"Another week in S-town"

MFG!

"Mit freundliche grüß" -  A favorite greeting of the missionaries out here.

Another Solid week in Solingen! Transfer calls were 2 days ago!  I'm staying here another transfer. I'm pretty excited, this area has been good for me, I will also be staying another one with Elder Ruff. It's really been a huge blessing to serve with him, I am learning a ton from that kid! Cool things that happened this transfer, McGinn and Elder Hawker were both called as District Leaders. McGinn is going to Karlshue and Hawker is going to Duisberg! So stoked for them! Also Elder Lassley is coming up to Aachen, that is in my zone! Also, Elder Muller is staying another transfer in Solingen too! 

This week, almost our entire zone went up to Kleve at the very top of our zone to do a street preach! It was so fun to get all the missionaries together and to just chill and see everyone. It was pretty sad though too, cause we found out that our zone leader Elder Blackley was leaving to go down to Frankfurt zone. Blackley is such a stud and he made this zone so fun, so yeah I'll be missin' that kid! 

The work is going pretty good in Solingen, Kevin is still on track to be baptized on December 28th! Keep the prayers coming for him he is doing really well! He is a really fun kid to teach and he is just so primed and ready. You can tell he was definitely prepared by the Lord to meet with us! 

As for our buddy Sebastian, he has fallen off of the face of the planet again. Elder Ruff had scheduled too many appointments on Thursday last week, so Elder Muller and I went on a split out Mohnheim to make sure we could make our all of our appointments! So we drive 90 min out to Sebastian, and guess what, he wasn't there even though we made the appointment the day before! Haha, dang it!! AND he blocked our number! Oh well.... manchmal so ist das leben (sometimes that's life)! 

Haha, to be honest, it is going really slow in Solingen right now, so please send some prayers our way! We could really use it right now! Like, don't worry about me, I'm still happy! It's just slow and there is not much to do when we are not teaching Kevin! 

Wanna know what I am really  starting to learn out here? Patience. Haha. Ya, need a ton of it! Sometimes you have to realize that people have their free agency and we can't force them to do anything!  

Contacting story of the week: So we were in Kleve doing the street preach, and I called up Elder McGinn and chatted for a little bit, and he was like, "Anderson put me on speaker and go and contact someone!" So I did, and the first lady I went and talked to I had a good conversation with here all in German, and she accepted an invitation to come to church! Haha, so I liked that one, it was pretty funny! 

Man I am making tons of progress, life is good and I am happy! I gotta go now though! I'm gonna go chill with Hawker for P-day! 

Servus! 

Love you guys! 

Elder Anderson! 

Meine Gute! Ich liebe die Gelegenheit, die ich habe, ein Missionar zu sein!‏

Just a little side walk art. AKA: The Plan of Salvation!

"Oh Gosh, I love the opportunity that I have to be a Missionary!"

Servus Loved ones! 

Celebrating his Companions birthday!

It is already the last week of the transfer. Menschen kinder this transfer has gone by so fast! I literally feel like it was just yesterday that I was meeting Elder Ruff at the Düsseldorf Bahnhof. Aghh, the 6th week, always full of excitement and fun. I think that Elder Ruff and I have at least one more cycle together though. We have been doing some real good work down here. The ward is really starting to see the light and for the last month every week of church has been focused on member missionary work and the importance of it! It has been pretty cool seeing this ward make the progress that it has made. It’s not there yet, but after about 3 months of grunting and groaning, the boulder that is the Solingen Ward is getting ready to roll. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So last week was a little bit slower. Everyone just sorta fell of the face of the map. But that is okay. It is teaching me how to be more patient. And it gave us time to go do a ton of door to door contacting. yay. Haha. 

We haven’t met with Steven in over a week, he says he is always busy! Shoot!! Hopefully we can get in with him this up and coming week! 

Good news, Kyle (name changed for blog) has a baptismal date for the 28th of December! Yay, we are meeting with him 2 times a week and the lessons are going really really well. He has made so much progress and I love the guy! Such a good spirit about him! He is studying German law, so he has a really complicated vocabulary, meeting with him is really helping my overall understanding of German! 

Workin' hard with friends in the District

The door to door that we did this week was actually pretty good. We went out one day and knocked doors for literally 4 hours. Just walking through Solingen and then into Wald and then Ohligs. Just knocking doors. This is where the cool contacting story of the week comes into play. Me and Elder Muller paired off for a little bit and knocked on about 50 doors. Everyone said no "kein zeit" . It was getting really late and we were all like, “ok lets just go home now.” But Elder Muller was like Anderson, let’s go hit just one more house! So we did, and lo and behold, they not only listened to us for more than 5 seconds, they made out an appointment and they wanna meet again! We spent about 30 min with them just talking and bearing testimony. It is crazy how when you are in those situations the Lord helps makes your German near perfect. So that was not only the contacting story of the week but it was also the miracle of the week. It was such a crazy experience, I am so happy to have had it!! 

