Good bye, Farewell and Amen

Well, here we are folks. I'm now smack dab in the middle of my last P-Day on the mission. On Thursday I'll be leaving my mission. I`ll be leaving this wonderful country and these people that I have grown to love. I've been contemplating over the past few weeks why exactly it is that I've grown to love these people, and I think I've figured it out.
Last week we visited a less active member who is going through some hard times. He lives all alone and is having a very hard time finding hope. His testimony of the gospel is strong however, and as he prayed for us before we left, I was overwhelmed with the spirit. I opened my eyes and looked over at this man, and realized that what I was feeling was God's love for him. It is one of the warmest and most comforting feelings I've ever had in my life, and it was only a small portion of God's perfect love for his children.
That is a gift that one is given as a missionary. It comes with the calling. One has the opportunity to vicariously feel God's love for his children, and a good missionary will take that feeling and harness it to get some good work done and bring these people closer to Christ.
The people in Germany have so much potential, as all of God's children do. It's tragic to see that potential so often lay dormant, but the day will soon come when the Church will blossom at incredible speeds here in Germany. The true Church of Christ will be the last beacon of hope that the German's can look to, and they will come flocking to it. I look forward to that day, and on that day I will get on my knees in gratitude to my Heavenly Father for blessing these people that I love so much. I know that this Gospel is true, and that we are all Children of God. If we remember that, nothing can stop us from fulfilling our potential. The truth is always what we can turn to for hope and peace, and the truth lies with God, and he has revealed it to his prophets. We have Prophets on the earth today that lead us and God's church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that Christ lives, that he has my savior, and that his hand is always there. All we must do is reach up and take his hand, and through life's up and downs, that's where the constant peace can be.
I love you all and I look forward to being with you again soon. Hoorah for Israel!

-Elder Andy Andersen

My Heart is filled with gratitude

Now that the Christmas season is here in full force, my heart is being filled more and more every day with gratitude to my Heavenly Father. He has given me a truly glorious gift by giving me the opportunity to be on my mission here in this great land with these wonderful people for the past two years. I never would have made it here alone either. It is through the grace of my savior Jesus Christ that I was able to become worthy to serve a mission, and during this Christmas time my heart is drawn to him, to celebrating his coming to this world to save us from our sins.
Yesterday I finished reading the Book of Mormon in German. I started it at the beginning of the year and it has been a very spiritual experience for me to read this Book of Books in my mission Language. I know now more than ever that it is the Word of God, and the evidence that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Lord's church. I've learned on my mission very clearly the importance of regularly reading in the Book of Mormon, most importantly for the purpose of constantly strengthening my testimony of it and all that that entails.
Half of last week has already been reported in the last email, but the past few days have also brought forth some good fruits. On Saturday evening we went by Br. Pallmüller, an ex-member with a really nice American wife. They had us in and were really glad to have us over. We'll be meeting with them again this week with some members in our ward whom they know, and feel like they have a ton of potential and would fit in great with the families in our ward.
Elder Vogel and I have put a lot of time into trying to figure out how we can really take advantage of the Christmas season and feel like we've got a lot of good ideas going. I'm really looking forward to these next three weeks and to see what will come of everything we've got going for us here in Unna. Hope that the spirit of Christmas is already there with you all back home. Take care!

-Andy

The field is White...

First of all, sorry for the delay of this weeks email. We had a two day zone conference this week Monday and Tuesday which I'll talk about later in this email.
A couple weeks ago, I felt myself shutting down, giving up hope, and falling into a melancholy complacency, ready to coast through to the end of my mission. But somehow, somewhere along the way, the Lord saw fit to give me a boost and a reminder that my work here is far from finished.
It all started at the beginning of last week when we were doing some street contacting in Soest. We contacted an older gentleman who had recently lost his son in a car accident. As I bore testimony to him that he had the opportunity to see his son again, I felt God's love for this man very strongly, and simultaneously remembered how much I love these people and this great country, and how crucial it is that I do everything in my power to bring them the message of Christ. These people have so much potential to do so much good, and if I let this last month of my mission go by without doing everything I can to help them fulfill that, then I will have truly missed out on the most special experiences I could possible have.
A couple days later we were able to have a great Thanksgiving at the Dortmund Institute center. The Youngs, our senior couple in Dortmund, organized the whole thing for our Zone. They cooked three delicious turkeys and the rest of the Zone took care of all the other items (Elder Gunnell made some great pumkin pie!). I was very grateful that day to be able to be with my friends and comrades on the mission and to take a step back and remember how grateful I am for the opportunity to have been on my mission.
The Zone Conference we had over the past two days was great. We went through a lot of teaching skills and practiced them. I was surprised at how much I learned at the very end of my mission and am now wondering where Zone Conferences like that were at the beginning of my mission. We had an appointment with the Verhagens yesterday evening and were able to use many of the teaching skills that we learned over the past two days and had a really good lesson with them. They accepted a soft baptismal commitment but weren't ready for a date nor the teaching program we invited them to. They are wonderful people, however, and have a good a chance as anyone to make it to baptism. It may just take a little longer for them than most. Our plan with them now is to keep teaching them and see what happens from there. They'll also be traveling back to America in February for the next year so I'm definitely planning on staying in contact with them so we can meet again when they're in our neck of the woods.
Elder Vogel and I had a big planning session for this month and are really looking forward to working with our ward and our investigators during this great Christmas season. Hope this next month is as fun for you all back home as it's gonna be for me. As winter comes and snow covers the ground, the phrase "The field is White, and already to harvest" takes on a new meaning. December is a month of miracles, and will undoubtedly prove to be so here in Unna

Take care!

-Andy