be staying or training or moving across the mission. You find out on that phone call, it is pretty crazy, one phone call and you could be packing your bags your life and then moving to the other side of the mission, some instances that is like 500km away, to a brand new home! So yup, transfer calls this week, it'll be fun!

This week has been really awesome, we began teaching this girl named Katia. She is a member referral, so that makes it even more special. We are able to teach her in a member home and use them as a resource in teaching. We taught her the first lesson this Friday, we watched the restoration dvd, made them all cry and then we taught the lesson. Then this Sunday, she came to church and we taught her the plan of salvation. I think it is really going well. She is making a ton of progress!

As far as Investigators go, that is about it. We have 17 potential Investigators, kids and people that we stay in regular contact with. The hard part here, is 1 getting people to talk to us. Germans in general are more closed off, and then second, once we do become friend with them, how do we bring up the gospel with out them dropping us! Haha. So keep the people out here in your prayers, pray that they will be more receptive to our message! Haha! I love this. This is preparing me so much for life . Our mission is rated as one of the top 3 toughest missions in the world when it comes to the numbers and stats .   Not many other people in the world will be able to say they were on that German Grind!

Kowhai is starting school soon?! Aghhh, I am so proud of her and the person that she is becoming. She will do so great!

I love you guys!!

Next week will be longer!! Love Elder Anderson!!

Good Week!

Hey Loved Ones!

This week has been a good one. And we made a ton of progress! Thanks for your e-mails and sending me packages and everything!

Things are going much better this week. Not gonna lie though, the last little while has been some of the hardest moments of my life! Haha.  Just the language barrier and everything and missing home. I just let it build up and it finally got me . But seriously, The Hardest Steel is Made in the Hottest of flames. Remember that.  When ever a tough time comes along it is for your benefit. Be it physical or emotional pain. Time does pass and things do get better and you will come out of it a stronger person. I also know that attitude and mindset is everything.  I just gotta put a smile on when the times get tough and keep moving forward! 

So this week has been awesome, we were walking around Erlangen and we walked by a big Freemason lodge.  It was cool, it had this big gold compass and square out front and a big golden pyramid out front. So I was curious and walked around to this door on the back and walked in to the really nice room and then a guy came out and asked me what I was doing and I told him I was looking around and so he was like cool and told me all about it and took me back into this big meeting room and told me some of the stuff they do in there then I asked what was upstairs and he said we couldn't go up there cause those were the ceremony rooms and everything and I had to be part of the brotherhood to join. It was pretty cool and it was quite adventurous! We had a conversation before I left and we talked about what Freemasons do and everything and he told me about it and yeah. Nice guy, Charlie was his name!

Then right after this we were walking through the streets, and we walked by this Aroma Garten thingy. And I wanted to check it out so we walked through it and then this guy named Boris come up to us and just starts talking and telling us his life story. He says he used to drink 15 beers a day but that made his life suck so he started coming to the aroma garten to think and ponder and try and get a better life. We told him about our church gave him ein Buch Mormon!  He liked it, then he asked if we could pray for him right there so my comp Elder Mcginn threw down a really cool prayer that brought Boris to tears!! So remember Boris in your prayers. Hopefully we will make some progress with him!! 

I just wanted to tell you guys really quick that this church is true.  Joseph smith really did see God the Father and his son our Savior Jesus Christ!  That is why I am out here, the Book of Mormon is the word of God and he loves all his children and wants all of them to be able to return to him.

I love you guys!  Thank you again for everything!  Love you all! 

Love Elder Anderson!  

Hey Fam!!‏

This letter wasn't really written for the "friends and family" blog, but it's a beautiful letter and I wanted to share.  (it was also the only letter) I love this boy.  (sniffle sniffle)  Still no pics, that must have been one reallllly bad hair cut he got for free!  hahaha! - Lia

How are you guys doing? Can you believe it, Kyrstin is now a missionary too! Aghh, I love her :) I love you guys too! Haha!

Sorry that I couldn't get an email out to you guys yesterday! I was down in Regensburg, and as soon as we got back we had to go to an appointment! 

Thank you for all the support that you guys have and are giving me, it's really helping push me along. Not gonna lie, I have missed home a ton this week. 

Dad, I've really missed your pep talks that you have always given me. That is something that I have really missed so much out here. The talks where I would just tell you my dreams and aspirations and you would look into my eyes and tell me you knew that I could accomplish anything and that I could conquer the world if I wanted to. I have totally taken those talks and that attitude and support  for granted in my life. Because I grew up being told that I can do  anything, I thought that everyone just had that same attitude. But getting out here and talking to people and working with all these other kids I've really learned that that attitude that you have and have instilled in me will make all the difference in life, just as it has literally made ALL the difference in your own life. As a man thinketh so is he. Thank you for living this example.  I am really finding out who I am out here.  I have to constantly tell myself that anything is possible and really try so hard to gain that confidence 100 % for myself.  It was so easy back at home having you tell me I could do anything and you being there and supporting me.  So yeah, sorry for the ramble.  But thanks dad for working so hard in life and showing me and always letting me know that anything is possible and thanks for teaching me to dream big. You have no idea how much your dream big attitude has shaped me as a person. Don't ever loose that attitude and work ethic. 

Momma, Ive missed how nicely you treated people and were so positive and nice about other people. People can be so mean. And I can honestly say that that is not me. And I owe that in such a large part to you. I grew up with you always there by my side helping me to be nice and look for the good in people. There are times out here when I feel so much pain out here because of the mean attitudes of others, but at least I am able to look in the mirror and feel good about myself because I have not had to stoop down to that level. That peace and happiness that I gain from that is so much greater than any of the emotional hurt is. So thank you so much for teaching me real Christ like love through out my life. Everyone is a child of god and they all have feelings and dreams. Thank you for just teaching me the worth of a human soul. I love you, thank you for everything.

