I have
grown so much
The
Lord has a plan for all of us. He hears our prayers and he knows just how to
help us grow. I am really gaining a testimony that the Lord knows perfectly
what we need to be able to grow and accomplish things that he wants done.
The
Lord knew what I needed and what would help me grow into the missionary that he
wants me to be. I am seriously so blessed to serve with Elder Ruff. This
Transfer (or 2 if I am lucky) will really set my mission on a higher path. He
has been out longer than most people and so he has that perspective and experience.
He has also held high leadership positions so he just knows his stuff. He has
counseled with President Schwartz on multiple occasions. And then to top that
all off he is known as one of the hardest workers in the mission. But he works
smart and effective. He isn’t one of those guys that just goes and does doors
for hours just to stay busy. He knows that doors are ineffective and yield
almost no results. So he takes me through the area book, looks at numbers from
previous Elders and says “ok this type of contacting or work is effective in
this area and yields more baptisms or less active member re activations." He just
works really smart. It was funny, cause people all over the mission know
him as just working insanely hard, thinking outside the box and just getting stuff
done. Everyone was like, "Oh man, Elder Anderson, you are going to die,
good luck."
At
first I wasn’t as used to how hard he goes, and I was like, “oh man.. this will
be tough”. But I prayed about it and I was able to humble myself and just really
open up. I told myself that I was going to keep up with him no matter how hard
it was. I did that, and I have learned so so so much. Like it has just
been two weeks but I am just feeling so on top of my missionary game! It is a
huge blessing to work with Elder Ruff. I have grown an incredible amount over
just these first 2 weeks together. After 4 more weeks and possibly another
transfer I will be fine tuned on just being a machine and workin’ it hard. Also
another really great blessing. We get along great and we are already great
friends . He is super fun. I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to work
with him and just learn and grow. I know that that is one of the reasons the
Lord put us in a companionship. He saw that I had room to grow and become
better, even when personally I was feeling complacent and good about how I was
doing. The lord was like, “Mmmm, nope you can do better. I want you to be
better and become a better missionary.” So he put us together. To help me
become that missionary.
So this
week, as far as numbers and everything goes, was a little bit lower. But that is
Ok because this week we have just been working hard to get a firm foundation set
for missionary work in Solingen. Its sorta like getting a train going. It is a
gigantic task and it is going to take tremendous power to get it moving. Right
now we are just fanning the flames and shoveling that coal. But as the train
starts to move it will begin to pick up momentum and it will get faster and
faster and pretty soon it will become an unstoppable force. It’s coming. We just
need to keep on pushing forward!
So I
decided that each week I will include a contacting story. This week we had a
blank time and we had already planned and called everyone we could so we were
like ok, lets go out and just follow the spirit and contact people that we feel
we should. So about 2 hours later we are in the middle of no where. Like
literally in a forest. I was like, “Let’s walk up this hill see what’s up there
and Ruff was like, “mmm, ok.” So we walk up this muddy hill in our suits and
ties and come up to this path in the middle of nowhere. It was a hard walk and
so we are out of breath. I was wondering why I felt like we should go up there
when we saw this girl. Note, this is in the middle of Narnia. And I was like,
aghhh well ok. So I walk up to her and she is all freaked out at first. She is
like what are 2 guys in suits doing coming out of a forest and trying to talk
to me. Haha. It was pretty funny. Just said hi and started a conversation and
told her that we are missionaries from our church and gave her the pitch . Then
she was like, “ohhh, I’ve met with you guys before!!” And then she told us
about meeting with missionaries before and all that good stuff! We asked if she
wanted to meet again and she said nope. Bummer. But I thought it was cool. I
feel that we were lead to her to try and give her another chance at accepting
the gospel. Heavenly Father loves his children so much. When they use free
agency and decide not to accept it right then Heavenly Father will create more
opportunities for them to accept the gospel!
I love
you guys! Thank you for the support from home! It really helps. Also thanks for
the packages and letters and emails. You guys are the best of the best. I love
you! I am happy and the work is going great!
The
Church is true.
Servus
LOVE
Elder Anderson
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