The work is really going great out here and I really am so blessed that I am able to serve out here in Germany! I am learning a ton and it is going great! Thank you guys so much for all the support that you give me. I love you guys so much, thank you thank you. Being out here has really really made me realize the importance of families. You guys mean the world to me, thank you for everything! 

Scripture of the week is : Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ Which strengtheneth me! Remember that, you can do anything and overcome anything through Jesus! That scripture has really helped me out while I’ve been out here and had tough days. Just helps me realize what is really important in the big scheme of things! 

I love you guys! Thank you for Everything! Bis nachste woche! 

Love Elder Anderson!! 

The message sent with pic:
"You might wanna blur out 2pacs finger on Martin's shirt"

About the last picture:
Me and ma good friend Elder Nelson out of Köln. We went contacting in Düsseldorf together and ran into these kids. They were so fun. Martin (name changed for blog) the one with 2pac on his shirt really had an interest in the gospel. We found them because we were walking through down town Düsseldorf and I heard Hypnotize by Notorius BIG. We look over and these kids are just blasting some tunes so we decided to go and talk to them. Walked up and was just like, "Hey wie gehts, Biggy Smalls ja?" and that sparked our freindship!

suß Woche‏

Sweet Week!

So this week was a really great week. As usual I have learned a ton and am progressing in so many ways. 

Funny story, so just before coming to do emails we were at the store. I was grabbing some Tomato Sauce for some pizza we are making. So I grab the glass jar, and then decide to get a different brand. I put it back on the shelf but I accidentally bumped the shelf it was on and a few glass jars of tomato sauce decide to roll off the shelf and shatter and make a gigantic mess. And I’m just standing there like, "You have got to be kidding me." So, missionary and a huge mess. So I run to a lady that worked there and tell her what happened. She was upset and chewed me out in German (which sounds really cool by the way). But it got cleaned up and all I can do is laugh about it. Ahhhh, memories haha . I’ll probably use that story in a talk at some point in my life, pretty sure I can tie the atonement into it! Haha! 

I am also super glad Teina was not caught in that storm, that would be way crazy!! It’s so cool to have multiple cousins out on their missions right now! I love it and I know it will greatly bless our family! 

So a couple of highlights from this week:

1. Steven (name changed for blog). He is an investigator of ours and it has been really hard for him to make progress lately! We were praying and hoping that he would come through and make progress, but week after week nothing is happening! So this week we planned on going in and giving a good bye lesson. That is where we say, "I’m sorry Steven, but you are not making progress and we don’t think the meetings we are having are benefiting you." So we went over to his house to tell him, but as soon as we walked through the door of his home, we just felt this super happy good feeling! He has scriptures laid out on the table and he had made some progress. It just felt good and awesome to be there with him. Pray for him that he will continue to make progress!! 

Also this week I was able to go down to Düsseldorf for a zone training. We learned a ton while we were down there! But the best part of the whole thing was going contacting! I went with Elders Hawker and Nelson . It was so fun. By the end of the night we had contacted tons of people and given out 9 BoMs!! So you could say it was a super successful day! 

All is going really well out here in Solingen. The weather is great and I love working here. It’s almost been another six weeks! Aghhh, crazy stuff! I think Elder Ruff and I will stay for 2 cycles together! Its pretty cool, Germans love Christmas and so they are really starting to get into that Christmas spirit!  

Thank you guys for your emails and little videos! I love them! Also, I am so stoked for the little Christmas tree! You guys are awesome! Thank you for everything!! 

I love you guys! 

Love Elder Anderson! 

Eine Wunderschöne Woche‏

Hey loved ones! This week has been super awesome. I am growing a ton and the work is really starting to move forward now. This week we were able to watch The Hastening of the Work of Salvation broadcast with our Ward before Fast and Testimony meeting. That was an amazing experience because after watching the broadcast so many people were bearing testimonies about missionary work and how they need to do better at working with the missionaries. Working with members is the way to do missionary work now. Literally, door to door is so ineffective, especially in Germany. So getting the members to work with us is of great importance. I know that the Lord would not prepare and have so many more missionaries called without first preparing a ton more people!!

Contacting story of the week: We were doing doors (bad, doors are bad.. we only do them when we have nothing else to do)  and then we got into this one apartment, as we are walking up the stairs this guy looks out his door to see who he let in. He sees me, and  I’m like “hi!!”, he looks me up and down and is like, “NOOOO Zeugen Jehovah (Jehovah’s Witness )!!”, and slams his door shut! Haha, so yeah.  Door to door is not effective here. 

I love Solingen and I am having a blast. And I am happy!! 

Sorry this one is so short, we are having a zone P-day!

But yeah, I love you guys. 

Love, 

Elder Anderson!!