Kowhai, I love you, you are awesome. Thank you for being my best friend growing up. You are so amazing and I am so proud of you and the direction and path you are traveling in life. Keep working hard and being good ol kowhai. You have been such a huge influence for good in my life. I am so proud to call you ma sister. Thank you for being just an awesome good girl. You have no idea how much your example has helped me out in life. You are just such a good person and you are never afraid to stand up for what you know is right. I really hope and I am trying to learn and gain that trait of yours while I am out here. Keep being who you are and doing what you know is right and it will take you so far in life. You are my hero chubs, I hope you know that.

I really hope that you all know that I am so grateful for everything you have done for me. The examples you have been to me and the lessons in life that you have taught me. 

.....Keep the prayers coming my way! Also, send a package?  I haven't gotten one in forever! 

Sorry that there isn't much to share when it comes to the daily grind here in Erlangen. There will be some stuff to tell next week, I will make sure of it!!

I love you guys! 

Love Elder Anderson

Ps. Thank you for taking care of Kyrstin and always being so nice to her and supporting her while I have been gone. I really do love her so much and it means so much to me that you guys have been there for her.

Woche Nummre Sieben. Verrückt‏

Wow, I am so sorry that I was not able to email you guys yesterday! So here is story time. We had to go to Golden Trainer meeting. Its a meeting where all the trainers and Goldens meet back up and just have a good ol spiritual time with President and the APs. So this meeting was in the Offenbach GemeindeHaus, so we had to wake up at 5 am to get to the Nürnberg Hauptbahnhof and catch our IC train there. We got to the meeting, it was a really good time, I loved seeing my friends Elder Hawker, Emery, Jensen and so on. We  learned a ton and I would say it was a really successful meeting! For reals though, I needed this meeting, I haven't seen these kids for more than 2 months! And they are seriously some of my best friends, so it just really relaxed me and it was good! So when the meeting was done, we left to go and catch our I.C.E train back to Nürnberg which would have gotten us home at about 17:00, leaving me plenty of time to email! But all the missionaries going back to Nürnberg had to catch a S bahn train to Hannau and then we would leave from there. But all the trains had a Verspätung because the power was knocked out by a storm and S bahns run on electricity. So we weren't able to get out to Hannau and we missed our train and we had to catch a train to the Frankfurt HBF and that took forever because we had to have our tickets changed to get there. So we get there and the Frankfurt Train station is the Largest in Germany. It is gigantic. We get there and try to find a train and then we run into Hawker and Jensen, they are on the other side of the mission! Something went wrong and every train was delayed by at least 3 hours and people were loosing there minds and there was screaming and people yelling and running everywhere trying to get home.  People would cram onto a train and then they would announce that that train had fallen out and literally hundreds of people would pour off the train and just sprint down another platform to try and catch another train, and then DB workers would be trying to organize the chaos and then people would start yelling and push past them and just run and then police came in and were trying to help out all the while we are just pinned up against a coffee shop trying to get ahold of the tech elders who are in charge of the tickets. It was just chaos with easily tens of thousands of people. So long story short, when the Nürnberg missionaries finally found a train it was already 21:00 and we have to be back to our place at 22:30. But guess what?  It is a 4 hour ride back to Nürnberg, except for guess what, our train got stopped in a forest outside of Würtzburg for like an hour! Aghhh so we get to the Nürnberg train station well after midnight and then back to Erlangen and our apartment at like 1:30 in the morning! Haha It was madness !! But yeah it was funny, all the missionaries all over the mission were late getting home. It was a crazy but eventful day! So yeah, sorry I couldn't email you! It was a good experience though, cause now I know I can function in chaos, a lot of missionaries were freaking out, but it seriously was so funny. GOOD DAY!   Hahaha.

Other than that my week has been great, the missionary work is going so well and I am loving life. Most of our investigators are on vacation so nothing has really gone on there.

One really cool thing that happened this week was my first interview with President Schwartz. He is such a cool guy, I love him. He is so in tune with the spirit. He literally just stares into your soul. He just stared into my eyes and addressed concerns that I had with out me saying anything about it. And you can just tell that he loves you so much. He told me things that just really got me so pumped and excited about these two years. Love that guy, easily one of the most spiritual moments ever. 

The next day was church, guess who showed up to our ward? Pres and his wife and an AP. So church was pretty awesome. It was fast and testimony meeting and since they were there everyone just talked about missionary work, so having him there really helped out our cause! 

Also will you tell Gma Lala that I am getting all her letters and will you forward my emails to her?

I hope you guys know you are all always in my prayers. Keep me in your prayers they really do help me out and they bring about miracles! 

The scripture for this week is 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.

I have really needed this scripture this last little while. Man this is hard. It really is hard and I'm only out 3 months. But it really has humbled me. Its good for me and its making me a better person. Its turning me into the missionary I want to be. Its shaping my whole future, who I will be as a dad, husband and what I will be like in my professional life. While this is super hard, I am learning so much and I know that in the end it will be so good for me. 

I love you guys! You are all so awesome ! Cant wait to hear from you next week. 

Love, 

Elder Anderson

Busy Week

We're gonna have to be patient this week.  We got a very short e-mail from Nik letting us know he wouldn't have time for much of an e-mail this go round.  He was hoping to be able to jump back on the computer today (the Zone Leader gave them permission), but it looks like he didn't make it.

He says they're very busy, he's finally getting his Visa and needed money to pay for it and he's had a great meeting with the Mission President that he'll tell us all about!  Here's hoping he remembers that last part!

Short or long it's good to hear from Elder Anderson