Aghhh Meine Mikrowelle, Sie Haben es Weg Genommen.‏

"Aghhh, they took away my microwave"

And the transfers are in! I am staying another transfer with Elder Norman in Erfurt. I am super excited for this up and coming transfer. Elder Norman and I get along great and the work is really good with him. As for the rest of the district, everything is staying the same in Erfurt, Weimar and then in Jena Elder Hathaway is leaving and another Elder is coming in and then a sister in Jena is leaving and another will be replacing her. We are having District meeting tomorrow and I’ll make sure to take a pic of the District before anyone is transferred!  

So there is this guy that we have been meeting with pretty consistently. He is a less active and he has been progressing slowly but surely as time goes on. We have been worried though the last couple of weeks because he hasn’t been showing up to appointments or answering his phone…Until later this week, we were like aghhh, lets try him one more time to see if he answers us. We call him up, and he finally answered! Yay, we were like, “hey, Andreas, is everything ok?”, to which he replied “ohhhh yeahhh. . . . . sorry , they took away my microwave and that just made me really sad and so I haven’t been able to meet for a while.” Hahahaha, easily the weirdest excuse that I have heard in my life. But now it has become an inside joke whenever anything doesn’t go right, we just say, “aghh, sorry man, like, they stole my microwave.”

In other news though, we are meeting with him again and he is happy and has found a new microwave.

The work has been a little bit slower in the last little bit, but that is ok. We are still finding and working to try and help people progress to baptism. It’s going a little bit slower right now, so prayers would be much appreciated!!

This last week we went to Mykolas apartment (one of our investigators) and he helped him take all of the wall paper and paint of off all of his walls. It was pretty fun and it was kinda cool to see how that sorta opened him up a little bit. It also opened up his mom a little bit too. She doesn’t live with him, but she lives close by. She came by to see what we were up to and she was really impressed with the fact that we were helping out her son like that and so now maybe she has some interest.

I love my mission and the many experiences that I am having, I am learning so much about myself and the world and most importantly the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love you guys so much! Thank you so much for the emails that you send me every week and all of the love and support you give me! I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Fast Drei Monate in Erfurt Gwesen‏

"Almost Been in Erfurt 3 Months"

We are already in week number six of this transfer. I swear the transfers just keep getting faster and faster! Next transfer I hit my year mark.

As always, the sixth week of the transfer is exciting with everyone making predictions and getting excited about change. As for me and Elder Norman, I think we will stay together another cycle in Erfurt. I am so excited for next transfer because; 1. Its starting to get warm and the trees are all going to get green and 2. I really like Erfurt this is such a good city and the experiences that I am having here are really amazing. A lot of people have a "growth explosion area", that is the area where they really changed and grew. Growth and change is a constant on the mission, but occasionally there are things or circumstances that really accelerate the growth and push you forward at a much more rapid pace. Erfurt has definitely been a growth explosion area for me. I have learned a ton and the work is going really well right now.

Me and Elder Ward @ ZoKo. He was in my first district!

So ZoKo (Zone Conference) was awesome. It was held down in Nürnberg. We had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to shower and catch a train to Nürnberg for the meeting. It was a really awesome experience and I learned a ton. Elder Dyches was the main speaker and he spoke a ton about the importance of teaching and simplifying things. He served in Germany too so it was really cool to hear from him and see his perspective in everything.

After ZoKo, was probably the coolest experience in a while. I got to go back to my Golden City! Aghhh, It was so good to be back in Erlangen. That place has a special spot in my heart. Remember the story of Lucky Lisa? She, after McGinn and I left, stopped meeting with the missionaries because she was busy. But when I was there, we called her up and I introduced her to the new Erlangen Elders. It was so funny to meet with her. First thing she said when we met up was "Wow, Anderson you can speak German now." Haha apparently my Golden German wasn’t very good hahaha.

Also, made way good friends with the new Erlangen Elders. One of them was named Elder Mayne. Way solid kid and definitely a homie.

This week in Erfurt, we had a ton of wieniger aktiv lektionen (less active lessons). We are still pushing that pretty hard trying to get the active number of people in church to 45 by the end of the year. Last week we had 32.

Also, the investigator outlook is doing pretty good. Still trying to get more solid and progressing investigators. But as of right now things are still going pretty good, but there is room for growth. We taught a lesson to our investigator Steffen Höhn, he is a really good guy, but for some reason he won’t progress. We asked some probing questions so hopefully we will receive some inspiration on how we can better help him out.  

The work is going good and I am happy!

Thanks for everything you guys do for me, I love you all so much. Also thank you for the emails and the packages that you send. It means the world to me!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Was Geht Ab!?‏

Young Mens Activity this week .
 Way fun. Played Picture Telephone

Whats up!?

Hallo meine geliebter lieber! How goes everything back at home and in Chile?

Another Pic of our Yound mens Activity !

This last week was a really fun/solid week. So on Tuesday we had a Zone Finding activity for Zone Training in Erfurt, and I got to lead that one out and decide what we did. President Schwartz has been talking to us a ton about playing the whole melody of missionary work. Which means basically be a well rounded missionary. Work well with members and be good at finding and all other aspects of missionary life. So we decided that we would apply the same principle to finding. So we had some people doing a survey, chalking the plan of salvation, BoM contacting, Family History Contacting and Universität Contacting. So we split everyone up and then just sent them into the city for a few hours and we got a ton of potentials for Erfurt.

Breakfast. I know I should be eating wheat bread.
But I like the taste.

I’m doing pretty chipper and I am loving life, its starting to get warm again!

Ohhh, something fun happening this week! We get to go down to Nürnberg for Zone Conference this next week and I got permission to stay an extra day in Erlangen! Aghh, so stoked for that. Long story short, I was transferred out of Erlangen before I could get my Visa, So I have to go back down there and pick it  up! Yay, I am so excited to see my Golden City again. I Love that place.

Also, really cool is that this week for ZoKo we get to hear from Timmothy J Dyches of the 70. He gave a talk last General Conference.

The work is going really well for us here in Erfurt and I am happy! Thank you guys for everything that you do. The letters and Emails and everything. They mean the world to me!

I love you guys!!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Wir Haben Eine Gute Woche Gehabt‏

Nik's Mom pinched this pic off of FB and cropped it.
 Another Missionary Mom
 had posted a group picture and Nik was in it!

We had a good week!

Man we had a really solid week this last week and I am really happy with it. We are starting to make noticeable progress in the area. I am loving it. Seriously a mission is so amazing at just preparing me for the future. I am learning so many life long valuable lessons. And I am just growing a ton!

So this week in the mission we had like a mission wide finding day where we all fasted for the opportunity to find more people. Well the fasting worked! We went out and we spent a ton of time finding in a ton of different ways. We went door to door, we were walking down the street just talking to people, we rode the Straßebahns, we played some sport and we spent some time on the University Campus. All in all, we have 6 new people that are ready to learn more about the Gospel and a few more that said they would think about it. Fasting and prayer, it’s real and it works! I am really excited for everything in store.

Got lost in this city called Arnstadt looking for a referral!

Me n´ Normy at the
 Erfurter Dom

This week I went on one of my Zone Leader Splits, It was with Elder Hathaway. He is such a solid missionary and one of my really good friends out here. We had fun and spent a ton of time on the Uni just contacting some people.

Me n´ Normy

Also, contacting story of the week happened while I was with Elder Hathaway. We were walking down the street and we had probably talked to 100 people and everyone was just like  "NO". So we decided to stop pray and then move on. He told me to just wait for a second and only contact someone if I felt it was inspired. So I waited a few minutes and then walked up to this lady and started talking to her. Turns out, her husband was baptized as a kid but his family fell away from the church and they are living in Germany for work and they want to meet with us!! Aghhh, it was crazy.

So just so you guys know what it’s sorta like for me as I’m contacting people on the street I will include a short translated script of my most common tracting technique:

Erfurt. My City.

Me-  Hey, excuse me!?

Them - What?

Me- Hi, I’m Elder Anderson, what’s your name? (I usually loose a few here)

Them- Oh Hi, my name is Fritz.

Me- Hi Fritz, well I’m out today talking with people about this book. Do you know this book? (Hold up Book of Mormon) (Also loose a ton of people at this point)

Them- No I don’t know it.

Me- Oh it’s called the Book of Mormon its another testament of Jesus Christ and it is evidence that God lives and that he loves us so much.

Them- Oh ok

Me-Do you have a relationship with god?

Me- Tell me about it.

And yeah, that is about it. Its pretty fun. At first I really didn’t like walking up to people on the street because they are speaking another language and its just scary. And I used to get a little sick feeling before doing it. But now its coming with ease! I still get that sickly feeling from time to time, but I have learned to love it. Because that feeling means I’m doing my job right. So You learn to love the feeling and afterwards, no matter the result it feels really good!

Well I love you guys! You are all so amazing and I love you all so much! I gotta go now! But thank you all so much for your emails!

Love You!

Love,

Elder Anderson

Nik's dad was recently released from our local YSA Bishopric and has already received a call to serve in the YM's program.  So, in his personal letter to his dad, Nik mentions that he's serving as the YM's President in his Branch in Erfurt.  He's working hard!  I (his mom) think it's funny that he didn't think to tell us about it until his dad told him he had a new calling!  Haha! 

A Letter came from Elder Anderson's Mission President this morning.

Fasching Karnival Woche‏

Servus Loved Ones,

Wie geht es euch? In Erfurt Man lebt so .. nür Spaß, uns geht es so güt wie nie zuvor!!

This was a really good week. One of the busiest of my mission. It is so nice to be busy and to have stuff going on. Not a single  "white day",  love it.

We met with a ton of Weniger Aktiv (Less Active) members this week and we are working hard to get them active again. Tons of great people in this area and I’m excited for the friendships that we are making with them.

We are really working close with our branch president and the rest of the Gemeinde Rat (ward council). The Erfurt Zweig has a goal of 45 active members in church by the end of the year. So to reach that, we need to start reactivating and baptizing!

We are hoping that as we reactivate a lot of these people we will find new people to teach since a ton of them are coming from Part member families. And then they also have friends that might have some interest. This area is really looking promising. A mission is such good preparation for what I wanna do in life. So much planning , and building from scratch. And then the most important part, just doing it! I love it.

Me and Elder Norman at the Fasching Parade !

My German is doing exceptionally well. I’m pretty happy with how that is all going. This last week I had to write a report in German for the ward council and then talk for like 10 minutes about the work in the area, and after I got a lot of compliments on my German , so I’m feeling good about that!

So this week we found an investigator, her name is Frau Börner. Met her at Dom Platz Nord. I just smiled at her and then she started talking to me asking me why we are here and what not and then about 10 min later we exchanged info and made an appointment! She came to the appointment a few days later and we taught her the first lesson and it went really well! We handed her off to the sisters in Erfurt though because they can meet with her more often and everything. But I am still really excited and hope and pray that she Progresses!  

The work is going well and I am loving life. It’s starting to get warmer too!

Also, this week was Fasching and Karnival and there was a huge parade on our street! And everyone is drunk and dressing up in these cool costumes, yay crazy! I have some videos for you guys.

But hey I gotta Go! I love you guys!

Love Elder Anderson!